Sunday, June 14, 2009

Japan Day 13- Gold and Gardens

Today I wanted to catch up on everything so first I hopped on the bus and went to see Hakusasonso which I had skipped because of the rain earlier in the week.

Japan Day 13

They lady at the ticket booth gave me the student rate, so I only had to pay 500yen instead of the usual 800yen. The gardens were nice but not as good as the ones just up the street at Silver Pavilion.

Japan Day 13

After that I took the bus to the other side of the city to see Kinkakuji (the golden pavilion). I think me and everyone else went to see today. The place is a tourist trap. Its the one place that everyone who visits Kyoto goes to see. It was still cool to see. All that gold really does shimmer in the sun.

Japan Day 13

I had a lunch at a noodle place on the way back to bus stop. I had a bowl of udon noodles with beef on top. It was good. I hadn't had udon noodles before. They are very thick compared to your typical spaghetti.

Japan Day 13

Next I headed north to see Ando's Garden of Fine Arts again to see it with the sun out and recorded some video of it this time. It was much more enjoyable to see when its not raining. Then I went around the corner to get a picture of the Kyoto Concert hall with the sun out but I got there too late and the sun was already behind the building.

On the way back to the hotel I stopped by the grocery store and picked up a bento box (a premade meal), some bread for breakfast. Dinner was OK, I've had better.

Japan Day 13

I played with Photoshop for a little while and merged some of the pictures I took of Kinkakuji in to an HDR photo. HDR is hard to expain but I'll try. Basicly you take a series of photos at different exposures and then you use software to merge them together into a final picture that has both extreme shadows and hilights. Wikipedia explains it in better detail. See this flickr pool for a bunch of examples.

Then I headed out to market area to survey the shops. I have quite a list of people I need to buy gifts for. I wondered around for a while but most of it started closing up around 8 so I ended up just walking around until I found the subway station and took the short ride back to the hotel where I'm getting ready to call it a night.

Photos Backed up- Check
Video Backed up- Check

Sleep time....

Photos Day 13

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