"Kyoto: The Anagram Lover's Tokyo"

I've been perplexed as to what to write for this entry. Suffice it to say that it's hard to follow up what happened in Ise, and I've not spent enough time in Kyoto to make a really good judgment of the city, nor have I seen what anybody visiting Kyoto should see. For these reason's I'll make this relatively short and promise you that a second installment at the very least will be forthcoming at some point.



There is a map, for reference, Kyoto lying very close to Osaka, just to the north and east. Hirakata lies between Osaka and Kyoto on this map and my adventures in Ise were on the coast south and west of Nagoya.

Kyoto and Osaka are really one large and growing metropolitan center, and a check on Google Maps will display the sprawling concrete that connects the two. You can get from Osaka to Kyoto on the Keihan railway line for about 800 yen (8 dollars) and on a limited express train it'll take about 30-45 minutes. I happen to be situated almost exactly between the two cities, so visiting them is easy and convenient. Despite this, I've only been to Kyoto twice.

Now for a little Japanese history lesson! Don't worry, I'll be brief. Kyoto is historically the capital of Japan, and was also the largest population before being surpassed by Osaka and Edo (Tokyo). This leaves Kyoto absolutely packed with history, knowledge, and just really cool things. Also, thanks to the insistence of Secretary of War Stimpson, Kyoto was removed from the list of targets for the atomic bomb attacks, and was largely (though not entirely) spared from conventional bombing by the allies during WWII. Because of this you can see a lot of pre-war architecture here and most of the historical sites are largely untouched.

/edumacation

Kyoto is densely populated with universities, and is a highly intellectual city. My first early sojourn into the city was for the second half of the Kansai Queer Film Festival in early September. The first half was held in a large theater in the very center of populated Osaka, right near a giant ferris wheel that dominates the skyline. As I couldn't make it to this part, I attended the second half sponsored and hosted by the University of Kyoto which was held in, to put it politely, a barn.

(note: not my pic, didn't think to take a pic of outside, thanks google images)

The place was, quite frankly, awesome. It was old and dusty inside, it felt used, it felt unique. I was really happy with the place. I was told not to take pics, but I got one ok shot before I was shut down.



We sat on some old tatami mats in the back of the theater and watched the documentary, which was a documentary on the treatment of trangender women in the United States Prison system. It was fascinating, as was the cute girl in the ridiculously awesome getup taking tickets at the door. Sorry, no pics of that part.



After that me and the others who'd come to Kyoto for the festival wandered the streets a while and ended up following the train tracks back to Demachiyanagi station after getting Chinese food for dinner. It was relatively uneventful, though I got to take a few good pictures.






As you can probably already tell, this photo warns of the dangers of feeding your Mogwai after midnight, or letting it get wet.



"Why?" Good question random vandal.


This is probably my favorite photo that I've ever taken. It just came out fantastic.



I started to play with the manual exposure settings.

This one too.

My second time in Kyoto was another exercise in unpreparedness. I arrived at Demachiyanagi station in Kyoto and tried to head for the moon viewing festival. I (somewhat predictably) by this point got lost, and instead just headed for a mountain, as it looked interesting. I ended up seeing a bunch of cool things and even finding a trail head that I fully intend to utilize in the future. For now the few decent photos I could eek out of the pitch black light will have to do.



I wandered up a series of very dark and quiet streets. Eventually I got too close to this large hill/mountain thing to really see it, so I just headed uphill. After wandering past a number of cemeteries and a few temples things thinned out, and got very very steep.
I was of course unphased and continued my trek. This continued for probably about a mile. At one point there were some lanterns at the side of the road.



I wandered in and was treated with a statue. It was kind of surreal in the silence and darkness.


Eventually the roads came to an abrupt end and I found only a trail continuing upwards. As I had come prepared only for a festival I took the less reckless way out and decided to leave the hiking in unfamiliar territory for another (better equipped) day.

Much to my surprise, however, as I turned around and began my descent I was treated with this.



A spectacular view of Kyoto from above. My apologies for the quality of this photo, it's terrible. I'm trying to remedy this, but for now that shall suffice. I wish desperately to return there with better equipment for even better shots from the summit. When those are available I assure you you'll hear all about it.

As I said, not nearly as daring or fascinating as my adventures in Ise, but exciting nonetheless. If you want to suggest a place for me to head to or give me some tips, props, or anything else be sure to leave a comment, it's nice to hear from people that they're enjoying my ramblings. Keep tuned in, as this weekend I'll be heading westward to Hiroshima, surely with camera in hand, and may head to other places in that direction as well depending on how the wind blows.

And as always, stay stoked friends


*Thanks to Matt who pointed out that the position on the map as up until the most recent edit was incredibly wrong. Please see the map now present at the top of this post for Kyoto's true position. My apologies.