Kyoto - around town

A view of Kyoto from one of the temples on the mountain top...

As mentioned, Kyoto was the Imperial Capital of Japan for over 1,000 years until 1869. The Japanese say that Kyoto is the city that the Japanese go to in order to understand what it is to be Japanese! There are over 2,000 Buddhist temples and over 1,500 Shinto shrines here in the city that now has a population of 1.5 million (is that it?).

So if this is where the Japanese come to understand what it is to be Japanese, I'd dare say that Kyoto should be on your list of cities to visit when coming to Japan.

Fortunately the U.S. pretty much left Kyoto untouched during World War II most of the city's buildings were undamaged from the war. We can thank U.S Defense Secretary Stinson for his foresight in preserving Kyoto while executing the war against Japan.

Being a former capital of the country, Kyoto is home to several top universities, including the elite Kyoto University which ranks in the world's Top 25 universities.

http://www.topuniversities.com/university_rankings/results/2008/overall_rankings/top_100_universities/

Beautiful trees, beautiful mountains, crystal clear skies, four full seasons of weather, great food, great transportation, great education system, incredible history and good business. You know somethings in life just aren't fair. Kyoto has everything!

Here are some other things I saw around town...

This picture below shows a character in the side of the mountain. Using my crazy Chinese skills, I immediately recognized it as the character "da" which means big or great. Will explained that this is one of five Kanji characters that are used for an annual fire festival (Kanji = Chinese characters used in Japanese, generally have the same meanings, but completely different pronunciations).

So here is the picture of the character on the mountain...

and then I googled the fire festival and got a picture of what it looks like at night during the festival...
I'm sure that this is a very impressive sight to see these huge Kanji characters burning on the mountains during the black of night. Cool tradition.

Here are a couple of pictures from Pontocho, a very famous alleyway in Kyoto. It is a popular place for higher-end restaurants, bars, and... you name it, you can find it here. Because of its history, it is where Geisha used to be and can still be found. As "The Fig" pointed out, Kyoto is home to the Geisha.

This Geisha came out of a residence right in front of us. We were not expecting to see any Geisha and I actually kinda froze up when I first saw her, it is just such a different and somehow powerful look.

Many of these establishments don't allow "Gaijin" (foreigners) to come in. Apparently they will tell you if you try to come in that you're not welcome there. In a way, good for them. I'm sure they would be overwhelmed with tourists looking for Geisha and the places probably would lose their culture.

This Geisha stopped to take pictures with a couple of Japanese families, but did not stop for us, even so Will's girlfriend, Maiyumi was with us. Oh well, I still got a picture. She's actually not a Geisha, but a Geisha in training. After learning a bit more of who Geisha are, I still don't quite understand why they exist today. But they do, and here are the pictures to prove it...

The food everywhere in Kyoto was excellent. I can totally say that Japanese food is some of the best food in the world. No matter what we ate, it was great! Here's a picture of Will and Maiyumi, cooking up some hot pot. The pizza that had potato chunks and asparagus on it among other things was even really good!

Saw a bunch of people eating these as we walked by and so...

I got some. And yup, you guessed it, they were good! The sauces used in Japanese food just makes it so good.

At another dinner this was one of the appetizers: fried garlic. It was SO good! So simple, but so good...

And finally, breakfast at the local bakery. The roll on the right was somehow opened and baked with a block of cheese in it... really good. The roll on the left was a sweet roll, but the star of the show is there center-stage: a red and yellow sweet bean roll. China uses sweet red beans in various things such as dessert, and I've actually come to like it. But this thing, this was so sweet and good, and dare I say healthy? It definitely has to be healthier than a jelly doughnut, but I'm saying this thing was just as sweet, and all the sweetness came from the beans!

There are two rivers that come together here in Kyoto. There are walking paths along both sides of the river and it's a great place to walk or hang out.

Here's a picture of Will's neighbors. Will's house didn't have as much character as these did. These homes are not connected, there is actually an inch or two between the homes. How did they build that?

A view from my bedroom at Will's place...

Partly due to all of the college students, getting around here on bike is quite convenient. Will has an extra bike, so away we went around town. We're actually on our way to Kinkaku-ji in this picture. It was fun to be able to ride on all the back roads.

Here's the funny thing. So I'm following my American friend while riding a bike in a foreign country while wearing our backpacks. I just had to laugh when I got the feeling that I was a Mormon missionary!

Here's my "hero" shot with the bike after arriving at Kinkaku-ji. Check out the features of the bike... Japanese bike's don't have kickstands, they have those flip things that flip down for more stability and save space when bike parking gets crowded (Will's bike is parked next to mine. See the kickstand? Yup, it's an American bike). The bike also has a built in lock that flips through the spokes on the back wheel.

Most sidewalks are built extra-wide for bike traffic. Just remember, you also ride your bike on the wrong side (the left side).

But with the popularity of bikes, you have to follow the rules... namely park in designated areas. These folks who were shopping at a grocery store are going to be a bit upset when they come out and find...

... that the city came and took their bikes! Look at these guys. There were 15 or so of them and they came through so quickly loading up the bikes it was quite a sight. Unfortunately I had a train to catch because we wanted to watch what happened when people came out to see their reactions!

Seattle has Microsoft. Kyoto has... Nintendo! Welcome to the world headquarters of the gaming giant!

And finally, you know you're in Japan when you see a Coke machine that has a specialized dispenser that somehow released its drinks after an earthquake. What an idea!

But after seeing this earthquake Coke machine, I was overcome with the urge to go shake it to see if it would give me a free Coke!

And that wraps up my time in Kyoto. A HUGE thanks to Will and Maiyumi for showing me the amazing sights and helping me to fall in love with the city. People may wear "I love NY" shirts, but I actually do love Kyoto... what a beautiful city!!