Visiting Japan: 2 weeks in Kyoto and Nara Part 1. By AJ Hartley

Ever wondered if there was enough to occupy you in one small region of Japan? Get a glimpse of Kyoto and Nara's immense wealth of attractions here.
Part 2 is here: • 2 weeks in Kyoto and N...
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[@user-azrhino1943]

The craftsmanship is so awesome. As I understand it, much of the architecture was built without using nails, but pegs and interlocking features. Amazing.

[@AndrewHartley]

Yes. There's a particularly cool carpentry museum in Kobe which show cases the joints used, though some of that was on display in the Kyoto crafts museum too. Amazing workmanship.

[@antispeedrun]

WOW! So cool, so beautiful. I think I mentioned previously that I went to Japan once for study abroad, not sure if I mentioned that I was there for six months. Never been back since, but I would love to visit again at least once more in this lifetime. This brought back so many memories for me and evoked such a sense of peace and awe. Kyoto and Nara were easily among my top three locations I visited (the third being Minokamo, which a friend and I stumbled upon by accident during a layover -- cool little zodiac statues and statue-sized waterfalls everywhere, and the town just randomly had music playing in the background wherever you went!) Also, I had no idea Osaka was so close to Kyoto and Nara!! I never got to go to Osaka and, hearing about the town's reputation for quirkiness, I've long regretted that I missed out on it. Shrines and temples were always two of my favorite places to visit as well, and the gardens were really cool too. I personally resonate a bit more with Shinto than I do with Buddhism, not that I don't also appreciate Buddhism as well, so I find I generally prefer the shrines to the temples, but they're both fantastic. I also rather liked the small number of baths and onsen I visited. I can't recall the name of the village, but there was some snowy northern village we visited for a week in the middle of winter, and this one onsen in particular was way up high above a river, like maybe a good hundred feet or so, lined with rock, with spotlights down on the ground pointed up at us, and the snow falling down from above, and it was such a serene moment. Wherever it was, they also had a frozen waterfall (an actual waterfall, not an art installation) with water running through the middle, which was only accessible by pulling yourself up along a rope that was secured to the side of a very steep climb. I really enjoyed watching the deer in this! I feel like I must've fed them too because I can't imagine I would've passed it up, but it's been like 20 years and I'm not sure. And I think my OCD might've been bad enough back then that I just dropped the food on the ground rather than holding out my hand? Which, now that I'm recalling it, feels like such a huge missed opportunity! That wouldn't be an issue anymore, and it looked like so much fun! One did try to eat my map though, and a moment later it tried to eat my shirt. When you mentioned your map I laughed and was like, "relatable" What do the stones at Kofukuji signify?! Those were so cool! A lot of the sites, like the torii path and the inari jinja, those were familiar to me, and I'm not sure but I might've visited that same Buddha statue (at the very least, I visited another large one like it, I'm not sure how many there are), but those stones caught me completely off guard! They're really pretty, whatever they are. Life is as busy as ever, so it might take me a little while to get around to it, but I'm really looking forward to part 2!

[@AndrewHartley]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. Not sure about the stones. I don't always keep good notes and the guide books and materials we always pick up aren't very well organized because the summer was so hectic. Sorry! Glad the video brought back good memories though.

[@otobokegaijin6218]

Nice views. Your visit seems to have coincided with the end of the rainy season and the climate phenomenon that ended it: the blasting forth of the Western Pacific Subtropical High-not the ideal period weather-wise for a visit and thus not peak tourist season. You were lucky to largely avoid or escape the tourist horde, many of whom are with tour groups or on tight schedules and don't have the time or the inclination to explore. Overtourism was a problem in Japan pre-Covid and is on its way back to being so post-Covid, compounded by a lack of long-distance bus drivers and of taxi drivers, many of whom quit the business during the Covid doldrums. The Nara deer are a nuisance, frankly, and many locals don't like them.

[@radwong6940]

30:26 This temple is Gangoji Temple. From a Nara Prefecture resident.

[@AndrewHartley]

Thanks. Some of my notes get confused where I was going multiple temples in a day!

[@radwong6940]

Recommended for your next trip to Nara Horyu-ji Temple Asuka region Yoshino region The further south you go in Nara, the deeper its history becomes.

[@AndrewHartley]

Thanks!

[@funnytoss]

I'm currently in Shikoku for the first time and absolutely melting! It is interesting to visit less traveled places away from the large cities on the mainland, though I hope to find myself back in Kyoto when crowds are more reasonable...

[@AndrewHartley]

I have to say it was close to unbearable and I can't understand why it never seemed this hot/humid before, though on days when it was overcast and we could get into the mountains the difference was immense. Enjoy Shikoku. I was there a few years ago and it was the first time I'd ever found really extensive areas of something as close to wilderness as I've seen in Japan. Wonderful. And mostly tourist free.

[@ralfklonowski3740]

Around 4:00: The eternal tourist paradoxon: You travel somewhere but loathe others who do as you do. I get your point, though. Too many visitors destroy or rather obscure any magic the place might have.

[@AndrewHartley]

yep. The irony of contributing to the very problem just by being there is to wasted on me.

[@technosworld2]

Did you use any specific guides to find the less populated areas or just found as you went along? I've been to Kyoto twice but mostly stayed in the more central areas (and it was less crowded back then)

[@AndrewHartley]

Not really. Online map apps followed by a little research, or local brochures (some available from hotels or the local tourist information center). Most don't make the big guide books but a few do. A few were recommended to us by local people as we wandered.

[@artex98]

Professor, your next trip should go either to Atlanta, GA, on the 13th of October or to Washington DC on the 11th of October ...😁

[@AndrewHartley]

Are those concert dates? Who is playing?

[@artex98]

@@AndrewHartley It is Atarashii Gakko on their Word Tour Part II (this is my third attempt to answer your question - the other two simply did not show up)

[@AndrewHartley]

@@artex98 Ah! Yes, I'm actually seeing them in Chicago this time :)

[@artex98]

@@AndrewHartley Ah, OK; probably the better choice, because in Atlanta the venue doesn't allow gifts for the artist 😉

[@lencooke944]

Hi Professor, I am now living vicariously through your camera lens. Some of the scenery here is just spectacular. What I see here is that I know far too little about Japan; its history, it' culture, its people and its geography. Well, everything really. Your new camera gear is doing you many favours with the quality video included here. I really enjoyed this video. On a down note though, I had venison for dinner two nights ago and now I feel like I ate Bambi. I do have a question though, at 26:16 in your video one of the drums has a symbol that I first saw in Babymetal's official music video for Megitsune, it was on the kick drums of the (fake) drummer behind Babymetal in the opening scenes. It is also very similar to the logo for the video streaming software company 'Obs'. Do you know if there is any connection between them? It was a good idea to plug your recent novels, Hideki Smith, (because of the storyline of the book meshes seamlessly with this video) and your latest novel Trinity, right at the end. If anyone is reading this comment, buy both these books because they are incredibly well-written. Oh, and Professor, I took slight offence where you say about one of the characters in Trinity that, 'Len', was a fledgeling psychopath. That's mildly offensive because some of us 'Lens' are fully developed, card carrying and successfully practicing psychopaths, yet we get little recognition for this :-). This was really enjoyable, and I look to Part Two.

[@AndrewHartley]

Ha! Sorry about that, Len. Even psychos have to be called something :) Glad you enjoyed the video. I'll take a look at the symbol you mention when Im back home (currently traveling in the UK) and see if I can help. Sounds like you are going to have to visit Japan soon :) Cheers

[@lencooke944]

@@AndrewHartley I would love to visit Japan soon. However, the cost of living here in Oz is insane at the moment and inflation is sucking up all my travel money, so vacations will have to wait a little while. Enjoy your travels in the UK.

[@user-azrhino1943]

I am wondering if you feel, as I do, if maybe you weren't Japanese in a previous life? The appreciation for the culture must come from somewhere, right?

[@AndrewHartley]

Well, for me that "previous life" was about 37 years ago, when i lived in Yamanashi for a couple of years. My sense of Japan today is complicated and deepened by my experience then.