Kyoto Skyline
I just had to compare and show these two views of the Kyoto skyline, taken within hours of each other, the modern and the ancient. Kyoto as it used to be and Kyoto as it perhaps should be. Balancing the old with the new is a difficult art but some people and places do it better than others, in Japan there is Kyoto, Kamakura, Nara, Honkawagoe and a handful of other places that take a great pride in keeping and preserving the Japan that was before concrete.
In the modern skyline you can see Kyoto tower (all cities in Japan have one it seems) in front of the rather fantastic Kyoto station building, with Atom Boy on top of the sign post (Atom Boy because his creator Osamu Tetsuka lived in nearby Takarazuka). Leo, the lion king character (that Disney stole – copyright only applies to American corporations?) is a bit further away from this scene.
In the old skyline you can see the roofs of the old district as far as Gion. The pagoda in the center is (I believe) the Yasaka Pagoda.
One always has this idea of Kyoto being only old and traditional, but these two pictures prove it wrong. Very nice.
Thanks for your comment Marie! Yes, people go to great lengths in Japan to protect the old but still there are cars and power lines running everywhere…
Oh, I should mention, the Astroboy figure is lit up by the built in flash on my D700. Pretty well done for such a tiny flash, innit?