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=0=| Our next visit was on our way home when we visited Japan. We were impressed by the temples in Japan as they were much less ornate without the bright colors of Taiwan (and Thailand was even more ornate than Taiwan). On our return from Korea we visited Kyoto, the traditional capital of Japan. This is a medium size temple in Kyoto. |
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| This is a more massive temple. On the left below there is a more common shrine that you might see in garden most everywhere in Kyoto and, presumably, the rest of Japan. My interpretation of the subtle colors and exterior decorations was that the exterior was the place of mankind and was plain and more drab. In contrast the interior was the place of gods and was more ornate with bright colors and decorations (more heaven like). |
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| We were not able to visit the interior of the temples and shrines but in this case I was able to get a view of the interior of one (above). In Kyoto there were numerous Japanese gardens with scuplted trees and pagodas. When we visited Japan it was November and we got the added benefit of the fall colors. |
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| In Kyoto there are numerous gardens and pools and making everything very lovely. When we were viewing this slide we had a hard time figuring out which way was up as the pool was so calm. The temple below was different from the rest in that it was painted a bright red.. There were also a lot of kids in school uniforms. They were virtually idientical to the Korean school uniforms except that the girls had pelated skirts. After see so many Korean school kids in the their plain black skirts it really shocked us. We were also happy to see a Japanese woman in their traditional dress along with her kids. |
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| There were two kids in traditional Japanese dress that everyone was taking pictures of, but I wanted to get a picture of their mom who is in the background of this picture. Japanese tended to wear traditional dress less than Koreans who, other than elderly people, only generally wore traditional dress on holidays. In the pictures below you can see the kids as well as two women which in what is probably true traditional kimonos (not dress kimonos). |
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| Of course there are the expected pictures from the Kyoto zoo. This is of a giraffe that was really exercising his tongue to get some extra greenery into his diet. Below is a moneky island and an otter (which doesn't look very elegant out of water). That wraps up our visit to Japan. We stayed in a hostel (as prices were really high in comparison to what we were used to in Korea). It was a traditional style with mats on the floor and so on. WE met a really lovely young woman who we enjoyed visiting with, but I didn't take any pictures. Doh! |
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This page was last updated on October 7, 2005.
