These next few pictures are all outside one of the temples. We spent some time inside this one drinking tea and talking to the priest who worked there. He spoke quite a bit of English, so between the 2 languages we were able to communicate quite a bit. In the main room inside the temple (the sanctuary in a Christian church, though i'm not sure if that is the correct term for a temple) he showed me how to offer a prayer in the Japanese style. While i did that he chanted a prayer out loud.
The temple gate, with our helpful taxi driver. Reflecting back, i wish he would have been facing the camera. Next time i visit Japan i'll try to get more pictures of the people who are so helpful.
Above the temple gate.
This is the name of the temple.
Back at the hotel, this was the view out the window. Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately, a typhoon was blowing through during the time we were in Gotemba. Thankfully, the strong wind and rain stopped during the afternoon we went to the monument.
The next day we left for Osaka. This was from the train. We saw rice fields like this all over.
Me wondering why Josh is taking a picture of me on the train.
Josh saw a couple high school girls with a Stitch bag. Stitch is his favorite character. Just seconds after asking me how to politely ask in Japanese if it is OK to take a picture, he completely fumbled the question. But the intention was understood and they allowed it. As you can see, they found it amusing that the silly foreigner wanted a picture of their bag.
After taking a regular train out of Gotemba, we were transferring to a shinkansen (bullet train)! We had breakfast on the platform at the shinkansen station. Food on train platforms in Japan is surprisingly good. I had shrimp udon this morning.
I tried to take a picture of a shinkansen as it whizzed past the station. Just missed it. Sigh.
First successful shot of a shinkansen, as it approaches. The speed of one of these things when they are flying past without stopping at the station is hard to describe. I used them quite a bit but never quite got used to just how fast they go. I *really* wish we had a shinkansen network in the US.
Not the best shot, but i got a picture of our shinkansen as it was coming in. Even when they are slowing down they still move kind of fast. The woman in the pink shirt has some extra hands growing out of her shoulders and an extra pony tail and ribbon in her hair. Those belong to her daugher, who is otherwise obscured from view.
This was one of the areas around our hotel in Osaka that we explored. In the distance near the center of the image is a large balloon that looks like fugu. Many restaurants here specialized in the poisonous puffer fish, but the prices were so low that i wasn't sure if it was authentic fugu or some imitation.
My room in Osaka. ¥2200 per night. Small, but i wasn't planning on being here much.
And the other angle.
When the futon was unfurled for the night it takes up most of the space. I slept extremely well on the futon and tatami though. Someday i'd like a simple bed like this at home.
Josh took a picture of his room too, from out in the hall. This one might show the size a bit better.
This is looking down from the top (9th?) floor of Kyoto station into the lower levels. The architecture was interesting.
For some reason, i think it's easier to get a sense of the scale from this picture.
Sign outside of Higashi Honganji. Many signs in Kyoto were in 4 languages like this: Japanese, English, Korean, and Chinese.
School kids are more orderly in Japan. This was outside the temple. Unfortunately, pictures inside the temple were not allowed.
This dragon was outside the temple.
"Nature's Petri Dish" lives in Japan too!
There was a pretty moat around the temple.
We passed this while wandering the streets of Kyoto. Josh had to go in. Of course, pictures inside were forbidden.
Large tree in Kyoto Imperial Park.
These buildings were in the same park.
As was this small temple.
Names of donors to the temple.
Outer wall of the Imperial Palace. I wish we could have gone in and seen the palace itself.
"This venerable tree is known as the Muku tree of the Shimizudani residence after the house of a course nobel Shimizudani reisidence who lived nearby. The tree is some 300 years old, one of the few big muku trees found in this garden. When the Kimmon Incident in 1864, near the tree, a Choshu samurai, Kijima Matabee who led a radical 'revere the Emperor and expel the barbarians' ('Sonnojoi') group, is said to have died a heroic death beside this tree."
One last pretty tree in the Imperial Park.
On the cab ride from the Imperial Park to the Golden Pavillion we saw 大 etched into a hill. We didn't know why.
The Golden Pavilion is somewhere in the park behind those people.