Kyoto the land of Temples & Shrines!
Kyoto : Did someone say temple?
Seriously, after today if Steve and I ever see Temple or Shrine ever again - it will be too soon! I know, I know Kyoto in particular is a temple and shrine central not surprising we have seen heaps of them over the last couple of days! Our day started in the usual way, with a search for breakfast. We enjoyed our breakfast so much in the café we visited yesterday at breakfast time that we chose to grace them with our presence again this morning - but for me it was minus the terrible coffee which was substituted by a nice hot lemon tea. Steve seemed to persist with the terrible coffee but for me it was just too much!
As I have mentioned in previous posts now that Steve's brain is free to absorb other information and its full of tech stuff, he's been reading up the Lonely Planet for details and planning our days. Who am I to complain right? I don't have the patience for planning much and he seems to be extremely good at it and it keeps him occupied in the evening and he doesn't drive me crazy with boredom while I write these blogs. Its me who usually the next day who has the courage to ask for information/directions to get us where we are supposed to be going.
After breakfast, we got onto the Kyoto underground and travelled to Higashiyama in search of the largest temples in the country. Our first stop was the Shoren - in Temple. Its seems to me that every time we travel we seem to hit a peak season of restoration and today was no exception. We'd encountered something similar in parts of Tokyo, but I guess I forgot to mention it. On these particular grounds and buildings we were allowed to take some photographs, so I've included them on my facebook for those privy enough to have access. The rest of you - tough or get with technology. ;o) We spent ages walking around inspecting all the wonderful architecture and hand - painted artwork on the sliding screens from the 16th and 17th century. The gardens were so serene and pretty that you could easily get so absorbed in them and spend an entire day there. But we had places to be and people to see so after absorbing the serenity of the grounds, we made our way post haste to the next destination which was just a short stroll.
Further down the street we made our way to the Chion - in temple. Now words cannot express what we were presented with (as the above photograph clearly shows!). A monolithic entry structure...called a San-mon a Buddhist temple gate entrance which is the largest in Japan. This structure also dates back to the 17th century and is supposed to prepare you for the sheer size of the temple which from what our Lonely Planet says is quite spectacular. Unfortunately, this structure was surrounded by a shed of sorts as the temple was being restored. We took the time to take in the grounds and walk through the gardens which I think were of the botanical kind as many of plants had little signs (in Japanese of course), telling visitors what they were.
It was well after lunch when Steve and I finished at this location, so we made a mad dash back to the subway to travel to our next destination. The subway took us to a certain point where we had to transfer to the JR (which I guess is like London's version of the overground) - before we took the next train to Arashiyama we briefly ventured into the local street area in search of food. One thing Japan has showed us is that they have a unique way of ordering food. The previous night we had experienced ordering food using a tablet located at our table, in the establishment we had entered we were prompted to order our meals using a ticket machine (instructions handed to us in laminated form when we sat down at our table). This ticket machine procedure is also quite efficient and probably a decent idea we could implement back home. Steve and I both ordered sets containing some mystery dishes and hoped for the best.
Fully satisfied, even though I had turned my nose up at the MISO soup.. we went on our way. I'm not a fussy eater, but for some reason the Miso just did not appeal to my sense of smell or tastebuds today so it got left behind uneaten. We boarded the JR and headed towards Arashiyama. There we headed towards the Tenryu- ji Temple, on our way in the direction of the temple however we walked along the most gorgeous street filled with souvenir shops, and little places to find tasty treats. When we arrived at the temple we were faced again with scaffolding. Seriously... *sighs* nevertheless, we walked around and enjoyed the serenity. The Arashiyama area is just beautiful nestled right next to the mountains. It is just so green and so lush that it was simply mesmerising. After leaving the temple grounds we walked along the Katsura- gawa in search of the Bamboo Grove, but on the way there made a brief climb up to a viewing point to take in the local scenery. We'd hoped to get into the Okochi Sanso Garden but unfortunately the day had run away from us and the park closed promptly at 5pm right in front of our noses as we arrived at the gate. Not disheartened however, we marched towards the Bamboo Grove and eventually found it. We casually walked through the Bamboo Grove and headed back to Arahiyama station to catch the train back into Central Kyoto. We had decided that we needed to get back to the hotel a little earlier tonight for a number of reasons - I think we were both feeling a little tired and Steve had eaten something that had upset his digestive system so was feeling a little off. Our suitcases had also become somewhat of a jumble (because that's what happens when you live out of the things) so we spent a little bit of time restoring order to our wardrobe prior to heading to Osaka tomorrow.
All in all a spectacular day - we had seen some wonderful things and soaked in some of the picturesque surroundings. I'd definitely recommend spending more time here...
