Kyoto, Japan

July 30, 2012

Ok, this happened a really long time ago and I clearly got really lazy with writing things down. I have plenty of pictures to share and pictures are worth a thousand words right? 

 Kyoto's newest Geisha. 

Japanese Yen

Anyway, when summer vacation came around I took a short plane ride over to Japan. I landed in Tokyo and I met up with Steph and Devon at the airport where we went to pick up our train passes that we would use to get around Japan for the next week. We took the train over to our hostel in Tokyo. We briefly explored the area of Akiabara, Tokyo before calling it a night as we were heading to Kyoto early in the morning.  

A really fast train. 

cemetery

When we woke up we took Japan’s high speed train from Tokyo to Kyoto. When we arrived we explored the Nishiki market.  

The next day we went to Kiyomizudera Temple and at night we walked through the Gion district which is a well known district for Geisha. (I now just read “Memoirs of a Geisha” and have a whole new meaning for a place I’ve visited! Also, great book!) 

Geisha! 

There was a serious heat wave going on and it was almost unbearable to continue walking around the city. We took a much needed break and headed for Suma Beach the next day. It was a short ride on the JR rail and our train pass allowed for the trip, so, we enjoyed a nice day at the beach before going out for one last night in Kyoto and then heading to our next destination in the morning.  

We decided to go into a bar in Kyoto where we saw a bunch of other foreigners. We ended up meeting a group of guys who played in a jazz band based out of New York. They were on tour all over Japan and invited us to their Tokyo show since we told them we were going to be back in Tokyo at the same time. They downplayed this event a lot so stay tuned for that update when I get back to Tokyo!