Kyoto was the top destination I wanted to visit in Japan. It is the historical capital and so has lots of cultural things to see and do. We were staying in the Gion District in a lovely hostel called Ayado. The Gion district is where the Geisha's live and work. We were lucky to be there during the time of a festival so got to see some Maiko (geisha's in training) dances. On our first evening there we went out and explored the area, visiting the Yasaka Jinja Shrine and Maruyama park where festivities were going on. I also saw a folk parade of a fox (maybe Inari), went to Kodanji Zen temple to see a light show; And there was a man playing a japanese flute with a cute dog dressed as a samurai.

While we were in Kyoto for a week, I visited 20 buddhist temples with their beautiful Japanese gardens and shinto shrines. These included temples such as Choin-in Temple, Ginkaku Temple (with it's philosophers walk along a stream), Honen-In Temple, Higashi Hongan-Ji and Nishi Hongan Ji temples of the Pure Land Buddhism sect which contain the second largest wooden structure in Japan, Nanzenji Temple and Eikan-Do temple which includes a statue of the Amida Buddha with a turned head as well as great views over the city. Kiyomizu-dera temple with it's atmospheric streets walking up and the Ryogen-ji temple which contained four zen gardens including the smallest zen garden in the world. The shinto shrines I visited included Heian Jinja shrine which has a massive 40 ft orange torii gate and enshrines an emporer.

My favourite shinto shrine was Fushimi Inari Taishi. This was the number one sight I wanted to visit in Japan. The native traditional Japanese religion is called Shinto. Shinto is an animist religion which believes in worshipping many spirits called Kami. One of the most popular is Inari, who is often portrayed as a white fox. Inari is the Kami of rice and sake, prosperity, good harvest and, in modern times, business. The Fushimi Inari Taishi shrine is the number one Inari shrine (of 40,000) in Japan and also the place I most wanted to visit while here. The shrine is the gateway to Inari mountain, on which there are thousands of bright orange Torii gates leading up the paths. These have been donated by businesses and wealthy individuals who are hoping for prosperity or giving thanks for it.

My favourite buddhist temple in Kyoto was Kinkaku-Ji. This is a beautiful temple covered in gold and built right next to a large lake and landscaped garden. It was by far the most awe inspiring thing I saw in Kyoto and one of the two highlights of my trip there. There was also a tea house there where I had some green Matcha tea. Afterwards I went to nearby Ryoan-Ji to see the famous Zen garden there - basically a few rocks in the middle of a "sea" of small raked stones. Very simple and meditative.

A final highlight of Kyoto included a (far too expensive) 45 minute show highlighting seven traditional aspects of Japanese culture including the tea ceremony, puppet show, Maiko dances, funny play about servants who drink their masters sake, court music, flower arranging and playing traditional Kato instruments.

After Kyoto we had planned a trip to Mount Fuji, but we decided to go straight to Tokyo so we could avoid having to use a night bus. We did manage to catch a brief glimpse of Mount Fuji on our way though which was cool. The journey however turned into a bit of a nightmare anyway because around 6 hours into the 8 hour day-bus trip, there was an unexplainable build up of traffic which had us almost stationary for two hours (it wasn't an accident, it wasn't rush hour and it wasn't near enough Tokyo to be general traffic). This eventually cleared and turned it into a 10 hour journey. When we eventually got there we had two trains to catch and got lost looking for our accommodation. Eventually we did find it - a capsule hotel.

Japan is interesting because it has capsule style hotels where instead of a room, you get a reasonably large capsule to sleep in, complete with TV, wifi and radio. The capsule hotel also had an onsen (hot baths) which was cool. We stayed there for two nights before moving on to our next capsule hotel closer to the centre of Tokyo. This was in Ueno, a park famous for having many museums around and being a prime sight for seeing the cherry blossoms which were due to bloom later that week. We decided to do some sightseeing that afternoon and went to the Government Metropolitan building which has a viewing platform where you can look out over the whole of Tokyo for free. We got some great pictures. Then we went to Shibuyu to see the famous road crossing and the statue of a dog called Hachiko. Finally we ended with a walk to the famous Takeshi-ta street.

While in Tokyo I visited a couple of Museums - the National Museum of Tokyo and the Edo-Tokyo Museum. Both were excellent and I learned a lot about Japanese culture and history. Tokyo used to be called Edo and the Edo Museum contained big full size replica's of buildings that once featured in the town in that era. I also visited the very tiny Sumo Museum at the main Sumo Stadium. LIke Kyoto, I also visited some buddhist temples including the beautiful Senso-Ji temple and Zojo Temple, as well as the temple of the 47 Ronin (from the famous film) where the graves of the 47 Ronin are. I also visited the famous Meiji shrine where a 19th century emporer and empress are enshrined.

Towards the end of the week we visited Ueno Park to go to the Zoo and see some Panda's. We also saw the beautiful cherry blossoms in bloom. On our last day we met up with friend, Sofus, from Denmark, whom we had met in a hostel in Seoul in Korea a few months earlier, and visited Kawasaki to see the Kanamara Matsuri festival. This is a shinto festival which was originally a festival for sex workers to come and pray for protection from STD's but has now become a tourist draw. As might be expected, it featured a parade with a giant phallus and we queued for a very long time to buy an interesting lollipop shaped like a particular part of the body. It was quite a funny day. Unfortunately that was our last experience of Japan as we left the following day on a 7 hour flight to Bangkok….but that's a subject for my next blog.