Christmas Eve in Kyoto

On to day 2! We spent a sweet night in a hostel with 8 other dudes and got ready for our second day in Kyoto. Day 2 was Christmas Eve for us. 

 Outside of Noji Castle. Noji is a famous castle that is located in the center of Kyoto. It served as a fortress for the shogunate for a long time, although they very rarely visited it. 

 Another view of the main entryway. If you think moats are cool, be jealous of this castle which has 2 moats!

 A view of the main gate from the inside. 

 There is a guardhouse on the inside where the samurai would hang out and wait for bad people to fight. 

 A view of the castle grounds. Double moat glory!

 Entering the main grounds to the palace.

 This way leads to the gardens.

 Spot the white person!

 Gold leaf covering the entryway.

 The main palace. According to the audio guide, there is something very interesting and different about the construction and manner of the arches and how they are...so...take note.

 2 bells. Just hanging (pun intended).

 A view of the gardens. The palaces were more about the gardens than the palace. Unfortunately, they allowed no pictures inside the palace. It was a lot of rooms with really ornately painted walls. The sliding doors were all covered in gold and other decorations. Being a Japanese palace, the floors are just tatami mats that would go up according to people's rank. The shogun would sit on the highest platform and had the highest ceiling above him. 

 The garden was really beautiful.

 You can see the waterfall in the background and the neat rocks.

 I really love Japanese trees, the ones that are in gardens are always pruned to perfection. They have usually been maintained for hundreds of years.

 Moat number 2.

 Moat-y

 Another palace that we weren't allowed to go into.

 Japanese stone lantern.

 A guardhouse in the corner of the upper palace looks out over the top palace and the city of Kyoto up on the ridge. 

 Another view.

 The entryway to the Golden Temple/Pavilion/Shrine. The Golden Pavilion is one of the top attractions in Japan for good reason. 

 You could pay 500 yen to ring this bell. 

 ...I don't really know what this is. A Japanese building of some importance I would believe. 

 Golden Pavilion and 2 brothers. This picture was taken by a nice Israeli couple we ended up talking to for about 20 minutes. They were super nice and we swapped stories about our respective trips. They actually had stayed in our same hostel the night before we did. 

 The pavilion is covered on the outside and some of the inside with gold leaf. The 3 floors represent 3 different styles of construction in the period. 

 It really is amazing to see just hanging out in the middle of a giant garden with a big pond.

 Waterfalls all around.

 All that white stuff you can see is coins taht people try to throw into a bowl in front of the budda. That's how they get ya! I threw in a few 1 yen pieces. I was closer than Brad...

 Another pond with a pagoda on an island.

 I really liked this picture, it was nice to catch because it had been raining before I took it. 

 On the way out. 

 At the zen garden shrine, there is a smaller shrine on an island that we visited.

 You can see the bridge heading out to the zen garden. 

 Budda is watching. 

500 yen to see the zen rock garden. Impressive right? (this isn't the real garden) 

 Outside the tea house, there is a spring for purification. I don't know the words in Japanese, but I thought the meaning was quite good. "I learn only to be contented." This saying is important to Shinto belief that learning is necessary to be content in life. 

This is the zen garden! Apparently, this is one of Japan's most important locations. It is renowned for its beauty, tranquility and design. The rocks have been here for about 500 years. Promptly after taking this video, I dropped my camera down on the no go area that they said not to go on. I may have soiled it with my big American feet...As we left, I made the comment that we are celebrating a garden with some rocks that have been arranged for 500 years, but we walk by rocks that have been arranged (like mountains) for tens of thousands of years.

It is a cool garden, don't get me wrong, but I don't know what all the zen fuss is about. Maybe I have reached inner peace already. I am pretty good at saying 'ohm.'

 I walked by this and thought it looked like a communications beacon for aliens. After reading the plaque, I found out that it isn't. This is a monument for veterans of WW2 I think. 

 Looking toward the rock garden house. 

The front pond with the shrine. You can see those big pieces of wood that look like chopsticks holding up that tree. Near shrines and temples, this is common. They support up the trees with these pieces of wood. The irony is not lost on me that they would cut down one tree to support another tree. 

 I wish that we had eaten here. So much is going on with the name of this place...

 You can see by the garbage that Japan is finally making the switch away from VHS.

 More Engrish "A part of the sales is contributed as the Nijo Castle mouthful lord of a castle." Up until castle, it kind of makes sense. I don't know what "mouthful lord of a castle is referring to...

 BURGER KING! I have never visited Burger King in Japan before. It is awesome though!

 BK Lounge to a whole new level.

 We went walking around on Christmas Eve in the geisha district of Kyoto. They had some very pretty buildings around. I like this one because it reminds me of the Alamo. 

 Looking down the main drag. 

 You can see that it says BLDG, but I was hoping that it was BLOG. I wanted to use it on my homepage, but I was wrong. 

 A picture of Brad taking a picture of our Christmas chicken!

 Lots of lanterns...

 Legitimate genuine bonafied Christmas chicken in Japan. A true tradition!

 A lot like Fremont Street in Vegas...but not as sad. 

 I picked up some nice souvenirs in this mall. 

 Japan working on moving toward CD's.

 You would be curious about guns in Japan, these are replica guns that look exactly like the real thing, but don't work. The catch is that they are the same price, and in some case more expensive, than the same guns in America. What a country!

The main theatre on the corner entrance into the geisha district.  

For Christmas Day, we went to Nara! Pictures are forthcoming tomorrow!