Japanese Beauty, originally uploaded by kdt.
The mobile phone does capture Japanese beauty as well as my EOS400D, so I thought I would post another photo from today’s kimono fashion parade. It was a complete surprise to turn up a the Nishijin Textile Centre to be treated to a fashion parade. There were a lot of snappy happy Japanese photographers there.
Kyoto Best by Bike, originally uploaded by kdt.
There is absolutely no doubt, Kyoto is best seen by bike. Yesterday we met up with volunteers from the Kyoto University Good Samaritans Club. They showed us their Kyoto. We hired bikes ate lunch at the University and enjoyed giant servings of green tea sweets! For good measure we saw a shrine or two! But the best bit was cycling around parts of Kyoto that are well off the tourist path! For good measure we hired bikes again this morning and did some of the most rewarding cycling. Their tiny streets and interesting buildings make it a great joy. As soon as you arrive in Kyoto you should hire a bike from the Kyoto Cycling Tour Project. The things we happened upon were interesting real world shops, good coffee, a small shrine and kimono parade!
kimono fashion show, originally uploaded by Helen K.
just taken by kym
While in Kyoto on the first day of wandering off the Higashiyma, we ventured into the Gion district, which is famous for Geisha wandering the streets.
We saw a poster advertising the fan dance of the Geisha and didn`t believe that it would be real Geisha. We bought tickets, for the show and the afternoon tea with the Geisha for the next day.
We discovered the next day on an organised walk, that the show is done each year, and this year is the 146th. The show is only held for one month during cherry blossom season.
If you pay for a seat and a ticket to the afternoon tea. Firstly you are waiting in in traditional Japanese garden area, then in large groups of 100+, you are ushered into a room where the Geisha is on stage preparing tea and another Geisha is serving the front row. The later rows don’t get the special treatment. Once seated you are served a traditional Japanese cake and tea. Once eaten and drank you are ushered out to wait to be seated for the next performance. There is just enough time for a few photos and you get to keep the plate the cake was served on.
Certainly an experience we hadn`t planned on!
We stayed in Kyoto for 5 nights, and slept on tatami mats with futons. They were slightly hard on the mat but very warm!
Every morning we had Japanese breakfasts. It consisted of samon, tofu (which was made by boiling in water in the metal bowl), rice with partly boiled egg (yummo), and the smaller plates of pickles. These small dishes varied each day. The food was fantastic here… I could happily have this food all the time.
Yes proof that I am willing to be lead astray by my colleagues at work., I got say working those machines in Japanese can be pretty hard。Although I am getting better at the ticket vending machines.
We are currently in the Popeye Media Cafe! I have just ripped my new Gnarls Barkley CD so I can hear it using my Dell PDA on the Shinkasen (the trip from Kyoto to Osaka only took 14 minutes barely enough to time to have a drink and eat a pastry panda),
But these damn Japanese PC:s have all there menus in Japanese and a very tiny spacebar. If I hit the key next to the spacebar all the text I type turns Japanese ぃけティs！You know I have know idea what I just typed, so if it is rude please forgive me.
Kym
Fushimi Inari gates are famous for there being a large number of them closely together in the hills near Kyoto and being bright red.
I suggest you google these to find out why.. its obviously too late and Ive forgotten why they are like this. usually someone has paid a lot of money to have the gate errected and it has their name on or the name of their company on the front. This is still popular practice today.
Rokuon-ji.
There were an amazing amount of tourists here. It is the busiest spot for tourists. There is also a very lovely garden that you walk through then have to dodge your way past all the shops. I thought Rome was bad….
Surprisingly enough after seeing this building the rest of the area is quite quick to walk through
Arashiyama is a beautiful location, with a number of temples, shrines, and bamboo groves.
As well as the other 100 plus tourists… the main street really is like harndorf. Lots of shops with food, or trickets of some description.
After our walk around the town and the groves, we had a great lunch in a department store at another end of the tram line. The meal was really good… octopus balls in a soup that was continually being cooked. Yummo.
