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This is a temple built into a hillside - it was a huge place, and absolutely packed with school tours.
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Another view of the same area - if you look carefully, you can see it's actually built on stilts, though the back
end is on the hill itself.
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These women were actually made up for souvenir photographs, from what we could tell -
they weren't real geisha.
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A monk at the same site. Apparently the monks don't even particularly need to get anything while
begging - the begging is more an exercise in humility than anything else.
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The golden pagoda in Kyoto - an obligatory sight, really. The whole temple was actually rebuilt in the second
half of 20th century after a somewhat disturbed monk burnt it down.
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More of the same - the pagoda is actually quite striking when you see it. Needless to say the spaces around it
were absolutely packed with people and school trips. If it wasn't surrounded by water, it'd be impossible
to get these people-free shots.
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One last shot - what the hell.
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This is the moss garden in Ryogen-in, in Kyoto. One thing I definitely learned in the zen gardens is that
it's damn near impossible to photograph a zen garden well.
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A stone garden in the same Zen temple. We also went to the more famous zen rock garden in Ryoanji, but
it was a photography disaster, really. It was also absolutely packed, while this zen temple was practically empty.
It was probably empty because no one could find the damn thing - the map near the entrace was worse than useless.
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One last Zen garden..
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Sakurajima, an active volcano in the soutwest of Kyushu. Sadly, it never poked its nose out from these
clouds while we were around.
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Sakurajima from another angle.
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This torii started out life like a normal torii, but it was buried in a volcanic eruption, leaving only the
top poking out of the ground.
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Random shot featuring some nice mist and a green hill.
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The local trains in southwest Kyushu. Fortunately, these aren't the ones we had to ride overnight on.
My father likes trains, so I'm working some train
pictures in. Hi dad!
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This is one of the things this area is famous for - hot sand public baths. Because of all the volcanic
activity, the beaches in this area are literally steaming all the time. So you throw on a hakama, go down
to the beach, and get buried in a shallow dip in the ground. I didn't fit that well in the dip, but once I was
buried it was great - very relaxing.
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Another train! By the time we got on this train, we were so tired that we were both falling asleep,
even with the train bouncing us around so much that Robin really clonked her head on the windowsill at
one point.
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Darth Vader's train, obviously. This is one of the ones we were on overnight. Quite comfortable, but
slow compared to the shinkansen. Just before we got onto this, Robin noticed a sign talking about the
new Kyushu shinkansen service, which was starting... a month after I left! Oh well, these trains weren't so
bad.
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Just about the last train picture - this is the intercity service that ran from Nagasaki to Hakata, from
what I remember.
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This is the main statue in the peace park in Nagasaki, with Robin thrown in for size. The park is filled with
statues donated by various countries, with Canada being a noteable exception.
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The marker for ground-zero for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. The bomb actually hit off-target.
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This is the marker along with the remains of what was the largest Christian church in Japan at the time. As you
can see there wasn't much left - I'm surprised anything was left standing.
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After the rather grim atomic bomb museum, which couched Japan's wartime activities in phrases such
as "advancements" instead of the more accurate "invasions," we took a look at some gardens which held
the houses of some of the first western traders to set up homes in Japan. On our way to the houses, we
were nearly thwarted by stairs, but found this handy outdoor escalator. Bizarre.
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As you can see, life was quite difficult for the average tea inspector who came over from the UK
to attempt and eke out a living in Japan.
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There are ponds like this in most parks, but this was certainly the most crowded one I'd seen. There
were little packets of fish food for sale, and it was actually kind of entertaining feeding them.
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Robin and a cherry blossom tree on "Philosopher's walk" in Kyoto. These walks are one of the best things about cities in
Japan. Even in the middle of huge cities, you can find these little bits of space that are
completely relaxing, and let you forget about the traffic jam three streets over.
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Here's a better picture of the walk itself. It being Kyoto, the area was also filled with
shrines.
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And here's what we found when we wandered into a shine - several statues of a mouse holding a ball. The mouse
seems happy enough, so why not?
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The sun setting on Kyoto.
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Two ladies rocking out on traditional Japanese instruments. Interesting things - lots of string
bending was involved in playing them, and the women had to wear these claw-like picks on their fingers
to pluck at the strings.
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As part of the same evening, we saw a variety of traditional Japanese cultural things - this is a traditional
slapstick comedy.
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Some traditional dancing, which I have to admit didn't do a whole lot for me. I think part of the problem with
the dancing was the way the dancers maintained completely blank facial expressions. For my narrow western mind it
just seemed a bit strange.
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This was probably my favorite part - Japanese puppetry. The man without a mask is the head
puppeteer, and the other two are assistants. From what I understand, cultural arts like this
are very much a family thing in Japan - for example if you really want to be a professional
kabuki actor, your parents had better have been actors.
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Anyway, back to the puppetry. Obviously the trick is to pretend that the guys in black aren't
there, just as with kabuki. Same thing with the head puppeteer. The white bits were snow. (Theatric snow,
mind you.)
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Leaving Kyoto, we managed to get pretty lost in the train station. Kyoto station is just absurdly
huge, and has about six different levels to it, along with far too many different platforms. We had
trouble even finding the platforms, never mind the right one.
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Robin modelling Pocari Sweat, which was just about the only thing other than beer and tea that I drank in Japan.
She also has a can of Mistio, which I should point out has some excellent Engrish on it. Is your drink Carbo-flexible?
And what gas vol is it? These are heavy questions...
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One last train! This is a very old model, I think, simply because it's the model you most often see
pictured in travel brochures from the eighties. I'm working on a version of this with that woman
photoshopped out of the way, but it's taking a while.
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