Here's some slightly belated photos from my Japan trip. Last October me and the then-gf, now fiancée went to japan, Kyoto, and Kinosakionsen. This is a very pruned-down selection of photos:

Here's a spot near Akihabara, not too far from the first place we stayed at. That area is a very iconic bit of metropolitan Tokyo. Everything is shopping, games, or themed cafes, and it all has 5+ stories.

pushing back the dark

There are many cat cafes (we stopped at one too, also a maid cafe) but there are also owl cafes.

Obligatory Japanese toilet controls. Not at all confusing the first time.

We went to Ueno Park one day, which was massive and a very nice change from the urban cacophony of the surrounding area. There was a cool market going on, and various shrines. Shrines are dispersed all throughout the city actually. You'll turn the corner in a dense skyscraper-filled block and see a shrine.

Odaiba has it's own statue of liberty.

We also went up into the Fuji buidilng ball

Gundam

Next we took the bullet train to Kyoto.

The hostel/hotel we stayed at there was great. You could get a $4 glass of Hibiki Whiskey at the lobby. They also had an elaborate self-grind and pour-over coffee and tea bar and small public bath. It was super close to the Kyoto train station which was a very cool center of activity.

Nishiki market in Kyoto

bamboo forest

Kinkakuji

Fushimi Inari Taisha, thousands of red tori gates all the way up the mountain

We also took a tram up to nearby Enryakuji, which was a very cool day trip. The temple itself was encased in a large secondary structure for preservation, so it was hard to get anything of the exterior. The tram operator was a Disney princess.

The view up there was amazing

On a side note, at the end of a long day walking around we stopped at CoCo Curry House and I had probably the best curry of my life. At this point we were thoroughly shrined and templed-out.

Then we took a train to Kinosakionsen. There they have hotsprings and traditional bath houses. We stayed in a ryokan. Probably one of the most relaxing and memorable points in the trip. The town itself was very enchanting and quite small. Here was the view from our room:

Part of the Ryokan service was elaborate, traditional Japanese Kaiseki which was both great and challenging at times. One of the dinners was a strange sea snail thing?

This was breakfast:

After that we went back to Tokyo before departing. I'm already itching to go back again.