Kyoto with Kate!

25th -26th July 2007

Kate and I have just spent another 2 days in beautiful Kyoto to give her a chance to see some more wonderful sights. However I think these 2 days were the hottest days yet in Japan! It was still 29 degrees when we went out at night!



On the 25th of every month there is a huge market that is held at the Kitano Tenmangu shrine. We wandered around for the morning and Kate managed to buy 3 kimonos! Then we headed to Kinkakuji (the Golden Pavilion) which is my favourite place in Kyoto.

Kate at the markets.


Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavillion)


I decided to take Kate to see a traditional Japanese Maiko dance however we somehow fell into a tourist trap! I have to say it was pretty bad – the tour buses should have given it away! Anyway Kate and I saw traditional dance, bunraku (Japanese puppetry), Ikebana (flower arranging), Koto (traditional Japanese instrument), Kyogen (comic plays) and a tea ceremony. It was all done especially for tourists. It was interesting but I would not recommend it . . . unless you want to see tourists sleeping and talking at the wrong times and having their unnecessary audio guides way too loud! ☺

Maiko dancers.


Gion district.


The river in the Gion district - there are so many people in this area in summer! It's a very cool place to be!


The next day we went to Fushimi Inari shrine which has the red torii gates where Memoirs of a Geisha was filmed. It is a beautiful shrine with many red torii gates leading in different directions. The shrine has many fox statues as he is the god which the shrine is dedicated to and he protects the rice fields – you pray to him for a good harvest. Kate and I re-enacted and filmed the scene from Memoirs of a Geisha only to discover that we run funny!











We then went to Ni-jo castle which I have visited before but it is such a beautiful castle that it is worth going back to. It still has all the interior screens in place so you get a feel of what it would have been like originally. The floor is amazing as it has been designed to detect intruders – it is called a nightingale floor as no matter where you step on it you make a noise like a bird. Unfortunately you are not able to take photos in order to protect the gold screens but I bought a print of one of the screens.

The gate leading to the castle.


The screen that I bought.