Tidbits on Kyoto

Shinkansen: There's nothing quite like riding comfortably at 160+ MPH while passing countless urban neighborhoods. It was interesting to see exactly how urban almost the entire trip from Tokyo station to Kyoto (400 km, it seems). Also, I really was amazed at some of the art that was done in anime to depict their urban environments, but they are incredibly accurate. The hapahazard way that they took 18th-century urban streets and built 20th-century buildings to fill the cracks is incredible. Also, the way they just throw power lines around is fascinating as well. I have some pictures of both urban planning disasters.

Kyoto: This town is not nearly as compact as Tokyo, but has a similar cramped feeling. The real difference is that the buildings are much more residential, as you would see in the outer 'burbs of Tokyo, and usually stop after three or four floors, unless the building is an apartment complex or a hotel. I even occassionally see a rice patty or two mixed in. They definitely don't waste any of their flat land that isn't populated. Every single spot is used until you get into the mountains, which surround this place.

Nara: We took an afternoon bus ride to Nara to see a few temples. We stopped at Todai-ji Temple and Kasuga Shrine. Click the link for info on them, but they are pretty interesting places. They have a lot of history, but have definitely been transformed into tourist traps when they are not used for official Buddhist/Shinto ceremonies. In fact, there is a gift shop right inside the Todai-ji temple. It was a little odd. A really cool feature of Nara is that it holds to the tradition of deer being sacred animals. Both of the temples are within what our tour guide called Deer Park, where deer roam free and are absolutely tame. They walk up to you expecting cookies. I'm too cheap for that, but took some pictures of me petting them just to drive Luke nuts.

Tonight, we wander Kyoto. We have free internet in our rooms, so I'll be updating occasionally until Sunday morning, when we check out. Then, we'll start our unplanned wanderings of Japan. Our reach goes anywhere along the Shinkansen, so let me know where you want us to go and take pictures.