Just took a ten-day vacation backpacking across random areas of Japan. I hit Nikko, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Himeji, and Kyoto in that order, all worth it. Luckily I was traveling while the
sakura or cherry blossoms were in full bloom (Many Japanese folks absolutely love
sakura). What follows is a "best of" collection of pictures from the trip:
NIKKO
This bridge is at the entrance to Nikko, a collection of temples and shrines (shrines are shinto, temples are buddist) . In olden times, only the emperor, being a direct descendent of the sun, could walk across this bridge. Now it costs about three bucks.
Temple at Nikko:
This five-story pagoda is really, really old. It has accomplished this feat because it is constructed around a large pole, with each floor being a seperate piece attached to the pole by a large chain. This allows the building to survive earthquakes, since each floor moes independently of the other with the tremors.
Grounds of main temple at Nikko:
This is where you wash your hands before entering the temple...
The main temple:
Looking up at the carvings on the main gate:
Looking down from a small shrine at the top of a hill:
TOKYOSo that was where I stopped on my way down to tokyo. Met up with another english teacher and his girlfriend, went out for tako-yaki (baked balls of octopus and other tasty stuff). Crashed in Tokyo for about three days, wandered, did stuff, it was cool.
At one point I got really overwhelmed by the sights of Tokyo. It's a lot to see, all the lights, the fashion, the ungodly hair; it's a bit of a sensory overload after spending so much time in the country. So I sat down in Shinjuku and took this picture of one of the side streets.
HIROSHIMA:
Besides
the obvious A-bomb stuff, Hiroshima had a lot of cool museums and gardens that I visited. It's a surprisingly walkable city. I managed to avoid paying for public transportation for the entire day I spent there.
Went out with some folks I met at the hostel, trying to find a place to get some drinks. Snapped this shot of the A-bomb dome at night:
International Peace Park during the day:
We were having trouble finding the bar district in Hiroshima. Finally we asked a guy walking down the street, and he told us to just look for the sign. "What sign?" we wondered.
Hiroshima castle:
Garden at Prefectural Museum of Art:
Bamboo!
Miyajima is a small island off the coast of Hiroshima. It's packed with temples, shrines, and tourists. It's also on all of those "Japan" postcards, mainly because of this big shrine that's built on the ocean.
A little farther up in the hills, the tourism hadn't usurped good taste yet, and there were some interesting temples hidden in corners of the island.
HIMEJI
Stopped at Himeji on my way from Hiroshima to Kyoto, a city famous for its castle. So I went to it.
KYOTOEverything in Kyoto was done on a larger scale than anything i had seen before. Being the old spiritual capital of Japan, the temples were a little more impressive in stature, though they didn't seem to have the detailing that I saw at places like Nikko.
The Philosopher's Walk, which provides access to a lot of temples:
Ginkakuji, The Silver Temple:
Moss Garden at Ginkakuji:
Gate to Choin Temple grounds:
I was climbing up these stairs, passing a struggling middle-aged Japanese woman whose husband and two smalls boys were encouraging her from the top. Her son told her, "It's ok mom, you can take a little break." But the deteremined lady wouldn't have it. In between huffs and puffs, she said "I came here to see the pretty cherry blossoms, and I am going to see them!"
Choin Temple grounds:
I forget the name of this cemetery, but it was absolutely huge:
Pagoda in Kyoto:
Inari Shrine, which is made up of five shrines linked together by lots of little shrine gates:
view from above:
These gates follow a few trails all the way to the top of a mountain. It's really cool.
Sakura light-up at Nijiojo Castle:
Japanese girls taking close-up pictures of sakura with their cellphone cameras:
After walking through the garden, we came upon this:
It was cool.
NARAMade a quick shot over to Nara with someone I had met at one of the hostels.
Daikakuji Temple gate:
Daikakuji Temple. This thing was absolutely huge. Those little dots by the base of the temple? Those are people.
Why do you need a temple that large? Well, where else would your store your collection of gigantic buddha statues?
Kinkakuji Temple, back in Kyoto. Yup, it's lacquered with gold.
Then, of course, it was time for karaoke with some co-travelers:
This five-story pagoda is really, really old. It has accomplished this feat because it is constructed around a large pole, with each floor being a seperate piece attached to the pole by a large chain. This allows the building to survive earthquakes, since each floor moes independently of the other with the tremors.
It was cool.
