travel photos
Japan Trip 2009-Part VII-Otsu-Kyoto
Staying in Otsu, being that it was a half hour away from Kyoto…not that bad when you have a view like this from your hotel room!
Back to Kyoto Station, known for it’s modern “cubism” architectural style.
This time, off to Southern Higashiyama where we headed to Sanjusangen-do.
This famous wooden building houses a breathtaking 1,000 golden statues of Bodhisattva Kannon in a long hall.
Along the way…
I was not allowed to photograph inside the building.
Below are some spectators sitting in the garden.
Then we headed north to visit more temples.
Below is my Mom standing in front of Kiyomizu-dera.
Famous, not only for its location on top of a hill overlooking the city, but for being built with not a single nail and only wooden wedges.
Joe on the streets near Kiyomizu-dera.
Walking up to Kiyomizu-dera.
This is a famous Sumo wrestler in the senior division named Takamisakari.
The walk down.
At last…the Geisha my book promised I would find near the cobble stoned streets in Southern Higashiyama.
Since the path would not clear of tourists as they were walking towards me, I just had to stop them upon turning onto a quit street.
If only you could have been there to see the detail of their makeup and clothing up close…
And more Geisha. Notice the detail on the back of the neck.
We finished off our last evening in Kyoto with traditional Kaiseki, originally born in Kyoto known for it’s culinary perfectionists.
Kaiseki is a ten course meal, sort of like tapas, that should take about two and a half hours to get through. In fact it’s rude to rush or to even leave a single bite on your plate.
We went to Harise, a recommendation in my book, and we were not disappointed. We were there almost three hours.
Upton entering the restaurant, which used to be an old humble tea-house, we were asked to take off our shoes and ushered to a private room with cushioned seats on tatami mats.
Harise was our big splurge, but it was beyond worth it, as not only did it leave the perfect taste in our mouths, but also the perfect experience with which to leave Kyoto…and Japan!
The End.
Japan Trip 2009-Part VI-Kyoto
Kyoto’s main food market, Nishiki-koji is located in the center of the city, downtown.
There is much to see and taste at this famous market stretching over four blocks.
Some of the food may be familiar, while most of it is somewhat of a mystery. There were plenty of samples to try before you buy. Naturally, we couldn’t help ourselves, and bought some things we don’t quite know what to do with!
My mom at the end of the five block stretch.
Downtown Kyoto was by far the best place for quality antique stores (none of which we could afford), as well as quality mementos.
A small shop where we bought a souvenir.
A Chinese antique dealer examining a piece in an antique store.
Although Kyoto is the old capital of Japan, I found the city to be more modern and the people more hip than Tokyo.
Below, making cookies while we watch through the glass windows on the main shopping thoroughfare, Shijo Dori, in downtown Kyoto.
The streets of Kyoto, no less busy than Tokyo.
The hipster on his bike.
Looking down from the bridge off of Shijo-Dori, overlooking the Kamogawa River…where, dare I say, young lovers chill.
A monk on the bridge.
Some tents along the river…don’t know why.
The inner streets of downtown, off the beaten track.
Since we were doing a lot of walking, I didn’t want to burden myself with too much equipment on this trip. One camera body and three lenses were more than enough!
Since I had no flash and no tripod, I decided to finally put the high ISO capabilities of my Canon 5D Mark II to the test.
It was nearly dark and below is an image I shot at 12,800 ISO. Is that even a real number? Gone are the days of pushing 3200 ISO film by two stops to get this image.
The inner streets were narrow and full of power lines…to me, quite beautiful.
Bellow, I was really pushing my 5D at 12,800 ISO in pitch dark.
The resulting images were too noisy to display without some work in post to clean up the noise.
It is nearly impossible to find a hotel in the city of Kyoto. We had no choice but to stay a half hour away in Osaka, so we had to take the train back every day. Upon arriving at the Kyoto Station in the evening, we found ourselves watching some sort of orchestra. They were actually quite impressive to say the least.
The last of Kyoto is yet to come!
Japan Trip 2009-Part V-Fukui and Kyoto.
As we made our way to Kyoto, we stopped for two days in a town called Fukui.
That’s where Joe was an invited speaker at a conference.
Fukui was unbelievably beautiful, not only because it was off the beaten track, but because it was full of Shrines tucked away in all corners of the old city. Unfortunately I lost my little map and can’t tell you what these Shrines were named or where they were exactly.
When I tried to get the front desk at the hotel to help me get a cab to the “old city” (clearly marked on my little map), they kept telling me there is “nothing to see” in the old city of Fukui.
Little did they understand that I wanted to take pictures of what they consider to be “nothing”.
Below, a typical site in front of small homes in the old city.
A man in front of his house, in the old city.
A tour we came across in the old city! And they told me there was nothing to see…
And of course the kitty in the old city.
We finally made it to Kyoto, the old capital of Japan.
Below, is the view from the famous Kyoto Tower right in front of Kyoto station.
In-between the two bars on the left, looking down where the green trees are, is the entrance to Higashi Honganji, one of the largest temples we visited!
The entrance to Higashi Honganji where we made our way after visiting the tower.
Inside the massive temple, where I couldn’t take pictures upon entering.
Below is the entrance to the temple, looking out from the inside.
The temple itself was not that impressive from my point of view because there was a lot of construction around it.
So this is all you get folks!
More Kyoto photos to come…
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