Kyoto Hotels
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Temples and geisha
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It was nice to get back to a modern city with vegetarian restaurants, no longer eating Indian or pizza for every non-hostel-cooked meal. Unfortunately all Japanese food tastes like seaweed to me, so I didn't really like any of the things I ate, but at least I could try things without any fish stock or flakes sneaken in. Though I do have to say that the tofu in Japan is delicious. It's much smoother and more silky than tofu I've had anywhere else and also seems to have more of its own flavor. It had enough flavor that I was happy eating a blob of tofu with some soy sauce for dinner, something I would never do with the tofu at home which always requires marinating or a very flavorful sauce.
My first day in Kyoto I decided to make use of my railpass with a day-trip to Nara, Japan's first capital from 710-785 CE. Nara park is full of temples and shrines. The highlights for me were Todai-ji Temple and Kasuga Taisha. Although Todai-ji Temple is currently the largest wooden structure in the world, it's still a third smaller than its original size. Inside the temple is a massive bronze Buddha. Behind Buddha there's a large wooden pole with a hole that's supposed to be the exact size of Buddha's nostril. Legend has it that if you can pass through the hole you're ensured enlightenment. I interpreted that to mean that children and midgets can be guaranteed enlightenment while everyone else has to work for it. My favorite part of Kasuga Taisha was the approach. The paths leading toward the temple are lined with hundreds of large, moss-covered, cement lanterns. They only light them twice a year, but I can imagine it must look pretty spectacular.
The next day I had planned a day-trip to Osaka before my railpass expired at midnight that night, but when I discovered that it was pouring rain that morning, I decided to hang around Kyoto instead. If I was going to get soaking wet, I wanted to be near a change of clothes. Instead, I bought a ticket to see the Maiko Dances. Maiko are apprentice geisha. In the spring they put on shows of maikos doing traditional Japanese dances to live music played on traditional Japanese instruments to celebrate the cherry blossoms. It's also a great tourist attractions and shows routinely sell-out. I was lucky to be able to get a ticket for the open, tatami-mat seating for the third show that day (you can only buy tickets for the open seating section on the day of the show). The show was wonderful! I'm so glad I went. The dancing and music were both beautiful. And I found it hysterical when the entire audience ooh-ed and ah-ed over the fake cherry blossom decorations.
I spent the rest of my time in Kyoto exploring various temples. There are over 70 temples in and around Kyoto, with 17 of them designated World Heritage sites. I obviously had no intention of visiting them all. I did visit the Golden Pavilion, one of the main tourist attractions, but was rather disappointed. In addition to massive amounts of people shoving their way through the grounds, no one is allowed in the pavilion - you can only look from afar. It's large and painted gold, but otherwise not all that exciting. The grounds would be nice if there were space to actually enjoy them instead of just being shuffled through with all the other tourists.
I preferred some of the smaller and more random temples, though I did also enjoy Nanzen-Ji and Shoren-In, both tourists attractions, but with fewer than half the people of the Golden Pavilion and space to actually walk around and explore. I skipped the Silver Temple since I was forewarned that it's completely covered in scaffolding but they still charge the same $5 entry fee.
My favorite place in Kyoto was one I saved for my last day there - Fushimi-Inari Taisha, a massive complex of five shrines on the side of a mountain. The best part about it is the 4kms of pathway lined with large red tor-ii gates. They're beautiful to look at and made for a really nice hike. They're also a bit like a maze, weaving in and out of each other and splitting off in different directions. I spent a great couple of hours exploring the whole area. After hiking I went for one last onsen dip before getting packed and ready to leave Japan the next morning.
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