Kyoto Tower

Just before leaving Kyoto, waiting at the station we decided to pay the not so tall Kyoto Tower a visit. So we went up there and checked out the view, throughthe rain. We saw shinkansen and some temple and lots of other stuff.

And we took pictures with the mascot of Kyoto Tower. I think this was Tower Mama Chan.

And these are Mama-chan's baby-san

The Kyoto central station is enormous. I mean it is huuuuuge. And it reminded me of all the sci-fi movies I ever saw. Amazing. And huuuuge. We didn't even know that we were inside the station until the 3rd time or so...

Kinkaku-ji

Or the Golden Pavilion temple. We got tickets, although we actually knew that no one would check if we took the return route through the temple, without a ticket.

Le Pavilion d'or a la Gold with rooster and red wine sauce.

Even when rain was pouring down, it was beautiful.

The money god

Still in kinkakuji. It was a very nice trip all in all, and I had great time. I hope Martin enjoyed it as much.

Bye bye ryokan

The morning after, rain had started pouring down, but we didn't let it ruin our plans. We said bye to the nice people at the ryokan and took off towards the Golden Pavilion

Ponchoto

Last thing to do that day was to check in to our ryokan, and then take a walk out to see if we could find anything fun. And we did in Pontocho which is the bar district.

Narrow streets with geisha at night

At the dinner table in ryokan

And some more engrish from a bar menu that night. I like the fact that they handle their chicken every morning (!), and that you can order different species of chicken... Also we learned that we were sitting on 2nd floor, just in case we missed it when coming in.

Kiyomizydera

One part of kiyomizudera, with three jets of water running down. Each representing something (Love, Health and Money if I remember it right) and you have to pick one and pray. People standing in line to do just that. But I think I already have all three so I didn't line up.

This part is quite high up. The first thing Ayako told me when she heard I am going there was "Don't jump!"... I didn't intend to but I guess it is a pretty normal thing to do here.

Real nice view, real high up

View of the three jets part, from above...

If you look real close, you may see Martin.

Getting to Kiyomizudera

Next we went to one of the most popular temples in Kyoto, Kiyo-Mizu-Dera. On the way there, which was very very crowded, observant as we are, we found some engrish.

This is what the entrance looked like. On the left, some parts were under renovation...

Martin taking a break from all the walking. Kiyomizudera in the background.

Inari

A couple of weeks ago, me and Martin went to Kyoto for a weekend. The pictures here are the ones I took with my Camera. He also took some pictures with his, but I will post them seperately.

First thing we did upon arrival was to go to Inari and visit the beautiful Fushimi-Inari Shrine, the shrine of business....

Each of the gates is sponsored by a company.

Very suitably, without knowing it, Martin had chosen the perfect colors for the day.