A strange coincedance happened here. A guy from England we'd met in Kawaguchi-ko was stopping in the same place as us. It's odd because it's like seeing someone in Manchester then travelling to London 3 days later to stop in the same place as that person!
There are some really amazing looking streets here that have kept to the original old Japanese style, wooden build with sliding doors and just a really great look. Kyoto is so photogenic and even though we only spent a day here we took loads of pictures.
Getting to Kyoto was cool in itself as it was the first time we got to use a proper bullet train, Shinkansen. These things are weird. They used to be the fastest in the world, now overtaken by the French TGV, but they still remain quick as hell! When you stand on a platform waiting sometimes trains pass through the station that you had no idea were approaching. They are soo fast and yet quiet it's surreal. They mainly look like aeroplanes on rails and have the interior to match, but with a huge amount of leg room and seriously comfy chairs. All the Japanese travel with beers in tow, and they have a few great beers to choose from, as drinking seems to be a national pass time.
The most famous thing around Kyoto is that it's really the home of the Samurai and Geisha. Around Japan it's quite a regular occurrence to be on the train next to someone wearing traditional Japanese dress, gowns and wooden shoes, both male and female. This is even more common in Kyoto where you see lots of women going out on the town dressed like Geishas even though a lot of the men just wear suits.
It's a great place though and I'd go back, it's kind of a shame that we only had a limited time in Japan as I'd really have liked to spend more like a month there at least.
Above, one of the classic streets of Kyoto. Below, one of the many ornate temples.
No comments:
Post a Comment