My Week Part 1: Kyoto

I woke up at 4:15 on Monday the 6th and hopped on a Shinkansen for Kyoto. The Shinkansen is so fast and quiet, I ended up dozing off and suddenly I was there. It was too foggy to see Mt. Fuji, which was kind of a bummer. Kyoto was a change of pace for me. It is still a city, but the JR lines don't really run anywhere except east to west, and there are very few subways (these modes of transportation have become my forte in Tokyo). I knew that I only had two days in this historic city, so I didn't waste a moment. Right off the train I bought a tourist map that had all the shrines and temples in Kyoto, and, having left the station, I made my way to the nearest one.

That was the To-ji, just south west of the station. The To-ji has three main buildings: The Main Hall, The Lecture Hall, and a 5 story pagoda that is the tallest in Japan. The buildings were gigantic and fantastically old. The area around the buildings had a nice pond and garden, where you could rest. However, the rule for Buddhist temples is that pictures of the interior are strictly prohibited, as it is forbidden to photograph the sacred Buddha. This means that the greatest sights of my journey will only exist in my memory, and that I cannot share them with anyone.

After stopping by my hostel to drop off my luggage, I decided to go to the Kiyomiza-dora next. It is a temple built on the side of a large hill with some amazing structures. On the way up, however, I was amazing by the discovery of a massive graveyard.

This picture is not enough to show how large this place was. Here is a video of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UnQl3LlTzw

The temple itself was stunning and had an amazing view of the city. This is where I noticed that every temple and shrine I went to in Kyoto was swarming with children. The Gion Matsuri festival lasts the entire month of July, so that was probably the reason.

Fushimi Inari-Taisha was nearby so I decided to go there.

Soooooo many Tori gates. It was quite fun to go through there, but when I made it to the Shrine, I heard thunder. I ran back through the gates and made it to the souvenir shop before the downpour came. I actually greeted this storm happily because it had been unbearably hot out and I was walking a lot that day, as the shrines and temples are concentrated on the perimeter of the city.

Unfortunately, all the temples and shrines close around 5, so that was all I had time for that day. I spent the night exploring the shopping arcade and the urban side of Kyoto. The shops were mostly run-of-the-mill fashion places, but it was still interesting. There were some pimped out cars hanging around on the side of the road.

I wanted to say how much I enjoyed staying at hostels for this week. Everyone at the places I stayed at were so relaxed and welcoming. The other tenants were quick to start up conversation and discuss travel plans. Apparently there are a lot of hostels in Japan with strict rules (bathing time, curfew) and the Osaka one was sort of like that. I guess the other two were just lucky picks by me, because they were extremely flexible. If anyone wants to travel to Japan (especially if you don't speak any Japanese) hostels are what I recommend.

The next day I woke up at 6, determined to see everything I wanted before the Temples closed at 5.

I started with the Heian Jingu. Though the shrine was fairly large, this was the only attraction that was free out of everything I saw that day. It was very picturesque and had a classic feel to it, though it is a very modern shrine, having been built in 1895.

Next was the Sanjusangen-do, the temple which houses the 1001 carved Buddha statues along with a complete set of Buddha's guardians (which is highly uncommon) and a giant Buddha in the middle of the temple. This was one of the coolest experiences in my entire trip. It was such an amazing sight. It looks like someone broke the rules, but words can't describe what I saw:
http://www.chrisandsherry.com/Japan/8KyotoBuddhas.jpg
What is visible in that photo is only the majority of the right half of the temple. It just seemed to go on forever. They had signs in English that gave the information of each guardian. Despite being a temple, the information was presented in a very historical fashion, by stating what the original Sanskrit name was, what the guardian was in Hinduism, and what they were adapted to be in Buddhism.

The closest place of interest after that was the Kyoto Castle. To my dismay it was closed. It would be fine in the end, as I was able to go to the far move impressive Osaka Castle later in the week. Compared to the Osaka Castle, the wall and defenses of the Kyoto Castle were laughable.

Next on my list was the Osaka Botanical Gardens. Right around the time I got there, it started raining heavily. I made refuge and had some lunch. For lunch that day was Curry Udon (a combination of two of my favorite dishes). The gardens were pretty interesting. I feel as though I had missed the best blooming period for most of the Japanese plants (the Cherry Blossom happens months earlier), but there was a bonsai exhibit and a crazy collection in the greenhouse.

After managing to pull off bus riding without a hitch, I got myself to the other side of Kyoto to see the Kinkaku-ji.

The word Kin is gold in Japanese. The entire temple is coated in a thick gold lacquer and crowned with a golden Phoenix on top. I don't know how many gold buildings exist in the world, but this was pretty amazing. The area around the temple was interesting as well, and the temple is right next to the Daimonji Mountain, one of the mountains lit aflame to spell out the character for "big" during the fire festival in August.


There was one last place I wanted to go to in Kyoto, and fortunately it was just south of the Kinkaku-ji.

That was the Ryoan-ji and it's famous rock garden. It was a little crowded at this temple, and made the experience a little less enjoyable. The garden itself was quite cool. It is constructed in such a way that of the 13 large rocks in the midst of the garden, you can only see 12 from any angle other than above. They say that being able to see the 13th stone means you have reached enlightenment.

Believe it or not my day was not through. Though I had seen what I had wanted to in Kyoto, I still had to hop on a train to Nara, the old capital. The city is just south of Kyoto and really had an old feel to it. It felt as though the city was about 5 years back in time (just a strange feeling I got). The oddest part of all was that after walking for about 3 city blocks, I found myself in a completely different setting as I entered the park where all the temples are. The most amazing part of this trip to Nara (and perhaps my entire trip) were the deer.

They just roam the area, even though they are a block away from a busy city. I really can not explain how amazing this was. They had no fear of humans. You could walk up to them, feed them, and I even got so bold as to reach out my hand and pet them. There were so many around, at least 200.

The main temple I came to Nara for was the Todai Shrine, the largest wooden building in the world. The greatest disappointment in my entire trip, was discovering that I had arrived after closing time for this temple. I was determined however, and the above shot was taken from atop some scaffolding being used for lights outside of the temple gates. Here is a picture I found on Google that has people in it for size comparison. Though I could not see the magnificent interior and the largest Buddha statue in Japan, at least I had the deer to comfort me.


Part 2 is on the way...