Things to do in Tokyo/Kyoto

[Dinner]

Oh, you might also want to visit Yasukuni-jinja, the Shinto shrine to Japan's war dead that honors a handful of war criminals and sparks protests in Korea and China whenever a Japanese Prime Minister decides to visit and pay his respects. The fact that you visited will allow you to easily troll Chinese and Koreans for the rest of your life, and the shrine has a pretty good war museum with an interesting Japanese nationalist bias that wasn't nearly as overt as I was hoping for.

Yeah, that was the war memorial shrine I spoke about earlier.

[Tupac Shakur]

No ****, you dip****.

[Guynemer]

Well played

[Dinner]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roppongi

Roppongi was a different part of Tokyo.

[VetLegion]

Write some sort of report when you get there... would love to see
Japan from close, if only it wasn't on the other part of the world and
so damn expensive.

[DaShi]

They'd never let you in.

[Tupac Shakur]

Two days is not enough time to see Kyoto; let's just get that out of the way right from the start. There are great sights scattered all throughout the city, and nearby areas like Nara and Uji are equally worthy of attention. I'm going to restrict myself to listing just the best of the best, but know that I'm only scratching the surface.

I'd recommend spending an entire day on the Higashiyama (東山 - Eastern Mountain) area, probably the single greatest sightseeing spot in all of Japan. I'm going to list the best places from south to north (as if you're coming from the train station), but you can go the opposite direction just as easily depending on where your hotel is.

Sanjūsangendō (三十三間堂) lies in between Kyoto Station and Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺) and across the street from the Kyoto National Museum. The museum is great and has an excellent collection of Asian art, but is probably not worth the opportunity cost for you on this trip. Sanjūsangendō definitely is, however, as you're never going to see a thousand life-sized statues anywhere else.

Kiyomizu-dera is also worth your time; this is the quintessential Kyoto temple and the southern endpoint of one of the best walks in the city. The walk follows a series of scenic stairways and alleys and ends at Yasaka-jinja (八坂神社) and Maruyama-koen (円山公園). Yasaka-jinja is a very famous Shinto shrine and marks the eastern edge of the Gion (祇園) district, famous for its geishas. This is a great area for eating, shopping, and just walking around.

Next, I'd recommend heading to Nanzen-ji (南禅寺), one of my favorite places in all of Japan. This was the Goldman Sachs of 1300s Japan; the Zen temples of Kyoto were given a monopoly on trade with China by the shogun and Nanzen-ji itself was given the highest rank. The wealth that the temple accrued as a result is still evident in the expansive grounds (formerly an Imperial villa) and the lovely gardens hidden away in several sub-temples (Nanzen-in and Tenju-an are my favorites).

Just north of Nanzen-ji is Eikan-do (永観堂), another personal favorite. This place is breathtaking when the trees turn in the fall, but I think you're going to be a bit too early for that. It might still be worth a stop if you find you really like visiting temples, but I'd otherwise recommend passing it by.

Just northeast of Eikan-do is the southern end of the Tetsugaku-no-michi (哲学の道 - Philosopher's Path), another one of the best walks in Kyoto. Wind your way north along the canal and you'll eventually reach the area around Ginkaku-ji (銀閣寺 - Silver Pavillion), the last five-star attraction in Higashiyama. This was the personal villa of one of the richest Ashikaga shoguns and is considered the ultimate representation of the refined Kyoto culture of the Muromachi period.

While Kyoto is pretty thin on nightlife, Gion is a good option if you want to go out after a long day of sightseeing. However, I'd recommend you check out Pontocho (先斗町) on the opposite side of the Kamo River instead. The main drag of Pontocho is a long, narrow alley that's really cool to walk around at night, and the area is a little less stuffy than Gion can be, having long played second fiddle to its more famous neighbor across the river. This is the Canada of geisha districts, and I mean that in the best possible way.

So ends the first installment. In the second, I'll lay out the best sights in the rest of the city.

[Tupac Shakur]

Useful map of the area I just covered...

[DaShi]

I feel the same way every time I argue with Asher, gribby, or dashi about econ...

We can't help it that you know absolutely nothing about economics.

Anyway, wealth redistribution is good. I mean look at how popular Robin Hood remains to this day.

[Egbert]

There are kittens all over Japan. Let us hope not too many are stomped during this visit.

[BlackCat]

Hope you tried some shibari - it should be very relaxing

[Tupac Shakur]

Sorry, but this second installment will have to be cursory as I'm about to leave for the weekend.

Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺, Golden Pavilion) is the second-best gold-covered building in Japan. The best is stuck in a small temple up in the earthquake devastated north, however, so I'd suggest you see this one.

Ryoan-ji (龍安寺) has the most famous/photographed Zen dry garden in the world. The temple itself is nothing to write home about, but seeing the garden in person is very cool and deja-vu inducing.

Nijo-jo (二条城) is the Kyoto palace of the first Tokugawa shogun who is buried in Nikko. He spared no expense building and decorating this palace in order to shock and awe visitors.

To-ji (東寺) was the first major temple run by Japanese folkhero/ubermensch Kukai. Has the tallest pagoda in Japan and possibly the greatest individual collection of Buddhist art of any temple in the country, including two famous mandala supposedly painted by Kukai himself.

Byodo-in (平等院) is not technically in Kyoto, but I still have to list it if I'm including the best of the area. Uji is only a little south of Kyoto and there's a reason this building is the one they put on the back of the 10 yen coin.

Alright, that's the very best that Kyoto has to offer. Hope you guys enjoy your trip. I'm out.

[MattBowron]

Go to Chiba with your laptop/iPhone/iPad/iPod and read William Gibson's Neuromancer and sigh

[Tupac Shakur]

Chiba is a ****ing boring suburb. Don't go there.

[KrazyHorse]

Drake: thanks vm for all this info. Will definitely be going into my planning.