Kyoto Photos

Below are some photos from my trip to Kyoto in the spring. Remember, you can click on a photo to make it larger. Enjoy!

A tiny, very local eatery where we ate in Nara, which is about 30 minutes from Osaka or an hour from Kyoto. Notice that we're carrying our bags; because it was Golden Week, a Japanese national holiday, all accommodations were full. As a result, we slept (sort of) in a karaoke booth. Completely exhausted the next day, boarded a train in Osaka that goes in a loop and snuck in an additional two hours of sleep.
Shige, Robin and I in front of the largest wooden structure on earth, which houses a giant buddha statue. The size of the building is a bit difficult to grasp in this photo.
A true geisha show in Kyoto.
In Kyoto, even the McDonald's' are beautiful.

Shige and I in the bamboo forest in Arashiyama - west Kyoto.

Famous zen garden of 15 stones in Ryoan-Ji - a temple founded in 1450.
Meiko-san (essentially young geisha) walking in Gion, the geisha district in Kyoto
With geisha-san! Okay, maybe they were tourists dressed up like geisha, but we can always imagine. Either way, standing next to these two felt like standing next to two moving statues - it was quite surreal.
Japanese tourists dressed in Kimonos for fun
Kiyomizu-dera: a beautiful temple complex in the hills of Kyoto