Fushimi Inari Shrine

My Rating: 8.9/10

Lots of people think that once you've seen one temple in Japan, you've seen em all. Now, that all depends on the person, and I won't open that can of worms here. However, there are some holy places in Japan that separate themselves and stand completely unique compared to the rest. Fushimi Inari shrine is one of those places.

Home to over 10,000 torii gates, Fushimi Inari Shrine weaves a trail for miles leading to the summit of a mountain (or hill? only 200 meters or so). The whole trail is loaded with the torii gates shown below.

Uhh, right or left? American traffic rules or Japanese traffic rules...?

The torii gates for the first part of the trail are particularly dense, as shown here.

Well, you get the idea. They just go on, and on, and on.

We came to an opening, then decided to turn back.

On the back of every torii gate was the individual, family, or company that purchased it. They start at a modest price of 400,000 Yen (roughly $5,000), and go up considerably from there.

I really liked the lights that lit the way through the torii gate path.

Just on the outskirts of Kyoto, Fushimi Inari was a great little place to visit. It offered a change of scenery, something unique, and most importantly, an escape from the crowds. To finish things off, I snapped a photo of some good luck, large-testicled tanukis.

Byodoin Temple

My Rating: 8.0 / 10

As you can see, Byoudoin is in the pocket of every person here in Japan. The temple has been minted on every 10 Yen coin in the country. Other than that, though, I'm not sure what's so special about the place.

Apparently there's a phoenix hall inside that's pretty awesome, but when I went 5 years ago it was closed, and it was closed again today. So, that makes this place not all that great in my opinion. If the main attraction is always closed, it doesn't make it much of an attraction.

Anyways, the temple itself was pretty nice. I snapped a few photos and bounced.

The temple was backlit so the best photo was a silhouette with an exposure of the sky reflected in the water. That was the best photo according to me, I mean.

Seeing as I couldn't enter the pheonix hall to see what that was all about, I took the phoenix on the top of the temple.

The dynamic clouds made for a really nice photo of the roof, pheonix, and sun all together.

Other than that there's not much of a story to tell for this place. The temple is nestled in a small town called Uji, which is arguably one of the best places in all Japan that grows green tea. The 10 minute walk to the temple from the train station is filled with green tea shops that are perhaps more interesting than the temple itself.

Nijo Castle

My Rating: 8.7 /10

First, a quick history lesson! You may or may not know that Kyoto was the old capital of Japan for over 1000 years. 1074 years in fact, from 794-1868. As a consequence, Kyoto has a ton of history, most of which has been incredibly well preserved over the years. Now Kyoto is the home to many UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Nijo Castle is one of them.

In a nutshell, Nijo Castle was built for a great Japanese Shogun by the name of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Let's just call him "The Boss". He was "The Boss" for a while, and wanted to build himself a bad-ass palace to live in while he ruled the country. The result? His very own castle; Nijo Castle.

Along with expansive grounds, gardens, and cherry trees, Nijo Castle is the home to a pretty nice plum blossom grove. Being in season, we decided to check it out with the hopes that the trees were still in bloom.

This monstrous mammoth of a castle was way bigger than I anticipated. It takes an hour to do a quick tour of the grounds, and we didn't have that much time. For that reason, we just headed straight to the plum blossom grove. I took a few snaps along the way.

Did a quick photoshop job on a close-up of a building's details.

This was made of bamboo. Other than that, I have no clue what its deal is...

The Castle Walls, photo by Anastasia

Regrettably the weather wasn't all that great, but I still clicked away on the camera. Every good photographer learns that different conditions offer different photographic opportunities. They may not be the conditions you want (like cotton ball clouds and soft sunny rays), but they are conditions you have to deal with nonetheless. It was a rainy day in Kyoto, so I did my best to capture the images that presented themselves. Here's a handful of my favorite photos.

A few water droplets hanging off the flowers.

Unlike cherry blossoms, plum blossoms have a wonderful aroma. And, as you can see, the aroma is particularly pleasant when you stick it up your nose.

A handful of different plum trees exist that produce a variety of colored flowers. This white tree had a single pink flower that stood out to me.

And, if you ever wonder how I take photos like the one captured above, thank Anastasia for taking this photo of me at work (leaning over the rope to get stability on the tree).

A branch of plum blossoms in their prime.

The path through the plum blossoms in Nijo Castle.

One last photo before headin out.

Right before leaving, I worked up the courage to ask these nicely dressed gals to pose for a picture. Check out the creeper in the background. Creeeeeper.

So that does it, some photos and a brief history lesson of Nijo Castle. Thanks Mr. Tokugawa Ieyasu, you built yourself a pretty cool castle for all of us to enjoy hundreds of years down the road.

Shirakawa River, Geisha District

My rating; 8.8/10

If you're lucky, you may just spot one of the infamous maiko-san (known to the uneducated foreigner as geisha) when coming to the Gion District of Kyoto. Apparently there are 6 districts in Kyoto that have Maiko-san, and Shirakawa River is the most prominent of them all.

Strolling the district at night and standing near the canal really is wonderful, and there's not many places in Japan that have a "feel" quite like this. The old roads, the trickling sound of the water, the century old houses, and the occasional Maiko make for an unforgettable experience.

An old restaurant along the road

The Shirakawa River

Like many restaurants, there was a bridge over the river leading to the entrance.

Unfortunately, we didn't get a peep of a Maiko-san. We did, however, enjoy the peaceful district as our last stop of the evening. Perhaps there's no place in Kyoto that feels more like Kyoto than the Shirakawa River ... if that make any sense at all.

The Blue Heron was just chillin in the river...

Kiyomizudera

My Rating: 8.6/10

Last I knew Kiyomizudera was one of the nominees for 7 new wonders of the world, I but don't know what happened. I think it just missed out? Anyways, its a pretty splendid place, but qualifies as one of those "everyone knows it about it so everyone and their mother goes to it" places. Regrettably, this spoils the experience a bit. However, there's a bit more space in Kiyomizudera so it's not that much of a problem.

We arrived just before dusk, so I could take some pretty great photos of the temple during its early light-up season. We actually visited the temple before the cherry blossoms, so the crowds were at a fraction of what they would be in the coming weeks. Anyways, here's some pics!

We arrived at the sweet dusk light. Makes for some good photos.

Another look at one of the many structures that highlight Kiyomizudera.

I thought this was pretty cool.

Photo from the popular overlook, Kyoto city off in the distance.

Your wish comes true if you jump off the ledge and survive according to legend. Wait...what?

Aligned the beam of light with the temple for a fun effect.

My favorite photo. Taken from a perspective I've never seen of the temple in the millions of photos that exist.

If you can go off-season to Kiyomizudera its a great little place. However, its a perfect example of a place where huge crowds can spoil your experience. Also, the many, many traditional shops leading up to Kiyomizudera are really wonderful. Gives you a feel for Japan as it existed hundreds of years ago.

Kitano Tenmangu

My Rating: 8.2

I had never heard of Kitano Tenmangu before, and I'll assume you haven't either. No worries though, the place isn't that important. Once upon a time there was some monk. He was exiled. Centuries later they regretted exiling him and built this temple in his name. He loved plum blossoms, so they planted thousands of trees! Now in 2011, we get to enjoy them!

The commanding presence of the plum trees really made the visit enjoyable (probably much more enjoyable than the other 51 weeks of the year when they aren't around). For that reason, I gave it a pretty positive rating.

Anyways, here's a few photos I took in our 30 minute jog through the temple.

Blossoms as soon as we entered the temple

We saw quite a few school aged kids painting the blossoms.

Entering through the grove.

Now, this next photo is going to be a trend I think. I'm absolutely amazed at how many people have cameras. If I had to make a guess with money, I'd say somewhere in the vicinity of 90% of people have some sort of photo device. With the emergence of convenient point and shoots, but more importantly camera's on cell phones, it seems like everyone stops to take a photo.

Four people, four cameras.

Anyways, Kitano Tenmangu was a pretty great place during the Plum Blossom Season (mid-march). To finish these off, we even saw a real holy cow.

I thought for a second the Pearson's dog had been enshrined in Japan. Anastasia clarified that it was a holy cow. I agreed. There was no way that dog was gonna make it past Mt. Hope Street, let alone Japan. R.I.P.!

Kinkakuji (The Golden Pavilion)

My rating: 7.6/10

Japan's Golden Pavillion. Have you heard of it? Seen it on TV or perhaps a travel agency's advertisements? Well, the world certainly has. The price of being a world-renowned tourist destination are the massive crowds that flock to them. After all this time I still can't find a reason why having hundreds (or thousands) of other people in your way is a good thing when you're traveling. Unless, of course, you like taking pictures of crowds. Then, you're in luck.

A relatively small crowd for Kinkakuji. We visited the temple on a weekday morning off season.

Like all the destinations I'll talk about on the blog, the season and time of day you visit these places strongly impact the experience (and of course my rating). I'm sure if you were able to sit on the shore of the pond, undisturbed, and watch the sunrise beam softly off of the golden pavilion on a cool spring morning, you'd walk out a changed man. The reality is that that's just not possible. If you come to Kinkakuji, expect a massive crowd at nearly any time of the year.

Anyways, Kinkakuji doesn't have much to the temple other than the golden pavilion. However, there is a place that invites everyone to their own gold into a little bowl shortly down the trail!

Just before we exited we saw these pretty flowers. Snapped a quick photo!

All in all Kinkakuji is a place worth visiting, but I wouldn't put it on the must-sees. Check it out, though, if you're in the neighborhood.

A weekend getaway, Kyoto.

In the weekends before Anastasia went back to America, we decided to get a bit of traveling in. Our destination? Kyoto.

The trip was wonderful, and the photos were in the thousands. For that reason, I'm only going to post a handful of photos that lend themselves to storytelling. The mass of photos can be found on flickr here, along with lots of other photos I've taken.

So before I get to all the storytelling, here's a few snaps that summarize our frenzied tour of Kyoto. Enjoy!

Byodoin Temple, found on the 10 Yen coin

Gion's Shirakawa River, the most famous geisha district in all Kyoto.

The famous Kiyomizudera Temple at the evening light-up.

Kitano Tenmangu (dont worry Ive never heard of it either) famous Plum Blossom Grove

Kinkakuji (The Golden Pavillion)

Some of these photos and destinations may wind up in posts with a bit of elaboration, some may not. Depends on the novelty of the experience. So, without further ado, Kyoto!