kyoto pics!

Hey guys, so sorry for being so laggy with my posts..its so much effort loading up the pics! haha. settling into the dormitory here in APU for the past few days..so pretty much going on.. bear with me!

First night in Kyoto:

Our backpacker's inn was pretty near Gion, the famous district to catch Maiko-sans (apprentice geishas) :) didnt really see many that night.. just one or two.. pity we didnt get to take many pics cos it was too dark..

one of the many streets on Gion..

heh we just saw this car when we went out to get groceries .. cute eh?

gigantic bowl of ramen! (they called it the special ramen..haha)

the shop where we ate.. the shops are really narrow in japan!!

eh.. this was in gion too.. in front of a restaurant interesting displays in japan.. think the dog is some mythical character though..

okashi! japanese sweets.. they all too pretty to be eaten..

day 2 in kyoto:

we went to visit a couple of the famous temples .. we got lucky! guess what?

we found her!!

this is a maiko san... =) just happened to bump into her taking photos here at the golden temple..she was really nice! turned to smile at us when we were taking photos of her.. really pretty! can tell that she is even with all the white make up on her face.. heh

she agreed to take a picture with us! =) really got us in a super mood the entire day cos it was really rare to bump into a maiko san..

Kinkakuji.. Golden temple..really pretty..

this was at the kiyomizu temple.. think its one of , if not the most famous temple in kyoto..
(kyoto's famous for its temples if you'd already guessd by now.. :) )

weili and kane trying to sweep the smoke over their heads (this is said to be able to make you smarter.. or bring you good luck..heh)

in front of the wooden plaques for making wishes..

the plum flowers in full bloom =)

this is a really famous zen garden comprising of just a few rocks.. you're actually supposed to sit down and look at them, reflect and meditate a lil..apparently there are many different ways of intepretating the meaning behind these rocks. (which we didnt do ..haha)

kyoto university - Kyodai.

This is prob the country's second best univesity after Tokyo University.. campus was pretty cool.. bigger and older than smu..but still very much like a city university..we even ate in the cafeteria ( which wasnt very good actually.. kopitiam might be better even! )

more pics at the kiyomizu temple.. sun was setting by then.

kane and thor drinking the spring water from the mountains..

sunset at the kiyomizu temple..

we kept bumping into these 3 ladies to my left that day..the leftmost two are from malaysia but are currently working in singapore whilst the 3rd lady ia japanese.. we actually heard them speak singlish on the bus which is why we started a conversation with them!

After the visits we met up with another 3 jap girls (weili's friends) and they treated us to tofu nabe!

u mai!! (delicious! ) .. it was really really really good.. the girls were all really nice.. all very warm and friendly =) you guys should try this sometime.. hee

outside the tofu restaurant.. mmmmmmmmmm