Vanie Poyey Photography
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 IV
While Part I, II and III had themes, part IV of our trip to Japan is a bit of a mix.
With that said, I do have to warn sensitive viewers now…there are some disturbing photos of dead fish (at the fish market) down below.
Kabuki is a form of traditional Japanese Theater. Shows last up to five hours including intervals. If you don’t have five hours to dedicate to Kabuki, you have the option to buy tickets for just one act , so that’s just what we did.
Kabuki-za is presumably Japan’s number one Kabuki Theater. Unfortunately, once inside the theater, no pictures allowed.
All I have is Mom in front of the theater, and Mom and Joe waiting in line.
The next section is a part of Tokyo we discovered as we left Ueno park.
Upon crossing the street in the same direction as these bicycle riders,, we entered a very bustling inner market. Turns out we ended up at Ameyoko market, with more than 500 stalls into a quarter mile stretch.
Plastic samples of food are very common at the entrances of restaurants in Japan (below on the right).
No shortage of bikes
No shortage of cell phones either!
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING IF YOU ARE IN ANY WAY SENSITIVE TO SEEING DEAD ANIMALS, OR IN THIS CASE DEAD FISH.
The wholesale Fish Market in Tokyo is a fascinating spectacle where retailers come daily to buy fresh fish. The most fascinating of all is the fresh Tuna Auction which starts at 5:00AM and ends a little before 6:30AM. Even on my second trip to Japan, I was not able to get up in time to document this event. Regardless, I’ve read that visitors have to obtain a special permit to get in, so I may not have been able to see it even if I had made it on time. What I was able to capture at 6:30AM when we arrived, was the retailers taking away the tuna they had just bought.
The fish market is definitely not the place to visit with your best clothes and shoes, as you will get splattered with, among other things, fish guts. Both my Mom and I wore a pair of old jeans and old shoes that we immediately threw out after we left the market.
The white layer around the tuna below is ice.
Tuna being prepped for something, or someone!
More slicing of frozen tuna.
Below, is the tuna in the background…yes folks, your sushi sits on dirty ground before it gets imported to you from Japan. Not to worry, it’s got a frozen layer all around that can be cleaned easily…at least I’d like to think so. In the foreground a worker handling live crab.
More tuna.
Walking around the inner fish market, you’ll find endless stalls of live, fresh, frozen, smoked, dried, pickled seafood and more!
Baby octopus?
Can you see Mom among the chaos?
Sardines?
Live shrimp below.
More frozen and cut tuna being hauled away.
At about 8:00AM we made it to the outer market. As you can see, there is a lot of business going on.
For breakfast, the trick at the outer market is to find the restaurant where all the locals are waiting in line.
That’s where I’ve had the freshest premium grade sushi comparable to, say, Nobu in the states, but for 1/4 of the price.
Below, my Mom and I had to wait an hour and a half for our sushi breakfast…but it was well worth the wait.
We started off waiting further away from the restaurant (picture on the left), until we got closer (picture on the right).
More to come…
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