I had a fantastic 7 days in the Kansai region of Japan. The highpoint of my stay there was my 4 days in Kyoto. This is my favorite place in Japan and it is a real treasure house of mystery and beauty. Four days is not enough time to see the place......I could have spent 4 weeks just exploring the marvelous Zen gardins.....Expect the unexpected in Kyoto...You are walking in a corridor in the Higashi Hongan temple. All of a sudden you will find a curious item encased in glass: a tremendous coil of rope made from human hair......Following the destruction of the temple in the 1880s, an eager group of female temple devotees donated their locks to make the ropes that hauled the massive timbers used for reconstruction...... Kyoto was the capital of Japan for almost a thousand years and now has over 2,000 temples and shrines......Each corner of the city has it's own special charm...