Blogs from Gion, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan, Asia - page 3

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

Kyoto, cherry blossom, ultra modern, ultra ancient, temples, zen gardens, canals... read more

Kyoto is long gone, but I will document it as best I can using my Brain and Memory. We stayed in a hostel/sake bar (but never actually got sake there, convenience store/vending machine beer is cheaper) in Gion, the geisha district, which I worked out after noticing that we were surrounded by a surprisingly large number of brothels and 'ladys bars'. We had our first 'Steve' encounter here, more about that later if I can be bothered. The first day we were all pretty pooped, so we spent the day lazing around the manga museum, learning and colouring and reading horror/teenage girl manga. The next day was mildly disappointing, starting with the boring Imperial Palace, followed by the crafts museum, a nice temple where we were too stingy to pay to look at the garden, the ... read more

So... Kyoto. "Previously, on A Guy And A Broad..." It was raining. A lot. But it's not anymore, hurrah! With the rain pouring down we camped out for most of the day in our awesome space age little room at the Capsule Ryokan, readin', internettin', nappin' and so forth. Around 2pm we ventured out in our very attractive raincoats and borrowed umbrellas to hunt and gather some lunch. We found a completely empty (always a good sign??) pseudo italian cafeteria type place with an owner who knew two words of English, namely 'chicken' and 'coke'. Guess what we had for lunch? Our fears as to the establishment's dodginess were unfounded as it was actually really really yummy - fresh and tasty - and the guy was super friendly and attentive (eg. running across the restaruant to ... read more