Kyoto

The day after returning from Korea, I got on the shinkansen (bullet train) and went down to Osaka to visit my friend Craig (who I taught with in Toronto). It was my first time on the bullet train since arriving in Japan and so I could enjoy it more this time. I was amazed how smooth and quite the ride was even though we were travelling at 300 km/h. Smooth enough that I fell asleep both there and back again.
I even got to see some snow as we went a bit north and inland on the way to Osaka:

Since there were only 2 stops on the way, it only took 90 minutes to get to Osaka, which is 300km away.

The next day, I did a day trip with Craig to Kyoto. I was amazed at the wide selection of souvenir stores there that actually offered interesting gifts that weren't too expensive. I also liked that each store actually sold different things than the store next to it.

First, we made our way to Kiyomizu temple, which draws lots of tourist. It's very popular in the spring for its cherry blossom trees, but was still busy the day we went, even though it was winter.

We made sure to get some good luck by rubbing little statues:
And I took a chance and shook a wooden box with a small hole in the bottom where one stick will drop out. As you can see, the timing of the photo was good...just as the stick was coming out.
My fortune (which was the 2nd best out of five and told me I'll have a pretty good year^^):
Next, we went to Yasaka shrine, where first we washed our hands to purify ourselves before going in:
This shrine is one of the most popular to go to at New Year's to pray and to get you fortune for the next year. It was still busy the day with lots of people getting their fortunes.
Walking around one park, we even saw some fancy cars.
Another thing I liked about Kyoto was walking along the narrow stone streets. There were a number of rickshaws that you could rent a ride from:
We were also lucky to see a maiko (apprentice geisha) or 2 having their photos taken. I'm not sure if they were real maiko or just made up to look like one for photos. Still, it was neat to see them.