Of all the temples I visited in Kyoto, the first and possibly the most impressive of them all was Fushimi Inari. Climbing up a 4km trail from ground level on the slopes of the Inari mountain, you’ll be awed by

Murin An Villa & KonchiIn Temple Gardens : Kyoto
The Kyoto temples are not just a place of worship, they are a place of beauty, contemplation, and spirituality. In almost every temple is a gorgeous Japanese garden made to calm the soul, lift the spirit and provide peace and

Gion Old Geisha District : Kyoto
Not much that’s left from the old Geisha world, atleast not for foreign tourist folks with my kind of budget, but if you’d like to see a bit of that, you’ll be able to get a glimpse at Gion –

Visions of Nara : Japan
This post concludes my visit to the lovely city of Nara – the ancient capital city of Japan, an hour south from Kyoto and east to Osaka. Temples, shrines, huge seated Buddhas, museums, Japanese gardens, and most importantly – deer,

The temples and shrines of Nara Park
Wrapping up my trip to Osaka-Kyoto, I spent a day touring the ancient city of Nara. Although smaller than Kyoto and with supposedly similar temple atmosphere, Nara has a lot to offer that is different from Kyoto. Most of what

Tōfuku-ji Temple : Kyoto
An endless collection of absolutely stunning temples all around Kyoto, it’s a magical city to walk around in with treasures in every street corner. Continuing my temple run is the relatively small and tranquil Tōfuku-ji Temple. The temple itself is

Kyoto International Manga Museum
To take a break from my Kyoto temple/castle run, I made my way into a small yet promising museum – the Kyoto International Manga Museum. I know very little about Manga, but living in Asia it is a phenomenon that’s

Mountain top Kiyumizu Dera Temple : Kyoto
To continue my Kyoto temple run, I went up the mountain to visit the lovely Kiyumizu Dera temple. To get to this temple you’ll go through some wonderful yet highly commercialized Japanese old-style shopping streets offering some of the local

The Japanese Gardens of Heian Jingu Shrine : Kyoto
Kyoto is a city filled with charm. Shrines, temples, castles, historical districts, you can spend weeks going from one attraction to another. To get started with my quick explorations of Kyoto, I’ll begin with something rather mild – the Heian

Osaka Castle & Osaka from above : Japan
After a 4 hour night flight with Peach, the relatively new budget airline flying between Hong Kong and Osaka, I had the whole morning to explore before checking in to my hotel to nap back my night, and I decided