Kyoto and Osaka Japan, 4 days between the two - we needed more time!
We spent two days each in both Kyoto and Osaka Japan. I just fell in love with Japan. Tokyo was great but Kyoto and Osaka were equally great. Japan is just a fun country with a happy vibe. In both places, we wandered around walking or on the metro. Japan has a great metro line. It can be a little confusing because of the number of lines but each station has personnel there to help with directions. Both cities are near to each other and have a combined population of almost 20 million people. There is never any shortage of a crowd. Both cities are very clean and very modern. There are always streets of older residential homes and businesses but most areas we saw were very modern with a lot of large signs and flashing lights. I also think just about every child over 8 I saw had their own smart phone. It is just a wonderful feel of a progressive fun city.
In Kyoto, we went to a beautiful temple on a very rainy day Fushimi Inari-taisha. We wandered around the streets and through the temple grounds trying to take in as much history as we could. We took a guided tour with a dozen other tourist and learned about the modern-day Geishas and the training they go through. Our guide was quite pleased with himself that he is a photographer to some of the ladies and knows them personally. The history lesson about the difference between Buddhism and Shinto was great lesson for Bud. He had many questions and he enjoyed the answers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fushimi_Inari-taisha
In Osaka, we were close to a very fun area of town called Dotonbori. Dotonbori is like New York Time Square on steroids. That is how it was described on a tourist site and it lived up to its name. We saw many extremely large screens that looked like a massive tv on the side of building. At one point, we stopped to watch as it played a commercial and we were transfixed by the clarity as well as the massive size. I could have easily pulled up a chair, grabbed some popcorn and watched a movie. Everywhere we turned there were these large screens. Even larger than the screens were the crowd of young nicely dressed locals and tourists trying to take it all in. It was just a crazy people packed, flashing light, amazing area of restaurants, shops, entertainment and more. I have never been to New York Times Square and Bud informed me that now I will be disappointed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C5%8Dtonbori
Thank you for following our journey! Beth H.
