First trip to Kyoto

I work Tues thru Sat, which gives me Sun and Mon off. So after my solo trip to Osaka on Sunday I went with the other teacher in my school to Kyoto for the day.

My city is called Hirakata, its halfway between Osaka and Kyoto. For me this is pretty much the perfect place to be in Japan. Osaka is kind of like the Chicago of Japan, its the 2nd biggest city, has great food, its on the water, and its got a lot of interesting things to do (concerts, baseball, even universal studios Japan). Kyoto is the ancient capital of Japan. Its one of the only places American didn't bomb in the war because we didn't want to destroy the historical architecture of the city. So I'm within 30 minutes of both cities. I got very lucky in my placement.

These are the pictures from my trip to Kyoto, I'll try to let most of the pictures speak for themselves. I'll only make one comment. If you ever have a chance to visit anywhere in Asia make sure you spend at least 2 days in Kyoto. The pictures below are of a couple of shrines/temples I visited. But there are seriously hundreds of temples and shrines to see.

This is a small brook outside the train station we arrived at. The whole city has these kinds of steams running right thru the middle.


This is called a Tori, you see them all over Japan. Its always at the entrance to a Shinto shrine.

This tori was huge...

Kyoto art museum...


This is the entrance to some kind of Shinto shrine, but sorry I do not know what its for...


These are Japanese names written on wood. They are for people who have donated to this shrine. The more you donate the bigger your square is...

Entrance to the shrine...


Courtyard inside...


This is a fountain to wash yourself before you enter the shrine. You always pick up the ladle wit you left hand to wash your right hand.






Main part of the shrine. There was a wedding going on inside but no pictures were allowed. Also notice the mountains in the background, Kyoto is in a valley surrounded by mountains.


This was a tree inside a bamboo looking tent thing.

This tree kind of reminded me of the one in Lord or the Rings on top of Minas Turith.


Me in front of some shrine/temple on the side of the street.

This is the main river that flows thru Kyoto.


This is the view walking up to Kiyomizu Temple. Kiyomiszu Temple is probably the most famous temple in all of Japan. Right now its being voted on as one of the new 7 wonders of the world... http://www.new7wonders.com/index.php?id=502 This page gives some good background information for anyone who is curious.


Streets of Kyoto...

Entrance to Kiyomizu




Sean and I in front of the entrance to Kiyomizu...





Kiyomizu is up on the mountain over looking the city of Kyoto. Notice how crowded cities in Japan look from above. Kyoto is only about 2 million people.




Over looking Kyoto.


A woman praying inside the temple.



View looking at the temple over the mountain side.




This is some kind of shrine to dead people. Yes its pretty much a bunch of statues with bibs on them...




Look at this guy...


A bunch of pieces of wood sticking out of the ground.


This is a great view of the whole temple.



This is called a pagota. You see them a lot in Japan.


The beautiful forests of Japan.


This is a natural spring at the bottom. If you drink from it is supposed to give you good luck, but the line was too long... I guess thats the William Huston in me...


Bottom of the temple looking up.


Japanese Kanji is confusing but also very beautiful. I wish I could read this...


A Shinto or Buddist monk praying outside a pagoda.

The first cherry blossom tree I've seen yet. Cherry bollsoms are about to bloom in Japan. As my friend Noah told me "the Japanese get more excited about Cherry Blossoms than Americans get excited about the Super Bowl and World Series combined." For me that will never be true, but I must say the whole country is on the edge of its seat waiting for the cherrys to bloom.

Another temple/shrine as I was walking back to the train station. There must be thousands of areas in Kyoto like this to see.

The main river in Kyoto. People were sitting around it.


Downtown Kyoto.


Another temple/shrine we stumbled across.




Theres a good chance this is just a hotel, but I thought it was worth taking a picture of.


Geisha district of Kyoto. We saw a couple walking around...


So I've finished my second week of teaching.

I'm going back to Kyoto tomorrow for more sight seeing, then a cherry blossom party with some friends in Osaka on Monday...

Chad