You see these pieces of paper at a lot of shrines in Japan. Apparently they contain a fortune, and you make an offering to get one from a box. If the fortune is bad you can tie it to a wall in the shrine so the bad … Continue reading Omikuji
Tag: kyoto
Yasaka
Kyoto is so photogenic it probably has its own selfie stick and Instagram account and, if it could, would wear reflective sunglasses and use #nofilter all the time. This is the Yasaka shrine in Gion. It’s a big place and you can spend a lot of time … Continue reading Yasaka
Day Gion
The flip side of Night Gion, taken from the top of the hill during the day. It is incredibly busy (although it’s not apparent from this photo).
Night Gion
Gion is an old part of Kyoto and during the day it’s busy with people. At night it’s very quiet and is a nice place to explore.
Orange Torii
The Fushimi Inari-taisha is another of those amazing Japanese sights. It’s a shrine on the side of a mountain in Kyoto with over 5,000 bright orange torii gates leading all the way to the top. It can get very crowded, but the torii gates do … Continue reading Orange Torii
Kinkaku-ji
This temple in Kyoto is almost surreally beautiful. A perfect golden building next to a perfectly pruned lake with ideally situated trees and rocks. I can imagine someone had a dream one day and made the landscape look just like it. It probably looks good in … Continue reading Kinkaku-ji
Arashiyama
If you take one of the trains out of Kyoto you will find a little station that runs a steam train through the mountains to Arashiyama. From there you can walk through this bamboo grove. The good thing about the grove is that selfie sticks … Continue reading Arashiyama
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