Kyoto Part 2

One of the unfortunate things about many tourists sites in Japan is that you cannot take photographs inside. As a result, much of what follows is just a description of what we saw along with outside photos, which are beautiful, but it makes it more difficult to convey how impressive some of these sites are.

Given how many days we were in Kyoto, and our inability to take day trips given train cancellations, we really saw a lot in the city. One of the most impressive sites is Sanjusangen-do, a temple originally built in the 12th Century. Today, it is a relatively spartan place, but this building is key:

You can see from how the building dwarfs Shana (in the ever-present and highly effective pink jacket purchased in Vietnam to keep warm in Japan) that it is impressively large, but what is most impressive is what it contains: 1001 virtually-identical, gold statues of Kannon, the Goddess of Compassion, in her 1000-armed incantation. Note that the statues do not actually have 1000 arms, but that is the intent of the multi-armed statues. In addition, there are 28 statues of Buddhist guardian deities, each different from the other. Really an amazing display, but no pictures allowed. This temple is outstanding in every way.

Nijo Castle was built beginning in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of the first Shogun of the Edo period (1603-1867). The grounds and gardens are the castle itself are beautiful.

The Ninomaru Palace, which served as the Shogun's residence and office has very impressive wall screen paintings, especially of tigers and other animals. We were amused by the fact that the paintings were done by artists who had never seen a tiger, especially by the one containing three tiger cubs one of which was a leopard (apparently, it was believed at the time that every third tiger cub was a leopard).

One note about both the Palace and the temple hall with the Kannon statues. In addition to not being allowed to take photos, we were required to take off our shoes to enter, and as you can see the weather was quite cold. Much to our surprise, there was no heat in either building (not even one space heater), and by the time we left our feet were freezing! Another difficulty created by the weather. While it was worthwhile to see the inside of each building, we reckon our feet have never been so cold as we spent more than 30 minutes in our socks on very cold floors. Another memorable winter in Japan moment.

The Kyoto Imperial Palace was the home of Japan's Imperial family for 1000 years until 1868 when the Emporer moved to Tokyo. Today, it is a number of traditional buildings surrounded by beautiful gardens. The main building has been used for many important ceremonies and is still used today.

The Philosopher's Path is a beautiful walk along a stone path in a quiet part of Kyoto (lined with Cherry Blossom trees, it is much-visited when they bloom in the spring). The Path got its name from a famous Japanese philosopher who walked the route on his daily commute to Kyoto University. We took the peaceful walk starting from Ginkakuji (The Silver Pavillion, which is not silver).

Along the path, as in much of Kyoto, there are many (MANY) temples and shrines, but after a while they all start to look/feel the same, so we did not bother to stop at more than one of them. We were stopped by this gentleman who was making bamboo boats and inviting tourists to select one and drop it into the canal that borders the path. 

Both of our boats floated, which he said was a sign that we are lucky, but we think it was a sign that he was good at making bamboo boats.

At the end of the path, we chose not to visit the interior of the Nanzenji temple (we just couldn't remove our shoes again), but we did get some photos of the nearby aqueduct and surrounding buildings.

We saw many women wearing traditional Japanese kimonos on our travels, and even got some pictures at Nanzenji/the aqueduct.

Chionin Temple complex is a really large temple complex right up against the mountains in Kyoto. There are many impressive buildings, and beautiful gardens as usual:

But, the best part of our visit was that there was a service going on with a monk chanting and striking a large metal bowl that makes an amazing gong-like sound. It was the first time in our week in Japan that we saw a temple being used for a religious service (even though we really had no idea what exactly was going on).

Finally, we visited the Kyoto National Museum, an art museum that focuses on Asian art along with handicrafts and other objects. The Museum was very "Japanese" in that it was sparsely filled and well organized. We especially enjoyed the beautiful scrolls that tell stories (not that we could read them) with illustrations.

Despite the difficulties created by the weather, we really enjoyed our time in Kyoto. The food was fantastic, and the city has a relaxed vibe that we came to enjoy over our time there.

More to come soon.

Jeff and Shana