Behold the Kyoto Photos, Finally
After over three weeks following our return from Kyoto and Hiroshima, I can finally say that our time there has been fully logged on The Japan Years blog. I mentioned a few posts ago that our pics from Children's Day and from the Hiroshima leg of our tour were posted in our Gallery, dated 05/22/2006 (the date of our original post about the trip). I've now added a new set of pictures, titled "05/22/2006, Kyoto and Nara" that includes all of our good pics from the time we left Hiroshima until the time we stepped aboard the Shinkansen to head back home.
Kyoto was an experience unlike any I've ever encountered, so I thought I would share some of the pics here too, and try to share some of the things that we saw and did along the way. By the way, a few of these were also shot in Nara, which is within an hour's train ride from Kyoto. Nara is like a mini-Kyoto and the people there were fantastic. Very friendly to us gaijin.
We arrived in Kyoto on May 15 and after checking into our hotel, we headed straight for Gion. Gion is the area of Kyoto that's known for its geisha and meiko (geisha-in-training). The long sleeves on this outfit indicate that she's a meiko, but she could be a fake because sometimes decoys are sent out when the real geisha and meiko need to get somewhere without having the interruptions from onlookers. But I like the kimono, so it's a good picture and memory for me.
This is Ginkakuji, or the Silver Pavilion. This shot was from up above, looking down at the pavilion and the gardens in the foreground. Very old and very beautiful.
This is a famous covered bridge in an even more famous garden at Heian Jingu Shrine. For you parents and former Sesame Street fans, it's also one of the scenes from "Big Bird in Japan", a good movie for the youngsters. Josh has it and we all love it.
This shot is also from Heian Jingu, in the garden. I caught this mother/daughter pair feeding fish and couldn't pass up the opportunity to share their moment together.
This pretty purple flower (don't know the name) is also from Heian garden. I just like the colors in the pic, so I thought I'd share.
Kinkakuji, or "Golden Pavilion". I posted a similar picture a few posts back, but thought I'd share this view with the purple flowers again.
This poor woman was kind enough to feed some of the deer at the major park in Nara. After a few minutes, she almost got trampled by the herd. As a side note, these deer are everywhere in Nara Park and are considered to be messengers of the gods.
This shot is from Todaiji Temple. The incense is directly in front of the Daibutsuden, which holds the largest bronze Buddha in Japan.
School children were everywhere in Nara and Kyoto. I snuck this picture as they were posing for a class picture for a real photographer. Sneaky me.
Here's Nara's Great Buddha, bigger than the one in Kamakura, but indoors so taking a good clear picture was a challenge.
This shot was from Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. The shrine has a trail with over 10,000 torii gates lined up one by one. It's awe-inspiring. This shot is a close-up that I took because I was running out of daytime and most of my other pictures were too dark.
This was shot at Kasuga Taisha. I liked the pattern of lanterns and the lines on the paper walls in the background.
This shot, from Fushimi Inari, shows several of the torii gates as two school girls ran through. The sunlight was fading, so my camera's shutter couldn't keep up with the speed of the girls. Worked out well. Lucky me.
Kyoto was an experience unlike any I've ever encountered, so I thought I would share some of the pics here too, and try to share some of the things that we saw and did along the way. By the way, a few of these were also shot in Nara, which is within an hour's train ride from Kyoto. Nara is like a mini-Kyoto and the people there were fantastic. Very friendly to us gaijin.
We arrived in Kyoto on May 15 and after checking into our hotel, we headed straight for Gion. Gion is the area of Kyoto that's known for its geisha and meiko (geisha-in-training). The long sleeves on this outfit indicate that she's a meiko, but she could be a fake because sometimes decoys are sent out when the real geisha and meiko need to get somewhere without having the interruptions from onlookers. But I like the kimono, so it's a good picture and memory for me.
This is Ginkakuji, or the Silver Pavilion. This shot was from up above, looking down at the pavilion and the gardens in the foreground. Very old and very beautiful.
This is a famous covered bridge in an even more famous garden at Heian Jingu Shrine. For you parents and former Sesame Street fans, it's also one of the scenes from "Big Bird in Japan", a good movie for the youngsters. Josh has it and we all love it.
This shot is also from Heian Jingu, in the garden. I caught this mother/daughter pair feeding fish and couldn't pass up the opportunity to share their moment together.
This pretty purple flower (don't know the name) is also from Heian garden. I just like the colors in the pic, so I thought I'd share.
Kinkakuji, or "Golden Pavilion". I posted a similar picture a few posts back, but thought I'd share this view with the purple flowers again.
This poor woman was kind enough to feed some of the deer at the major park in Nara. After a few minutes, she almost got trampled by the herd. As a side note, these deer are everywhere in Nara Park and are considered to be messengers of the gods.
This shot is from Todaiji Temple. The incense is directly in front of the Daibutsuden, which holds the largest bronze Buddha in Japan.
School children were everywhere in Nara and Kyoto. I snuck this picture as they were posing for a class picture for a real photographer. Sneaky me.
Here's Nara's Great Buddha, bigger than the one in Kamakura, but indoors so taking a good clear picture was a challenge.
This shot was from Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. The shrine has a trail with over 10,000 torii gates lined up one by one. It's awe-inspiring. This shot is a close-up that I took because I was running out of daytime and most of my other pictures were too dark.
This was shot at Kasuga Taisha. I liked the pattern of lanterns and the lines on the paper walls in the background.
This shot, from Fushimi Inari, shows several of the torii gates as two school girls ran through. The sunlight was fading, so my camera's shutter couldn't keep up with the speed of the girls. Worked out well. Lucky me.Hope you enjoyed the photos. Now check out the Gallery for the rest of them. As I mentioned before, they are titled "05/22/2006, Kyoto and Nara" to reflect our original post day, but they are all newly added. Enjoy!
posted by Unknown | 9:34 PM
6 Comments:
Do you like Michael Franks? He did a song called "Rainy Night in Tokyo." He also did a song called "Deer Park." That is about his trip to Nara.
David
Beautiful photos! I loved the girls running through the gates. The deer are looking remarkably well-behaved, but I'm sure they turned into AGGRESSIVE messengers of the gods in a few seconds once they figured out the food was gone.
Thanks for sharing such gorgeous visuals!
What a great photo tour of Kyoto and Nara! I'm hoping to make it there later this year, and seeing your photos makes me even more excited to see the sights!
I am very curious about the geisha and meiko in Gion. Are there still real, working geisha and meiko in Kyoto or is most of it all just tourist attraction stuff?
Thanks everyone.
David, I've never heard of Michael Franks, but I'll have to look up his songs that you mentioned.
Aime, yes, there are still working geisha (or "geiko" as they are called in Kyoto... pronounced "gay-ko", not like the insurance company "GEICO"). And they are actually trying hard now to avoid the tourists. Many actually take cabs from tea house to tea house to avoid the spectators, or they send out young houseworkers as decoys, wearing an inexpensive kimono and quick make-up and hair jobs, to divert the tourists' attention. Sometimes you can tell because the decoys don't look "formal" enough, but sometimes the decoys look like the real thing to casual observers like us. I have no clue if the meiko that I got pictures of was "genuine" or not, but I did find myself lucky to be literally the only person with a camera in a 10 foot radius of her. At the time, I had stepped into that alley off the main road, then she came out to talk to a woman for less than a minute, then she quickly got on her way.
It looks like you stole those pics out of some art gallery! Gorgeous. I never realized how beautiful Japan really is. Some people in Dan's squadron are going out to Japan this month. He doesn't get to go but is hoping to get out there one of these trips. I guess they go several times a year. I wanna go!! Chances of me getting on a plane to Japan with 3 kids under 4????
Japan is beautiful, challenging, exciting, and everything else! A mix of possitives and negatives all in one ball. (Mostly possitives!) That would be awesome to see atleast one of the Cains here. Hope that you have all of our contact info incase it's last minute or something. It would be pretty difficult to bring the 3 chickies. (Actually try a Space A flight with 3 kids under 4 YIPES!!) It's hard to travel/commute around here just with one child. We'd love it if you could all make it and we would set you up well in Casa de Corry but we totally understand why you wouldn't be able to.
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