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| everywhere in Japan are beautiful flowers and gardens~subject of a later blog and video |
Clumsy guy summer travel tip: Get up and go early, beat the heat and beat the throngs. It helps to have some jet lag since we had flown first to China from Boston (18 hours) and had only stayed in Shanghai a couple of nights. So the internal body clocks are all whacked. Any way the plan today is to go to Kyoto Central station and have a look around before going to the bus terminal and heading out to castle and temple tours.
It's nice to arrive early before the rush hour begins
Then you get to observe the rush hour and not be caught up in it! In the video below you can see a few high school kids, since school is still in session in July!
You can get a sense from the little peek above that each bus has a specialized queue line on the pavement...quite possibly Japan is the most orderly place on earth. It is a nice experience actually and brings some calm to a crowded place, and I guess safer as well. As opposed to random bumping into people pickpockets etc.
We arrived at Nijo-Jo Castle around 30 minutes prior to opening, which turned out to be perfect, since we were able to buy our admission ticket and tour the gardens and gates of the castle.
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| worker preparing for the open of Nijo-Jo Castle |
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| hand carved finery at the entryway to the castle |
Inside is mainly like a museum, with exhibits in the various rooms depicting royal court life in the 17th century. Photographs were not allowed inside...Nijo-Jo Castle is a Unesco World Heritage Site and the City of Kyoto is undergoing major renovation work. You can go to their main website here: http://nijo-jocastle.city.kyoto.lg.jp/
It was definitely worth the visit and check back for the garden videos coming soon!
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| beautiful wood inlays |
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| school still in session in July |
Coming next: The Golden Temple
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