Kyoto, Japan introduction Inari Tofukuji part 1
Kyoto, Japan’s majestic city of ancient temples and serene gardens, offers superb cultural treasures and a variety of sensual delights. Your most enjoyable activity will probably be strolling through artistically designed garden landscapes with their winding paths, tranquil ponds, stately trees, lush vegetation and traditional wooden temples, so wear comfortable shoes and be prepared to do a lot of walking.
We’re going to take you on some wonderful strolls through the gardens, around the temples and into downtown, and show you the highlights of this magnificent city.
Kyoto’s modern downtown is also fascinating, filled with shops, restaurants, historic structures, the occasional geisha, and plentiful people-watching.
The sublime gardens unfold as you walk along paths that lead through changing vistas around each bend, where you can stop frequently to absorb each new perspective looking left, right, up and down. The different views are enhanced by small statues, foot-bridges, bamboo railings, temple back-drops and glimpses of distant mountains, all exquisitely arranged to be appreciated in moments of reflection.
Kyoto was ranked as the number one visitor destination in the world by the readers of Travel and Leisure magazine for two years in a row in 2014 and 2015, quite an honor.
This is an expanded version that combines several earlier movies.
Kyoto, Japan, Temple Gardens: Fushimi-Inari-Taisha, Tofuku-ji, Maruyama Park
Kyoto is Japan’s majestic city of ancient temples, serene gardens and superb cultural treasures. Your most enjoyable activity will probably be strolling through artistically designed garden landscapes with their winding paths, tranquil ponds, stately trees, lush vegetation and traditional wooden temples, including Fushimi-Inari-Taisha, Tofuku-ji and Maruyama Park.
The sublime gardens unfold as you walk along paths that lead through changing vistas around each bend, where you can stop frequently to absorb each new perspective looking left, right, up and down. The different views are enhanced by small statues, foot-bridges, bamboo railings, temple back-drops and glimpses of distant mountains, all exquisitely arranged to be appreciated in moments of reflection.
Kyoto was ranked as the number one visitor destination in the world by the readers of Travel and Leisure magazine for two years in a row in 2014 and 2015, quite an honor.
More than 50 million visitors come to Kyoto each year, most of them are just staying for the day then moving on, but about 1 million of them do spend the night in a local hotel -- there are lots of accommodations of all price ranges -- and most of the visitors are Asian. No doubt with the growth of Chinese travel these numbers are going to continue increasing.
These crowds of visitors could very much interfere with your appreciation of Kyoto’s heavenly gardens. So, try to visit during the less-busy late fall or early spring in order to properly experience the tranquil garden atmosphere.
This movie is a combination and expansion of some earlier shorter videos on Kyoto.
Japan | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Japan
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
You can find other Wikipedia audio articles too at:
You can upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
Japan (Japanese: 日本; Nippon [ɲippoɴ] or Nihon [ɲihoɴ]; formally 日本国 Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, lit. State of Japan) is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian continent and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea in the south.
The kanji that make up Japan's name mean sun origin, and it is often called the Land of the Rising Sun. Japan is a stratovolcanic archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku, which make up about ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area and often are referred to as home islands. The country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions, with Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one. The population of 127 million is the world's tenth largest. Japanese make up 98.5% of Japan's total population. About 13.8 million people live in Tokyo, the capital of Japan. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world with over 38 million people.Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, particularly from Western Europe, has characterized Japan's history.
From the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shōguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a long period of isolation in the early 17th century, which was ended in 1853 when a United States fleet pressured Japan to open to the West. After nearly two decades of internal conflict and insurrection, the Imperial Court regained its political power in 1868 through the help of several clans from Chōshū and Satsuma – and the Empire of Japan was established. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victories in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanese surrender. Since adopting its revised constitution on May 3, 1947, during the occupation by the SCAP, the sovereign state of Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with an Emperor and an elected legislature called the National Diet.
Japan is a member of the ASEAN Plus mechanism, UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8 and the G20 – and is considered a great power. The country has the world's third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the world's fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the world's fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer.
The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most highly educated countries in the world, with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. Although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the world's eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. It ranked as the world's fourth most-powerful military in 2015. Japan is a highly developed country with a very high standard of living and Human Development Index. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, but is experiencing issues due to an aging population and low birthrate. Japan is renowned for its historical and extensive cinema, influential music industry, anime, video gaming, rich cuisine and its major contributions to science and modern-day technology.