Dont want to read a long text? Click on the links to see pictures.

Well, for those of you beeing a litle more patient, these are some selected pictures from Tabea and Lasses trip to Japan in september 2009.

Our Japan trip started in Tokyo where we visited our friends, Song & Kaori (whom we know form our year in Pune, India). It took us a few days to get over our jetlags, but we managed to get a first impression of Tokyo -and we caught the first glimpses of Otaku culture. (Dont think we can fully explain what that is, but google it if you are curious).

From Tokyo, we took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto, Japan's former capital (we learned later on that there have been quite a few capitals through history, so this proved not be as unique a fact as we thought it was). In Kyoto, we went to see a number of temples, shrines and gardens: Ryoan-ji, Kiyomizu-dera, the Golden Pavilion, Maruyama park and saw other things on the way.

Leaving from Kyoto's impressive train station, we caught a local train to Nara - another former capital of Japan. Like Kyoto, Nara also has beautiful temples and shrines - yet it's most famous for the tame (and holy!) deer wandering the parks.

From Nara, the Shinkansen took us to Hiroshima. Hiroshima was not only historically interesting, but also modern and amiable. We could have easily spent more time there, but managed only to see the peace park and children's memorial.

30min from Hiroshima lies the sacred island of Miyajima. Miyajima houses a large shrine and, traditionally, you'd pass through the huge red Tori -shrine gate- in the water before entering the shrine on the island. Now the Tori is on the top 3 list of "Japan views", so we had to see it on the way.

After a bit of travelling with several trains and the newest and most comfortable Shinkansen  (shin-yatsushiro -  kagoshima, try it!) we arrived at Kagoshima. The city is nice and comparatively small, the climate subtropical and the people friendly, albeit non-English-speaking. Kagoshima's biggest attraction is Sakurajima-the active volcano right next to it. Of course we had to see it, but hiking up there is not allowed.
Back in Kagoshima, we also visited Sengan-en, a beautiful garden/park. It was huge!

From Kagoshima, we flew back to Tokyo to spend another couple of days with our friends. They took us on a daytrip to Kamakura and Enoshima - about 1 hr from Tokyo, with shrines and temples and hawks and a small train.
 We also had time to get closer to Japanese culture: we went to see Sumo wrestling, we sang Karaoke and we experienced Tokyo at night.

Our trip definitely ended too soon. We'll have to come back one day...

UPDATE:

Here is a few videos og various moving objects.