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

Nara and Osaka Daytrips

We chose to spend 9 nights in Kyoto because it is an excellent springboard for several destinations that can be visited as easy day trips by train, including Nara, Osaka, Kobe, Himeji, Nagoya, etc.

Nara served as Japan’s first capital in the 8^th century and is home to the famous sacred deer. In the Shinto religion, deer are believed to be messengers of the gods and for this reason they are revered in Nara. There are hundreds of wild deer roaming freely and they don’t just stay in the park. Due to the absence of tourists during COVID, they reverted to more natural behaviors, including foraging for food, but based on our observations that didn’t last long after tourists returned.

It was fun to walk along and greet the deer with a “hello, Bambi.” We chose not to feed them as we saw they get a bit aggressive when they know someone has purchased deer crackers. It was entertaining to watch those who did buy crackers freak out when they were suddenly swarmed by deer, dropping the crackers as they ran away from their Instagram moment.

The deer are not the only highlight of Nara. Kasuga Taisha is a large Shinto shrine complex that was a pleasure to wander through. It sits within a very old forest, where you’ll find more deer, of course, and many stone lanterns. You can even make prayer offerings on deer shaped wooden cards. The natural beauty blended with the spiritual is enchanting. 

Todaiji Temple is one of the largest wooden structures in the world and Japan’s largest Buddha statue sits inside. The stature of the building and the Buddha is astounding.

As we wandered our way back to the train we saw other temples, traditional gardens, and more deer. Our trip to Nara was a delight.

Inspired by our day in Nara, the next day we headed to Osaka, Japan’s second largest metropolitan area. We started with coffee at a small café where the elderly owner made amazing lattes and performed a few magic tricks for us – he passed a handkerchief through his cell phone! We then headed to Osaka Castle, a 16^th century shogunate stronghold built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, whose life story and role in Japanese history was dramatically told in the museum. This hagiography was undermined later when we looked up the history of the Mimizuka – an odd monument in Kyoto. It holds thousands of severed noses of Koreans and Chinese killed during Hideyoshi’s invasions of Korea between 1592-1598. Japan’s history is filled with violence and war, not unlike many other countries.

The castle sits in the center of the city and offered great views of the modern metropolis.

We visited Osaka's large market where Jeff had grilled eel, and then meandered through the city’s central commercial zone. You’ll never guess what the restaurant in the photo below serves.

We knew that snow was predicted and had seen a couple of flakes during the day, but we had no idea that back in Kyoto it had been snowing A LOT. 

The train trip between Osaka and Kyoto is all of 30 minutes, but it took us 6.5 hours to get back! First, we waited more than an hour and a half in the cold on the Osaka Station platform because of extensive delays in service. We finally got on a train that moved slower than normal. The train then stopped on a bridge outside of Kyoto where we sat for more than 2.5 hours. There were many announcements, which we could not understand. The entire time the Japanese were silent – seriously, not a peep, and no one offered any information to us. Using Google Translate I surmised that it was unknown when we would get moving again. We finally moved off the bridge, to wait another 45 minutes or so, and then we arrived at a local station one stop away from Kyoto Station where a kind Japanese man told us the train would not go any farther. While another train at that station was supposedly going to Kyoto Station, we were done with trains for the night and chose to walk to our hotel in the fresh snow – about a 30-minute walk (we would have had to walk 15 minutes anyway) – arriving close to midnight.

It turned out that we had gone to Osaka on the day that Kyoto experienced its worst snowstorm in at least 10 years. Thus, our outing to Osaka did not end well. Moreover, the trains in and out of Kyoto had service interruptions for the next several days as the area received more snow as it tried to recover from the original dump. This meant we did not take any other daytrips. It's a good thing we took these daytrips early in our Kyoto stay!

Fortunately, there is enough on offer in Kyoto that we kept plenty busy, even though our pace was hindered by the snow, ice, and cold. We did our best to stay warm and entertained but traveling in January can be tough.

Keeping it real in Japan,

Shana & Jeff

Kyoto Part 1

We spent nine nights in Kyoto, our first stop in Japan. The weather was cold and unusually snowy, which definitely impacted our ability to see the city and the surrounding area. Nonetheless, we managed to enjoy ourselves and, as you will see, the snow provided a beautiful background for many of our photos.

Kyoto is a city of temples and shrines. There are hundreds of them. While we saw many, we definitely limited ourselves because after awhile it just gets to be too much. In the majority of cases, a visit to a temple is really more of an opportunity to walk through the gardens and enjoy the Zen provided by their design, especially in the snow. Probably the most beautiful site was Kinkakuji, known as the Golden Pavillion (for obvious reasons).

Another incredible stop was Fushimi Inari Shrine, with its 1000 Torii gates. Set on the edge of Kyoto at the base of Mount Inari, there are many small shrines at the site, along with the main one. Here, foxes are considered to be sacred, and there are statues of foxes everywhere (but, unlike the sacred deer of Nara, no real foxes).

The gates are really interesting, and we walked the entire path to the top of the mountain despite the slick conditions from the seemingly ever-present ice/snow.

We also visited Tenryugi Temple, and the nearby famous bamboo groves in the area of Arashiyama. It was extremely busy there because we went on a Sunday, and many Japanese families were out enjoying the relatively good weather.

After seeing the bamboo groves and temple, we visited Arashiyama's most amusing residents, a group of about 120 snow monkeys that you can see up close. 

We even got a chance to see the monkeys being fed, which led to what can only be called a feeding frenzy.

We will have a lot more to come about Kyoto, but we should say that the food in Japan is fantastic. Many restaurants here are dedicated to just one style of Japanese food, and we have enjoyed many different foods, most of which are extremely inexpensive (ramen, udon, tempura, okonomiyaki (a pancake made from vegetables, eggs and meat cooked on a griddle at your table), and tonkatsu (fried pork or chicken served in a brown sauce with potato salad and a coleslaw-like salad) can be had for less that $20 for 2). 

We also had a Kaiseki meal, which consists of a series of small dishes served in a traditional order. The staff at the Kaiseki restaurant were so kind in helping us first get a reservation, and later providing an English translation of the food in the various dishes we tried. It was a bit expensive, but extremely delicious, and we even tried puffer fish, which is the dish that can kill you if not prepared correctly (fortunately, we are still here), which we felt was o.k. but maybe not worth the risk.

Finally, we have eaten very good pizza and fantastic burgers in Kyoto. They also have really good fancy coffee shops with excellent pour over coffee. So, our time here has definitely been an eating fest.

More from Kyoto to come soon.

Jeff and Shana