Kyoto, Japan [Part 1]

What can I say. I'm a lazy guy. Which is why it's taken me so long to post my Kyoto trip photos. Nonetheless, they are here, and I can finally move on to my Victoria and Grouse Mountain photos.


Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. Not sure why I felt the need to include this picture, but perhaps it follows chronological order to do so (I did take off on an airplane from somewhere to get to Japan).


This is Kansai International Airport, which is built on an artificial island in the middle of Osaka Bay. It should not be confused with Osaka International Airport, which now only handles domestic flights and is located nearer the city than compared to Kansai International.


First meal after the 3+ hour flight. There's actually udon to go along with the tempura, but obviously it didn't make it into my CF card (i.e. I was too tired to care).


One of my favourite deserts - Dorayaki. According wikipedia (what we'd all do without it, eh?), it "is a type of Japanese confection which consists of two small pancake-like patties made from kasutera wrapped around a filling of sweet red bean paste."

It's almost impossible to find authenticate (or edible, for that matter) Dorayaki in Vancouver. The ones I've so far managed to obtain are either too dry or downright insulting to my taste buds.


Here's sitting on the bus on my way to Byodo-in, located in the city of Uji in Kyoto Prefecture, with nothing better to do than to snap random pictures of the scenery.


Another random shot of the countryside.


Here's the bus driver assigned to my tour group. That thing he's holding up is made by himself - zoom in if you want to read what it all says (it's in English, if you were wondering). He's a very friendly guy and on occasion (more often than I'd care for) would "entertain" us with his singing over the bus' speaker system.


Crossing the bridge into the city of Uji.


Entrance to the Byodo-in - not to be confused with the replica temple in Hawaii. For those who crave more info, go here.












After the temple, our tour group went to this place for a Japanese Tea Ceremony (nothing ceremonial about it, believe me). The guy in the picture is the owner of the tea shop - he's very talkative, and if you let him, he'll go on for hours about this grandfather who used to provide tea for the Emperor of Japan.




Here's the front of his store.


And here's the street on which his store is located.


And for no other reason than to waste film (for memory, in my case), here's a picture of Kyoto's street lamp.

That's it for this post - more to follow, eventually. Now it's time to move on to genetics.

Cheers,
Solemn Observer
10 September 2007