Summer Vacation

Well, it turns out that I have used up all of my allowed photo space on my blog!  For now I am using a website called Flickr to upload photos, but I may have to go through and delete photos in old posts before too long to make space for new ones.

So I'm back!  I've had a rather busy and eventful last two or three weeks.  Very early on Saturday morning, March 26th, I took a 7:30 AM bus from Kofu 甲府 to Kyoto 京都.  I left my house at about 6:30 and arrived in Kyoto at around 2:30.  There I met my friend B. who flew all the way from the US to see me and to explore Japan.  We went back and forth a few times trying to decide if it was wise that she come to Japan in the midst of all of the earthquakes and trouble, but in the end we decided that there may not be another chance as good as this one so she came.  We ended up cutting Tokyo and Mt. Fuji out of our trip to accommodate for strange train schedules and blackouts, and instead spent the entirety of our trip around southern Japan.  Today I will talk about our Kyoto portion of the trip.

Despite Kyoto station being massive, I was able to find B. with ease in front of Kyoto tower.  We made our way to the hostel, and decided to explore around Gion in Kyoto that evening.
(Please click photos to view them larger.)

Awesome shoes that we saw at the hostel.

A really cool hotel in Gion.  It reminded me of "Spirited Away," a Hayao Miyazaki film.

Sakura and a restaurant in the background.  This river and small road was once named the prettiest place in Asia.  I'm not sure if I agree with so bold a statement, but it was in fact very nice.

We were in Kyoto for about three days and did/saw a number of the following things:

Aqueduct.  This was the day we got turned around in the mountains for about an hour and I sprained my foot.  It caused problems for the rest of the trip but B. taped it up and we made due.  Allergies and a cold also tried to keep us down, but I think we still managed to get a lot in!

The Silver Pavilion. 銀閣寺

Pooh`s? ...  cafe!

A tea ceremony demonstration.

The model for our boat tour.

Our boat "drivers!"

The view.  If the water levels had been higher, the whole trip would have only taken about an hour.  With the lower water levels it took about two.

Our boats leaving.

Us in the ancient bamboo forest.

I'm pretty sure this tree wasn't forged and simply grew this way naturally.

A castle.  We were able to go inside and look around.  We got there as it was closing however and had to rush through.  This building has famous "nightingale floors" that creak/chirp as you walk on it.  This helped them know if there were intruders.　鶯張り

The famous Golden Pavilion; 金閣寺

I'd say we did the majority of our traditional sight-seeing in Kyoto.  We got to do other things not shown in pictures too.  We did some local gift or omiyage shopping, climbed some mountains, saw more temples, castles and shrines, and got to do lots of walking and viewing of nice scenery.  Sakura, which is Cherry Blossom in English, weren't out just yet.  Sakura bloom only in the spring for around two weeks and then all of the petals fall off of the tree for the rest of the year.  We weren't able to see any trees fully blooming on our trip, but I have since been able to take a few pictures of them in Yamanashi and I will post them in a few days.  It's too bad that they were a little late to bloom this year, otherwise B. would have been in Japan at the perfect time!  Also, due to the Earthquake there were many fewer foreigners in Japan.  Almost everywhere we went was less crowded than usual.  Also, many random people came up to us just to practice their English.  We had a group of English Circle University students tour us around The Silver Pavilion, and we had another park volunteer tour us around a park later in our trip for free.  One person even asked us our opinion about foreign tourism in light of everything that's happening now.  He is trying to start up his own business and is worried that no one will be coming to Japan for quite some time.

So far I still think that Kyoto is among my favorite places in Japan.

I will end here for today, and continue the next leg of the trip in my post tomorrow.
Happy reading!
-Lana