. : Gaijin-Ninjin a Photoblog in Tokyo : .

Kyoto Part 2

Next place to visit was Nijo Castle, a place which was build to show Japan that the real power lay with the Tokugawa Shoguns back in 1603. From looking at the pictures i thought this place might be another shrine but it was quite different. The building was similar in shape to some of the shrine seen in the guide book, but once you arrive you and you notice the thatched like roof and the golden decoration you understand how the place was used to show great power.

gate from outside

inner gate entrance, seriously nice gold decoration

closer shot from standing right under the gate

one of the main buildings

Unfortunately photography was strictly forbidden and i did respect this so i have only memories now of side. One of my first thoughts was how bright it was inside, as the only light was natural entering through the traditional sliding windows. The second was this slight squeaking sound which seamed to echo and follow us. After some time we noticed it was from our footsteps and later on the walk around the inside, we saw an information board which explained that it was to allow the Shogun to know where people where at any given time. Effective at stopping intruders attempting to assassinate Shogun. Even my ninja attempts proved unsuccessful :(
The paintings inside were slightly faded but still impressive. Gold foil design covered the walls and ceiling.

back in the grounds of the castle

We were lucky to see a man building a fresh bamboo fence, i tried to compose this shot a little rather than snapshot it like most. I love how fresh and green the bamboo is before the sun and age saturates it to browns.

gate to the gardens

dof shot of a newish fence

eam with the double thumbs, loving it

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

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!

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!

stone fox guardian of the shrine

the start of the 1,000 gates ;)

oh wait there seamed to be quite alot!

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!

rows, and rows of gates!

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

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!

cute baby guardian

Asakusa

Again i am behind with my diary. We went to Kyoto! but the trip was big, so im going to try write it in parts. There are about 150 photos to add also.

We wanted to visit Kyoto for a day but after checking the fair for the Shinkansen
(bullet train) we decided it was too expensive for 3 of us to go. About
90,000 yen. But instead those guys went online and booked us into a
night bus which would take 9-10hours. The plan was to sleep this. So
we met for lunch at Asakusa then went back to Eams to catch the bus at
9pm. It should get to kyoto station for 6am.

Today we went to Asakusa which has a really nice shrine. There was a
walk way to the shrine which had shops on each side all the way to the
end. They still had a few decorations left house from the new years
festivities. So many shops to look at we never gad much time but I
will come back alone. We tried some sweet sake which I really liked
even tho I don't like sake but others were not so keen on it. I guess
it's like mulled wine at xmas really warming on a cold day as it is
served hot.

Here are some shots from the breif time we spent in Asakusa

this lantern was crazy huge!

Main street still with the decorations up from the new year

Hello Kitty sushi set, i may have to go back and get this :)

random shoppers

Slice of life, a look down the back ally's of Japan

Example of the plastic food models that are displayed outside many restaurants

this place had lots of nice flavours of ice cream. I got rose which was really nice, if you like turkish delight, Charlie got some choco cookie and Eam got almond which i hated but i guess if you like nuts would be good!

girls placing wishes at the shrine

more stupidly large lanterns, id love to climb inside one and jump down and scare someone, god im so childish haha

at the shrine entrance people cleans themselves at the purification fountain before entering. This is done by taking the clean water and washing both hands, then drinking the clean water from the newly cleansed left hand. Spit the water down the gutters at the side, NOT back into the fountain.