Japan Trip - September 2009
- Part 3 -All images ©2009 Copyright the author
Day 5
Day five was spent in Kyoto, firstly in the Nishiki food market in downtown Kyoto, and then at the Shimogamo Shrine, one of the two Kamo shrines.
Kyoto's Nishiki Market
Nishiki market is in an arcade in downtown Kyoto selling all types of fresh and preserved food.
Near the start of the market arcade.
A fish stand.
Prepared foods.
A shop selling a variety of food items.
Some rather expensive dried mushrooms. ¥10,000 was about $130 at the rate we got.
Further along the market arcade.
Shimogamo Shrine
The Shimogamo Shrine is one of the two Kamo shrines along the Kamo River in northern Kyoto. The Kamo shrines are the oldest in Kyoto, predating the city itself. They are mentioned frequently in Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale Of Genji, written about 900 years ago.
The approach to the shrine.
The main entrance.
Some detail of the entrance.
The entrance from the inside.
Inside the shrine courtyard.
Looking into one of the shrine buildings.
Places in the courtyard area for praying.
The Kamo River near the shrine.
Dinner at the Uwosue Japanese restaurant in downtown Kyoto. This restaurant was recommended in the Lonely Planet guide to Kyoto.
The set menu we ordered. Not by any means a cheap meal, and some of the dishes were rather interesting!
The restaurant as it appears from the street.
Heading back to Osaka Umeda on a Hankyu express train. Note that express trains have forward-facing seats, compared to the local trains' centre-facing seats. JR trains go from Kyoto JR station, which is not in the downtown area, to Osaka station where our hotel was. Hankyu trains go from downtown Kyoto, where the restaurant was, to Umeda, a short walk from the Osaka JR station. The Hankyu train is significantly cheaper for some reason.
Ticket machines at Umeda station.
The Yodobashi-Umeda building. This building has multiple floors of technological equipment. From memory, the ground floor has mobile phones, the next floor cameras, and other floors above have video and audio equipment. The floors are huge and have everything you can imagine. I made a small purchase from the camera store as I somehow lost the protective LCD cover from my D90 camera.
Day 6
Day six started with a visit to the Kyoto botanic gardens, then rushing to a flea market at the YWCA near the imperial palace park. The flea market turned out to be very small with mainly old clothes, although they did have a used-book exchange for English language books where I scored a couple of sci-fi novels I hadn't read. The afternoon was then spent in the imperial palace park. Tours of the main palace and the Sento palace are free, but need to be booked in advance (possibly the same morning). We didn't take either tour.
The Kyoto Botanic Gardens
Scenes through the botanic gardens.
The lotus pond.
Some bonsai.
More lilies in a different pond to the earlier ones.
I have no idea what these people were all trying to photograph.
After the brief visit to the YWCA flea market, we headed back towards the imperial palace park. Along the road running beside the park we encountered this small shrine featuring pigs.
We then stopped for lunch at The Palace-Side Hotel. A very nice meal at a reasonable price.
A map of the imperial palace park.
Scenes within the park.
The path to the southern wall of the main imperial palace.
The southern wall and gate of the main imperial palace.
The southerly gate in the eastern wall of the main imperial palace.
The western wall of the main imperial palace.
The northerly gate in the western wall of the main imperial palace. This was late in the afternoon and the gate was open to let out the last tour of the palace.
Near the information kiosk.
Inside the information kiosk.
A model of the imperial palace park.
The main imperial palace.
The Sento palace.
Views from the Hankyu train back to Umeda. I was standing right near the driver's compartment in the front carriage and had a good view out the forward window.
Arriving at Umeda station.
The Umeda HEP-5 Building
This is a seven or eight story shopping centre at Umeda. It features a large whale suspended from the ceiling in the main foyer, and a ferris wheel on the roof that we rode in last year.
Dinner at an all-you-can-eat buffet on the top floor of the building. The time limit for dinner was 70 minutes. Nothing outstanding, but a good feed for the price.
