More assorted pictures. These were all taken in Kyoto.
Along Nishiki Food Market in Kyoto. The First Kitchen is a Japanese fast food restaurant chain, and we saw many of these outlets in the cities. Ling was especially intrigued by their specially flavored fries advertized. We did try out their fare in Osaka after our Kaiyukan visit, but concluded that their 'famous' bacon-egg burger was severely over-rated.At Arashiyama in Kyoto. When you're totting around a huge camera, the general assumption of people around you is that you can take pictures. Funnily, we saw a lot of people go to major tourist places all fishing out their handphones to take pictures, including of the Osaka nightline at the Floating Garden Observatory. Maybe camera phones have improved a lot, but I think those owners have severely over-estimated what those little camera sensors can do. This couple (the guy is Japanese but spoke pretty good English with an American accent) here got me to take a picture of them using his iPhone. Hope the shot turned out well.Part of the train network map in Kyoto. Not every train station had an equivalent English name labelled to it on these maps. This was especially true for the outerlying stations, and the printed maps we had didn't always include these stations too. What I routinely did was to use the E-PL1 to snap a picture of the map display on ticket terminals, and follow through the route using its camera LCD display in View mode.Along Shijo-Dori in Kyoto. No shortage of cabs in the main city area, though we routinely more often than not saw these cabs waiting at pick-up points (e.g. outside Mitsui Garden Hotel, outside department stores, major traffic junctions) than cruising about for street pick-ups. Whenever we exited our hotel in Kyoto in fact, there would be half a dozen taxis waiting outside, the first of which would have its passenger-side door automatically opened, as though beckoning for us to take a ride instead of bus and train transportation.Kyoto Tower in Kyoto, or what our Japan by Railway guide refers to as an eyesore. The book jokingly remarks that the only benefit of going up this tower is that it's the one and only place in Kyoto where you don't have to see the tower. At night though it looks real pretty.Kyoto Station in Kyoto. That gargantuan monster of a building, and so big that the only way to actually take a picture of the whole thing is to do a panoramic composition. The travel books we got all remarked on how much of an eye sore it also is, but I thought it looked pretty impressive - at least from the inside. In winter though, the almost open-air concept inside the Station made us shiver in the cold wind. Inside Kyoto Station and on Christmas Eve, just after our first dinner at Katsukura at the top level. A all girls Christmas band appeared dressed in appropriate costumes and started playing the seasonal songs. That was a ball of fun and a pleasant treat for us.:)Entrance 26 into Karasuma Subway Station in Kyoto. This was the most frequently used get on/off station for us in our Kyoto segment of our trip. It was a 6 minute (800m) brisk walk to the Mitsui Garden Hotel, though from this entrance point to the actual ticket terminal and gantry points, it was a further 2 minute walk through the subway underground passages. On three occasions, we got off at Kawaramachi Station and walked the additional distance (1.6 km in total) back to the hotel.
1 thought on “Japan, Dec 2010 – Assorted Pictures – Part 2”
haha, we also take a shot of bus times at the bus stop with iphone so that we know we should get back by what time to catch the bus (cos in some parts of Japan, the buses may not come every half or one hour)
haha, we also take a shot of bus times at the bus stop with iphone so that we know we should get back by what time to catch the bus (cos in some parts of Japan, the buses may not come every half or one hour)