Japan - Kyoto

We took the Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Kyoto. I think the train was a 700 series train and they are capable of traveling at speeds up to 177mph. I don’t think we ever went quite that fast, but I’m guessing we were doing about 130mph on the average.



When I was taking those pics they came on the PA and announced in English – “Please stand back.” I thought that was amusing because while I was on the rail, I wasn’t leaning over it or anything.

Kyoto is a very interesting city and well worth the visit. It is a very old city and a lot of the Japanese culture, religion and superstition stems from Kyoto. We really didn’t have enough time there and were only able to see a few of the city's great highlights and features.

We did manage to take a small tour and visit a few really cool places like the Nijo Castle. This place was built in 1603. That makes it a tick over 400 years old as of this writing. The castle was used by the Shogun and it was a really beautiful work of architectural art and engineering. One of the things we thought was really cool was the “nightingale” floors which they used as a security measure in case someone was creeping in the castle late at night. Check out the video on this page and you’ll hear what it sounded like to walk on the floor. http://www.zen-garden.org/html/page_nightingalefloor.htm

We weren’t allowed to take photographs inside the castle, and I’m not sure how the folks in the above link got the video. They might have been sneaky about it or it might have been before they disallowed photography. In any case, here are a few quick shots:

The main gate:



The entryway into the interior:



And the main building:



Please understand that these photos do not do it justice. The buildings are enormous and inside are some beautiful paintings on the walls. This is also only one of several buildings on the grounds.

Next we went to go see the Golden Pagoda, which is really covered in gold leaf:





And the 400+ year old Bonzai tree that was planted by a Shogun:



And then we visited the old Imperial Palace before it moved to Tokyo. This part of the tour was a bit odd because they made us line up in four lines of 11 people to enter the palace. They didn’t seem to care if we stayed in those lines, but we had to do it to get through the gate. Once in, we walked around the grounds and were constantly watched by police and guards – sort of like the secret service. We were not allowed to enter any of the buildings nor were we allowed in many of the courtyard areas that were reserved for ceremony and royalty.

The original palace was only supposed to be in one place, but it burned down so many times they finally said “fuck it” and changed the location. BTW – it takes them 27 years to replace all the roofs of the palace!!!











We also hit an arts and crafts center where we picked up some souvenirs for people and also picked up some nice artwork for ourselves. We hadn’t done much shopping up to this point because we were traveling so much and didn’t have a lot of space.

Here is a pic of the main station building in Kyoto. Unfortunately this doesn’t do it justice. The building is huge both inside and out and has a fairly open architecture. Our hotel was in the building as well as the train station, a mall, etc.

If you look closely you can see a lot of various design elements in the building – some of which don’t go together at all. It was the same inside and at one point I joked that I could see a conference room full of bickering architects and the lead project guy calming them all down by saying something like “no…no….everyone will get to have their input.” And that is what it looked like…a mix-match of elements and styles that was loosely coordinated.



After leaving Kyoto we got back on the Shinkansen and headed back to Tokyo for a brief dinner, a chocolate covered waffle, and a quick stop at a local and traditional Japanese store for writing and stationary. Then it was on to Narita for our last night before coming home.