Kyoto - Osaka

Arashiyama again, this time on a rainy day

Russ holding up a bridge in Arashiyama.

View from the Romantic Train in Arashiyama

A shrine to the Ewoks!

Kyoto's Gion district. Red lamps mean FOOD!

Buildings on the grounds of the Kyoto Imperial Palace

Another building near the Imperial Palace.  This one has a copper roof to protect against the all-too-frequent fires.

Imperial Palace gardens

Speaking of fires, a monk burned down the gold-covered Kinkaku-Ji temple because he was obsessed with it.

We took a train to Kibune, then hiked through the mountains to Kurama.  
It took me over an hour; Gaetan did it later without me in 15 minutes - show off!

As we descended into Kurama, the path turned into a temple stairway lined with lanterns.

The Kurama temple seems to be associated with elephants. We continued on down to Kurama's onsen,
then we soaked in the baths fed by natural hot springs.  No swimsuits allowed, so no photos of the baths!
Now, on to OSAKA!

Here's the view from our Osaka room that cost $18 per person.  You can see the metro on the tracks to the right,
and what appears to be a roller coaster with tracks to the left!  (We never saw it operating, though.)

The first day in Osaka we went to the aquarium to see the two huge whale sharks, about 15' - 18' long, I think.

A sunfish, one of the weirdest critters I've ever seen.

Manta ray.  Wikipedia says the Osaka Aquarium is one of the biggest in the world.
The tanks used in the aquarium are made of 314 tons of acrylic - roughly 1.5 times
the world's annual production.  The largest single pane used weighs about 10 tons!

Near the aquarium was an enormous Ferris wheel.  
Wikipedia has it listed as being 370', making it the 12th highest in the world.

View of the angular red & blue aquarium building from the Ferris wheel.

View of Osaka from the Ferris wheel

A restaurant tank with fugu puffer fish, the kind that kill a few people each year if they aren't prepared right.
Dinner, anyone?

At the history museum, you can try on a replica of an old samurai helmet.

Osaka Maritime Museum with one of their unique double-hulled boats on display outside.

Whimsical ceramic ship at the Osaka Maritime Museum

Gaetan poses as a boatman in a tableau at the Osaka Maritime Museum.
 Try as he may, he couldn't get out of the harbor!

They constructed a working replica of an old ship, sailed it around the bay,
then lifted it with a crane into the center of the Maritime Museum.

We rode to the top of this 58-story building.

We got a great view of the harbor and the Maritime Museum - the glass dome surrounded by water.

This robot in the Osaka Technology Museum solves Rubik's Cubes!

We took a river cruise at sunset as the neon was just gearing up.

More Osaka neon.

River cruise in Osaka with Gaetan's favorite mock rope-bridge.

A curious glass pyramid in the park by the Osaka Zoo.

Garden outside the Osaka Zoo

This rhino had only a 3' fence and no moat!  What keeps him in?  Japanese mind control??

For all you cat-lovers out there, a photo of Japanese cats doing what cats do best.

It was spring, and the male giraffe was doting on the female,
and the male ostrich was hovering around another long-necked beauty.

The birds in the aviary had built nests on every tree branch, so the rest had to settle for the roof structure.

This odd-looking Malay sun bear is a pretty skinny bear!  They don't hibernate since their habitat is always hot.
They have 10"- long tongues that help help them to extract honey from beehives.

The zoo is tucked right into the heart of the city, as evidenced by the construction going on behind the wall.

We weren't sure if these devices were meant to suck our brains out or what...

What appears to be a stick coming out of this bird's head is actually part of his plumage.

The zookeeper is making a very sincere, Japanese-style apology for an empty cage.  
Note the small phonetic hiragana over the more complex non-phonetic kanji so schoolkids can read the signs, too.

Fish kites flying in the breeze.

The zoo renders homage to the Planet of the Apes?

A herd of the most feared creature in the Osaka Zoo - the Japanese schoolchild!
They practiced their English lessons on us & we had to sign their workbooks.

The Japanese embrace new technologies faster than the US, especially when it has to do with
cleanliness - we LOVED the high-tech toilets with warmed seats and built-in bidets.  Now, the
machines in this photo look like ordinary clothes washers, right?  Well, get this - each machine
washes AND dries AND folds your clothes!  (Haha - I'm just kidding about the folding... or am I?)

Japan was a totally awesome place to visit. The people are friendly and helpful, the food is
indescribably delicious, the culture is fascinating and it is not as expensive as rumor has it.
Less expensive than the US, in fact. Thank you, Alfredo-san, for setting us on this path!

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