Kinkakuji, aka the temple of the golden pavilion, was created in the late 1300s, although the current version is a reconstruction built after a crazed monk burned down the original in the 1950s. Having once been Japan’s capital for almost 1,000 years, Kyoto is awash with cultural heritage. Historic temples
It’s 10:20 at night and I’m on my back, in underpants and a tee shirt, watching commuters wait in line at Yokohama Station. Ordinarily, that should draw looks of horror, possibly the attention of the police, but not tonight.
As the bullet train works its way north from Tokyo, the capital’s high rise gradually gives way to a suburban sprawl increasingly punctuated by rural pockets of green. Then mountain ranges emerge on the horizon, and, but for the occasional blurred towns, civilization begins to give way to vast swathes of farmland.
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