Kyoto
Trip Start
Apr 20, 2004
1
10
13
Trip End
Aug 28, 2005
Kyoto,
Japan
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
The major sights in Kyoto are really spread out so it involved a lot of busing and walking around. The first day we saw the Kinkaku-ji (Golden temple), Ryoan-ji, Ginkaku-ji (Silver temple)and the Nanzen-in.
The Golden temple is probably one of the most photographed temples in Japan, covered in gold foil with a beautiful reflection in the mirror pond
Dan and I with a Maiko
. The bottom level of the temple is Palace style, the middle is Samurai style and the top is in Zen temple style The Ryoan-ji temple belongs to a School of Zen. There was an interesting Zen garden arranged in the 15th century in a kare-sansui or dry landscape style which contained 15 rocks arranged in white gravel. Apparently in any 1 position you sit to view the garden you can never see all 15 rocks at once. Designer unknown and the significance of the garden - well thats up to the you!
My favourite for the day was the Silver temple. Unlike the gold one covered in Gold, this temples creator died before the temple was completed so there is no Silver on the temple.
After walking the Path of Philosphy, we made our way to the Nanzen-in which was another lovely garden.
I was all keen for a early evening walk round Gion, the area famous for Geisha and Miako but our afternoon of sightseeing dragged on into the night so we settled for finding a good feed and a well deserved beer. The nightlife was pretty impressive for a smallish city. We found an overpriced yaki-tori restaurant which we had first course for the night at before moving to a cheaper Izakaya accross the road. We then found a fun Disco theme 10 pin bowling alley - what a hoot - Japanese disco music blarring, disco lights, glow in the dark balls and pins and of corse some beers
Ginkaku-ji temple
! 1st game I actually managed to get my highest score ever! - must have been the lights!Another full day the 2nd day. It was first up and off out to Arashiyama and Sagano area. This area know for its many temples and shrines and bamboo forests. We came accross a bike hire place and ended up hiring bikes for 3 hours for 700 yen. We were given a map (which was possible the worst map ever and caused many direction disagreements!) and set off in the wickedly hot kyoto sun. We had a good ride but only stopped off and looked at a few sights. Adashino Nembutsu-ji was probably the most interesting. This temple contains thousands of stone images with buddhas on them which are said to be the remains of many Japanese people who had no friends and family layed here to rest with no name or means of identification.
After 3 hours of biking round, it was time to head back to the city. To my joy I found a vending machine that sold diet sprite - a luxury drink here.
We had 1 more sight on our list of to see's - Kyomizu-dera Temple meaning pure water. This beautiful massive wooden temple is set in the hills overlooking Kyoto. After this we could confirm that we were all templed out!!! Hot, exhausted, hungry and thirsty. Thankfully we had booked a beer garden dinner at the Shinmonso Ryokan. Beer gardens are set on the tops of buildings and open for the summer months to eat, drink and be merry in the sunshine
Kinkaku-ji Temple
. This was our first beer garden experience and unfortunaly we could't get too merry. The real bonus was we got to meet a Maiko. A Maiko is an apprentice Geisha. Since living here ive read the books Memoirs of a Geisha and also The Geisha of Gion. Both fab reads and my 1 goal while in Kyoto was to see a Maiko or Geisha. Luckly we were the 1st to arrive for the night and we got to chat with the Maiko for 40mins. It was pretty tough going as between Dan and I our Japanese is not all that flash and her English was that she knew the odd word. Despite this we had an interesting chat with her and from what she said life as a Maiko nowdays is very from the time the books were written. She spends here days practicing dance, shamesen, flute, singing and tea ceremony and at night entertains at 2-3 different venues. She looked beautiful in a very expensive grass green kimono. She gets one holiday a year at New Year to visit her family and only 1 day off a month. Sounds like a very demanding lifestyle but one she choose for her love of kimono. After she had made her way around the tables and had heaps of photos she preformed 2 Japanese fan dances for us. This was definalty the highlight of the trip for me. It took us so many months to get to Kyoto but I can say it was every bit worth the wait and now - no more temple viewing please : )
