Thanks Peter. I love Kyoto too, actually I love everywhere we've seen in Japan so far. Heian Shrine in Kyoto is pretty huge too and I love their gardens during sakura but there's something about Meiji's city forest that makes it really special.

LOL Claudia, pretty sure my eyes glitter too 🙂 after several trips I still can't wait until the next one!

Thanks Olga. The trees in the Meiji Shrine 'forest' is a commonly told story because they were all donated to build the man made 'forest' around 100 years ago to fulfill a 150 year plan of what they wanted the end result to be - given what it looks like I think they would be very pleased with the result if they were around to see it now.

There is a lot of ritual and courtesy in everyday Japanese life but also a lot of allowance is made for foreigners who they don't expect to understand it all. If something is really an issue such as a few very sacred religious artifacts and inner shrines can't be photographed there will be sign showing that and often guides will be posted nearby and politely indicate your camera and place their arms in a cross in front of the body (which means no) to let you know not to take a photos there.

Hi Orana, thanks for visiting 2 Aussie Travellers site, I hope your family do get to Japan soon, it's a wonderful safe country to travel in and would be a fabulous experience to do with children

Thanks Karina. I do most of my research either before I visit or at the time. I read all the boards and I photograph them to help my memory later with dates and things, I'm sure everyone thinks I'm mad! In Japan often people want to talk to you to 'practice their English' which is often very good so I always ask them about the place we are at or somewhere else they recommend we visit. I also make friends with the concierge desk, after asking them info once of twice about what we're going to do that day I find they often wave me over and want to help with info for our next plans so I get background info from that or show them a photo I took that day and see if they can fill in the gaps. The Meiji Shrine trees seems common knowledge in Tokyo, maybe in Japan, maybe it's been embellished I don't know. When it was built 100 years ago they had a 150 year plan of what they wanted the end result to look like, how many countries governments or committees even now could boast planning an undertaking with a vision of how that will look 5 generations or more into the future.