Home ·· News Room ·· Prints ·· Licensing ·· Gallery ·· About Us ·· Contact Us ·· Articles ·· Services Japan stock photography trip, March 25 - April 4, 2005 Updated June 6, 2007 Page 1 of 5 Next page
	Japan Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Himeji, Miyajima March 25 - April 4, 2005 (Exchange rate: 111Y per dollar) © 2007 Aaron Linsdau Click here to see the Japan gallery Click here to download the whole Japan April 2005 report in Acrobat PDF   Click here to read the Japan November 2005 trip report. Friday, March 25, 2005 Flew out of San Diego at 10am, through LAX at 1230pm and didn't arrive into Tokyo until March 26, at 530pm! It was a good, boring flight. The Boeing 777 is great for spaciousness. Saturday, March 26, 2005 Narita airport is huge. The airplane taxiing seems several miles long and the terminal is far from the landing area. Getting through customs and immigration is a cakewalk. I activated my Japan Rail (JR) pass and found my way to the Narita express to Shinjuku station, Tokyo. It was an hour twenty minutes to Shinjuku. Wow, the airport is really far from the center of the city. I got to Shinjuku station, found Wendy, flashed the JR pass to get out and I was in the depths of Japan. Awesome. We stopped by her apartment, dropped the backpack and headed off to dinner. It was a real Japanese dinner, dominated by tofu and rice. That seemed to be a common theme there. We wandered a bit and got to be pretty late. I've been up for 24+ hours at this point. I'm totally wasted! Sunday, March 27, 2005 Wendy and I took the Shinkansen (bullet) train down to Kyoto. That thing flies. Here's the list of things we saw while wandering around today: Ginkakauji Temple (Silver temple) Philosopher's path Nanzenji Aqueduct brick structure Walked to the river past the museum and then headed for the royukan, a Japanese hotel, to drop our bags. We then walked to Nijo castle which is wonderfully lit at night. We wandered around there for a few in the dark, ran into the first experience with Japanese xenophobia and then headed to a Ramen shop for supper. It was quite warm inside compared to the cool evening air. I had my first bath experience at the Ryokan in Kyoto. Just like the movies (isn't everything?) where you wash yourself off with a scrubber while sitting on a stool, then hop into a large boiling hot tub to take the edge off the day. Monday, March 28, 2005 Another day of wandering around Kyoto brought us to these places: Arashyama - Katsuna Tenruyji, the garden walk We went for lunch and had Yudofuteshoku (I can't remember what this was) Then we enjoyed green tea mocha and vanilla soft serve ice cream I love the irony of our experience. We spent quite a while waiting in the rain for the bus to take us around the town, but after some time we decided to walk. As always, about 10 minutes later the bus passed us as we were walking. It's funny how that works, especially when you're walking in the rain. We finally caught another bus to Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion. This temple is completely covered in gold leaf, likely the only structure like it in the world. Then we headed over to the Gion district and ate Dango (rice slime balls) with Kinako. They were quite appetizing and were served on bamboo skewers. While covering myself in sticky rice, a Maiko, an apprentice Geisha, came by and I was able to get a photograph out of her. That was to be one of the best shots I took the whole trip. All the time it was lightly raining across the city, adding a little sparkle to the experience. We wandered down alleyways and headed for the river, down to Pontocho and ate Shabu Shabu, sashimi, fruit and beer. What an excellent meal for supper. While walking back to the hotel, Wendy told me to "Run, just run - that way!" Not being one to ignore instructions, I began running down the darkened alleyway toward an unknown objective. Quickly, I realized that Wendy had directed me to run and catch another Maiko. After standing there for a moment, I was able to grab a poor flash picture of her and the Maiko's handler mother whisked her down an alleyway into an unmarked door. They were gone, and I was standing in the rain pondering the experience in silence. Wendy finally caught up, knocked me out of my stupor and we headed back to the ryokan. Tuesday, March 29, 2005 The clean up and breakfast crews breezed through our room and we enjoyed the traditional Kyoto breakfast and then caught a taxi to the train station. Because we woke up late, we blasted out of the ryokan to make the train. Wendy had to be there because she had to get back to Tokyo in time for work. She had everything planned down to a 15 minute window. Japan has trained her quite well. It was cutting it close for me but I didn't know what I was doing, either. Fortunately, Wendy was able to secure me a direct ticket to Hiroshima so I didn't have to figure too many things out. This saved me the trouble of getting lost in Osaka station. Next page
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