Kyoto, Japanese Cultural Center

If you want see the real culture of Japan, you should be come to Kyoto. Kyoto was always beautiful throughout the year, snow in winter, Sakura flowers blooming in spring, the hills are cool in summer, and views of colorful autumn leaves. The trip from Tokyo to Kyoto spent two and a quarter hour for 320 miles by train.

Japan is an island country on the eastern seaboard of Mainland Asia. Kyoto has rolling hills shape because surrounded by mountains. The country consists of hundreds of islands of which four are considered the main islands of Japan, Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. Kyoto more beautiful with the Kamo River in the east and the Katsura River snaking in the south.

You can see any interesting in Kyoto, such as any vibrant colors along the Hozu-Gawa river, 1600 temples with unique architecture like Kinkaku-Ji Temple and of course the geisha from the Kamishichiken district of Kyoto. Beside that, there is also tourist attraction on July that called Gion Matsuri as one of Japan festival that you should watch. The great Gosan no Okubiri event is held in August where big fire is set in five of the mountain in around the city.

Kyoto jp Area covers around 4.12, 71km2 with 2, 64 millions populations. Kyoto weather around 15.9 degree. Weather in Tokyo has lowest temperature on 3.7 Celsius degree and weather Kyoto get maximal temperature at 36.9 Celsius degree.

Kyoto became capital city of Japan for more than thousand years, from 794 until 1869. After that, the Japan’s capital city moves to Tokyo. Much historical moment held on Kyoto, such as Kyoto treaty. Besides that, there is Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC or FCCC), aimed at fighting global warming.

When Kyoto became capital city, many building was constructed include Golden Pavilion, Kiyomizu Temple and Heian Shrine. Besides that, Kyoto also famous with the art and culture, such as many traditional arts like exquisite tea ceremony and flower arrangement, Ikebana.

Kyoto also famous with the Kyoto University. More than 10% of Kyoto civilities are university students. One of famous university Kyoto is University of Kyoto. Many foreign students choose Kyoto as study place in Japan.

More famous in Kyoto are Kyoto sushi, Toyoko inn, kyoto restaurant, Tetsugaku-no-Michi, Kurama Onsen. Besides that district of Arashiyama and Sagano offers something different: a wander through a towering bamboo grove just outside the north gate of Tenryu-ji temple; it can get busy, but a walk among these incredible photogenic trees, with their strange, smooth trunks, is enchanting. These are incredible tourist attraction in Kyoto.

Festival of Sakura Blooming in Japan : Hanami

Japanese people celebrate many things with great joy and this tradition eventually fall down and remain stable until now. From drinking tea that for some people in the world can be done while in a hurry, until how to celebrate when see the beauty of flowers.

One of these is a unique tradition of Hanami. Hanami is the traditional habit to view Sakura flowers that are blooming and popularized in the Heian period of years 794-1191. Since introduced by the imperial court, the Japanese tradition of seeing flowers are then distributed by the nobles, artists, poets and musicians to the entire community and ultimately serve as a day of national celebration.


Sakura or Cherries flower is one of typical of Japanese nature that characterized Japanese national state. Sakura flower bloom in a short period, because it is considered to symbolize the brevity of life. This Japanese flower blooming season lasts from one week to ten days depending on weather and wind conditions. Fully bloomed cherry blossoms around the time of a week, after which it will spread the petals to create a pink and white carpet on the ground. This Japanese flower blooming period ranging from late March (about 25 to 30) to early April (about 7 to 13). Because of the limited time the cherry blossoms bloom, then it becomes very special moment for the people of Japan.

Hanami is not only celebrated by the Japanese people themselves, but also a famous tourist attraction in Japan. At the time of Sakura blooming, the Japanese state was invaded by visitors. Celebration is done by just sitting with the family under a Sakura tree while drinking tea or chatting. Many visitors also take advantage of blooming flowers to make praweding photo in bottom of Sakura. Additionally, when Japan Hanami festival will also be invaded by thousands of amateur or excellent photographer.

This flower blooming season varies for each region in Japan. The first flowers usually bloom first in the state of Japan's southern Okinawa in around early January. Sakura flower bloom this process will move to Kyoto in late March or early April. Flowers bloom last place in northern Japan island of Hokkaido.

Although Sakura flower blossom is the national celebration throughout Japan, but Kyoto is probably one of the best places for the celebration of Hanami. With the beautiful temples, gardens and surrounding scenery, Kyoto is the perfect backdrop for the beauty of cherry blossoms. In Kyoto Cherry Blossom Festival is also held during the Cherry blossom in April and Dance by the Geisha in Gion Corner Theater in Gion, Kyoto. In addition, you also can enjoy this Hanami from other parts of the city of Kyoto include Arashiyama Park, Nakanoshima Park, Kamogawa River, and Shosei-en Garden.

Get Extraordinary Experience in Melbourne

MELBOURNE is one of the cities that are visited by foreign tourists. Blend of natural beauty and technological progress, reflected in the region. As the capital of the State of Victoria, Melbourne is the second most important city in terms of business, as well as Australia's second largest city. The city is already twice awarded "The World's Most Liveable Cities" (the most convenient city to live) from The Economist, namely in 2002 and 2004




No wonder many people love Melbourne. There are Hidden small streets, luxury bars, restaurants and exclusive boutiques remote. Many fun things to do there, like see the culture at Federation Square, wine tasting at the St Kilda promenade, shop in Brunswick Street or Chapel Street, enjoy a culinary tour of the world in Carlton, Richmond and Fitzroy, and do not forget the incredible experience when exploring the Royal Botanic Garden and become one of the people there at Melbourne Cricket Ground crowd.

That's Melbourne. Various exciting experiences await you there. The city ever became the capital city of Australia in 1901-1927, and now many tourists visit it during summer. Visitors not only come from abroad, but also from other states in Australia, such as Queensland and New South Wales.

One characteristic of Melbourne is the beauty of the Yarra River which is located in downtown Melbourne. The river which divides the State of Victoria was packaged in such a way that really gives nuance beautiful views. Moreover, on either side of the river was also built area that was destined for an excursion such as walkways, restaurants or cafes, to the playground.

Not only that, some magnificent bridge was also built in the area. That adds make the scenery in the surrounding rivers more beautiful. Not to mention that on the one side of the river was also established that the Melbourne Aquarium appeal for children and students.

In addition to its scenic and cultural, the city is also very strategic. The facilities are complete, includes the transportation ranging from taxis, buses, trains, until the trams. In fact, the existence of Flinders Street Station itself also is an attraction for the city inhabited by approximately 3.9 million people. Special for trams, there are no cities in the Australia that have this facility. The only city that uses the trams is Melbourne's trams.

Other facilities are also built in the city that was founded on August 30, 1835. One of them, Sky Deck Melbourne tours where visitors can see all parts of the City of Melbourne from a height of 300 meters, precisely 88th floor of Eureka Tower in South bank area. Because, in the building-supplied binoculars giant binoculars that can see the situation from Melbourne's Yarra River, the other buildings in Melbourne, to sports stadiums, including the largest tennis stadium in Australia, Rod Laver Arena, which is used for the Grand Slam tournaments Australian Open.

Melbourne is a world tourist and traveling destination. There are many resorts that can be visited in the city. Among them:

Melbourne Cricket Ground, also known as McG.
Albert Park, where F1 championship is held
Rialto Towers, the tallest building in Melbourne and two underneath there Intercontinental hotel.
Eureka Tower, the tallest apartment building in Melbourne at the same time on the top floor where visitors can view the 88th floor of Melbourne and can also try the Terrace transparent.
Federation Square
Flinders Street Station, the main railway station in Melbourne that still operates today.
State Library of Victoria
Victoria Parliament Building
Melbourne Aquarium
Crown Casino
Melbourne Museum

Sigiriya

Here is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Sigiriya mean Lion's rock. This site is an ancient rock fortress and palace ruin. Located in the central Matale District of Sri Lanka, surrounded by the remains of an extensive network of gardens, reservoirs, and other structures. Sigiriya is one of popular travel destination in Sri Lanka, also renowned for its ancient paintings which are reminiscent of the Ajanta Caves of India.

This beautiful place was built during the reign of King Kassapa I, about AD 477 – 495, and it is one of the seven World Heritage Sites of Sri Lanka.

Sigiriya may have been inhabited through prehistoric times. It was used as a rock-shelter mountain monastery from about the 5th century BC, with caves prepared and donated by devotees to the Buddhist Sangha. The garden and palace were built by King Kasyapa. Following King Kasyapa's death, it was again a monastery complex up to about the 14th century, after which it was abandoned. . The Sigiri inscriptions were deciphered by the archaeologist Senarath Paranavithana in his renowned two-volume work, published by Oxford, Sigiri Graffiti. He also wrote the popular book "Story of Sigiriya”

Sigiriya consists of an ancient castle built by King Kasyapa during the 5th century AD. The Sigiriya site has the remains of an upper palace sited on the flat top of the rock, a mid-level terrace that includes the Lion Gate and the mirror wall with its frescoes, the lower palace that clings to the slopes below the rock, and the moats, walls and gardens that extend for some hundreds of metres out from the base of the rock.

The Chichen Itza

 Chichen Itza is one of amazing in the world. This bulding is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site located in the northern centre of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Yucatán state, present-day Mexico. This site was built by Maya Civilization, and become the major focal point point in the northern Maya lowlands from the Late Classic through the Terminal Classic and into the early portion of the Early Postclassic period

The site exhibits a multitude of architectural styles, from what is called “Mexicanized” and reminiscent of styles seen in central Mexico to the Puuc style found among the Puuc Maya of the northern lowlands. The presence of central Mexican styles was once thought to have been representative of direct migration or even conquest from central Mexico, but most contemporary interpretations view the presence of these non-Maya styles more as the result of cultural diffusion.

The ruins of Chichen Itza are federal property, and the site’s stewardship is maintained by Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History, INAH). The land under the monuments had been privately-owned until March 29, 2010, when it was purchased by the state of Yucatan.



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The Karnak Temple

The Karnak Temple Complex is located in Egypt, about 500 km south of Cairo, near the city in Upper (southern) Egypt, Luxor. This temple usually called Karnax, consist of large conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings. This temple was built with massive structure by Pharaoh Ramses II, around 1931 until 1351 BC.

The main part of Karnak is divided into some parts. Precinct of Amun-Re is the largest area that was dedicated to Amun-Re, the chief deity of the Theban Triad and consist of several colossal statues including the figure of Pinedjem I which is 10.5 meters tall.

Then other part, Precinct of Mut Located to the south of the newer Amen-Re complex, this precinct was dedicated to the mother goddess, Mut, who became identified as the wife of Amun-Re in the eighteenth dynasty Theban Triad. It has several smaller temples associated with it and has its own sacred lake, constructed in a crescent shape.

Precinct of Montu is located to the north of the Amun-Re complex and is much smaller in size. It is not open to the public and dedicated to the son of Mut and Amun-Re, Montu, the war-god of the Theban Triad.

Last part is Temple of Amenhotep IV and constructed on the site was located to the east of the main complex, outside the walls of the Amun-Re precinct. It was destroyed immediately after the death of its builder.

An ancient sacred lake is part of the site as well. It is located near Luxor, some 500 km south of Cairo, in Egypt. The area around Karnak was the ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut ("The Most Selected of Places") and the main place of worship of the eighteenth dynasty Theban Triad with the god Amun as its head. It is part of the monumental city of Thebes. The Karnak complex takes its name from the nearby and partly surrounded, modern village of el-Karnak, and some 2.5 km north of Luxor.

The Baalbek

One more beautiful historical building in Asian, Baalbek is one of old town that still exist until now. This town is located in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. It is famous for its exquisitely detailed yet monumentally scaled temple ruins of the Roman period, when Baalbek, then known as Heliopolis, was one of the largest sanctuaries in the Empire. It is Lebanon's greatest Roman treasure, and it can be counted among the wonders of the ancient world. It contains the largest and most noble Roman temples ever built, and they are among the best preserved.

Baalbek is one of World Heritage Site by UNESCO and become one of tourist object in Lebanon.

Towering high above the Beqaa plain, their monumental proportions proclaimed the power and wealth of Imperial Rome. The gods worshiped here, the Triad of Jupiter, Venus and Bacchus, were grafted onto the indigenous deities of Hadad, Atargatis and a young male god of fertility. Local influences are also seen in the planning and layout of the temples, which vary from the classic Roman design.
Baalbek is home to the annual Baalbeck International Festival. The town is located about 85 km north east of Beirut, and about 75 km north of Damascus. It has a population of approximately 72,000.

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The Mezquita of Cordoba

This mosque also known as Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción. This is one of Roman Catholic Cathedral that located in Andalusian city of Córdoba, Spain. This building originally built as a mosque approximately 600 AD, but the previously use for Christian Visigothic Church.

It is regarded as perhaps the most accomplished monument of the Umayyad dynasty of Córdoba. After the Spanish Reconquista, it was turned into a church, with a Gothic cathedral inserted into the center of the large Moorish building. Today the entire building is used to house the Cathedral of the diocese of Córdoba in Spain.

Moai Statues of the Easter Island

Easter Island is famous with Moai. Moai are carved of human figures on the rock, which are located in Polynesian island of Easter Island, Chile. Moai are like a statue, which were carved mostly between circa 1250 CE and 1500 CE. There are about 887 moai, and 53 of the Moai known to date were carved from compressed volcanic ash.

The statues' production and transportation is considered a remarkable intellectual, creative, and physical feat. The tallest moai erected, called Paro, was almost 10 metres (33 ft) high and weighed 75 tonnes, the heaviest erected was a shorter but squatter moai at Ahu Tongariki, weighing 86 tons; and one unfinished sculpture, if completed, would have been approximately 21 meters (69 ft) tall with a weight of about 270 tons.

Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island's perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads three-fifths the size of their bodies. The moai are chiefly the living faces (aringa ora) of deified ancestors (aringa ora ata tepuna). The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first visited the island, but most would be cast down during later conflicts between clans.

The moai are included on the 1994 list of UNESCO World Heritage sites and consequently the 1972 UN convention concerning the protection of the world's cultural and natural heritage.

The EISP (Easter Island Statue Project) is the latest research and documentation project of the moai on Rapa Nui and the artifacts held in museums overseas. The purpose of the project is to understand the figures' original use, context, and meaning, with the results being provided to the Rapa Nui families and the island's public agencies that are responsible for conservation and preservation of the moai.
In 2008, a Finnish tourist chipped a piece off the ear of one moai. The tourist was fined $17,000 in damages and was banned from the island for three years.

Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Reims

Notre-Dame de Reims located in France was built which on the site of the basilica where Clovis was baptized by Saint Remi, bishop of Reims, in AD 496. This building replaces the older church in Rome that was destroyed by a fire in1211. and now, this beautiful building famous as the Roman Catholic cathedral of Reims, where the kings of France were once crowned.



The exterior of this building consist of the three portals that are laden with statues and statuettes; among European cathedrals, only Chartres has more sculpted figures. Rose window surmounts the central portal that was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. This cathedral size about 138.75 m long, 30 m wide and 38 m high in the center.

Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan is one of the most noted archaeological attractions in Mexico. Located in San Juan Teotihuacán municipality in the State of México, this place is an enormous archaeological site in the Basin of Mexico, containing some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the pre-Columbian Americas. Apart from the pyramidal structures, Teotihuacan is also known for its large residential complexes, the Avenue of the Dead, and numerous colorful, well-preserved murals.

The name Teōtīhuacān was given by the Nahuatl-speaking Aztec centuries after the fall of the city. At its zenith in the first half of the 1st millennium CE, Teotihuacan was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas. At this time it may have had more than 200,000 inhabitants, placing it among the largest cities of the world in this period. The civilization and cultural complex associated with the site is also referred to as Teotihuacan or Teotihuacano.

Although it is a subject of debate whether Teotihuacan was the center of a state empire, its influence throughout Mesoamerica is well documented; evidence of Teotihuacano presence, if not outright political and economic control, can be seen at numerous sites in Veracruz and the Maya region. The ethnicity of the inhabitants of Teotihuacan is also a subject of debate. Possible candidates are the Nahua, Otomi or Totonac ethnic groups. Scholars have also suggested that Teotihuacan was a multiethnic state.

As a city, Teotihuacan has a multi-ethnic city, with distinct quarters occupied by Otomi, Zapotec, Mixtec, Maya and Nahua peoples. The religion of Teotihuacan was similar to those of other Mesoamerican cultures. Many of the same gods were worshiped, including the Feathered Serpent (the Aztecs' Quetzalcoatl) and Rain God (the Aztecs' Tlaloc.)The dominant civic architecture is the pyramid. Politics were based on the state religion; religious leaders were the political leaders.
Site Layout is consisting of many parts. The city's broad central avenue, called "Avenue of the Dead" (a translation from its Nahuatl name Miccoatli), is flanked by impressive ceremonial architecture, including the immense Pyramid of the Sun (second largest in the New World after the Great Pyramid of Cholula) and the Pyramid of the Moon

Further down the Avenue of the Dead is the area known as the Citadel, containing the ruined Temple of the Feathered Serpent. This area was a large plaza surrounded by temples that formed the religious and political center of the city.

Now, the site was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 and became one of. Tourist destination in Mexico, especially for archaeological sites.

The Potala Palace

The Potala Palace is one of the travel destinations in china. This beautiful place is located in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China and was the chief residence of the Dalai Lama Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to Dharamsala, India, after an invasion and failed uprising in 1959. Until now, this place has renovated and has been converted into a museum by the Chinese.


Located in top of mount Potala, this building consist of three main hills of Lhasa represent the "Three Protectors of Tibet." Chokpori, just to the south of the Potala, is the soul-mountain (bla-ri) of Vajrapani, Pongwari that of Manjushri, and Marpori, the hill on which the Potala stands, represents Chenresig or Avalokiteshvara.

Potala Palace was built by King Songtsen Gampo in 637. This bulding was dedicated for his bride Princess Wen Cheng of the Tang Dynasty of China and used for meditation. In 1645, the fifth Dalai Lama, Lozang Gyatso after one of his spiritual advisers start the construction of Potala Palace and finished on 1694. From that time, this place was used as winter place by Dalai Lama.

Some of the biggest parts of this building are White Palace Portrang Karpo, Red Palace, Great West hall, The Saint’s Chapel, North Chapel, and also The Lhasa Zhol Pillar.

And now to protect this historical place, The Potala Place now is one of UNESCO World Heritage Site