Kyoto by night...

So after my 6 hour riding adventure, I showered up and got on the train to Kyoto to go meet with some Japanese friends for dinner. It was my mom's birthday, so I thought I should have a celebratory meal in her honour. We ended up eating in Gion (the main Geisha district) but not until about 9:30 because it was so busy that we couldn't get in anywhere. In the mean time, we went exploring...

This is me with Toshiko and Hiroko in Kyoto. It's funny Toshiko speaks English well, but Hiroko is still learning so we end up speaking some hybrid language between Japanese and English. Toshiko ends up having to do a lot of tranlating too!

So during the fall when all the leaves are changing, they light up some of the temples in Kyoto at night for your viewing pleasure. I couldn't beleive how many busy it was - and with Japanese people!


It's hard to get pictures in this kind of light that do the scene justice, but it really was quite beautiful with this little pond. All the Japanese people were taking pictures with their cell phones (they have 2.0 megapixel cameras in them plus TV, video, internet, music player etc etc.)

Blurry walkers at night...

We went to some other cool spots afterwards too, but my camera battery died =(
Having seen a few temples by day, I would almost say it's better going at night. But the crowds sort of take away from the traquil temple experience.