Kyoto Trip: Kyoto Botanical Garden

If you get tired of the crowds of tourists milling about, the Kyoto Botanical Garden is a nice place where mostly only locals go to. The price of admission (200 yen) is cheap compared to other sites in Kyoto. There are lots of sakura trees on the grounds, so it is especially beautiful in the spring. There is also a greenhouse / conservatory (200 yen admission) that has lots of beautiful or weird exotic plants. This sketch is from inside the greenhouse. Since we had limited time and it was still too cold for most of the cherry blossoms to bloom, we spent most of our time inside the greenhouse. I'd definitely suggest a trip there if you have time and are tired of looking at temples.

Here's a google map of the Kyoto Botanical Garden:

Kyoto trip: Gion-kaku (祇園閣) in Daiunin (大雲院) temple

This tower is called Gion-kaku and it is on the grounds of Daiunin Temple. I didn't actually go inside since they aren't always open to the public, but I got a view of it while walking from Kiyomizudera towards Yasaka Shrine in Gion. Through Google searches, I found out that when it is open to the public, you can go up the tower and get a nice view of the Higashiyama district. The walls inside are decorated with paintings. It is a relatively new structure (built around 1928), so it looks a bit different from the older temples that are present in Kyoto. The roof is bronze, and even the color of the wood looks kind of new.

There's not much information about Daiunin Temple in English, but here's the TripAdvisor site. Here's a google map of the temple:

Kyoto Trip: Seimei Jinja (晴明神社)

Just got back from a trip to Kyoto. We were trying to see cherry blossoms, but there weren't many since it was cold the majority of the time. It was still really nice there. Surprisingly, I had no allergy problems there. I guess Japan just has less air pollution than Taiwan.

Anyway, this sketch is from a shrine that I visited called Seimei Jinja (晴明神社). There is a peach statue on the temple grounds, and you are supposed to be able to get rid of bad luck by rubbing it. Seimei Shrine is a bit small and more modern looking when compared to major shrines such as Kiyomizu-dera, but I still went because I've been a fan of Seimei ever since watching the movies Onmyoji 1 & 2. Seimei was a powerful onmyoji, which is something like a magician or sorcerer, during the Heian period in Japan and, his mother was a fox spirit. The shrine sells lots of cute pentagram charms/omamori.

Here is the google map for Seimei Shrine:

Places to visit in Hsinchu: Hsinchu city government building

The Hsinchu city government building is another example of Baroque style architecture from back when Taiwan was under Japanese control. It is a nice place to stop by if you ever visit Hsinchu. It is in the downtown area and is nearby lots of shopping/eating areas. The inside of the building is pretty much just offices for city officials though, so there is no point in going in.

Here's the location via google maps:

Places to visit in Taipei: the Control Yuan (監察院)

The Control Yuan is one of the branches of the Taiwanese government. It's duty is to audit the other branches of government to make sure that there is no corruption. The building that houses the Control Yuan was built back when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. It is the most intact example of baroque style architecture in Taiwan. 
 
The Control Yuan is in downtown Taipei, so it is really easy to stop by (3-5 min walking from the Taipei train station), and there are lots of other places to go to within walking distance. To get a tour of the building, you can either make a reservation through their website or go on Fridays (9am-12pm, 2pm-5pm) when it is open to the public without advanced reservations. I can't find an English version of their reservation page, so I would suggest going on Fridays if you have problems navigating the page. They do seem to have English tours available if you go the reservation route. Note that if you go on Fridays, you still need to bring a passport or resident I.D. card. Since the building is not that big, I'd even recommend just walking around on the street and looking at it from the outside without going through the trouble of getting a tour unless you really want to. There's also a convenient pedestrian overpass across the street where you can get a nice view of the entire building.

 Here's a link to Google maps for the Control Yuan: