I went a bit camera happy in Kyoto and took over 100 pictures. The few that I am posting probably aren't even the best ones, but others require a sequence that would just be too much to put online.
Another good example of old and new. I thought about taking a ride in one of
these things but I wasn't sure if the guy could take two big Americans at once
up a hill. I settled for the picture.
While the Tokugawa ruled from Edo castle they still needed a place to stay in
other parts of the country. This is Nijo castle, where the Shogun stayed while
he was in Kyoto.
There was no photography allowed inside Nijo castle. You can take my word for
it, though, it was pretty neat. The whole outer perimeter inside of the
building (just inside the sliding doors of this picture) it what was called a
'Nightingale Floor.' To prevent enemies (aka, ninjas) from sneaking into the
castle at night the floor was intentionally made to squeak via strategically
placed nails underneath each board. When several people were walking on it the
sound was very similar to birds chirping. I quickly figured out that all I had
to do was walk along a joist in the floor to keep it from squeaking so I can
only guess it was only effective against stupid ninjas.
The grounds of Nijo castle, just like the grounds of everywhere else, had lots
of neat landscaping. I wonder how much they pay their groundskeeper.
This is the common room of Toji-an, the place we stayed in Kyoto. They serve
free alcohol in the common room from 9 to midnight (though we managed to
stretch that out a bit) to get everyone social. This was definitely one of the
best parts of Kyoto for me, getting to meet people from all over Japan and even
a few from Korea and France. There were no showers there so we had to use the
public baths (sento) which was a pretty neat experience. Since this was in
Kyoto I didn't get hassled about my tattoos at the sento, either. (More on that
later.)
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