Blogs from Gion, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan, Asia

Bonjour à tous, voici quelques photos prises lors de nos derniers jour au Japon. la plupart, prises à Kyoto. à bientôt Phil... read more

Well up and adam this morning and off to the temple Tenryu-Ji in Arashiyama it is one of the world heritage sights. We started off by getting the metro and then a tram. We went into the first temple which was called the "Temple of the Holy Dragon". Once inside it was beautiful, the roof was painted in a blue dragon and wherever you were in the temple the dragon's eyes were on you. Anyway we sat down and then a monk came out and started to give a lecture to everyone in Japanese - it must have been good as he had the crowd a few times in laughter - shame we could not understand a word he said - we need to brush up on this Japanese language. After escaping the temple without the ... read more

Well out for a meal and a drink. How hilarious we were arguing all the way and then found a market stall that cooked gyoza for us as we ordered so fab and so fresh unbelievable. Then we found another place walking over cockroaches this reminded me of Nepal but not quite as Nepal where I was staying was infested with them in my bedroom. Anyway met 2 couples at a bar and what fun they were but unfortunately got back to our hotel and realised I had left my glasses behind. Without my reading glasses I am lost as cannot read a thing. Anyway my hero on steroids (if you do not know what I am talking about here see the anti-histamine blog) went racing from the hotel and went back to the bar. Now ... read more

Forgot to show you Mike carrying his rucksack in Tokyo waiting for the Bullet train (does'nt he look a natural). Well nearly day one in Kyoto finished. Parts of Kyoto are what you expect Japan to be like. We have seen a number of Geisha girls. It seems really weird when they are walking down the street next to western clothed Japanese girls. We found the Ponto-cho avenue which is one of the oldest tradiitonal avenues in Kyoto. To be honest we fell upon it by accident. We decided that we would get something to eat here as it was so quaint and some of the cafes/resturants overlooked the river. Anyway after much deliberation we could not find a cafe/restuarant overlooking the river so we chose the other side of the road. It is unlike Tokyo ... read more

This week I have my friend Helen visiting me in Japan. She is only here for a week, and it is her first time in Japan, so I decided to try and pack in as much as possible. She arrived in Tokyo Sunday morning, so in the afternoon we got to spend some time touring around some of the famous Tokyo sights. The next morning we took the Shinkansen to Kyoto (by bullet train it only takes two and a half hours to get there). I booked us in for a "Maiko" (Geisha) makeover in the afternoon. The whole process took nearly two hours. We picked out the kimono we wanted to wear, they did the complete makeover, wigs and all, and then we had a studio photo session. We were amazed at how many layers ... read more

We checked out of the Watazen at 9.am, we had wanted to see the monkey park but unfortunately it was raining so we decided on proceding to the Golden pavilion as planned. We caught the local bus, making friends with the Japanese lady infront of us who folded us an Origami Panda bear. Of course she spoke no English but we returned the favour with a Caramello Koala.The Golden Pavilion is a mesmerizing building covered in gold leaf, a total of 24 Kilos worth of gold! Its quite stunning. It was raining a fair bit by this stage but lucky for us Watazen had lent us an Umbrella for the day.We finished exploring the area and headed back to Kyoto ... read more