In Kyoto, you can't throw a rock without hitting three temples and a shrine. Eventually they're just gonna tear up the whole city and replace it with one gigantic temple. They'll replace the city buses with little shrines you can crawl into and sit inside of while the power of Buddha levitates them around. Speaking of city buses, the Japanese people are fanatic about giving you exact change. If you hand a Japanese bus driver a 500 yen coin for your 220 yen fare, then jump off the bus, he'll go out of his way to signal your attention to get you change (even though technically he's not supposed to carry change in the first place). I wonder how long he'd sit there waiting trying to flag your attention. You could bring the whole city to a grinding halt with a 500 yen coin...
You can get a high-resolution version (ie, a big, glorious, high detail version) of any picture below by clicking on it.
---------------------------------------------
The Golden Temple Kinkakuji. Since it's made of pure gold, it weighs so much it's slowly sinking into that pond and will be completely submerged in another few years. The pond is stocked with alligators to prevent stupid tourists from swimming to the building itself.
Now this is beautiful. I want to grab a good book and just sprawl out on that little island, do some suntanning.
When you visit Kinkakuji, you walk a whole footpath all around it. This waterfall is just off the footpath. I snuck up to the waterfall itself but alas, no hidden materia...
People would try to throw coins into the bowls here. Make it into the bowl and you get the blessing of the gods, or something. Eventually, Japan's economy will collapse as all hard cash is sunk into these sorts of diversions and there's no more to go around.
Japan, and Kyoto in particular, is so green. Just standing there, you feel somehow healthier and more at peace. The sky in the background is a mural of swirling clouds.
Click for the high-resolution version, and check out that white bird standing in the middle of the river. Glowing Face Man may be strong as a truck, but he has a soft spot for animals. And in Kyoto I saw quite a few animals.
Around one of the temples, there was this interesting building. I think it's a recreation of a traditional house or traditional shrine or something. Either that or I temporarily stepped through some sort of time warp.
A pagoda, I'm sure if I went inside I could find a spunky old Asian man who would teach me to do triple backflips. I wonder whether that giant spike on the top is supposed to be some sort of lightning rod.
I'm not sure what exactly this building is, but I'm assuming it must be some kind of hat temple. Why else would the roof look like such a crazy double decker sombrero? Notice that since we're outside the supermetropolis of Tokyo, cars actually exist now. When I first left Tokyo, I was like whoah, what are these big metal things on all the streets...
This shrine seems somehow unbalanced. I kept expecting a gust of wind to blow it in half.
Ahh its so relaxing! Too relaxing! Let's take a break from all this greenery and hit the night scene...
Here we are in the Metro Club in the Gion District in Kyoto. It's called that because the entrance is off a little side path from a staircase leading into a Subway Station. In Japan, clubs don't advertise themselves, you have to know where they are (or bump around all night searching). Fortunately I have good enough Japanese the youth hostel staff hooked us up with info.
It was one crazy adventure in that club that night, I wish I had more photos I could share with you. We were fake-fighting eachother, with dramatic punches and kicks and kung fu. Getting cute Japanese girls to play limbo (we didn't have a rope so we were using someone's purse). I don't remember too many details, alcohol does that, you know. Glory times, enough said.
This is me a few hours earlier, in one of the narrow alleys of Gion District, while L and I were hunting for Geisha. We didn't find any, but we had some fun just asking totally random girls (who were obviously not geisha) whether they were geisha.
Monkeys! This is by far the most well-hidden secret in Kyoto: a 10 minute climb up a little mountain and you're in this awesome park where monkeys walk around totally free. It's in the Arashiyama district, that's all I can tell you. If you get close to the monkeys, they'll snarl at you, but it's all bark and no bite. Just ignore the snarl and they'll scamper off. We got to see the staff feeding them nuts.
Here I am with a couple travelling friends.
These paper lanterns they hang outside various buildings are just awesome. In the next series, we'll see the biggest paper lantern in Japan, but that's next time. Check out the cool altar inside this building.
Man and Monkey. The Japanese word for monkey is "saru".
The trees have eyes. I wonder, if I shook this tree, how many monkeys would fall out? It's one of those questions science may never answer.
There's some tower in Kyoto which is really famous among tourists and costs a ton of money to go on. This view is ten times better and costs about 500 yen ($5US). It goes to show how in lilfe all the best things just come easy. L pointed out that from this vantage point, it's hard to tell the city is Japanese, it almost looks like it could be middle eastern if it weren't so freakin green.
These guys are pretty hardcore, for a fee they'll pull you around in that card. In Asakusa there were dozens of these guys. They even wear the Raiden hats, what more could you possibly ask for? With gasoline prices rising, these guys are probably gonna make a big upsurge, soon the highways will be full of them.
A mysterious rodent crossing a river in Kyoto. Is it a badger? A beaver? A giant overgrown rat? Who knows, this is Japan, it could be anything.
Take one last look at Kyoto, we're taking off and heading back toward Tokyo. (Well, I went to Osaka too, but somehow I have no photos from there at ALL)
Do you know where this gate leads? It beckons toward unknown mystery and adventure. As we pass through this portal, we'll be taken to the fifth and final installment in this photoblog series. Feel the subtle thrill, deep in your gut? It's a feeling known as "wanderlust", the urge to put one foot in front of the other and see where you end up. I always had a little wanderlust, but coming to Japan really stirred it up and strengthened it. In the next installment, let's see what adventures lie on the other side of the wooden torii.
You can get a high-resolution version (ie, a big, glorious, high detail version) of any picture below by clicking on it.
---------------------------------------------
The Golden Temple Kinkakuji. Since it's made of pure gold, it weighs so much it's slowly sinking into that pond and will be completely submerged in another few years. The pond is stocked with alligators to prevent stupid tourists from swimming to the building itself.
Now this is beautiful. I want to grab a good book and just sprawl out on that little island, do some suntanning.
When you visit Kinkakuji, you walk a whole footpath all around it. This waterfall is just off the footpath. I snuck up to the waterfall itself but alas, no hidden materia...
People would try to throw coins into the bowls here. Make it into the bowl and you get the blessing of the gods, or something. Eventually, Japan's economy will collapse as all hard cash is sunk into these sorts of diversions and there's no more to go around.
Japan, and Kyoto in particular, is so green. Just standing there, you feel somehow healthier and more at peace. The sky in the background is a mural of swirling clouds.
Click for the high-resolution version, and check out that white bird standing in the middle of the river. Glowing Face Man may be strong as a truck, but he has a soft spot for animals. And in Kyoto I saw quite a few animals.
Around one of the temples, there was this interesting building. I think it's a recreation of a traditional house or traditional shrine or something. Either that or I temporarily stepped through some sort of time warp.
A pagoda, I'm sure if I went inside I could find a spunky old Asian man who would teach me to do triple backflips. I wonder whether that giant spike on the top is supposed to be some sort of lightning rod.
I'm not sure what exactly this building is, but I'm assuming it must be some kind of hat temple. Why else would the roof look like such a crazy double decker sombrero? Notice that since we're outside the supermetropolis of Tokyo, cars actually exist now. When I first left Tokyo, I was like whoah, what are these big metal things on all the streets...
This shrine seems somehow unbalanced. I kept expecting a gust of wind to blow it in half.
Ahh its so relaxing! Too relaxing! Let's take a break from all this greenery and hit the night scene...
Here we are in the Metro Club in the Gion District in Kyoto. It's called that because the entrance is off a little side path from a staircase leading into a Subway Station. In Japan, clubs don't advertise themselves, you have to know where they are (or bump around all night searching). Fortunately I have good enough Japanese the youth hostel staff hooked us up with info.
It was one crazy adventure in that club that night, I wish I had more photos I could share with you. We were fake-fighting eachother, with dramatic punches and kicks and kung fu. Getting cute Japanese girls to play limbo (we didn't have a rope so we were using someone's purse). I don't remember too many details, alcohol does that, you know. Glory times, enough said.
This is me a few hours earlier, in one of the narrow alleys of Gion District, while L and I were hunting for Geisha. We didn't find any, but we had some fun just asking totally random girls (who were obviously not geisha) whether they were geisha.
Monkeys! This is by far the most well-hidden secret in Kyoto: a 10 minute climb up a little mountain and you're in this awesome park where monkeys walk around totally free. It's in the Arashiyama district, that's all I can tell you. If you get close to the monkeys, they'll snarl at you, but it's all bark and no bite. Just ignore the snarl and they'll scamper off. We got to see the staff feeding them nuts.
Here I am with a couple travelling friends.
These paper lanterns they hang outside various buildings are just awesome. In the next series, we'll see the biggest paper lantern in Japan, but that's next time. Check out the cool altar inside this building.
Man and Monkey. The Japanese word for monkey is "saru".
The trees have eyes. I wonder, if I shook this tree, how many monkeys would fall out? It's one of those questions science may never answer.
There's some tower in Kyoto which is really famous among tourists and costs a ton of money to go on. This view is ten times better and costs about 500 yen ($5US). It goes to show how in lilfe all the best things just come easy. L pointed out that from this vantage point, it's hard to tell the city is Japanese, it almost looks like it could be middle eastern if it weren't so freakin green.
These guys are pretty hardcore, for a fee they'll pull you around in that card. In Asakusa there were dozens of these guys. They even wear the Raiden hats, what more could you possibly ask for? With gasoline prices rising, these guys are probably gonna make a big upsurge, soon the highways will be full of them.
A mysterious rodent crossing a river in Kyoto. Is it a badger? A beaver? A giant overgrown rat? Who knows, this is Japan, it could be anything.
Take one last look at Kyoto, we're taking off and heading back toward Tokyo. (Well, I went to Osaka too, but somehow I have no photos from there at ALL)
Do you know where this gate leads? It beckons toward unknown mystery and adventure. As we pass through this portal, we'll be taken to the fifth and final installment in this photoblog series. Feel the subtle thrill, deep in your gut? It's a feeling known as "wanderlust", the urge to put one foot in front of the other and see where you end up. I always had a little wanderlust, but coming to Japan really stirred it up and strengthened it. In the next installment, let's see what adventures lie on the other side of the wooden torii.---------------------------------------
This article is part 4 of a 5-part series. Here's the entire series:
Pictures From Japan - Part 1
Pictures From Japan - Part 2
Pictures From Japan - Part 3
Pictures From Japan - Part 4
Pictures From Japan - Part 5
This article is part 4 of a 5-part series. Here's the entire series:
Pictures From Japan - Part 1
Pictures From Japan - Part 2
Pictures From Japan - Part 3
Pictures From Japan - Part 4
Pictures From Japan - Part 5
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment