Flowing Asia: Japan - Kyoto

Kyoto was the former capital of Imperial Japan and is ranked 11th of the world's most livable cities, there you go!
I had some last minute change of plan so I only had 1 day to visit Kyoto! And the weather forecast wasn't looking too promising. So I had to man up and brave the rain! I think it is possible to do an "express exploration" of the city and view the main sites in one day! I almost succeeded...



I started the day at Ponto-Cho, one of the old school streets of Kyoto. It looks very typical here, that's what we like! They say you can spot some (real) geishas around there, well, I didn't, so don't get too excited!
 

 

It's nice isn't it?
The closest thing to a Geisha I found is this statue of Izumo no Okuni, wikipedia is your friend!
 



Then I moved over the Nijo Castle. I didn't go in because of time constraints... This is all I saw:
Right next to that is the Kyoto Imperial Palace, with a nice park! There is only one thing I like about autumn: the colors are magnifique!




Now, we're getting to the good places. First we have Ginkakuji also know as the Silver Pavilion, even though the Shogun didn't have enough money to add silver to the building. That's like calling your car a Ferrari when you drive a Fiat Punto. Anyway, the gardens are beautiful!
 

And they rake the gravel nicely!
 




At that point, it started to piss it down, The tough life of a tourist!



My trainers were soaked but I decided to go for just one more! The Kiyomzu Temple:




And then I quit! I still had a few hours to go see the Golden Temple aka Kinkakuji but I gave up, I was too cold and tired.


Around Gion there's also some nice shopping galleries. This one is all about food, it's busy and it smells fishy!




In other news:
-I had never seen a car park like that! Stacking up vehicles like lego:

-Why would you put West facing upwards? That just makes things a lot more complicated:

-Some mega green Japanese bug!

 -Dinner is served:

-Cheeky church for the local religious minorities:
 
-Can't get more Japanese that that!

-Japanese ancestors maybe...

-Bottled milky tea... Errr, maybe not!




I also went back to Nagoya for a jam. They had breaking, house, hiphop and freestyle battles. For once I did ok losing in the semi finals and taking out the local big dogs! The most inspirational thing there was the bgirls, some of them would teach the boys a lesson, straight up! The freestyle battles were amazing too, very funny... Entry for competitors was 30 euros though, that broke my heart!
This is a picture of the breaking qualifiers:



Let's finish it off nicely. I very rarely post videos on here but in this case, I had no choice, a picture wouldn't be enough! When I saw a girl in the train do this, I couldn't believe it!!!



Yes, I am easily impressed!