On tour with Estelle and Jean-Marc: Kyoto, Nara and Osaka

Kyoto is a very interesting city with a lot of ancient ('original') temples and shrines but for our taste a little bit too touristic, i.e. too crowded and too expensive. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our stay here, visited the monkey mountain, the Geisha district and the famous Fushimi Inari Shrine (with its thousands of vermilion/black torii gates).

After Kyoto, we travelled to Nara and discovered its UNESCO World heritage temples.

From there, our journey brought us to Osaka were we stayed the last days here in Japan.
We made a tour to Kobe (only 30 minutes by train from Osaka) and visited the surrounding areas.

We had the chance to witness the famous Danjiri Matsuri Festival in Kishiwada. This festival is held in autumn (late September or early October) since 1703 and consists of pulling the up to 5 tons heavy wooden carts ('danjiri') through the sometimes very narrow streets of the city. The carts have elaborated carvings on them and each carpenters guild is responsible for the maintenance of their carts.
The particular of this festival is the speed at which the wooden vehicles are pulled. Townspeople say that every year at least one person dies and various others are wounded. We saw three casualties on the street enclosed by people who tried to help them get back on their feet and heard not less than a dozen of times the ambulance sirens.

After watching this entertaining festival, we decided to participate in a pub crawl to celebrate our last days here in Japan.

We enjoyed every single moment here but we are also glad to continue our journey. The strict rules and obedience of the Japanese people (and on the other side the demand to obey to those strict rules too) can be quite restrictive. But you can't claim a good organisation and clean cityscape without having a strict regime to maintain this public order.

Next destination: South Korea :)

The entrance to a saloon in the famous Teramachi Dori shopping street with Japanese lanterns.

The entrance gate of one of the biggest shrines in Japan, the Yasaka shrine, in Kyoto's Geisha neighbourhood Gion.

Work in progress: Our 16 Euro tough 'cock leg' on the grill (because again we didn't understand the Japanese menu). You could literally taste the carcinogen while eating it.

The famous view on Kyoto from the Iwatayama Monkey Park.

The wild monkeys seem very relaxed but they can get quite aggressive if you stare too long at them.

The garden of Tenryū-ji, an oasis of idyll, situated next to the bamboo forest.

To protect the idyll, a newly placed sign prohibits the (not only in Japan popular) hunt for Pokemons.

This scene could also be in a coal mine underneath the earth.

We were exhausted after climbing up the mountain through the thousands of torii gates at the Fushimi Inari Shrine.

At the top, we could admire the stone memorials.

In Nara (the second important historical village of Japan after Kyoto) is a big park where more than 1200 wild deer live.

They are still 'wild' but familiar with humans and while begging for food (visitors can purchase 'deer-crackers') they bow in front of you, nudge you with their nose or if you don't respond, they start eating your cloth :)

The deer are considered as being the sacred messenger of the gods that inhabit the shinto shrines. According to local folklore 'Takemikazuchi' (the god of thunder) came from Mount Mikasa riding a white deer.

Todai-ji (one of the Seven Great Buddhist Temples in Nara) hosts the world largest bronze Buddha statue (17 meter height) and is the world's largest wooden building (even though the present reconstruction of 1692 is only two thirds of the original temple hall's size).

Not all the Japanese people follow the strict rules or were those tourists from China? ;)

The streets are crowded with people during the Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri Festival in Osaka.

The (dancing) position on top of the carriage is reserved for a local carpenter and is considered as being a great honour. Inside the carts, a group of young musicians sing and play during the whole way.