We arrived in Kyoto and headed straight to our hotel via bus. Please note (and this is relevant for later) I was doing all the navigation and organising the bus that we were going to take.
The hotel was lovely and a perfect location for us to head out and check out what Kyoto had to offer. We headed to one of the main 'youngish' shopping districts and wandered for hours. We went to the Japanese version of Urban Outfitters, many vintage shops and had fun exploring. There is a lot of merchandise on sale in all of the shops for Halloween and we sampled a tasty Halloween Burger removed McDonalds (don't judge Chris, I begged him as I've never seen such a weird burger before). It was delicious :)
We checked out a Pachinko hall or casino (not exactly sure what to call this place). Chris stayed and played, I hated the place and left after one game. Pachinko, to my understanding, is essentially an arcade game whereby a person twists nossles and pushes buttons to get small metal silver balls to fall into the right places on the screens. If you get enough balls to fall in the right place then you can exchange a token for a prize (like a Yakult or a biscuit). Playing the game costs more than either of the aforementioned items. Now hundreds and thousands of people flock to these halls all around the country and there is a sleeping area so I am clearly missing the point and need to do more research.
After a quick dinner at a cute bar by the river we headed home to sleep before meeting Ed Mockridge the next day. For anyone that doesn't know Ed is one of Chris' friends from uni and he happened to be in Japan for business at the same time as us.
Day 2
First thing we headed to Fushimi-Inari Taisha, the head shrine of the Inari Cult, dedicated to rice and saki. The shrine was ok but behind it we found 4km of paths covered with orange Torri gates. These create a kind if tunnel, and are wooden gates, painted orange and each one an offering from companies asking for success in business. The black writing on the gates identifies the company that donated it. We hadn't realised the walk would be quite so long but got on with it and were soon at the top. The gates are pretty expensive (1.2 million yen), so on occasions you would come across shrines that had lots of little gates all over them. There are many stone foxes protecting the shrines and these are supposedly messengers from the rice gods.
Our unexpected walk had taken us a little while and so we descended the mountain, via an off-path 'shortcut', to find some lunch. We picked a conveyor sushi restaurant which was pretty awesome and then set our sights on a relaxing afternoon with Asahi's and saki. At just before 10 (we had been drinking for a while) I left to go back to the hotel and sleep. Ed left shortly after to return to Osaka. Chris arrived home at 5am having been to have dinner with some Japanese skaters he had met and getting a little lost on his way home. Apparently getting into a taxi and saying 'MyHotel please' didn't go so well. The name of the hotel we were staying at was MyStay not MyHotel.
Day 3
The next day it rained and rained and rained. We moved hotels in the morning and then I went to the Imperial Palace to book our tour for the next morning. The blocks here are bigger than in the states and this excursion took me a LOT longer than expected...4 hour walk in the rain...
Chris stayed in bed.
Day 4
The next morning we got up nice and early and headed for the Imperial Palace (where the Emperor used to live pre-1868). The Palace is surrounded by beautiful gates and has within it a number of buildings used for enthronements, ceremonies and waiting rooms. Whilst all of the current buildings are replica's they are still pretty impressive and we were particularly impressed with the roofs made from layers of cedar bark (second picture below this paragraph). A lot of the buildings are now in museums or temples and as a result there are a lot of expanses of raked gravel in the spots where they used to be. The highlight for me were the beautiful landscape gardens and gorgeous lanterns.
Next we headed straight to Nijo-Jo, the Kyoto residence of a Shogun in the mid 16th Century. He led a new military based government and as such this home is filled with statements of his opulence, intended to demonstrate to the Emporer where the power now lay. And opulent it was; there were massive moats, huge gates, watchtowers and gorgeous gardens. Inside the main home there are a number of rooms with gilded screens and carvings. On the walls in some of the rooms there are red rope hangings (gives the impression that the Shogun is alone and confident to all visitors when in fact there are many guards behind the walls just in case anything happens). There were also Nightingale floors throughout, making it impossible to walk or sneak up on anyone! Ever time we walked it sounded like little birds chirping.
(Can you see me in the photo below?)
Next we jumped in a taxi and headed across town to a place called Kiyomizu-dera. It's super famous in Kyoto. There is a beautiful platform that overhangs the valley, a three storey Pagoda and a main Hall.
The site is fairly touristy and there are many ladies in traditional Japanese dress...
Behind the main hall there are a number of shrine buildings that people seek out for the purpose of being 'lucky in love'. There is a waterfall said to have mystical powers if you drink it's waters. There are 3 separate streams that you can drink from that signify success, love and health. I (stupidly) went first and being newly engaged and at a temple where thousands flock to find luck in love thought I would drink from the love stream. Chris going second did not. He chose health...typical.
We visited 2 more temples that same day and walked the Philosophers Path at dusk which was beautiful. By the time we got back to our home stay we were exhausted and ready for bath and bed!
This was my favourite temple that we saw...and the sky was doing unusual things which made it all the more memorable...
We only had a half day today before heading back to Osaka and then onto Nara, and we planned to make the most of it...We got up early and headed for Kinkaku-Ji or the Golden Pavillion. This was originally built as a retirement villa for a Shogun but was converted to a Zen temple when he died. It was burnt down by an unhappy monk in 1950 and rebuilt shortly after and is interesting as each floor is designed in a different Japanese architectural style.
We LOVE Kyoto and had an amazing time...
Jane
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