InWords: 2013 Travel Dispatch #8 (Kyoto, from Osaka)

This is the zen garden at the temple we stayed in for the past two nights. The problem with these zen temple places is that they are the result of a lot of people over a very long period of time taking great care in making them places of beauty. And they've done a good job of it. So it's pretty much impossible to get very far in or around them without finding more stuff to photograph. Of course, I'm sure it's all been photographed before, but it's all fresh to my eyes. As a result, I end up taking waaaayyy too many pictures and when I get around to looking at them to make selections to include in these blog entries I end up with more images than anyone should reasonably be expected to wade through. But, ultimately that's your problem and not mine.

My problem is finding the time to post all of the pictures I've selected as being interesting -- at least to me. And in the final analysis, that may be the deciding factor. How much time will be available to get it all done and still get out there to make more pictures. My god. It's an endless, self-perpetuating cycle. This travel business is exhausting. I need a drink.

Lucky for me, these units seem to abound all over Japan. A refreshing drink is just a few steps away. Interestingly, most of the beverages included are juice mixtures or flavored waters. There's not nearly as much soda available as we see in the US. And the obesity rate is considerably lower here too. Coincidence?

I'm going to slip in few shots here of some of the more "normal" events of our day today. We did make one more temple visit, but I will spare you that.

This shot demonstrates the fun of riding a city bus. One thing there is no lack of in Kyoto, or Japan itself for that matter, is people. We used four different forms of ground transport during our time in Kyoto, train (the most), subway, bus and taxi (the most expensive) and in all but taxis, the crowds were daunting.

Did I mention there were a lot of people around? And the closer you got to a temple, especially the popular ones, the lotter of people there were. From what we saw at this temple today, I can't imagine there were any kids in school anywhere in Japan today.

And where there are people, there has to be food and places to obtain it. In the temple areas restaurants were plentiful and all had to advertise themselves. They do it with a typical Japanese flair.

Mockups of menu items are common, but this display of some rather over-the-top desserts did catch our attention -- for picture taking purposes only, not to be sampled. And I have no idea of what some of those ingredients were. But I must say I have eaten more new food items in the past week than I have done for a very long time. And to be honest, I haven't encountered anything I really didn't like.

OK, so I lied. So shoot me. These are temple shots. But it was a pretty cool temple, aside from the crowds. The most notable things about this temple were the cool breezes high above the city and the much more colorful, almost gaudy, paint job than what we had been seeing on other temples.

A river runs through Kyoto and we crossed a bridge over it. Couldn't help but notice the lone fisherman seated in the middle of the river. Also couldn't help but take a picture of it.

Our visit to Kyoto ended as it began, in Kyoto Station. According to Hiroko, it is the biggest train station in all of Japan. It is immense and very impressive, but not at all in keeping with the historic style and sense one has of the city. It is a monument to Kyoto's new image of itself -- one of modernity and growth. An interesting direction for a city that has been the historic center of Japan for so many centuries.