JAPAN
Japan is a country of diversity and contradiction—temples vs modern architecture, rickshaws vs shinkansen or bullet trains. Arriving in Osaka on Halloween, we experienced ghouls and bloody goblins. We stayed in jimyo-in monastery which served only vegetarian—a relief from all the weird meat and fish parts, and later a ryokan, a traditional Japanese residence. We hiked a pilgrimage route on Mt. Koya and visited several onsens—community baths. Kyoto has many remarkable sights, such as the Kyoto temple and gardens, the Red Gates, and the bamboo forest. We hired a maiko, an apprenticed geisha, to photograph.
