Back in April, this is is Mum, Dad and I onboard the shinkansen heading back west from Tokyo. After a couple more nights at my place, it would be time for my parents to fly back home.

One last shot on the bridge at the station as they headed to Sannomiya (Kobe) to get the airport bus. The tree behind put on a good show of sakura. I really like this photo.

Kyoto Station. When we went to Kamakura (the festival I showed you a few posts ago), we were joined by my friend Laurene, visiting from Australia. A week or so later, she headed over to Kansai and so she and I were able to meet up again on my day off in Kyoto.

Laurene and I discovered we are both a bit obsessive about taking photos, so we looked around at a similar pace, snapping away. It's interesting to see what different people want to take photos of in the same spot. I often take details and never manage to take an overall picture to remember how they all fit together!

We headed to the eastern side of Kyoto to a place called Arashiyama. It was my first time and I wasn't disappointed - it was beautiful and the weather was absolutely perfect.

There is a really nice, dense bamboo forest that Laurene was pretty excited about. I've seen photos of it at night where they up-light the "trees" along the path. It looks awesome. Hard to believe it's grass! When the wind blows through the grove some of the stalks knock together and it sounds really cool... I imagine it would be very creepy at night.

I seem to remember that inside this shrine there was a really great piece of contemporary sculpture on temporary exhibition, and beyond it was an idyllic garden. I was sad to be told that photos weren't allowed. You're looking back to the one of the gates at the front of the shrine.

This is the famous shrine called Kinkakuji. The entire thing is laid over in gold leaf. It's one of the classic views of Japan. This building is actually only about 50-odd years old as some crazed monk burned the last one. You see buckets of water positioned around all temples and shrines in case of fire.

The water can seem to be liquid gold as the shrine is reflected on its surface.

Haha, yet another maiko pic. This one was taken by Laurene. She was keen to see the girls of Gion, so it's not like I go there every weekend and hunt geisha... but... I admit I did tag along quite willingly.

Sanda matsuri started today. It's the local version of what are a myriad of summer festivals, with fireworks going off all over the shop. Some of the biggest, like in Osaka, are measured in the 10s of 1000s of explosions. I saw some tonight - some were pretty big and loud. Masashi lent me his jimbei, but didn't wear his! He did, however, bring his wife Eriko and their son Ryo with them, which was a really cool surprise. They are just about the best looking family I've ever seen. Ryo is a riot of a little dude, I love him to death. His English is phenomenal, especially considering he's only 5 years old. Anyway, we didn't see much of the actual matsuri, but it was a top time - I'd enjoy going anywhere with those guys. Anyway, now that I've finally finished posting photos of the trip back in April, I should have some more recent stuff to put up. Til then, sayonara!