I said I'd have to come back to the Fushimi Inari shine the first time
I was there, and I made sure I did. This time I managed to make it up
to some of the shrines at the top of the hills, as well as having a
lot of time to snap pics. I also grabbed a video included after the
break, complete with cawing birds and sunlight slanting through the
tori.

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This second lot of photos take off from where the others finished, at
Osaka jo. That first picture is the largest single stone used in the
walls around the castle, and it is indeed a rather big stone. Moving
on from there they head to Shinsekai (literally 'new world'), an
interesting development project from the 70's which fell dead, leaving
a sort of half finished retro time capsule. Some of the photos after
that suffered from the low light, but the bright lights of Dotonbori
show up just fine. I also took a little video which I feel pretty
well captures the esence of contrast in some areas of Japan, going
from the quiet shrine to the busy street which are so close to each
other. That after the break.

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Osaka was only about an hour by train from Kyoto, so made for a good
day trip. I managed to cover quite a bit of ground while there, so
accordingly too enough photos to have to split them into two sets.
This set starts with some shots of the general city, but the majority
of them are of Osaka jo, the main castle of the city. There's also
one I rather like in there of a rose garden that was on a park on an
island in the middle of the city.

The Jidai Matsuri was on while I was in Kyoto, and aparently is one of
the 3 big festivals for Kyoto (Japanese love thier sets of 3). It's a
parade of around 2000 people in costumes from all through Japans
history, and goes from the Imperial Palace to the Heian Shrine.
Rather than snapping 100 photos I decided to just go for one, and
grabbed some video instead.

More general shots from around Kyoto. One thing with Kyoto, is that
no matter where you are you can pretty much always walk for 5 minutes
in any direction and fine a shrine or temple. They're almost as
common as the convenience stores in Tokyo.

The Fushimi inari shrine had to be one of my favorite spots in Kyoto.
It's a bunch of tori (red gate) covered pathways that wind through
about 4 or 5 km of wooded hills. In many parts the gates are so dense
they pratically form a hallyway, giving a pretty amazing effect.
There are also many, many little shrines dedicated to the 'inari' fox
spirits. I brought some Swiss friends here who were in Kyoto for the
day, but since they had to leave in the afternoon and we were a bit
rushed, I dicided I had to come back again some other time for a bit
more of a casual look.

Imamiya jinja was a shrine I just randomly came across when walking
around Kyoto, and is actually an important shrine of the area. It
dates back quite a ways and has a few little shrines through dedicated
to different spirits. If you pick up stone in the 10th picture after
making a wish and you find it is suddenly light, the wish is meant to
come true. It also had some amusing anime themed wish plates, themed
to the animation studio that is located in Kyoto, KyoAni.

Kinkakuji (the golden pavilion) was a temple complex about 200m from
the guest house in Kyoto I was staying at. It's one of the most
iconic spots of Kyoto, popping up on pretty much anything with a
picture to represent the area. One thing that really amazed me here,
which I then noticed at every other 'sight' in Kyoto, was the number
of small groups of school kids visiting. Internal tourism in Japan is
a huge thing, and every day there a many school groups that come to
places like Kyoto, with the students splitting into groups of 4 or 5
and going around the city by themselves to see the different spots.

After Takayama I headed on through to Kyoto by night bus, then caught
a local bus to the guest house type place I was staying at there for a
while. The guest house was up in the Kinkakuji area, so a ways away
from the more bustling spots closer to the station. There was however
constant tourist foot trafic on the road at the end of the one the
guest house was on, being the line linking Kinkakuji (the golden
pavilion) to the nearest bus stop, but anywhere else was quiet with
just the locals and kids going to and from school. These pictures
start with the guesthouse itself, then go through some of the nearby
streets and a wander to a closeby temple (although in Kyoto there are
always a number of 'closeby temples'). The panorama at the end was
from the top of a hill in a park that was about 10 minutes walk from
the guesthouse.

Being such a tourist spot, Shirakawago couldn't help but have a
slightly unreal feel along the main pathways. Almost like a bit of a
fake front like an amusement park, only as if the amusment park was
actually the home of a bunch of old people who actually lived in the
buildings and just went about their lives pretty much like normal.
Although I did find walking a little bit away from the main routes it
did all feel a touch more real and rustic. Also, the view of the
whole valley from the lookout was great.