Taipei, A Street View

A street view of Taipei out of our bus window as we travelled along. This part of town looked a little old and also busy.

A Street View

A street view now of some local shops,  taken through the window of the coach we were travelling in, We were on our way to the Shurijo Castle Park for some more Japanese history and culture.

Processional Walk to Hosomon Gate

We had detoured around the processional walk for our own private adventure, and came back onto it just before the Hosomon Gate. The Hosomon Gate is the second, larger, more elaborate gate that leads to the Sensoji Temple, and is found at the other end of the processional walk. One side is still lined with shops, while the other is lined with art work on the fence.

A Shopping Lane

Branching off the processional walk to the Sensoji Temple was another shopping lane way. In this section the shops were more every day, not full of trinkets aimed at the tourist. It went for quite a distance, and the higher levels makes me think there may have been even more shops above. We turned the corner though, and went up another lane way parallel to the processional walk.

Sensoji Temple Processional Walk

This is the view up the processional walk to the Sensoji Temple. The walk is lined with shops selling all kinds of things to the tourists. We could buy all kinds of food, trinkets and souvenirs, in all kinds of prices.

It was starting to get late and we can see the sun very low. I was admiring the colour in those autumn leaves until I realised just how regular they were. I was too busy looking in all the shops to check out the leaves properly.

Asakusa Street View

As we continued our walk of discover in Asakusa, we had to cross a road to get to our next destination. How many pedestrian crossing markings do we need? I guess they were telling us that
j-walking was allowed.

A City View

This is the view across the park towards to city of Tokyo, as taken from the car park for the Imperial Palace. Notice the lack of windows above a certain height? we were told that this is so the occupants of these buildings cannot look down upon the Emperor. Mmmm......... Interesting.

Note the blue sky, the typhoon had gone and the day was beautiful, warm and sunny.

Tokyo - A Street View

A street view of Tokyo taken from a bus window. We were now on a bus tour to see the city highlights. Another full day tour, so another busy day with a good night's sleep at the end.

This was the view as we left the tour company headquarters. Similar to most modern cities, tall buildings, fire escapes, new buildings being constructed. Also interesting to note the Japanese drive on the left hand side of the road the same as we do here in Australia.

Kyoto Laneways

After our taxi tour of Kyoto, we were dropped off in a main street with lots of car traffic & even traffic lights, From there we walked through narrow, tiny back streets looking for the restaurant we were booked into for dinner. As we walked ( not too far thank goodness!) the lane-ways became narrower & narrower. Such a contrast in a very short space.

The restaurant  was a Japanese BBQ type place, and between certain times it became an "all you can eat" ( & drink!) for a certain price. Our trusty guide had became aware of this place long before we left home, and after having a vegetarian lunch, the men in our group were hungry for meat.

When we arrived, there were a few small plates of very thin meat set upon tables with a BBQ in the center to cook it ourselves. ( I had been to Korean BBQ before ) Not a worry, the men in our group outnumbered the women, and they soon got busy. Within 5 minutes the first plates had disappeared and we were asking for refills. The poor waitress I think feigned "no English" to keep the time spread out, but with hungry Aussie men there was no hope of this happening. The "all you can eat" time frame was one and a half hours, and by the end of it we were all stuffed silly and quite a few were under the weather.

This was the end of a very long day, and from here we left by taxi to go back to the hotel for a long hot shower and a good night's sleep. Tomorrow would be another long day.

Sunset Over Kyoto

It was late in the afternoon when we walked up the narrow street in Gion, Kyoto, Japan. As we walked up the hill we turned & looked back to see this stunning view. If you click on the pic, you will see Kyoto, a great mix of the old and the new.