Kyoto, Japan

Another one of my favorite cities in Japan is Kyoto.  The city is located about 230 miles from Tokyo - and was, in fact, the ancient capital of Japan for about a thousand years.  The coolest way to get there, is using the Shinkansen (bullet train), making the trip in just under 2 hours:

I wish this was my picture, but I'm inside the train...

My impression of the city remains the same, even after multiple trips - it's a huge collection of ancient Buddhist temples (more than 1,600), gardens, and the ancient Imperial palace.  One of my favorite temple/shrines, is the Heian Shrine:

You'll have to enlarge the picture to actually see the people

On one trip, I was lucky enough to take my daughter, sister and brother to Japan - and we went to Kyoto on a day-trip.  In the sweltering heat (over 100 degrees F), we were able to see this magnificent structure.  The most amazing thing we saw at Heian, were two ladies dressed as geishas.  Now, seeing geishas in Japan isn't quite that unique of an experience.  But remember, they are in full make-up and multiple layers of robes...in this incredible heat.

I don't know how they managed to remain cheerful through that.  Any one of us would be complaining loudly.  But that's the amazing thing about the Japanese - they endure these types of things, if it's required by the community.  Apparently, that's exactly what happened on that day.  Another discovery in the courtyard of Heian was a tree - with leaves made of paper.  From what I could understand, each of these pieces of paper had a prayer or name on them - and was quite sacred:

 Click to enlarge - you won't believe it...

Another famous shrine in Kyoto is the Kiyomizudera. The name literally translates into Temple of Pure Water, and is a popular temple with young people who come to pray for success in finding a mate:

Another amazing building is the shrine at Kinkakuji.  It's a temple - but the best part is the garden in front of the structure:

I think you get the picture.  In Kyoto, you'll also find a famous Zen garden - Ryoan-Ji:

From the limited-English sign, it looks like the garden was created sometime in the 15th century. 15 rocks are arranged in 5 groups - all within a walled rectangle of raked white gravel. From what I've read, this is supposed to represent the ocean or infinity.  The whole design is meant for meditation and to encourage a silent conversation with oneself.  It was a great experience.

Another great place that I was able to take my family to, was the shrine at Nanzenji.  This is a Zen temple at the bottom of Kyoto's eastern hills.   It was first built as an imperial villa in 1264, and then switched to a temple in 1291:

If you take a quick hike up the hill at Nanzenji, you'll find a little surprise behind the shrine's main structures.  It's an aqueduct.  Walking along the path, it was really peaceful, just watching the water drift - and listening to the water travel through the canal.

And no trip to Kyoto would be complete without a stop at the Imperial Palace.  It's beautiful inside - in a very minimalist way.  Exactly what you would expect from the reserved, formal Japanese.  On the family trip - we were disappointed to learn that the Palace was closed on that particular day.  We almost died from the heat, just walking the 300 yards to the gate, to learn this fact:

If you happen to find yourself in Japan - it's worth the 4-hour roundtrip ride to Kyoto for the day.  Try not to go there when it's 100 degrees, OK?