Riding back to Kansai Airport in style

Osaka's Museum of History

View of the sail-shaped museum building from the top of Osaka castle

traditional ceremonial robes

Traditional puppet heads

cute fuzzy kitten we saw walking back from the museum

a Ballyhoo shirt!

Dinner: seafood pizza

Our crazy hotel: "The Namba Plaza Hotel" right next to a strip club and a sex-toy shop.

That evening we shopped and explored the Namba area (where our hotel was, near the Korean consulate). We found lots of cool things including this Gumby t-shirt and dutch black licorice wheels. :)

Museum of Oriental Ceramics

Mr. Ataka

Figurines of sumo wrestlers (porcelain with overglaze enamels and gold decoration)

Enjoying scones at the museum's cafe

This museum boasts the world's finest collection of Korean and Chinese ceramics. There are also many bitter Koreans who claim that these pieces were stolen from Korea during the Japanese occupation (WWII). This is probably true, but of course none of that history is mentioned at the museum. Instead, the museum literature praises Mr. Ataka, the main donor/connoisseur.

Osaka-jo

Dan scaling the huge castle walls

A paneled painting depicting the horrific scene of the Tokugawa invasion in 1615.

'Soft-tops': slurpee topped with soft icecream!

Osaka castle is perhaps the biggest tourist sight on the city. We spent the morning touring the grounds, reading about the history, and enjoying the sights.

Osaka, here we come

The next day we took the rapid transit train to Osaka. I spent to afternoon getting my Korean work visa application in, and then we visited 'The Floating Garden Observatory' in the evening. Although our photos didn't really turn out, the Umeda sky building offered us a fantastic view of the city lights, as well as a fun glass-escalator ride.

After walking around Kyoto all day we were exhausted, so we treated ourselves to a delicious sushi dinner.

A cake displayed in a shop window (we were too full to try it, but it looked amazing!)

My favorite painting in the hallway of our hotel.

Nanzen-in and Aquaduct

Eikan-do

Hojo pond

This stairwell runs along the contours of the mountain slope, and is called 'Garyuro' because it resembles the form of a sleeping dragon (garyu).

This temple was founded in 855 by the priest Shinsho, but the name was changed in the 11th century to honour a widely respected priest named Eikan. The grounds were beautiful, with peaceful water gardens, impressive buildings, and beautiful artwork (of which, because it is a religious facility, photos are 'forbidden.' I couldn't help but compare the strict rules about photography here to the lax ones in western Europe where tourists snap away in cathedrals, the Louvre, and even the Sistine chapel).

Path of Philosophy

After we left Ginkakuji Temple, we walked along the meandering 'Path of Philosophy' (where 'the intellectuals of old would come ... to seek inspiration'). Along the way we met artists, lounging felines, and smiling strollers.

Ginkakuji Temple

Ginkakuji Temple is a Zen temple, established in 1482 by Ashikaga Yoshimasa. As we walked along the paths, we saw some of the most beautiful scenes in all of our five days in Japan. There were carefully maintained rock gardens, sand sculptures, traditional buildings, paintings and waterfalls. The view from the observatory captured the contrast between the temple grounds and the modern vista of Kyoto city.

Walking up the road leading to Ginkakuji Temple

Mount Diamondji

The garden is set at the base of Mt Diamondji. While we were wandering through the garden, an old gardener explained (by drawing on the ground with a stick, and by gesturing at the mountain in front of us, and speaking to us in Japanese that we didn't understand) that the mountain is called Diamond Mountain because the lines on the rockface look like this symbol, which means both 'diamond' and 'man'. During an annual bonfire festival, this symbol is lit up at night. We didn't see this as the festival takes place on January 15th.