Last weekend we decided to visit Kyoto and Osaka to get a chance to see more of Japan. We flew to the Kansai airport near Osaka and caught the Airport Express Train Haruka to Kyoto. It was pleasant and direct.
Here is a photo of the first car of the train. It has a funny nose.
First, we checked out the Kyoto Imperial Palace grounds. The wall in this photo separates the garden (where we were) from the Palace Grounds inside.
There were many trees with supports under their branches. I like how the supports frame Bre in this photo.
We received this message at our hotel room. I don't know what the first two paragraphs of Japanese say. In English it says "No Smoking. Thank you for your cooperation." Lost in Translation.
Kyoto is famous for it's shrines. This was one of the more amusing ones. It is a tiny shrine surrounded by giant apartment buildings.
We visited the Golden Pavilion, Kinkaku-ji. It is a beautiful tourist trap and UNESCO World Heritage Site. There was a mad crush of visitors to elbow through to the best viewing points. I felt like it has lost whatever spiritual valute it used to have, but it still looks nice.
Bre is "helping" me photograph the Pavilion.
The Pavilion sans distractions.
There are many other buildings on the Golden Pavilion grounds. We walked around all of them. I liked the meticulously raked gravel.
Bre took this photo of the stepped roofs.
Bre stole my camera to photograph the photographer. If you look closely you can see the Temple through the trees to the right of my ear.
Next we visited Ryoanji Temple. The rock garden here is considered one of the best in Japan. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
I enjoyed the rock garden more than the Golden Pavilion. It was more peaceful.
On the temple grounds they have these funny pruned trees. Bre thinks they look like the trees from a Dr. Seuss book.
We went on to check out the Nijo Castle. Inside the grounds there are several palaces. This one is called the Ninomaru Palace. There is a path you can take inside to see the Palace. It has great murals that are almost impossible to photograph (dim light, no flash or tripod allowed.) Bre especially liked the nightingale floors. The builders of the Palace designed the floors to squeak like birds when walked on so that assassins could not sneak through the Palace to attack the Shogun.
The inner moat was filled with mesmerizing alge patterns.
After a hard day of touristing we went out for dinner to a cozy restaurant in the Nishiki Market.
Fried Burdock root was good.
Tempura Udon
That's all for now,
-Kyle (and Bre)
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