It's a simple and effective mission statement...
Ryoanji Temple gardens
Ryoanji Temple zen rock garden
That way apparently
The Golden Pavilion
The Golden Pavilion ... very golden indeed
The Golden Pavilion lake (nice in itself I thought)
This tree grew from one of the Emperor's bonsai trees. Not bad...
The photo is actually of the Heron on the little island. The little bugger was hard to capture on film
Part of the Imperial Palaces gardens
Part of the Imperial Palaces gardens (again)
Part of the Imperial Palaces gardens (again... last one I promise)
Big orange entrance to a temple
With sake...
This was pretty cool. Kinda like Eddie Murphy at the start of The Golden Child (but not)
Nice lakeside property (actually a temple within Heian Shrine)
On our way up to Kiyomizu Temple
Still heading up to Kiyomizu Temple (it was very high up)
Very cool looking dragon
OK, so we are up high :)
And we've got to go back down at some point... say hello to very sore legs...
"Lucky" streams from the natural springs. He of much cynicism still managed to participate (hey, I didn't want to pass it up if in fact it was lucky!)
Back in Kyoto for the Gion festival (street looking left)
Back in Kyoto for the Gion festival (street looking right). It was packed!
There's those big-ass beetles again... Not cheap either
Onto Sagano for a walk through some countryside bamboo forests. This was THE walking tour (a lot of walking)
At least the bamboo forest (besides being beautiful) afforded some respite from the sun (and the illusion of coolness during the heat)
Shinto shrine
Crossing train tracks to do some more walking
Some more backstreets
Gardens around Arashiyama
Yep, we walked these as well :)
And these...
And over here as well (absolutely stunning)
A very quiet, very old temple
Looking back on Kyoto
A pagoda high in the hills
We literally walked through someone's garden - here's a nice flower in it)
A Lotus flower along the way as well
This is someone's front garden - I kid you not
More bamboo forests - very cool
Lake in front of a massive temple (see next shot)
Massive temple (huge wooden hall)
That lake again, I enjoyed it so much, here's another shot
The riverside of Arashiyama
And the river / bridge
All the way back in Tokyo at night, final night in Japan
Heading in a different part of Shinjuku for exploring
Local punk band at "Anti-knock"
This was the entrance to Anti-knock
Ahhh... Disk Union. My potential self-bankrupting obsession
Inside the Disk Union Prog Rock store
And even in Japan, I still felt at home ... unsure why.
