Welcome to Kyoto! After a 3hr ride with the Shinkansen, I arrived - and that was the train that brought me there :-)
Cute, isn't it? xD
Kyoto station. Brilliant architecture as you can see...
Even for the bus they are creating a queue. Fantastic, in any other country I saw people squeezing into the bus all at once.
Searching the hotel, the map was very poor. And don't imagine the weather means nice 20°C and cool wind, it was disturbing 38°C and no wind at all!
Surrounding of my hotel (Ryokan Hiraiwa)
Nice sunset after my first day in Kyoto :)
Discovering the town a bit... :-)
Initial D 4... great graphics I must say.
The arcade-pictures were taken at "namco TOWER"-arcade.
...
Need a drink?
Space is expensive in Japan. No wonder they find very interesting ways to use it.
My room in Kyoto. Smaller than the one in Tokyo but still as lovely and I felt home which is the most important thing about it :-)
On my way to the famous Ginkakuji-Temple. Following pictures are from the "path of the philosophes" on which some japanese guy found out about the sense of life... thats the legend, I didn't see any tunnel or light at all.
Following pictures are from Ginkakuji-dera (the silver temple... opposite of the famous golden temple, Kinkakuji, located on the other side of the town).
One out of two game shops in Kyoto that had something retro-related and that I knew. This one had high prices, BUT if you accept to register to their customer's card thing everything seems to be a big bargain, like 60% off! Incredible, but there was no snag in it! I registeres and got 2 minty Neo Geo Pockets for a 2,50 Euro each ^_^
Engrish!!!!!!!!111111
Fanta Grape... as far as I know Japan-exclusive. Oishiiiii!!!!! mmmh =)
Yeah french teaching TV shows. There were also some for Indian, German, Spanish and English. And look at his eyes. French people know how to impress a woman :P
Fans. Loads. And wonderfully handcrafted as well.
Want a 200 Euro fan?
Entering Kiyomizu Temple area
The famous view on Kiyomizu-dera.
Engrish galore!
That day was a temple-orgy. At first Kiyomizu, now its Kinkakuji. Ryoanji will follow.
"Do you like cinema?" it says on German... WHY???
Kinkakuji-dera... the world-famous golden temple of Kyoto. Burned down by an envious lord in 1955 I think and rebuild right after that, even with more gold than it had before. Poor lord XD
The temple site looked very ruminant. Silent and quiet. I liked it. Well thats actually just what you see on my pictures! The path is bound to the right side so thats why there are no people on my picture. That path was crowded with tourists though.
One of the six signs they hammered into the mountains around Kyoto. This one is the japanese charakter for "big": "Dai". There are altogether 6 of them: Two Dai's (west and east of town), Funagate (a ship), two jpn charakters calles Myo & Ho and the shrine gate Torii. That day I took the picture (16th of August) was Daimonji-Okuribi, which meant they set those signs on fire at 8pm. Thats why there're people on it right now, they're preparing the event. :-)
Ryouanji stonegarden & shrine
Koi fish :-)
The main element, the stone garden. Calm atmosphere it was.
The other retro-containing shop in Kyoto that I knew. Famicom Shop Wanpaku kusou.
Point & click sex adventure. I've been told you have to find the right point on a girl to get her an orgasm. I - NEED - THAT - CRAPPY - GAME
The shop had prices that hit the roof. And condition wasn't that good either... but at least there was something to look at in the evening before eating something :-)
Yeah it DOES look great, BUT most of the games have no spine cards or they are suntan. And if they're in great condition, you'll find them at least 1000yen cheaper in Tokyo... oh well
The porn section, thousands of them!! But all censored as it is common in Japan.
Kyoto Centre (Kawaramachi-dori) at about 6:30pm
Families & Geishas waiting for the Daimonji-Okuribi I told you about some photos ago :-)
And there it was!! The eastern "Dai"-character filled the sky or at least a small part of it with red light.
People watching the racket from the river shore.
After Burner Climax Arcade Cabinet @ Round 1 Entertainment
Fasten your seat-belts (reasonable indeed)!
Ever wanted to be a firefighter? Me never. And I never saw anybody else inserting a coin into that thing either.
I once played against 2 japanese guys on that cabinet. I won. They were not amused ^^ But the game ist really nice! The graphics actually looked better than the screenshots of the Wii-sequel. I hope they change that untill release.
Silent Hill Arcade (Lightgunshooter with monsters, cool but way to slow the most time and the bosses kick your ass)
Girls playing Guitar Freaks Rock X Rock 4 They even had to read the instruction on the cabinet first. But hey... they are girls. And they play video games... in a game center! I love them!
No, its not a Volkswagen van... its some kind of shrinked radioactive Tchernobyl mutation Volkswagen
One of many tasty microwave meals I got at the Convenience Store / Kombini nearby. They were really tasty as hell and had everything a man needs for his satisfaction, except a nasty poster.
Umeda Sky Building... I'm in Osaka now, for one day.
The tunnels going to the roof are escalators :-)
My impression of Osaka was "dirty industrial ugly town from start to finish"
The only Tokyo Bus Guide cabinet that I found in Japan. Cool thing =)
no comment
Game Tiger @Osaka They had just fucking shitloads of cheap stuff in excellent condition. I bought almost 30 saturn games there and some for other consoles as well. Also a retail carton of 20 new Gameboy battery packs for a total sum of 2,60 Euro XD
Den Den Town... !! Well I found the sign after all my purchases, but yeah ^^
Elvis didn't die, he immigrated to Japan! And aged a bit as well...
My Osaka purchases. I put them into a box which I needed to carry then back to my hotel. In detail: BIG 15kg carton 1) get back to the subway 2) change trains 3) get local train so shin-osaka 4) get shinkansen 5) get a bus in Kyoto 6) walk back to your hotel It was torture because that day was the hottest of the whole trip (40°C confirmed in Osaka-Kyoto region) but at least I know now that I definately deserve those games! :P
A typical evening situation
I did not taste as good as it looked actually ._.
Ever saw an anime guy advertising for a town? I didn't. Till then.
That nicely vintage colored train will get me to Inari-shrine which is famous for its masses of gates. Really: MASSES!
Shinkansen up, down, WHERE FOR GODS SAKE??? :P
Entrance of Inari-shrine
Gates... tunnels made out of gates :)
A map of the whole hiking trail.
The end of one of the tunnels. On the left are two new ones starting right away... =)
Pretty tight. It was a very special atmosphere.
I wasn't able to read most of the stuff that was written on the gates but this one was definately the signature of "MC Corporation", whyever. Maybe people can buy signatures on those gates?
The models in the background cost more than 10.000$.
Yes, I'm a litte traniac too :)
View from the foreign tourist information center in one of the top stories of the Kyoto Station-building.
Traniac bonus No 1
Traniac Bonus No 2 (that was the one I had to take actually)
Well, whats that? Yeah of course....
It's located in the middle of an industrial area. Doesn't look too much like mushroom mountains.
"Company of Nintendo"
"STOP" blah I walked 20min through hazardous heatness and all I got was a stop sign in front of a white building located in a butt-ugly industrial shit place. I'd do it again any time.
Society criticism. We are all cars, after we are used, we got shreddered, pressed and we'll be used again. Well, not really. I just liked the gleaming ashlars in b/w.
The biggest store with Trading Card/Gashapon/Figure/Model stuff I've ever seen.
"Fruits Au Lait" They call everything milk-related "au lait" or "latte". Don't ask me why, maybe because they like the french way of life and Mario.
Milk Tea! I was absolutely addicted to it. God gracious, what a tasty invention that is! Still have to check some asia shops in my town for that stuff.
Don't ask me... some shrine in the north of Kyoto on the island surrounded by the big river.
Some of the very few jpn character I can read. I bet lots of tourists walked by and thought something like "oh well how nice they do these writings all over the place" xD Well it says just "toilet"
Map of the Kyoto Botanical Garden
Water plants, but the actual attraction were all those cute water striders. I suddenly remembered Super Mario 64...
Water strider
The colors were really impressive.
The japanese characters mean "Entrance". But NOT OUT means the same basically, so okay....
I couldn't resist to take this picture.
The botanical garden itself.
Should I... or not? The room now was air-conditioned, the garden beyond hotter than the outside.
Well I entered it. Was worth it though^^ There were different sections for different climes. This was obviously tropical including tropical temperatures.
I read about them recently, they can carry up to 45kg of weight.
Giant leaves... the king of plants ever ^^
The Savanna section with loads of cactuses.
Have a seat!
What a vivid plant! So what? Too less or too much water?
Thing with a giant hole. Maybe interesting for some people with strange fetishes.
I was extremely pleased to discover that Bonsai place, I didn't even expect one although I know it must be there because if not, where else? Anyway... I love Bonsai's, so that was my place :-)
Some garden stuff in the north of the Botanical Garden-area. The gras was extremely fluffy, love it ^^
Some shire. They wanted 15$ for a guided tour (no unguided normal tours offered) through the temple behind. The tour would've been on Japanese. As its common in Japan, I said "Mata kimasu" which means "I'll come again" or basically "Yeah, its okay, yeah, fuck you".
Long light exposure + fast flowing river = nice
The Funagate Daimonji
Inside Nijo Shiro (Nijo Castle). Small tour around the area (all that stuff was surrounded by big walls as you will see on a later picture of a map)
I will, father.
The map I mentioned before... :-)
The Dai which burned the other day is located on the right mountain.
Entrance to the actual Nijo Castle. It was prohibited to take any pictures inside. It was a long route which looked just like the interior of the calligraphy school in Hero (with Jet Li) if you saw that.
*narf narf* *drivel* xD
It closes at 4pm already O_o I was lucky that I was still able to have a chilled walk through that thing, some poor guys from a travellers group just entered the thing at 3:50pm.
My good, how yummy that was! Cheese Hamburger Curry it was called or should I say "Chiisu Hambagaa Karee" as they pronounce it. Too yummy anyway, I loved that stuff.
Toy-shop in Kyoto. You had to go down some very unspectacular stairs as its often necessary to do in Japan, but I didn't expect THIS anyway O_O
Round 1 ^_____^ It teached me to play Ketsui =D
Due to me being from Germany, that was one real interesting restaurant ... :-)
The dishes had almost nothing to do with German food though.
They tried hard to reach the atmosphere of a German pub but I can tell ya, German pubs look a lot more dowdy.
Shinkansen on my way back home.. err to Tokyo! :)
That thing had a speed of 250-280km/h
