20. Kyoto

We took an early morning flight from Bangkok and arrived at the surprisingly dumpy Tokyo airport. It desperately needs a makeover and a big expansion, but there are some farmers around the area who are famously militant, and started a mini-rebellion when the airport was plopped in the middle of their rice fields in the sleepy village of Narita. There was quite a bit of violence, which still flares up on occassion, which is why you still have to go through a security check just to approach the airport. Very un-Japanese, since the one impression that every visitor has of Japan is they are the most polite and retiring people on earth. Hard to imagine they once tried to take over the world, but times definitely have changed. Anyway, the trip into Tokyo from Narita's rice fields is horrible, probably the worst in the world. It can easily take 2 hours and no matter how you go it's really expensive, with a taxi clocking in at around $300 and still taking forever. So instead we opted for the train to Kyoto, and I think we arrived in Kyoto about the same time it would have taken to get into Tokyo, with much less hassle. While I'm chatting through this introduction, I'm also showing photos of Niji-jo, our first stop in Kyoto, to try to balance out the photo to text imbalance.