Kyoto!

Okay, this is my first time trying this, so there's gonna be a ton of photos under the jump break for those of you who don't have Facebook :) Bear with me - this is why there were no posts earlier this week, because getting this thing ready took a bunch of time.

Delicious chocolate to fuel our adventure

We drove up to Kyoto with my friends Reiko and Chizuru, in Reiko's car. It was a two-hour drive, with no traffic! Yay! We got to Kinkaku-ji, Kyoto's most famous temple, around 9:30.

I do the tourist thang.

I love tradition Japanese architecture.

The colours were amazing!

Not sure what this is, but it looked nice :P

C poses with the golden temple, Kinkaku-ji

Kinkaku-ji used to be covered in real gold leaf; nowadays, it's just paint. Impressive nonetheless.

Requisite tourist picture.

I'm rather proud of this picture, I have to say. I think it conveys the tranquillity of the temple grounds quite accurately

The whole grounds were dotted with shrines all over. This is behind the temple gift shop!

A small spring.

Offerings!

The inside of one of the smaller temple buildings, for display.

An old well.

Temple sandalwood incense. I love this smell.

Stelae + autumn leaves = beautiful

At Kamigamojinja: the horse is a god.

Ritually washing your hands before you enter the shrines.

Tiny shrine!

Giant shrine!

Beware of baboons!

A small shrine for the baboons, we think.

Sanjuusangendo: housing th 1001 bodhisattvas of the Kannon buddha. Couldn't take pictures inside, though!

Exploring old Kyoto neighbourhoods!

My lunch. It was delicious.

The stickers are all the business cards of maiko, or geishas in training.

Kiyomizudera temple! At the top of the shopping district, of course, halfway up the mountain.

A real maiko! Her supervising geisha let me take one picture only.

View from the stage of Kiyomizudera

The stage, full of people.

A view of the stage from the mountainside. The stage is where ritual dances are performed: there's no seats for the audience, since the audience are the gods: therefore, it's a platform for performing to the mountains and the valleys and the sky. It's super cool.