A Weekend in Kyoto

Kyoto is the ancient capital of Japan and it's cultural heart.  But out in the western part of the city is the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove.

The quiet, the light and the sound of the bamboo being rustled by the wind was so peaceful.  Hard to imagine that the big city is just a few hundred meters away.

Right next to the bamboo grove is the Okochisanso Garden, which is part of the estate of a famous Japanese Actor who made his home here and was the one who developed the garden.

The view of Kyoto from Okochisanso Garden.

The actor built this small shrine on his property....the garden grew around it.

Make sure to hold onto your entrance ticket.  It's good for some tea and refreshments!

Kyoto has more temples than one person can visit in a short visit.  One of the temples I wanted to visit was Ryoan-ji because I remember coming to this temple with my family in the early 1980's.  What I remember was being puzzled by everyone's intense appreciation for a rock garden.

And....here it is. When I was a kid, I just couldn't understand why there was such admiration for this rock garden.  It's just a bunch of rocks.  But now I understand that it's a place of peace and reflection and the rocks are part of that process.

The pond at Ryoan-ji.

Just up the road is THE MUST SEE temple in Kyoto...Ginkaku-ji.

The Golden Temple

It's looks peaceful and calm......

But here are the HORDES of people pushing each other to get a picture.  The temple grounds were a madhouse.

As a total non sequitur, Japanese hotels give you a "yukata" to wear.  They are comfortable!

On our second day, we went to the Higashiyama area to visit the Kiyomizu-dera Temple.  Unfortunately, the main temple is under reconstruction and Onions and I chose not to pay the entrance fee.  Instead we found other things to look at.

For 100 Yen, take off your shoes, grab the rope with your left hand, descend into the dark passages below....to find out what you see, you're going to have to go to Kiyomizu-dera yourself.

In this part of town, Gion, a large number of Japanese women wore the traditional kimono.  I'm not sure why...

Walking around at night, it seems like every building had a sign like this out front.  I found them indecipherable.

Shirakawa-go

Our next destination was into the Japanese Alps.  In Takayama, we found this small restaurant near our hotel.

Totally local...this is the entire restaurant.  It's run by the woman behind the bar.

Up here in the mountains, the chill of winter was still in the air and snow on the ground.

Our destination was the small town of Shirakawa-go.  This UNESCO World Heritage site is known for it's steep grass-thatched roofs.

Welcome to Shiragawa-go!

In this isolated valley, the residents built the roofs very steep to allow snow not to get heavy on the roofs.

On a hill just outside of town is the famous view of Shiragawa-go.

What's in this box?

Ahhh, makes sense!

After walking through town, we sat down to a traditional Japanese lunch!

And spent an hour and a half soaking ourselves at an "onsen" or public bath!

If the soaking pool is outside, it's called a "rotemburo."  Here's the view from the rotemburo.

Nagoya

Chinese Spring Festival 2015!  Onions and I decided, based simply on our love of Japanese food, to visit Japan.  We flew into Nagoya.  We spent the first half of our first full day in Japan walking around Nagoya.  Above is the Nagoya Tower, which looks like a mini-Eiffel Tower.

Stop 2....Nagoya Castle

The original castle and associated buildings were constructed in 1610. What is seen on the grounds today are the reconstructions built in the 1950's

Spring was juuuusssttt around the corner in Japan.  In some places, the famed Cherry Blossoms were in bloom.

The view of downtown Nagoya from the top of Nagoya Castle

Looking east with the Japanese Alps in the distance.

The final stop in Nagoya was a visit to the train history museum. They museum displayed all the different types of train cars Japan Rail has used through the years.

These sleek trains are the most modern trains which are used on the Shinkansen, the high speed rail.

The museum ran a lottery to win the opportunity to drive the Shinkansen simulator.  I didn't win.

Japan also is manufacturing MAGLEV trains!

The MAGLEV trains have been clocked at up to 581 km/hr.  The museum had displays that explain how the shape of the train minimizes drag and maximizes stability.  Unfortunately, most of the written displays were in Japanese.

I took this last photo because in one shot, I got a traditional church, a more modern church, a large container ship and in the far background the port of Nagoya.