View from a Train & Kyoto in Green and Orange

More glimpses of Japan, as I have yet a bounteous number of images to share with you dear readers! We traveled by high-speed shinkansen - otherwise known as the bullet train - to Kyoto to visit temples and shrines in their wintry glory. This first collection is taken from the window of the train (it is always a good time to take pictures): Sloping Mount Fuji with its icy top, and some wonderful industrial landscapes...

Traveling at 185mph, I don't know how I achieved such a perfectly symmetrical image...

Wasting no time, we traveled to Fushimi Inari that evening- a Shinto shrine dedicated to Inari, the god of rice, sake, and prosperity - and walked up the mountain into the darkness.

It felt rather eerie walking along the winding path in the middle of the forest: the insistent sounds of many crows doing their evening callings, and J and I alone together. We sensed the ghostly presence around us in the displays of shrines, statues, and myriad torii. With the hour drawing later and later, we opted to turn around before total darkness set in, letting the crows take the forest for themselves.

Still with a hunger for the forest, our next day brought an adventure to the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest on the outskirts of Kyoto. It was quite chilly. Though numb from cold I mustered click after click, drinking in everything and documenting it with the lens to live-again later. Good thing that I did. :)

These incredible trees dotted homes on small streets as we made our way

A small cemetery on the grounds

I hope you can gather the sense of wonderment I felt at exploring these magical places. Even with the chill biting at our limbs, it was an amazing couple of days!