Kyoto Goodness
Well I am back from the holiday of no end. I'll give you the quick low down so we can get to the pictures before you get too bored.
Monday:
We saw Kinkakuji, Ryoanji and Kiyomizu temple. Kinkakuji is this golden plated temple. Ryoanji is a really famous zen garden with 15 rocks you can never see all at once from one angle. And Kiyomizu-dera is a temple on the side of the hill. We hit that one up right at dusk so it was really pretty. On monday we decided to try the 500 yen bus pass which would let you use certain buses all day. Not only are Kyoto buses really really confusing, but they are owned by more than one company. And some companies don't acknowledge the all day pass thing. It would be pretty easy to put a sign on the door that says "we don't use the all day card" but no. They don't. I'm all for monopolies of public transporation when ridiculous things like that end up costing me several hundred yen because there are 3000 different bus companies for one city.
Tuesday:
I went to Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. It was pretty much exactly like the american one but few rides and everything in Japanese. I think the Japanese would have a heart attack if they went on an actual ride. It was really funny to see E.T. and the terminator speak in Japanese. The best though was at the Jaws ride, our boat capitan had to shoot the shark and was really excited and Japanese about the whole thing. It was like the shark was a cuddly dog. All in all a good time.
Wednesday:
After a long discussion about the day it finally became aware we should split up to do what we wanted instead of being dragged along with everyone else. So at first we went to Fushimi Inari temple. Bascially it's thousands of torii's (red shinto gates). With foxes all around. The signs said there were monkeys but I never saw any. Then Holly and I decided to go to the Suntory brewery which makes "Suntory Malts". It was one of the highlights of the trip. The whole tour was all in Japanese but it still was pretty interesting and I caught quite a lot of what she was talking about. At the end of the tour they put our group in this really nice guest hall and gave us all free beer. Most of the business aged men were basically just standing in line to get the most free beer possible. Kind of funny because the bathroom was filled with old women and business men drunk. After the brewery bascially we waited around kyoto station for several hours until 10:50 pm when our bus left. I am telling you, if hell has a bus service I probably just rode it. The seats were so uncomfortable and it felt like riding in an oven with the heat all the way up. I was so glad to get out of that thing. And then when I was giving my ticket to the bus driver I dropped my free souvenir glass I got from the brewery and being mad I just threw it away, not realizing my ipod was in that bag. Luckily I figured it out a couple minutes later.
All in all, the trip was good. But words of advice: don't travel in a group with 5 women and never take the New Dream JR Highway bus from Shinjuku.
In front of Toji temple.
At this costume museum we went to and had all these dolls dressed up. It was pretty impressive.
At the river bank, hawks were attacking children.
At the monkey mountain. Holly, Rachel and I with a monkey. notice how far away we are because we are afraid it will attack us. haha.
Rachel and I mimicking the monkeys.
More monkeys with a view of Kyoto at the back
The sign in front of Nijo Castle.
One of the entrances of the castle.
Kinkakuji
Kinkakuji plus Daniel, Cindy, Rachel and Nicole.
Ryoanji zen garden. It was hard to fit this in a picture.
At Ryoanji, a lake in the middle with a tree almost falling out in the lake. Quite picturesque.
At the beginning of Kiyomizudera.
Looking off Kiyomizudera at dusk.
At fushimi Inari in one of the tons of successions of torii's.
I wasn't kidding about there being a lot of torii's.
A bigger torii.
The giant christmas tree in Kyoto station.
That is a summary of everything major. The pictures really are like 1/1000th of the intial beauty. Sigh.
Sayonara Kyoto...
Monday:
We saw Kinkakuji, Ryoanji and Kiyomizu temple. Kinkakuji is this golden plated temple. Ryoanji is a really famous zen garden with 15 rocks you can never see all at once from one angle. And Kiyomizu-dera is a temple on the side of the hill. We hit that one up right at dusk so it was really pretty. On monday we decided to try the 500 yen bus pass which would let you use certain buses all day. Not only are Kyoto buses really really confusing, but they are owned by more than one company. And some companies don't acknowledge the all day pass thing. It would be pretty easy to put a sign on the door that says "we don't use the all day card" but no. They don't. I'm all for monopolies of public transporation when ridiculous things like that end up costing me several hundred yen because there are 3000 different bus companies for one city.
Tuesday:
I went to Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. It was pretty much exactly like the american one but few rides and everything in Japanese. I think the Japanese would have a heart attack if they went on an actual ride. It was really funny to see E.T. and the terminator speak in Japanese. The best though was at the Jaws ride, our boat capitan had to shoot the shark and was really excited and Japanese about the whole thing. It was like the shark was a cuddly dog. All in all a good time.
Wednesday:
After a long discussion about the day it finally became aware we should split up to do what we wanted instead of being dragged along with everyone else. So at first we went to Fushimi Inari temple. Bascially it's thousands of torii's (red shinto gates). With foxes all around. The signs said there were monkeys but I never saw any. Then Holly and I decided to go to the Suntory brewery which makes "Suntory Malts". It was one of the highlights of the trip. The whole tour was all in Japanese but it still was pretty interesting and I caught quite a lot of what she was talking about. At the end of the tour they put our group in this really nice guest hall and gave us all free beer. Most of the business aged men were basically just standing in line to get the most free beer possible. Kind of funny because the bathroom was filled with old women and business men drunk. After the brewery bascially we waited around kyoto station for several hours until 10:50 pm when our bus left. I am telling you, if hell has a bus service I probably just rode it. The seats were so uncomfortable and it felt like riding in an oven with the heat all the way up. I was so glad to get out of that thing. And then when I was giving my ticket to the bus driver I dropped my free souvenir glass I got from the brewery and being mad I just threw it away, not realizing my ipod was in that bag. Luckily I figured it out a couple minutes later.
All in all, the trip was good. But words of advice: don't travel in a group with 5 women and never take the New Dream JR Highway bus from Shinjuku.
In front of Toji temple.
At this costume museum we went to and had all these dolls dressed up. It was pretty impressive.
At the river bank, hawks were attacking children.
At the monkey mountain. Holly, Rachel and I with a monkey. notice how far away we are because we are afraid it will attack us. haha.
Rachel and I mimicking the monkeys.
More monkeys with a view of Kyoto at the back
The sign in front of Nijo Castle.
One of the entrances of the castle.
Kinkakuji
Kinkakuji plus Daniel, Cindy, Rachel and Nicole.
Ryoanji zen garden. It was hard to fit this in a picture.
At Ryoanji, a lake in the middle with a tree almost falling out in the lake. Quite picturesque.
At the beginning of Kiyomizudera.
Looking off Kiyomizudera at dusk.
At fushimi Inari in one of the tons of successions of torii's.
I wasn't kidding about there being a lot of torii's.
A bigger torii.
The giant christmas tree in Kyoto station.
That is a summary of everything major. The pictures really are like 1/1000th of the intial beauty. Sigh.
Sayonara Kyoto...
posted by Scot @ 19:55
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