The Floating Garden Observatory connects the two towers that comprise Osaka’s Umeda Sky Building. We had a fantastic view from the window of our hotel room at The Westin Osaka that lured us to the top of this building.

Umeda Sky Building

On a recent trip to Kyoto I was forced to respect the protocol. That is, if you go to Kyoto you must embark on an intense tour of temples, shrines, castles and imperial palaces.

This was my third time in Kyoto. On my second trip back in 2003, I disappointed zoomz (my wife) by abandoning her well prepared temple tour itinerary in lieu of a pub crawl of every British and Irish drinking establishment I could find.

This time around, in an effort to maintain peace time relations with zoomz, I submitted to the Kyoto Protocol. Following are a few highlights.

Kinkaku-ji (The Golden Pavilion Temple)

Originally built in 1397 as a retirement villa for the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the Golden Pavilion Temple is set in a Japanese strolling garden on the edge of the Mirror Pond. The original structure was burnt down by some rogue, suicidal monk in 1950. The present day structure was built in 1955.

Kinkaku-ju (The Golden Pavilion Temple)

We recently treated Ash-kun with a trip to Universal Studios Japan. Located in Osaka, and opened in 2001, it is the first Universal Studios to be opened outside of the US.

Universal Studios Japan

Getting there we took the JR Osaka Kanjo Line from the JR Osaka Station. At Nishikujo we had to change to the JR Yumesaki line destined for the Universal City Station. Once we alighted from the train, we just followed the crowd to the theme park.

Ash-kun at the Universal Studios Globe

Ash-kun at Universal Studios

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