Monday 1 February 2010

Kyoto Part 1

After rushing for the right bus which we just made we played PSP for
a bit until the lights went out but even with lights out and some crazy
recline chair I wad unable to sleep. This means that when we got off
I was already tired before we even started. Luckily we found a good
old Maccy D which was just about to open so we got breakfast and a nice
coffee to end the sleepyness.

Eam and Chalie playing dead on the night bus
P1010752

The next mission was to find a book which would help us navigate
Kyoto. As we knew a few things we wanted to visit but no clue how to
get there! How handy that the first book store we found had an English
language section by the entrance. Armed with a map and top ten to visit
i grabbed another coffee and we began to plan the day drawing on the map the places and their importance and aimed time to arrive. Some places needed to be seen at certain times of the day so planning ahead was important.

The guide that made our day!
P1010755

The map made a circle around Kyoto of places we wanted to visit so we started in the south and worked our way anti clockwise around. The first place we hit was called Fushimi-Taisha. It is one of Kyoto's oldest shrines dating back to the 8th century. It is very famous for its 10,000 Torii gates. Something which at first i didn't believe. 'how can there possible 10,000!' i thought it might have been a mistake in the book and it was actually 1,000 gates which still seamed a lot!

P1010758

P1010760

stone fox guardian of the shrine
P1010762

P1010763

P1010766

the start of the 1,000 gates ;)
P1010767

P1010768

oh wait there seamed to be quite alot!
P1010770

the morning light was amazing through the trees which surrounded the path and the gates, which i was now starting to reliease could actually be 10,000!
P1010771

rows, and rows of gates!
P1010772

Here is a quick video, walking down the path

10,000 gates in Kyoto from jo kirk on Vimeo.



shot from outside the gates of the path ahead
P1010773

P1010777

P1010781

after getting down a part of the path, the sun was just imence on the gates, was an impressive sight, so glad my camera caught the light in quite a true way! it really looked like this!
P1010783

cute baby guardian
P1010784

P1010785