JAPAN 2019
Whenever you see an article about Japan's cherry blossoms and beautiful temples it's always with pictures of Kyoto, before we even knew we were going to Japan, Kyoto was the city that was on our list..
Kyoto
January 31
We arrived quickly into Kyoto, and with a 3pm check in at the Almont Hotel Kyoto, we had to leave our bags and go walk around as we weren't allowed to check in to our room yet. Which was probably good, because it was a million degrees in the hotel lobby. After buying a couple cheap umbrellas at the 7-Eleven we hit the streets and some cool air.
Our first stop was the Toji Temple, literally "East Temple". It was founded at the beginning of the Heian Period just after the capital was moved to Kyoto in the late 700s. The large temple, together with its now defunct sister temple Saiji ("West Temple"), flanked the south entrance to the city and served as the capital's guardian temples. Toji Temple is one of Kyoto's many UNESCO world heritage sites.
Toji's five storied pagoda, was originally erected by Kobo Daishi in 826. It stands 57 meters tall, making it the tallest pagoda in Japan, and has become a symbol of both the temple and Kyoto as it can be seen from many places across the city.
The Kondo Hall, one of Toji's original structures, is the temple's main hall and largest building. Destroyed by a large fire in 1486, the building was reconstructed in the early Edo Period in a contemporary architecture style and houses Toji's main object of worship, a large wooden statue of the Yakushi Buddha, flanked by his two attendants, the Nikko and Gakko Bodhisattvas. Don't ask me about all the little angry dudes under the buddha statue.
Once again there was a small stand selling prayer tablets that you could hang at the temples, someone took a long time detailing their prayers. Most people had simple paper notes they would just tie to strings.
After climbing the pagoda, which had no views, we were pretty hungry. There was only a few places for lunch at Toji, and this udon place had an "English Menu" sign outside... SOLD! Not only did they have an English Menu, but it was a little photo album with photos and recommendations... Their Touji Noodles with Tempura shrimp were delicious.
On the way to the next temple, we passed the Kyoto Aquarium and Historical train museum. Although it had some cute statues and kids art hanging from trees, and a lovely smoking area, we only stayed long enough to use their bathrooms with Western Toilets.
The next temple we visited was Nishi Hongan-ji (West Honganji). It was built in 1591 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and is the head temple of the Honganji faction of the Jodo-Shin Buddhist sect. Nishi Hongan-ji's two largest structures are the Goeido Hall, dedicated to Shinran, the sect's founder, and the Amidado Hall dedicated to the Amida Buddha, the most important Buddha in Jodo-Shin Buddhism. The temple also displays some surviving masterpieces of architecture from the Azuchi-Momoyama Period and early Edo Period. Nishi Honganji is designated an UNESCO world heritage site.
It's a long walk around the complex to the farthest side (of course) where the entrance is.
You can freely wander the grounds and check out the structures, and unique drainage systems they have developed, but to go inside the temples, once again, it's no shoes.
After watching some buddhist prayers and bell ceremonies, we had enough of walking on cold wooden floors in our socks. We got our shoes and walked away.
Just wandering the streets of Kyoto, you never know what you will see, from detailed lacquer boxes for sale, to historical and sometimes comical statues.
All around different cities we were seeing these silly looking badger/raccoon like statues, we had no idea what they were. I found out that they are Tanuki, a magical fox-Like Dog that is a modern-day icon of Generosity, Cheer, and Prosperity. The description is hilarious... Depicted with big tummy, staff, giant scrotum, straw hat, sake flask, and promissory note. Welcoming icon found frequently outside Japan’s bars and eateries ("come in, don’t be stingy"). This collection of Tanuki was outside a shop that sold gold leaf chocolate dipped matcha cakes, and yes... I did buy a box and eat them.
Higashi Hongan-ji (East Honganji) was built only eleven years after and a few street blocks east of Nishi Hongan-ji as the head temple of the Otani faction of Jodo-shin Buddhism. Its main hall, the Goeido is Kyoto's largest wooden structure and dedicated to Shinran, the sect's founder. Next to it and almost as large is the Amidado Hall, dedicated to the Amida Buddha.
It was another long walk to the far side of the temple grounds where the gate was. When we got there, Higashi hongan-ji temple was closed, a security guard was nice enough to let me take a couple photos through the gate. I guess it's time to head back to our hotel.
By the time we got back to our room, we were drenched, our cheap 7-Eleven umbrellas weren't very waterproof. Good excuse to make tonight a Laundry night. Norine was not impressed that the Laundry machines were only in the Female portion of the Onsen pools area at the hotel, apparently only women are allowed to do laundry here.
One of the biggest challenges when traveling to different countries is communication. Almost everywhere you go, you can find someone that speaks just a little English. Japan was no different, but you are more welcomed if you use a few basic phrases to show you appreciate their service or assistance. Especially since there is no tipping in Japan, a simple Thank you means a lot. Nothing brought more smiles than telling people in restaurants 'o-ish-kaa-ta". Seriously, that was the most appreciated phrase!
Survival Phrases
-
Thank you very much
- a-di-ga-to go-zai-mass
- That was delicious - O-ish-kaa-ta
- Good Morning - O-ha-yo go-zai-mass
- Good Afternoon - Ko-Nee-chee-wa
- Good Evening - Kon-Ban-Wa
- Good-Bye - Sa-Yo-Nor-aa
- Please - Ku-da-sai
- Escuse me - Su-Me-Ma-sen
- Sorry - go-men na-sai
- I don't understand - wa-ka ri-mash-ta
- Yes/ No - Hai/ i-e
and most importantly...
- Where is the Toilet? - toy-re wa do-ko des ka
February 1
Kyoto has so many things to see, all spread around the city, so we bought a Kyoto Bus pass for the day at the Kyoto Station to make exploring easier. There was a free JR bus, but it didn't really cover the city like regular buses and subways did.
Our first stop was the Shimogamo Jinja shrine.The Shimogamo Shrine is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is one of the most important and oldest shrines in Kyoto. In fact, the Shrine predates the city's establishment as a national capital in 794. Throughout the thousand years that Kyoto served as Japan's capital city, the Imperial Court patronized the shrine as an establishment dedicated to the city's protection and prosperity.
The early cherry blossoms and sake barrels add another splash of colour to this unique shrine.
They really like their rocks and water taps here. Water-filled basins, called chozubachi, are used by worshipers for washing their hands, mouth and finally the handle of the water ladle to purify themselves before approaching the main shrine. This symbolic purification is normal before worship and all manned shrines have this facility, as well as many Buddhist temples and houses of worship.
After wandering the Shrine grounds, we caught the bus to the next temple. Their bus stops are quite helpful and unique with live updates showing you which buses come to this stop, where it goes, if it is on it's way, and how far away the bus is.
You're never far from food and snacks when visiting temples, if you want Ice Cream or a Teddy Bear shaped meal, you're in luck!
Next stop was the Ginkaku-ji temple, aka the Silver Pavilion. Ginkakuji is a Zen temple along Kyoto's eastern mountains. In 1482, shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa built his retirement villa on the grounds of today's temple, modeling it after Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion), his grandfather's retirement villa at the base of Kyoto's northern mountains. The villa was converted into a Zen temple after Yoshimasa's death in 1490. Despite its name, the Silver Pavilion was never covered in silver. It is explained that moon light reflecting on the building's dark exterior (which used to be covered in black lacquer in the past) gave it a silver appearance.
The Zen sand gardens are beautifully maintained by one man with a hoe and several wooden tools.
A circle trail takes you around the pavilion and the grounds of this parklike location.
The upper part of the trail gives you amazing views over the complex and across Kyoto.
Rather than catch another bus, we decided to walk the quiet stone walkway of The philosophers path. The path gets its name due to Nishida Kitaro, one of Japan's most famous philosophers, who was said to practice meditation while walking this route on his daily commute to Kyoto University. In a few weeks time this route will be one of the busiest cherry blossom sites in the city.
We stopped and watched a young boy sketching pictures of the river, and couldn't continue on without buying a couple of his sketches.
The canal was built during the Meiji Period in order to revitalize the stagnating local economy, and was used to power Japan's first hydroelectric power plant. Although it looks very simple, it is full of small fish and the white cranes make it their home.
It's a peaceful walk along the canal, with little temples and statues setup outside older homes, including the kind of creepy Tanuki.
After watching one of the locals feeding a group of wild cats, we headed into the Eikando temple.
Eikando, formally known as Zenrinji Temple, belongs to the Jodo sect of Japanese Buddhism. A court noble of the Heian Period (710-1185) donated his villa to a priest, who converted it into a temple under the name Zenrinji (lit. "temple in a calm grove"). Zenrinji had a popular head priest named Eikan, after whom the temple is popularly named Eikando ("Eikan Hall"). Eikan is credited with acquiring the temple's main object of worship, an unusual statue of the Amida Buddha with his head turned sidewards. According to legend, Eikan was walking through the temple one day, when the statue, which was originally facing forward, turned its head towards the priest and talked to him.
Once again, you enter the temple and remove your shoes, wearing a floppy pair of slippers you wander the grounds through a series of connected wooden walkways and hallways.
Up the hillside behind the temple is the Tahota Pagoda, a 2 story pagoda famous for being square on the bottom floor, and round on the top floor. It was a bit of a hike, but had great views across the valley.
Just a short walk from Eikando is the Nanzenji temple. The history of Nanzenji dates back to the mid 13th century, when the Emperor Kameyama built his retirement villa at the temple's present location and later converted it into a Zen temple. It is one of the most important Zen temples in all of Japan. It is the head temple of one of the schools within the Rinzai sect of Japanese Zen Buddhism.
The grounds are swarming with school kids as there is training temples here, so after a short wander inside we headed back out for lunch.
Of course when you are looking for food, the selection isn't there. Tucked above a community center was a restaurant called GEN, so we thought we would check it out. It looked very fancy, we had amazing service, very good food, and we were the only ones in the restaurant to enjoy their views. Surprisingly, it wasn't very expensive.
We had one more stop on our adventures today, but it was too far to walk, so we took the Subway. The Kyoto subway is much like skytrain back home, but it's near silent as everyone enjoys the peace and quiet of commuter time. It's actually amazingly quiet on buses, trains and planes throughout Japan, people are reading or sleeping, or using their smart phones in a silent way... it's really quite nice.
When we get off the subway and walk over to Fushimi Inari Taisha it's a little different than the other stops of the day... first there is a light snow falling, and second, there is a billion people here!
Fushimi Inari Taisha is an important Shinto shrine in southern Kyoto. It is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, which straddle a network of trails behind its main buildings. The trails lead into the wooded forest of the sacred Mount Inari, which stands at 233 meters and belongs to the shrine grounds. The shrine is dedicated to Inari, the god of rice, sake, and prosperity.
Thinking we would avoid the crowds we walk to the back of the temples and the entrance to the torii gate-covered hiking trail. It starts with two dense, parallel rows of gates called Senbon Torii ("thousands of torii gates"). The torii gates along the entire trail are donations by individuals and companies, and you will find the donator's name and the date of the donation inscribed on the back of each gate. The cost starts around 400,000 yen for a small sized gate and increases to over one million yen for a large gate.
We were wrong about avoiding the crowds, so it makes it tough to get a nice picture. Luckily the trails continue on, it could take several hours to cover them all, so as it starts getting later and further up the hill, the crowd starts thinning out.
Prepare to scroll through a few Red Torii gate photos.
The trails of Torii go on and on, as it starts getting dark we decided it was time to turn around, but not before enjoying the sunset views over Kyoto at the Yotsutsuji intersection, roughly half way up the mountain.
Sometimes after a long day of buses, subways and walking, you just need something familiar for dinner. You know like a McDonald's burger with 4 patties, actually I had the Chicken burger with Teriyaki sauce, well because, you know, have to stay with Japanese food.
February 2
On our last full day in Kyoto, we decided to hit a few remaining highlights that were on my list. That started with taking the Train to Kamakeo.
There isn't much in Kamakeo, but it's where you board the Hozu-gawa river boat, and ride the river and rapids to Arashiyama in a traditional Japanese river boat. Complete with only Japanese speaking guides and bamboo poles to propel us.
The Hozugawa River was originally employed to transport logs that were used to build many of Kyoto and Osaka's famous temples and castles. During the Edo Period the river was cleared of obstructions so that boats carrying grain, firewood and other cargo could safely navigate it. Trains and trucks eventually made river transport obsolete.
We are loaded into the boat, and again have to remove our shoes, while we sit cross-legged on the bottom of the boat. No seats, no benches, just a cheap carpet on the flat bottom.
As we push off, and are gently propelled down the river by 1 guy with a paddle, and 1 guy with a big bamboo pole, we instantly are seeing wildlife. A beaver, cormorants, ducks, cranes, and heron watch as as we glide past them.
The two hour cruise takes you from wide river, to narrow rocky stream, from flat and calm to boiling rapids. The latter causing screams and squeals from our other passengers. A few bumps along the way made it more exciting.
The poor guy on the bamboo pole is working the hardest, sometimes riding the pole as it pushes back out of the water, sometimes panicking as the pole disappears and the guy at the back of the boat retrieves it as we go by. I did notice he had a few spare poles so that must happen a few times.
A couple hours later the guides pull the roof off the boat, and finally start speaking english, "Here's your shoes, you can get off".
We are dropped off at an area called Arashiyama, it is famous for it's bamboo grove. It's a short walk to the grove, and the trail is sprinkled with cherry blossoms.
When we get to the grove, we find out just how famous... everyone is here. Any chance of getting that postcard shot of a lonely trail surrounded by bamboo was lost, but we made the best of it..
For all the hype over this must-see-attraction, we where a little underwhelmed. If you have been to the bamboo trail on the 'Road to Hana' in Hawaii, you have seen something much more spectacular, and with a few thousand less people.
Back out on the crazy streets of Arashiyama, we decided to take a bus instead of a rickshaw, and headed for the Otagi Nenbutsu-ji temple. Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple is hidden in the hills in far western Arashiyama. It is most famous for its collection of 1200 Rakan statues, and was a welcome change from the bamboo grove. When we arrived there was only 2 other people here.
The temple has a rather tragic history, washed away by a flood in 770, it was rebuilt but fell into disrepair over a 400 year period. In 1922, to preserve what was left, it was decided to dismantle the temples remaining structures and reassemble them in their current location. The temple’s misfortunes continued when a major typhoon caused terrible damage in 1950.
In 1955, the temple's fortunes began to change when a new head priest was appointed. He began the long process of renovating the temple. Kocho Nishimura was not only a priest but an accomplished sculptor of Buddhist statues. He hit on the idea of having visitors carve their own statues for the temple under his guidance. These "rakan" statues, which represent Buddha's disciples, were all added to the temple between 1981 and 1991. Because each statue was carved by a different person, each one is completely unique, and many have humorous expressions or whimsical poses.
You could spend the entire day just walking around looking at each little buddha, but there is also some nice temples and unique statues here on the hillside.
But mostly it's the statues, some of the details lost in the overgrown moss, each one with a personality, some grumpy, some sad, but so many happy or mischievous. Carrying a child, holding a mask or a pet, one even carrying a Walkman.
This temple wasn't even on our list, but was recommended by a friend who saw some of my other postings...
@cadavore_synod - If you have the chance try to get to Otagi Nenbustsu-ji.
Was the stand out temple of Kyoto for me. 10 out of 10, would temple again.
I can't thank him enough, it was definitely one of the highlight temples of our whole trip, and no crowds!
Turns out we spent so much time looking at the little moss covered Buddhas that we missed our bus, and the next one was over an hour away, so we decided to walk through the quiet neighborhood that led back to the main roads below.
It was a nice little walk, with the highlight being this poser dog. He was all about getting attention and pets from anybody that passed by.
Our next temple was definitely one of the most beautiful, the Kinkaku-ji temple (gold temple).
It's a short walk past traditional buildings to the Kinkaku-ji. It is a Zen temple whose top two floors are completely covered in gold leaf. Formally known as Rokuonji, the temple was the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and according to his will it became a Zen temple of the Rinzai sect after his death in 1408. Kinkaku-ji was the inspiration for the similarly named Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion), built by Yoshimitsu's grandson, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, on the other side of the city a few decades later.
It has burned down numerous times throughout its history including twice during the Onin War, a civil war that destroyed much of Kyoto; and once again more recently in 1950 when it was set on fire by a fanatic monk. The present structure was rebuilt in 1955.
There was a ton of people at this location, but the paths and layout are structured so you can get very nice pictures that appear to be isolated. A wander past their fish ponds and gardens led directly to the gift shop where we bought a traditional Japanese tea set with paintings of this beautiful golden temple.
I couldn't continue on without acquiring this matcha Ice Cream treat first.
The final stop on our bus pass day was Nijo Castle. Nijo Castle was built in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo Period (1603-1867). His grandson Iemitsu completed the castle's palace buildings 23 years later and further expanded the castle by adding a five story castle keep.
After the Tokugawa Shogunate fell in 1867, Nijo Castle was used as an imperial palace for a while before being donated to the city and opened up to the public as a historic site. Its palace buildings are arguably the best surviving examples of castle palace architecture of Japan's feudal era, and the castle was designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1994.
We had to take our shoes off again to wander the castle, but it was pretty barren except for painted wall murals on the paper walls separating rooms. There was no photos allowed inside.
A lot of people asked us about vending machines in Japan, because, well, they are everywhere. Even in the quietest neighborhoods you'll find a couple vending machines. News stories abound about the strange things they have vending machines for, but the majority of them are just for drinks; coffee, tea, pop, and an assortment of each type. There was some odd ones too, especially in Tokyo, creamed Corn?
It was often cheaper to buy the drinks at vending machines than some of the stores, and it was very odd to see alcohol and cigarettes available, never mind vending machines for Ice Cream or Paper Cranes.
February 3
Back to the Kyoto Station one last time, attached to the train station was a Post Office... using Google Translate we mailed our newly purchased teapot home, so we didn't have to carry it around with us, and boarded the Thunderbird Shinkansen train to Osaka.
