Our vacation in Kyoto

Last weekend (April 27th-29th), Colby and I took a three day weekend and went to Kyoto. Kyoto became the capital of Japan in the 8th century and remained the central hub for over 1,200 years, until the capital was moved to Tokyo in the mid 19th century. As you can imagine, there is so much to see and do. Colby and I had a busy three days and we only began to touch on the different attractions. As I tell you about our busy weekend, I'll try to give some history on what we saw. I will try my best not to be boring.

We started on Friday taking the bullet train from nearby Yokosuka. It was a two hour train ride west until we reached Kyoto. We arrived early afternoon, so we started our sightseeing early. Since most of the temples and shrines start closing around 4pm, we decided to stay close to the hotel. Our first destination was one of my favorites, Toji Temple. Toji Temple was constructed in 796 by the emperor, Kammu. The most famous attraction here is the pagoda. This five-story pagoda is the tallest in Japan standing 180 ft tall. However, it wasn't built until 1644. After walking through the many building and temples at Toji we headed north to Nichi Hongan-ji Temple. Unfortunately, most of this temple was under renovations so we were limited on what we could see. The Nishi Hongan-ji Temple is the headquarters of the Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism and is one of Japan's most important temples. While it isn't one of the most decorative temples to look at, you could sense the importance of the temple from the Japanese. When we were there, hundreds of Japanese schoolchildren were inside praying. As we were leaving the grounds, they all started to emerge and quickly filled the courtyard. By this time it was already past 4pm, so Colby and I focused our attention to our stomachs. We were starving!! We only shared some sandwiches on the train and we were ready to eat. After much debate, we finally decided on a resturant at the train station. Train stations here are nothing like anything in the states. The bigger train stations ususally have huge shopping areas, tons of resturants, travel agents, salons...you name it, it's there. The meal was excellent, we both tried our first Japanese pizza. The crust is a mixture of cabbage and egg (to hold it together), we had ours topped with pork and then it is cooked on a griddle. Nothing like we have ever had before, but it was good! Later that evening, we headed back to Toji for some pictures of the pagoda lit up at night.

Our second day was sooo busy. The night before, we went through our maps and travel books to make some sort of itinerary. By the time we reached our first destination, we realized we had planned way too much. We decided to enjoy each attration and just see what we could. We still managed to see four different temples and even catch a show. Or first stop was Nijo-jo Castle. Nijo was built in 1603 as a residence to the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. It was later passed to the imperial family in 1893. While Toji is my favorite, Nijo-jo ranks right up there. We were able to walk through the palace and see what life was like for the shoguns. What was so neat about the palace were the floors. Ieyasu was a little paranoid about unexpected visitors so he had "nightingale" flooring installed. The floor was specially constucted to that the boards would squeak underfoot...and they really do!! It was really neat, if you stood on one spot and bounced up and down, barely any sqeaking...but, lightly walk and they chirped away. We also got to see the shogun's audience chamber (where he would greet his visitors) and his private residence. All these rooms are lavishly decorated with hand-painted screens and ceilings. It is amazing how bold and viberant the painting were for being 400 years old!! After walking around inside the palace we walked around the gardens. You would actually have to see the Japanese gardens to understand how beautiful they are. There is not one spot that is left uncovered. Under the trees they plant different mosses so you don't see any dirt. There are so many different types of trees and bushes something is always blooming. The gardeners maticulously groom the trees and grass. I even saw a gardener raking the gravel path to get the few fallen leaves out of the gravel.
After Nijo, we were wanting to head to Ginkaku-ji Temple; however, we jumped on the wrong bus. We ended up heading west instead of east. No worries, we adjusted our itinerary and headed to Kinkaku-ji Temple (Golden Pavilion). As soon as we walked in the gates at Kinkaku-ji two Japanese students approached us and asked us if we wanted a tour...free of charge. They were university students studying English and were wanting to practice. We gladly accepted their offer. The current building is only a copy, the orginal was burnt down in 1950 by a deranged monk. They rebuilt the temple in 1955. The temple was orginally a nobleman's house. The shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu acquired the house and transformed it into his retirement villa in 1397. After the shogun's death it was converted into a Zen temple. The entire temple is convered in gold-leaf and Japanese lacquer, hence the nickname, Golden Pavilion. As we were receiving our wonderful tour, the wind picked up, the rain came down and the thunder boomed. While the weather wan't at it's best, we still enjoyed our tour and the temple. We got back on the bus and headed east, back to our orginal destination Ginkaku-ji.

Ginkaku-ji Temple is also known at the Silver Pavilion. The shogun Ashikay Yoshimasa built Ginkaku-ji in 1482 as his country retreat. He intened to cover it with silver leaf to create something similar to the Gold Pavilion (built by his grandfather), but he ran out of money. Nonetheless, the temple and the grounds are still worth seeing. The grounds had quite a few Japanese Zen rock gardens. There is a tree-lined path that winds up the hill to a gorgeous view of the grounds and Kyoto. By the time we reached Ginkaku-ji it was still raining; however, by the time we left, the sun was out again!!! We left Ginkaku-ji and decided to take a walk down the Path of Philosophy (Tetsugaku-no-michi). The path is a famous 1km trail next to an old canal. The path links two famous temples Ginkaku-ji in the north and Nanzen-ji to the south.


Our next stop was Eikando Zenrin-ji Temple. The temple was founded in 856; however, most of the current buildings were built in the 15th century. While the main temple, Amida-do Hall, is quite beautiful, my favorite was the Taho-to Pagoda at the top of a huge hill. The views of Kyoto were amazing!!


As we were leaving Eikando, we were stuck...it was getting close to 4pm, we were extremely tired (our day started at 8am) from walking all day. Plus, we were getting tired of seeing temples. So, after a short debate, we decide to head to Gion. Gion is Kyoto's old entertainment and geisha district As we were walking down Hanami-koji (main shopping street in Gion) we came across Gion Corner. There were tons of people congregating outside a heavily decorated building. We stood back and observed for a few minutes. Most of the Japanese men were wearing suits, many Japanese women were wearing kimonos, and then there were a bunch of tourist in their tourist clothes (khakis, t-shirt, backpack and camera around neck). We noticed a ticket booth so we knew some kind of activity/show was about to happen. The cheapest tickets (unreserved) were less than $20 a ticket, so we decided to take a chance. We soon found out we had just bought tickets to the annual Miyako Okori or Cherry-Blossom Dance!!! When the capital was transferred to Tokyo, Kyoto planned to hold an exposition to retain the dignity as the ancient capital of Japan. In 1872, the Miyako Odori was performed for the first time. The top Geiko and Maiko of Gion entertained the public with their performance. Since then, the Miyako Odori has been performend every year. This year was their 135th annual performance. In case you didn't know (I didn't) the Geiko and Maiko are otherwise known as Geisha!! Our unreserved seats gave us a chance to experience yet another cultural difference. There were no seats! The third balcony was full of pillows, just take off your shoes and take a seat. We had an absolutely wonderful time. The stage was U-shaped with the floor seats in the middle of the U. The bottom of the U was the full stage and flanked to the left and right was the 'band.' The geisha played traditional Japanese instraments: drums, flutes, and guitars. The geisha danced for about an hour, performing different dances and acting out folk-lore stories. Currently, this experience tops my 'favorite' list. I have never had an experience like that, and proably never will again. Colby and I couldn't believe how lucky we were to just stumble on it.
After the performance, we decided to walk around Gion for awhile. Since it was after 6pm, we did see a few geisha, quickly walking from one building to another. After a long and exciting day we headed back to the hotel.

Sunday, our train left at 2pm, so we had plently of time to visit two more temples, Kiyomizu-dera and Sanjisangen-do. These were the two temples that were at the top of my 'to do' list. We started at Kiyomizu-dera. This temple is actually in the running to be one of the new "Seven Wonders of the World." It definitely has my vote. The temple was established in 798; but, the current buildings were built in 1633. The main hall is perched on top a cliff on a massive framework incorporating 139 wooden pillars. The veranda sticks out over a huge valley giving you the most amazing views. Our second and final stop in Kyoto was Sanjusangen-do Temple. It was founded in 1132, but rebuilt in 1266 following a fire. The name Sanjusangen is named for the number of spaces between the pillars of the hall (sanju-san means 33). If you haven't guessed, this temple is huge!! It is 118 meters long (about 130 yards)!! In the 12th century, archery tourments would take place here. The archers were able to hit their 1m target from 120 meters away( from the northern to the southern corner of the temple). There are still archery tournment held here every year. However, it is not the size of the temple that makes it famous, it is what is inside. Inside the temple there are 1,001 statues of the Buddhist diety, Kannon. There are 1,000 standing statues of Kannon and one giant seated staute. It is said that everyone should be able to find their own face in at least one of these many statues. 124 of the statues were made in the 12th century, the remaining 876 were made in the 13th century.

Sorry for such a long blog, but we saw and did so much in three days! Even the train ride home was exciting. Check out the view we had from the train window!! Mt. Fuji!!