Getting to Arashiyama

We catch the the private Keifuku Arashiyama train / tram to Arashiyama. A cute one carriage light rail. More tram than train. It travels along a dedicated line for most of the trip and in the middle of the road for some of the way.

Back to Kyoto from Arashiyama... finally.

This day has been pretty full on and it still isn't over. First we head back to Kyoto on the Keifuku Railway from Arashiyama after buying a hot cafe au lait from a vending machine (hot and cold drinks from the same machine). Then it is the subway to Starbucks for another coffee and a break before Michelle snaps the sunset below from our hotel room. I think we both look plum tuckered out, which is a polite way of saying rooted, but we still have to go out for dinner. Oh yeah baby. I could eat a horse. Not that we've had horse here yet. Just about everything else though. I had horse once though. Parma, Italy. It was okay but I wouldn't go out of my way to have it again. But I digress.

Experimenting with the camera at the Arashiyama bamboo forest

Experimenting with panning and snapping with low shutter speeds. Forgot to mention I have a new camera for this trip. A Panasonic Lumix LX3. I'm still shooting a majority of my HD video on my ol' Sony HVRA1P but the Lumix shoots 720P HD video for those occasions when I don't want to can't carry the bigger vid cam around as well.

Another day another sojourn on the subway...

But it is fun. Half the fun is trying to find your way around when half the ticket machines or signs aren't in English. But like anything, you do it once and you're an expert. Until, that is, you fudge it up again. People watching is the other attraction. By the way, Michelle is enjoying herself she just doesn't appreciate me sticking a camera in her face every five minutes. Today we're heading to the Tenryuji Zen temple at Arashiyama and the bamboo forest behind the temple. But first we've got to get there.

Returning to Arashiyama from the bamboo forest

Some scenery, some more experimentation and snacking on soy bean ice cream and sticky sweet rice dumplings. The rickshaw boys and girls are certainly accommodating when it comes to photos. A friendly bunch. It has got to be hard work pulling a rickshaw. I've noticed that when they're touting for fares they never ask me. There must be a reason for that. ;-)

Tenryuji Zen Temple - Arashiyama

Tenryuji is another Zen temple in the Kyoto region. This one is a World Heritage site with beautiful gardens and ponds full of huge, like they could take your arm off sized, carp - orange, red, black and white ones. The pink plum blossoms are particularly pretty. We've been getting plum blossoms twigs as garnish on some of the dishes we've been eating. It's a bit early for the cherry blossom season. The temperature has reason considerably the last couple of days. When we arrived in Tokyo we were getting maximums of 3 and 5 degrees. Since we've been in Kyoto the max temp has jumped to between 14 and 20 degrees C. T-shirt weather.