A temple is a temple. is a temple. is temple. is a

temple. or Kyoto. or Nara. Who cares! I surely don't as I have now officially seen too many shrines for one lifetime. Seriously though. Every single religious sight I visited in Kyoto and Nara were exact replicas of one another. Nothing different about them. You can even browse my photos and ponder if all of the pics were taken in one specific place or multiple locations. There are over 2000 temples alone in Kyoto and 1,43 million people. That means there is more than one temple for every 700 people there is in the city. After almost collapsing under the tourist masses, a insane idea came to my mind that all of the temples should be housed by the people who live here and making them off limits to all tourist. Shouldn't be that hard considering the cultures nature of fitting big things into small places. Just an idea nothing more.



Sure they had a couple of nice gardens and statues here and there and the city of Kyoto seemed really small compared to Tokyo mainly because of the absence of skyscrapers. Another nice treat in the city is the Manga museum and the geisha/maiko stacked avenues on the city's east side. I predicted that getting a geisha to pose for photo would be a chance not likely to happen as somehow I had the perception that the highly trained entertainers wouldn't have time for common folk. How wrong was I! Once I spotted one in the buzzy streets I waisted no time and put on a big smile and asked nicely in Japanese could I take her picture. The white faced girl was more than happy to pose for me and the rest is history.



Nara turned out to be a miniature copy of Kyoto where you replace geishas with deers that are something of natural treasure and obsessed with making little Japanese kids cry as they stalk them for those dear cookies. The parents laugh as the evil dears trample over their small beloved ones in search for a piece of sweet and all I can do is join the laughter, what great fun! Besides the dears, there is a nice hill to climb of to for a picnic and take some photos of the city.



For Osaka I cant say that much except had a good time with my host Brian and Renata from couchsurfing and had some of the local cuisine called tacoyaki or in English octopus balls! Trust me, their better than they sound. Nearing the end of the Japan experience I decided to try my luck with Himeji where they have one of the most well preserved castles from the 17th century. If the place wasn't a complete tourist attraction nowadays I probably would have enjoyed but with German and American tourists walking in never ending lines through the rope created tour route trough the castle, I could not help but feel like a rat in a maze. Wouldn't recommend it unless your arriving early there.



Tired by all the tourist that seemed to flock around me like a pigeons, I decided to do something different and head for the onsens in the southern part of Kansai by train. As I was stepping in to the rapid service bound for the my destination, the conductor asked for my ticket and decided its not valid for this train and would have to catch the local trains with 3 switches along the trip. Time was 8PM so scratch that and head for a manga kissa place overnight. Next morning had an idea to go see the worlds largest suspensions bridge near Kobe which I had seen on the previous day from a train window as we went past. So hop skip and jump and I'm in Maiko with a San Francisco feeling to it with ocean breezes, Japanese guitar players and of course the big ass bridge with the length of 3,9 km. Have some miniature beers, eat some strawberries and let the sea breeze hit my face. Next its time for Vietnam and the bustling Hanoi. Ill keep you posted.



More pictures at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/timo.laaksonen/