After Takayama we arrived in Kyoto, Japan's permanent capital before Tokyo. The first impressive thing about Kyoto is the actual train station which is a large futuristic building thats also a complex full of shops, restaurants and bars. Kyoto appears to have all the good things about Tokyo but also more culture and history.We spent the first few days exploring the city going to Nijo Castle, the Imperial gardens and International Museum of Manga. We also visited the Sanjusangen-do temple, which has 1001 carved buddha statues. It is said in at least one of the statues the Japanese can see the face of a deceased relative. While walking around the Gion area we were really lucky and managed to see two real Geisha who were taking part in a photo shoot outside a temple.
The food here continues to impress in quality and price as we found a kaiten-zushi (revolving-sushi restaurant) where every plate of sushi was 50p!! We ended up eating there every night.
After exploring Kyoto we spent two days exploring Osaka after travelling there on the bullet train. Because it's so close to Kyoto we stayed in Kyoto while we travelled to Osaka.
In Osaka we visited the Umeda Sky garden, Osaka Castle, the science museum and the Shinsaibashi shopping area.
We then travelled to Nara for a day. Nara is surrounded by frantic deer everywhere (In pre-buddhism and shinto days the deer were considered messengers of the gods so they are left to be here but have their antlers cut off so as not to hurt tourists or each other). We continued our pattern of being attacked by animals across the world by being accosted by a deer that decided to steal our tourist map and then refused to let go of it. We visited the Todai-ji temple which houses a colossal bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana which was originally cast over a thousand years ago. The fingers of the statue are about the size of a human! There is a hole in a pillar behind the statue which is the size of the statue's nostril. It is said that if you can pass through the hole, one can achieve the path to enlightenment. We both managed to get through although Mark had to fight with the pillar to do it. The statue really was impressive and you look at it expecting it to get up and walk at any moment.
We have currently spent the last two days in Hiroshima, the city where the first nuclear bomb was dropped. There is a building structure which used to be the Hiroshima Prefectural Exhibiton Hall. It was pretty much directly below where the A-bomb detonated but incredibly, although the inside of the building was burnt to a crisp, the walls of the structure still survived and it has remained there as a symbol of the horrors of war. It really is hypnotic to look at, and sends shivers down your spine as it really evokes images of how horrible it must have been when the bomb went off above the city. They also have the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum which has lots of artefacts, exhibits and first hand accounts of Hiroshima before during and after the bomb detonated. Some of the exhibits are really hard to watch due to the horrible effects of the bomb.
Just a 10 minute ferry ride away from Hiroshima is Miyajima which has the famous floating Torrii shrine gate that you see in all the tourist brochures. You get accustomed to seeing so many shrine gates in Japan that it doesnt seem so new when you see another one but to see this huge one floating in the water is pretty impressive.
Tonight is our last day in Hiroshima and tomorrow we return to Tokyo for three nights before we fly out to Dubai.
If you ever visit Japan, dont just stay in Tokyo as there is so much else to see and although Tokyo is quite a city it doesnt have the culture and historical sites that will really make you appreciate Japan. It's a real shame we don't have more time to explore the rest.
A week to go till we return....
Love
Mark and Sharon