The Private Islander

Tokyo was a great city to visit. One could easily spend weeks there and not be bored. There was a large part of the city I had left untraversed, but other parts of Japan were calling my name. So the next morning I hopped aboard a bullet train and headed to Kyoto.

The Shinkansen, or bullet train, is a classic example of Japan’s engineering talent. The first line built ran from Tokyo to Osaka and was completed in 1964. Since then the Shinkansen have become a vital link between Japan’s cities and a world-wide symbol of the country’s technological advances. The particular train I took ran the line from Tokyo to Nagoya, Kyoto, and completed the 320-mile trip in a little over two hours.

Once in Kyoto I visited nearby Nara, one of the old capitals of Japan. The city is home to many old buildings and famous for one Buddhist temple in particular, the Todai-ji. The temple is the largest wooden building in the world, and the surround area in Nara is famous for its deer, which are run wild but are tamed. Visitors can feed the deer and even touch them. Though it looks like the deer have no antlers, they have actually been cut off to keep people safe.

Kyoto, a city of 1.4 million, did not suffer from the bombings other Japanese cities did during World War II because of its role as a historical and educational center. Consequently, many old buildings still stand, giving the city a unique charm not found in other comparable Japanese cities.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 12th, 2008 at 5:08 pm and is filed under Features . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.