Kyoto

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Kyoto is essentially one massive UNESCO heritage site. From the station we headed to Niji-jo, palace of the shogun in the days when Kyoto was capital. It's built entirely of wood, and quite well preserved, but the most remarkable thing about it is the nightingale floor which 'sings' or squeaks as you tread upon it. In days past, this floor was used as a security system, alerting guards to sneaky intruders. It features in Lian Hearn's novel 'Across the Nightingale Floor' - a read I highly recommend.

Leaving Niji-jo, we came across a store with a lady selling swords...some of them were rather nice, think the prettiest one there was the equivalent of AUD $ 20 000 and looked awfully sharp.

We checked out a few of the major temples in the area. Ginkaku-ji, the golden temple is one of the best known, but also the tackiest and most touristy. I prefered Kiyo-Mizudera, which has many many tourists marvelling at the incredibly pretty trees all shedding their autumn leaves. There are more temples and shrines than you could possibly shake a kasa at in Kyoto though; they are all pretty and serene, but after a while they all start to look more or less the same.

We wandered around suburban Kyoto for a while looking for a particular parfait store (which we saw in a magazine and just HAD to find), which we found eventually and ordered dessert to celebrate ^_^

Despite the truckloads upon truckloads of tourists from China, Korea, and other parts of Japan, and the ubiquitous omiyage (souvenir) shops, Kyoto is a fascinating city of contrast where contemporary and traditional Japan co-exist; for me one of the cooler things would have to be seeing groups of ladies garbed in kimono waiting for the bus.

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Photos

Kiyomizudera
autumn leaves at Kiyomizudera temple

dressing up
in Kyoto, you can pay to dress up as geisha