Museum Hopper

We had a guided tour of the of the Sento Imperial Palace gardens and then headed to the Imperial Palace.  The palace is open to the public and is free to enter.  This also had a great headset and app option to learn about the grounds.   This was a last minute add to the schedule, but we really liked it.  Again, it was the first day we were in and it gave us again more of a foundation to understand the imperial and royal lineage.   This again was a walk of the grounds, but we could see into a few select buildings.  The audio guides were really helpful.  We used the app for this one with our own set of headphones.  I also recommend using the lockers to put your stuff in -- it really is nice to have a break on your shoulders! You can see me using my iPhone headset here!   The grounds were beautiful.  The time was well spent, it was free and provided a great overview of Japanese cultural design and histo...

One of the first things we saw in Kyoto was the Sento Imperial Palace Gardens . The gardens require that you apply to enter them in advance; we applied about three months in advance providing passport info and location where we are staying.  They only admit a limited number of visitors every day.  We also did one other tour, but the third palace was already at capacity. We had to arrive early for security.  It seemed like most of the visitors at the garden were actually Japanese.  The tour guide provided an in-person Japanese tour guide, whereas we got audio guides in English.  The audio guides were great.  They covered each of the main spots that the tour guide stopped to elaborate on key highlights.   The Sento Imperial Palace is where the crown prince and princess stay when they are in Kyoto.  The tour doesn't enter any buildings, but you cover the full walking garden and see inside some of the tea houses. The garden was...

On a rainy day, Jason and I decided to head to Osaka.  One of the places that was recommended to visit was the Osaka Museum of History.  I figured this would be a good review of the history of Japan and how large industrial cities have developed within Japan.   We headed over there as soon as we arrived in Osaka.  They really did not want us to wear our wet rain coats.  We found the logistics a little complicated.  While fine that we took the elevators to the top floor, we took escalators to the next floor down.  At the end though, it had us take the escalators down an additional six floors.  Each floor required multiple loops. The translation level to English was quite limited.  We found as well that parts of the museum were quite unedited.  It was challenging to understand how all the floors fit together.   In theory, it was walking us chronologically through the development of the Osaka.   One of the p...

The Kasuga Taisha shrine was our last stop before lunch (and my ankles gave out)!  This is actually a familial shrine of a wealthy family.  This shrine is famous for the number of lanterns, both stone and metal ones.   Their large ceremonies involve lighting up all the lanterns.  They gave us an idea of what it looks like with a dark room and a few lit lanterns with a wall of mirrors.  This photo isn't great, but it is the best we could do!    Just a beautiful shrine with great descriptions! Time in shrine: 1 hr Times visited: 1 Overall: A-

Jason and I did not spend much time in the  Nigatsu-do Shrine, but it sure did have a beautiful view!  It is somewhat on the edge of the hill with views of Nara Park and some of the other shrines and temples I have highlighted in this blog. It was not for the faint of heart though (or those requiring flat grounds) as it was one that had more than its fair share of steps, but I was prepared.  The stairs were beautiful with all the prayer stones lining it. The lanterns were beautiful at the top as well Most of our visit was devoted to the view.  As this was relatively adjacent to the other shrines we wanted to see, this was a great stop. Time in shrine: 30 minutes Times visited: 1 Overall: B+

We quickly moved on to Todai-ji Temple , which is also part of the UNESCO world heritage site and another one of the The scale of this temple was something.   Here is a picture of the main gate: I will just say, the main temple is HUGE.  It is also very distinctive with the golden horns on the top.  I have made this picture bigger than usual, so you can see that the little dots are actually people.  We read that this is the largest wooden structure in the world and the world's largest gilded Buddha.  At one point there were additional buildings on the left and right side that got destroyed making the building even larger! They did actually let us take pictures inside the shrine, which was relatively rare. Picture for scale!  These are the size of the petals at the bottom of the statue You might wonder what this picture is for.  Belief is that if you can fit through this hole in this pillar, you will have luck for life...

On our visit to Nara, this was the first place we stopped, the Kofuku-ji Temple .  The temple is part of the UNESCO heritage site of ancient Nara.   It is also one of the seven great temples in Nara.  This temple is directly on the way to the main park grounds in Nara. The temple is beautiful.  Unfortunately the main building was under construction, but we could still see the pagoda.   We did not go inside this shrine, but we did walk around the grounds.   We wish we could have spent more time at this shrine than we did.  It seemed like it had some beautiful buildings and artifacts. Time in temple: 30 minutes Times visited: 1 Overall: B+