Kyoto

After visiting Tokyo we spent several days in Kyoto which the "real" Japan. It is their cultural center and it was the one major city that was spared bombing in WWII. It was everything we were expecting and more. The timing for fall colors was perfect. Our only problems were lack of time and crowds. But we were able to see most of the places we wanted to (and even found some more US food spots too). So here are some of the highlight pictures and details:

This first picture is of Fushimi Inari Temple. These gates have appeared in many movies about/in Japan. We've both always wanted to see them in person so it was our first stop. They were more orange than we thought they would be, usually they are more red in the movies. But it was still very neat to see except for the advertisements of who sponsored each one written on them.


These two pictures are at the famous Golden Temple called Kinkakuji. There is a suprisingly little amount of security there, but it made it more enjoyable. We were impressed by how big the temple really is and again the color of nature was perfect then. Although there were many people there, it wasn't as crowded as other places so we could enjoy it a little more.


These are from an old fortress in Kyoto. The walls, moats and some of the buildings still remain. The buildings were designed for security as the leaders of the country used to meet there. The floors all creak intentionally so its impossible to sneak around on them and there are hidden rooms and hallways.
The area is filled with gardens and groves of different types of trees. Trees that blossom in different seasons were brought in so that no matter what time of year you stroll around something is blossoming. It was very peaceful there, which is odd since it was designed for war.


Our last night in Kyoto we just went out walking around and came across a temple that was lit up for the weekend. There were a ridiculous amount of people and none of the photos turned out very well, but these were two of the better ones. It turned out that this was the temple of the family we stayed with while in Kyoto so they thought it was fun that we got to see it in such a unique manner. After that temple we went looking for geisha in the famous district where they can most often be seen. But the area was more crowded with people that anything I've seen in Japan before so I think all the geisha stayed inside and out of sight for the evening. So we to settle on dressing ourselves up at our hosts house.