Before Tokyo. Before the “Edo Period” and era of the shogun Kyoto was the capital city of Japan. Today it possesses some of Japan’s oldest and most beautiful temples and shrines. Where Tokyo is Japan’s bold and unapologetic bravado filled ultra modern megacity for the world to awe at, Kyoto is Tokyo’s humble and spiritual counterpart.
Guillaume and I took the speed train, the Shinkansen (up to 200mph), to carry us on our journey. Unfortunately many of the places we visited did not allow photography. The oldest artifacts I saw were located at Toji temple where buddhist statues well over 1000 years old have been waiting for us to view with wonder. You can find pictures of the statues somewhere in travel books but to walk into a musty, wooden Japanese structure where these 12-15 foot shrine to the gods lay before you is an incredible experience.
Seeing the actual temple or shrine isn’t even my favorite part. It’s actually the journey, the excitement of going to something new that I have gotten addicted to. Time stops, my mind freezes, and I exist in a moment where I know I will never forget. But simultaneously there I am standing like a doofus with a camera and a backpack pretending like I understand the significance of a 1200 year old buddha, or a golden temple, or drinking spiritual wish granting water from a temple on the mountain side. ANYWAYS, please enjoy the slideshow. I suspect this may be my last post for a while.
This bug landed on me the morning before I left for Kyoto. I think it said have a nice trip.
The bus in Tsukuba, the beginning of our trip.
KFC was a bad choice
Train Station in Tokyo
The line we take to get to the Shinkansen
The glorious shinkansen
Cheers from the shinkansen
Arrival in Kyoto, happiness was shared
Building in Kyoto
“Yakitori” – Grilled Chicken Restaurant
Thirsty bar duck. People were staring
Arrival at Ella’s apartment
Discussing our plan
Fueling before our travels
Bus in Kyoto
Arriving at our first temple
Early in the morning
Pretty peaceful
Another temple in the distance. And I really like that tree
Underneath these lights there was a guy with googly eyes. I don’t know why
The guy with googly eyes is under here
Nishi Honganji
To-ji temple pagoda, the tallest wooden structure in Japan.
Koi fish swimming in nearby pond
The pagoda
One of the many structures preserving ancient4 buddha’s
It’s a national treasure, I agree
Green tea ice cream
It’s a savior on a hot day
McDonalads break, look at that packaging.
Fushimi Inari – Your in for a ride
Fushimi inari has thousands of these torii gates
They line the mountain side
It is quite the journey
We are about to take that journey
It might take 3 hours to walk all of them
Incredible
I ate one of those apples
Weather is looking not so good
It’s about to pour!
Oh my god it’s raining a lot and I don’t have an umbrella!
Met this guy from hong kong who is studying philosophy. He had an umbrella
It stopped raining briefly
Good bye fushimi inari
On our way to Osaka
The weather in Osaka looks questionable
The moat for Osaka Castle
Glorious Osaka Castle
Downtown Osaka is LIVELY!
Riding on the river playing drums and music
Downtown Osaka
This guy with a camera asked us if he could take our picture for a fashion magazine.
I LOVE GYOZA
Planning our next move
Nightime in Osaka.
I really loved Osaka.
Iconic image – some white guy running track
Impromptu dance sesh.
This was underneath some billboard. Not sure how else to describe it
At a gaming center this guy was drawing a crowd for dance dance revolution type game.
Old timey elevator
I honestly don’t know why I took this picture
Met some strangers at a bar.
Love the contrast
Back in Kyoto
Kiyomizu Dera – probably my favorite timple
Along the mountain side
These girls were not Japanese, though we thought they were at the time.
Can you find the pagoda?
There it is!
View of Kyoto form Kiyomizu Dera
There are 2 stones at Kiyomizu dera. As a test you start at one and try to walk to the other one blindfolded. Without help. If you can do it then your wish (usually romantic wish) comes true.
The other stone
The support structure for Kiyomizu Dera does not use any nails
Holy wish granting water
Taking a drink of the spirit water.
Beautiful
Love it
The roof was kind of “mossy” it was alive.
Hello it’s me, just sweatin my balls off.
I can’t explain this. But I imagine these stones are married or something
Purchase some local craft beers
This is the best version of the pic I could get
Ella’s friends from Kyushu
Beer beer beer
Helping us translate something
Back at Kiyomizu dera the next day
I loved it so much
The pagoda is easy to find now!
San Francisco type “vibe”
Statues like this always greet at the entrance to things
Epic Kannon STATUE
We were given incense at the entrance to place here in front of Kannon.
She is huge.
I’m peaking at you Kannon
Her footsteps
Meanshilw a large Gion festival was going on.
This guy was blowin on some horn to be a siren for local festival goers.
Festival stuff goin on
Kinkakuji – it’s made of gold.
Sweet
Up close. Obvsiouly can’t go in it
Different floors were made from different eras
You could try to toss some money into some small pottery
Guillame finally did it after maybe 20 yen’s worth.
Nijojo – the castle of the former emperor
Heeey nijo-jo
Outside intricate carving. No pictures inside but this place awas awesome
The grounds of nijojo
Old timey japanese castles
Some dressed up anime characters – they were happy to take their picture
They each had a pose or character to play
Atop the grounds of Nijo-jo
Snacking
On our way home
Some souveneirs from Kiyomizu Dera.
And my prized possession from the trip. At each temple, somebody will create a stamp unique to that temple. I will carry this book everywhere I go in Japan.
1. Toji 2. Toji 3. Fushimi Inari 4. Fushimi Inari 5. Kiyomizu Dera 6. Ryozan Kannon 7. Gion 8. Kinkakuji 9. Senso-ji (Tokyo)
Jon In Japan 
Awesome. Magnificent. Breathtaking. Interesting. And that was just looking at the McDonald’s burgers that looked as though they were wrapped in Tiffany packaging. I think you may change your religion to Buddhism after that experience. Keep well and safe while taking it all in. Love you.
Aunt Donna
John, wonderful pictures for such a great adventure. I have been greatly enjoying your travels. Be safe and have fun. See you on your return. We will be attending Nikhil and Kristin’s wedding in a few weeks, a toast for you! Don and Jean Williams
Grandpa and Grandma are with me today and we just viewed your latest blog posting. From G’pa: “We enjoyed it at much as you did. Thank you for sharing. I love your writing. Maybe you’ll end up being a writer for a tourist company. Love you, G’pa”
From G’ma: “Hi Jon!! I sure hope you come back to the states before going to France first. I hope you survived the landslide I saw on the new this morning. Good luck! G’ma”
I will never be able to tell you how proud I am of you. What a wonderful adventure. Think of all your classmates who will never get to see what you have seen already. How much longer do you have in Japan? Is France a diffinent after Japan and when will it start? Stay safe and God bless.
Grandpa “C”.