Kyoto Sights

We spent 2 action-packed days touring around Kyoto with mom and Meg. The first day we got up early and hit the "western style" breakfast in our hotel then bought 1 day bus passes and headed for the famed Golden temple.

Shawn was an excellent tour guide and only once had us board the wrong bus (pretty good for his first time there and no literary skills in kanji). Stop one on the list was Kinkauji temple, the famous "golden temple". We tried to get there at opening and beat the crowds, but I am not sure that there is ever a time when this place isn't busy. We did manage to get there while the sun was out and that made the temple look really impressive. I have been told that when it is overcast the gold plated walls don't look quite so stunning.

At Kinkakuji, my sis had her first chance to visit a Japanese style toilet. To clarify, this shouldn't be confused with the Cadillac toilets that do everything from heated seats to air drying your bottom (read about those here). No, this was a traditional style Japanese hole-in-the-floor style at a very busy tourist destination - in a word - filthy! This began what my sister would call, a study in Japanese toilets, that continued through the duration of her visit.

My mom's "first" at Kinkakuji was a sample of a traditional Japanese sweet (read more about these here). It was pounded rice dough filled with sesame paste. My mom's discovery with this trial - she really doesn't like the taste of sesame and the rice dough was "like raw pie dough". The rice paste is an aquired texture, and tends to be unappealing to the north american palate. This began the collective operation "avoid sesame flavoured everything", that would continue through the duration of the visit. Here is a photo of mom making Meg finish her sample.


Next stop on the tour - Nijo Castle. This was a fantastic place, a UNESCO world heritage site right in the heart of Kyoto. It is a walled castle, with a moat surrounding it, beatiful artwork on the walls and rock gardens. Built in 1603 as the residence of the first Tokugawa Shogun, it was the home of shoguns for over 200 years. One amazing feature of the palace is the Uguisu-bari or Nightingale floor. It was designed to squeak no matter where you step on the floor. It served as a security alarm against intruders. The sound it made when 10 or 20 tourists are strolling along the corridor was beautiful.



Lunch was in the Sanjo shopping arcade near the castle at a small chinese food place. The fact that the floors were sticky and the cook wore rubber boots should have been an indication that we should continue on and look for food elsewhere.

In the afternoon we walked through part of Sagano Bamboo Grove, a large bamboo forest to the west of Kyoto. It was a windy day and the trees sounded like wind chimes as they knocked together. Shawn felt like he should climb a tree and have a sword fight like the scene from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. We also visited one of the quiet temples near the forest. There were far less tourists here and it was a great way to end our first day, watching the light fade over Kyoto from this scenic temple.



The ride back to the hotel wasn't quite as zen, as we found ourselves on a packed commuter bus riding back to Kyoto station. Not a very comfortable experience, but one that is certainly truly Japanese.

The next day we got another early start at the very popular Kiyomizu Temple. It was a busy place overlooking Kyoto from the east. The narrow winding roads that lead up to the temple are lined with tourist shops and small places to eat. The roads are narrow and quickly become packed, wall to wall with tourists walking to and from their buses that can't navigate the narrow roads.


A quiet corner of the temple housed 500 Buddhas, 500 small stone statues who have been carefully covered with red aprons.



From Kiyomizu we walked north along the small roads and eventually found ourselves in Maruyama Koen (park). We were lucky to be there to see the begining of the cherry blossom festival. The park was packed with giddy Japanese people on holiday with friends and family and soaking in the flower display. They lay out tarps to stake claim to a territory where they will meet friends later to have o-Hanami (cherry blossom party). Here is a photo of some of the action. Unfortunately, we weren't prepared with a cooler of food and a tarp, but we did take advantage of the makeshift "beer garden" to have our own small hanami.






Our time in Kyoto was short, but we managed to see so many great places. Kyoto is an easy place to tour. The city buses offer easy and cheap access to many interesting places, but Kyoto has so many places to see, we will definately have to return. I close this blog with a photo of one of the most famous sakura in Japan, a 300 year old tree in Maruyama Koen. I still can't believe we were lucky enough to be there while it was in bloom.