We headed to Kyoto after a satisfying eight days in Osaka. In actually fact Kyoto is only about a 25-40 minute train ride away from Osaka but it made sense to move base to give us time to explore Kyoto properly. They say that if you only visit one city in Japan that Kyoto should be it. Its apparently the only major Japanese city that wasn’t bombed in World War II and as a result many temples, shrines, and palaces from them exist today. And there are a LOT of temples, shrines and palaces to see. I have to admit that after seeing the first few we got a bit over seeing them because, beautiful as they were, I’m ashamed to say that they all started to look the same to me.

As the frommers travel guide rightly point out if you arrive at the high tech Kyoto Station, surrounded too by the modern hotels and the giant Kyoto Tower (looking like some sort of alien spaceship,) you may wonder where all the typically Japanese images you have in your head have come from. That is, the gorgeous green bamboo groves, the pebble zen gardens, golden temples and bright orange gates? The answer is uncovered when you start your exploration and move away from this central ring. Then you will uncover all of the beautiful treasures of Kyoto.

Photos, Photos, Photos.

When?	Early March 2009
Why Go?	As you may have picked up from my introduction Kyoto is probably Japan’s most historically significant city and its most beautiful. After Mt Fuji most of the pictures filling typical postcards of Japan have probably come from Kyoto. Like Osaka it is also a great base for day trips to places such as Nara, Himeji, and Kobe.
Weather	No real change in weather from that in Osaka – glorious sunny days and grim rainy days. Temps ranged from 5-15 during the day to 0-5 at night.
Hint	– Ensure you pick up a couple of copies of the Kyoto bus network which is an invaluable tool for getting planning your itinerary.
	– From the sheer number of historical attractions (according to Lonely Planet: 17 Unesco World Heritage sites, more than 1,600 Buddhist temples and over 400 Shintō shrines) it doesn’t take much to be overwhelmed from hitting attraction after attraction. Don’t try to fit too many into one day and rather than going to see EVERY temple and EVERY shrine choose a few key of the more spectacular ones. These are likely to be the ones that most tourists visit so choosing few off the beaten path attractions is rewarding as well. The peace and quiet at these attractions I thought made our visit a bit more fulfilling.
	– The best advice is to take the off the beaten path. Rather than walking the main road try choosing one that runs parallel to it – you never know what treasure you’ll discover.

The Experience

What I didn’t expect from Kyoto was just how large the city was. Many of the sights I had highlighted for interest seemed to be spread out in all corners of the city and whilst we could have taken the conveniently placed subways and JR trains to get to the sights it turned out that the bus was the best way to get around at a moderate price (Y500 for an all day pass as compared with Y220 per bus trip or Y210 as a starting point for the subway.) There is an excellent bus map you can pick up from Kyoto Station which shows you all the relevant bus routes and is an invaluable tool for planning your travel around the city.

Highlights

Like Osaka its impossible to describe our whole trip as Kyoto is just so rich in experiences so here are some of the things we saw.

Kyoto Station.

You’d be surprised that I should think that Kyoto Station should be your first port of all. Not only is it a great place to get information to plan your stay but it is also interesting architecturally, has a department store, hotel, and shopping malls, is a great place to find food (hundreds of restaurants/stalls), has a rooftop observatory and open air garden and it even has a movie theatre!

As an example that you never know where taking the off the beaten path will take you we stumbled across this water fountain one night at the station when we were looking for somewhere to have dinner (I’ve doubled the speed of it):

Pretty awesome!

Oh, when you’re at the observatory see if you can a starfish kind of marking on the side of a hill. Its actually the Japanese character for big, “Dai”. Actually we saw it a couple of times including from Kinkakuji-cho in North Kyoto.

Fushimi-Inari-Taisha

Visiting this shrine had to have been one of my favourite experiences in Kyoto. At first I thought we wouldn’t make it there as I took us on some bus route that dropped us in the vicinity of the shrine then had to find our way there on foot with no map to help us. I had to employ some of my rusty Japanese skills to speak with some of the Japanese people to get us going in the general direction. Its actually quite straight forward to get to if you take the JR line straight out of Kyoto Station for those interested.

So, what makes this shrine so cool? Well, basically, the miles of bright vermillion (orange) torii gates that line the path between the shrines. Inari is the Shinto god of rice and foxes are thought to be its messengers so in addition to the torii gates you will find lots of stone foxes dotted around the shrines. The torii gates are offered by the worshippers so you’ll find that most of them are covered in inscriptions. Apparently the whole hike takes about two hours so though we didn’t get to do the whole trail (it was just nearing sun down by the time we got there) we saw enough for me to really like it.

Kinkaku-ji

Kinkaku-ji, or the Golden Pavilion Temple, is second only to Mt Fuji as the most photographed attraction in Japan. You can understand why when you walk up the path and suddenly this gorgeous gold leaf covered pavilion is revealed to you. The number of tourists surrounding the pavilion is very understandable. We took so many photos of the pavilion from all different angles but even the camera can’t capture just how breathtakingly beautiful it is. Even on a day when the sky was gray it was a truly magnificent sight to withhold. I think it also helped that it is set in a calm pond with gorgeous Japanese greenery surrounding it.

Ryōan-ji

The Temple of the Peaceful Dragon is a Zen temple located near the Kinkaku-ji and is therefore often the tourists you see at one sight will also appear at the other. The temple probably know best for its karesansui (dry landscape) rock garden which is supposedly the most celebrated rock garden in Japan. This is the description from wikipedia: “The garden consists of raked gravel and fifteen moss-covered boulders, which are placed so that, when looking at the garden from any angle (other than from above) only fourteen of the boulders are visible at one time. It is traditionally said that only through attaining enlightenment would one be able to view the fifteenth boulder. Also, if facing the garden from the far right and about 8 feet back a person of about 1.82m(6ft) in height can see all 15 boulders, though the small boulder farthest to the left appears to be part of the much larger boulder immediately next to it).” I wish I’d known this before I visited as I certainly would have tried to attain enlightment by trying to view all 15 boulders at once. As it turns out I couldn’t even fit the whole garden into my photo no matter where I stood. Maybe that too was part of the challenge! I only JUST managed to fit all of the miniature replica into a shot!

After gazing at the rock garden and giving it the proper respect I felt a lot respect for the people who could read such deep meaning into the garden. I do admit it did give me a sense of peace just looking at it.

On your walk through the temple look out for the “Tsukubai” a stone-wash basin with its unique inscription “I learn only to be contented.” I really like the sentiments of the basin which basically means that once you learn to be contented you will be spiritually rich, but the person who doesn’t will always be spiritually poor even if materially rich. A very zen concept and one I truly believe in (though let’s face it even I admit having a bit of dosh does give you a certain amount of freedom to reach that path of contentment.) The temple gardens on the way out of the place were also pretty and we were pleased to find that some of the cherry trees had blossomed. Stunning.

Daitoku-ji but specifically Kōtō-in

Daitoku-ji is actually a collection of 24 zen sub-temples so you could really choose at pleasure which ones you want to see. When we visited I was pleased to see very few people about and actually this was one of those moments which made Kyoto even dearer to me as it felt like we had the place to ourselves and it was the most at peace I’ve felt for most the of the trip. As there were way too many sub-temples to visit in one session we targeted the Kōtō-in. It was certainly worth taking the time to hunt it out. The garden is located within a very cool bamboo grove. Following the moss-lined path you reach a small garden filled with moss, maple trees and bamboo. Following the advice of the lonely planet guide we took some time out on the veranda to just sit and be still. Enchanting!

Arashiyama

Arashiyama is an extremely tourist area located on the outskirts of Kyoto. There were quite a few things to see in Arashiyama but the two things on the top of my list were the famed bamboo groves found just behind the behind Tenryuji Temple and the Monkey Park! I know I know – everyone has seen monkeys in the wild before but it was still kind of cool to climb to the top of the mountain (a fairly steep 15-20 minute hike) with your fellow cousins playing around you. Amazingly we didn’t have any other tourists making the climb with us so that made it quite a special visit.

The top of the mountain not only gives you a great look out point but you can also feed the monkeys. Ironically it’s the humans who are caged for this exercise! I liked feeding the monkeys who, after screaming at you to get your attention, actually weren’t too rough when taking the peanuts or chestnuts from your hands.

The walk through the bamboo groves was quite lovely. It all felt quite Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon!

Tetsugaku-no-michi and Ginkaku-ji

Tetsugaku-no-michi, or the Path of Philosophy or the Philosopher’s Walk, is a walk along a cherry-tree-lined canal in Kyoto, between Ginkaku-ji and Nyakuōji-jinja. The route is named for a Kyoto University philosophy professor, Nishida Kitaro, who is thought to have used it for daily meditation. Its one of the more beautiful walks in all of Kyoto. Even, as it turned out for us, on a day of rain. Just a shame that the cherry trees hadn’t quite blossomed during our walk.

We briefly dropped in to visit Ginkaku-ji which was supposed to be the Temple of the Silver Pavilion. Unfortunately it was under wraps and being renovated so we didn’t actually get to see the temple itself. I don’t think its actually silver but I think got its name because initially it was supposed to be covered in silver foil (to emulate Kinkaku-ji – the Golden Pavilion) and the name has stuck. We did find another zen stone garden which was cool and a truly beautiful garden. I really love the Japanese gardens which are clearly balanced and structured. There is nothing excessive in them and the result is a vision truly pleasing to the eye. In all honesty I could have stayed in the garden all day.

Nishiki Market

Nishiki-kōji Ichiba is the place to be if you really want to sample the delights of Kyoto cooking and eating. It’s a rather narrow, but covered, street where you can see all sorts of fresh, cooked and processed foods. Its just under half a kilometer long and you can easily make your way up the street and sampling to make up your lunch though it really comes alive in the morning apparently. You can find fish, meat, dried stuff, fried stuff, steamed stuff and Kyoto vegetables. I especially liked these soya donuts that my brother found. Surprisingly delicious on its own and fantastic fresh out of the fryer.

Kyoto Imperial Palace

The Kyoto Imperial Palace is where the imperial family lived for over 500 years from the 1330s. The grounds are absolutely massive and hosts numerous huge buildings. I think every tourist has this on their hit list when coming to Kyoto. Tours are conducted twice a day during the week and are the only way to access the Palace (plus you have to first get “permission” to go on the tour which basically involves turning up before hand with your passport in hand.)

You aren’t taken inside of any of the buildings but there are some interesting facts imparted during the tour. Interestingly the tour guide whips you around fairly quickly though I think many on the tour did their best to go slow and take a million plus photos of the grounds and buildings. My favourite part of the palace had to be the private garden. Typically Japanese it was very beautiful and serene, when I could ignore the presence of the other tourists on the tour that is!

The Others

We did see a few more things around the place including:

– two massive temple compounds, Nishi-Honganji and Higashi-Honganji, which are located near to Kyoto Station. The first is a good example of Buddhist architecture wheras the second is Kyoto’s largest wooden structure. Both seemed to be under renovation when we went though that didn’t stop us being allowed to go in and check them out. One of the strangest things I saw was the Hair Rope at Higashi-Honganji. Apparently when they were building part of the complex existing ropes weren’t strong enough to lift heavy pieces of wood. As a result all the female followers cut off their hair to make a giant rope (called Kezuna.) The one we saw was 69m, 30cm circumference and weighed 375kg. The largest rope made was apparently 110m long, with a circumference of 40cm and weighed about a tonne!
– Pontocho at night. Its supposedly Kyoto’s most famous street for going out and loads of bars and restaurants. It seemed fairly quiet when we were walking the streets (still relatively early at 8pm I think.) Though at one stage I accidentally made eye contact with one of the “ladies of the night” – we found ourselves on one street where it seemed that buying “cigarettes” meant you were interested in being “entertained”. Yes, I know, what’s up with my quotation marks. Lets just say that we had a glimpse of some ladies in a state of undress and leave it there!

Last Words

I didn’t really have last words in my last post because it was quite long already so I’ll say it here. If you add any country to your itinerary Japan has surely got to be it. You will marvel at this beautiful country where, I’m glad, so much of history is so intact. You will also marvel at the food and the generosity, politeness and helpfulness of its people, despite the language barrier. There’s no snobbery here and you’ll feel more than welcome when you come visit its shores. Take this example. I was at the bus stop trying desperately to break into my onigiri (triangle rice ball) and this little old lady obviously couldn’t stand me not being able to get into it so she hustled over and showed me the trick behind opening the thing! I couldn’t help but giggle at her but it was an action so typical of all the Japanese I’d encountered during my travels. Another time a waitress came running out of the restaurant to return my chopsticks to me. By running I mean she was about to break out into a sprint before she saw we were still standing at the corner.