Osaka pt. 2

Day four started with a visit to the 45th Jump exhibition.  Apparently Tokyo had a much larger show than Osaka, but there were still some good stuff.

Unfortunately a lot of the show had the 'no camera' policy even though the show was free to enter.  There was plenty of merchandise as well, but since everyone in Japan is a midget I couldn't find any clothes my size.  Had to settle with some posters and crap.

For lunch I went to a little store in a marketplace for some authentic Osaka okonomiyaki.  You could choose what meat/seafood to put in it so I got prawn, octopus and of course bacon.  Rounded up to about 7 bucks, not bad.

Seeing as I had a couple of hours left in the day, I caught a train up to the northern part of Osaka, Umeda station.  This area was where most businesses were, whereas my hotel was the fun district.  My primary goal was to see the sunset on top of the Umeda sky building (a centrepoint tower kind of deal).  But since there was still a few hours to go, I bummed around shopping centres.

Funky elevators in a shopping centre.

Up at the top of the Umeda sky building it didn't really feel that high up. Around 150 metres high.  Nevertheless I got some good shots of Osaka.

The sun was setting soon and everyone was camping the windows for a good shot of the horizon.  Plenty of couples on dates as well.

inb4 thunderstorm.

Nice and warm.

Zooming into the distance, these 3 pictures are from the same spot.

Messing around with the camera.

Probably my favourite shot; the sun is just about to set.

Probably my least favourite shot, the clouds fully blocked the sunset.  Spent 2 hours waiting for this...

Anyways, on to days five and six.  I caught a train to Kyoto to check out some old school temples; it took two days, since they were quite spread out. First up was Kiyomizu temple.

As usual, I had to walk up a massive hill to get to the temple which was built entirely on stairs.  Sightseeing made into some sort of endurance challenge.

In front of this small building you can see some ancient forms of transport.

This is from one of the big gates looking down into Kyoto.

More uphill to go!

Mountainside, the trees are quite unique, very thin trunks with branches only at the top. Look like lollipops.

Monk staff.  That's some Dynasty Warriors shit right there.

I think some of the buildings are much more recent in terms of construction age, since they are being used to sell souvenirs.

This is the actual temple. It's built on long Jenga blocks and may look familiar to anime viewers since it's parodied often.

Samurai graveyard.

The streets leading up to the temple were lined with shops that sold souvenirs, traditional clothes/accessories, and plenty of sweets (lots of free samples).  Quite a friendly crowd and nice atmosphere.

On a cold day it's good to get some hot sticky balls inside you.  (hot dango covered in a caramel-style sauce).

Next up is the Silver Pavilion (Ginkakuji).

The Silver Pavilion was a really quiet area that was all zen and shit.

The monks make very meticulous patterns in the sand every day. 

I'm not sure what this was for, but it was also made of sand, standing almost two meters high.

The pond had heaps of fish swimming around.

The rock in the pond is meant to be some lucky platform.  If you throw money and it lands on the rock you will get good fortune. I missed.

It was really quiet and peaceful at the Ginkakuji, really felt one with nature.

Also in Kyoto was the more famous Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji).  Just a short bus trip away.

This building is extremely famous in Japan.  It's not actually made of gold, rather just a very thin layer covering everything.  Regardless, it was really amazing to see it in person.  There was a humongous crowd, so it wasn't as quiet as the Silver pavilion, but still very awesome.

There was a fence about 20 meters from the building, probably to stop people nicking the gold.

This time there was a lucky incense pot.  I missed again.

Last but definitely not least was the Fushimi Inari shrine.  This shrine was actually free to enter (the others were pretty cheap though) yet it was gigantic.

Near the entrance were all these elaborate orange buildings, souvenir stores, and a traditional performance going on.  But as you go up the mountain, it gets more old school.

These large wooden posts were pretty amazing, there's about 10 thousand of them leading the way up the mountain.  There were some stone ones interspersed which I believe were built much longer ago.

I really liked the view of the this passage.

Higher up the mountain, the wooden posts start thinning out, and there's more nature to be seen.

These were grave markers.  I'm assuming for monks, but there weren't any signs to say specifically.

This is around 3/4 of the way up.  By this point it had taken me over an hour of uphill and I was pretty dead.

As you can see I like taking pictures of the city.

Due to the poorly drawn maps dotting the walkway, I ended up getting a little lost.  Typical me.  I forgot to take a picture of a it, but there was a sign that said something along the lines of: "Beware of wild monkeys, do not approach them, if they come to you, throw rocks at them".  Thought that was pretty damn hilarious.

On the way out there were some benches to rest at, and I found some stray? cats.  I don't know how they survive <7 degree temperature.

Well that wraps up Kyoto.  The Golden Pavilion was the highlight for me.  It really looked so much more amazing in real life than any picture.  At the Fushimi Inari shrine I reckon I walked up about two kilometers of stairs.  That's my leg day done.  I also went to a McDonalds and somehow the Japanese have managed to cook it so it's not oily.  The future is now.

These two pictures are just from the restaurant in the hotel where they serve breakfast.  Buffet breakfast was included which was really awesome, considering it was the cheapest hotel I could find. These shots are around 9am, where unusual compared to western standards, stores/shops are not open yet.  In fact they generally don't open until 11am.  But they stay open til around midnight.  

That's pretty much everything to the end of day 6.  I must reiterate how fantastic the food was, unbeatable in my opinion.  End of part 2, part 3 coming soon.