Kyoto

7/17 - Gion Matsuri and Fushimi Inari

We left Osaka the next morning to catch a bullet train to Kyoto… and 15 minutes later we were there. Bullet trains are really fun. For all of July, Kyoto hosts the Gion Matsuri, one of the most famous festivals in Japan. On the 17th and 23rd they have big parades through the center of the city. The festival became an annual festival in 970 as a sort of purification ritual and has continued to use basically the same floats the whole time. Watching the procession is like a moving museum with modern twists. The floats are pulled by people and traditional dress abounds (including from the onlookers). One of the most unique parts of the parade is where the floats turn corners – as they don’t have fixed axels. When they reach a corner, the folks pulling it rearrange the ropes and move to the sides while another couple of guys lay down strips of bamboo and pour water on them to slicken them up. Men on the float then go through an elaborate fan dance, the end of which signals those at the ropes to pull to slide the wheels sideways over the bamboo. They do this a few times until they’ve made the turn. Fascinating.

One of the neat aspects to being here during the festival was the plethora of people walking the town wearing traditional dress. Kimonos everywhere. Two opposite aspects of it that I really enjoyed were seeing the both the contrast of traditional in the modern, but also having a look into the past when the traditional walks through a traditional setting.

The parade goes on for quite some time – so we didn’t really need to be in the hurry that we were to get there and stake out a spot. Nonetheless, it was nice to watch the procession from a couple of different locations. Afterwards we headed to Ponto-chō to grab lunch. Ponto-chō is an area with a lot of traditional architecture and entertainment, it’s apparently an area for spotting Geishas – though I have a hard time believing that they would happily walk through all of the tourists… We had sushi and sashimi that, sadly I must state, was very mediocre. However, the best part of it was that as we were leaving the restaurant, they gave us some fans that we would end up using for the rest of the trip.

After lunch we wandered through the Gion district to the Yasaka-jinja (aka Gion shrine). Surrounding the shring was a very casual shrine complex filled with food vendors and people hanging out like in a park, I guess it actually kind of is in Maruyama Park. It was actually quite neat compared to every other shrine we would go to. We walked through until we arrived at the more formal area with Chion-in temple and the Shōren-in garden – amongst other temples on the grounds. The Chion-in temple was being restored on the outside, so we didn’t get a great view. The inside, however, was lovely. The star of the area was the garden. It was both a beautiful walk and the layout and cemetery was wonderful.

Nearby the Hojo Garden was also stunning. Much smaller in scale, but really just a quiet, easily overlooked by tourists, scene from a movie.

After taking a quick rest (and cool down break), we subwayed off to Fushimi Inari. Every guidebook of Japan will have a picture of the gates and stairs of Fushimi Inari, and rightfully so. Our time here is definitely a standout, lasting memory of the whole trip. When we first arrived, there were some solid crowds throughout leaving my first impression of it a bit mediocre. However, as we continued walking up the hill/mountain(?), the crowds continued to thin out until Sam started getting annoyed at me for taking so many pictures.

After a long walk up – maybe 40 minutes – we arrived at the top complex. Here we found a sign that labeled all the paths in the most confusing way. As a result, we ended up getting a bit lost in what resulted in a happy accident. See, if you take the path towards the scenic overlook area while thinking it is the main loop you end up walking way off the marked paths. The good part is that the orange gates continue even here, but with an overgrown, lightly maintained setting. This became my favorite part, even if it meant walking an additional 2 hours to explore… We eventually ended up back on the main path and finished the loop to the highest point. The whole walk was surreal. It had a similar feeling of mystery as walking into a cathedral filled with incense and candles all while being outside in nature. While we were near the top, the sun set and the lamplights in some shaded areas began to turn on. And as we headed back down, the dusk light cut through the gates lighting the path with dramatically angled rays of light. We made one diversion to see a mini shrine, just because we hadn’t walked quite enough yet – in this little diversion, we managed to scare a wild boar that went running off into the darkening trees. By the time we got back to the entrance of the grounds, the shrines were fully alight and the crowds had thinned out. It really is a place worth seeing in both day and dark.

We headed back hotel, stopping at a punk rock yakatori for dinner along the way. Long, but all-encompassing day.

7/18 - Gold, Silver and Sanjusangendo

We got off to an early start to head to an iconic Japanese temple – Kinkakuji Temple (aka Golden Pavilion). It’s an idyllic setting, beautiful pond, stunning backdrop, and a golden temple. It really is quite the sight, but definitely a site full of tourists. It’s a zen temple in which the top floors are covered in gold leaf. We got there early with the hope of avoiding the crowds, but it was already filling in. However, after we left and were deciding where to go next, we noted the tour bus after tour bus that pulled up. I really can’t imagine the chaos that would occur during the cherry blossom season or when the leaves are changing colors in the fall. We walked around the palace and through the gardens, but while I had planned to be there for a portion of the morning, there isn’t much else there – though what is there is stolen from a postcard.

We jumped on a bus to go back across the city to arrive at the Philosophers Path. Most of what we saw in Japan lived up to expectations, this did not. I’d bet that it’s great when the cherry blossoms are in season, but when we went it was a nice walk along a small, walled in crick. At the end of it, Sam did get a mango popsicle, which is her go to warm weather food.

Also near the end of the walk is Ginkakuji Temple (aka Silver Pavilion). The Silver Pavilion isn’t actually silver, but is instead called that, supposedly, to contrast it to the Golden Pavilion, on which it was modeled. Much of the temple here is still standing from its original build in 1482 (fires and earthquakes – or, in the case of the Golden Pavilion, a fanatic monk – have toppled many of the other buildings which were then rebuilt). While the temple is great, I think the gardens here quickly became my favorite of our entire trip. Every view was computer desktop worthy. There was a rock garden that seemed like a blown up miniature model, a moss garden and just new surprises at every turn. It was what I imagined a Japanese garden would be like. And in further contrast to the Golden Pavilion, it was sparsely occupied – just a smattering of other tourists and some actual monks.

We continued our walk to the nearby Honenin Temple, which was more of an actively used temple. Peaceful and calm, but it had a hard act to follow to really make an impression.

Given the heat of the day, we decided that the Kyoto National Museum was the best option. It was exactly what we were looking for; artifacts, painted screens, kimonos, scrolls, and coldness.

Upon leaving the museum, we saw a sign for Sanjusangendo (Rengeo-in), a temple famous for its 1001 statues of kannon. The main room filled with the statues is striking. The scale alone is incredible, but the detail and overall atmosphere is mysterious and kind of creepy. The are very adamant about not allowing photos - so you can just look here.

That evening we went to what was essentially a hipster, farm-to-table yakatori called Isoya. Kyoto has a famous tofu based plate called yuba. It’s sort of a purple cream cheese looking dish that I enjoyed and Sam hated – but I’m not really sure what that tells anyone really. However, I ordered a steak skewer that was easily one of the most delicious things I would eat in Japan. In fact, we went back a couple of nights later just from the memory of it and it was delicious again.

7/19 - Monkeys and Silent Movie Stars

For once we woke up at a reasonable hour and then headed to Arashiyama – basically a suburb of Kyoto. We went straight to the bamboo forest, though we had a bit of trouble actually finding it… The part you see in every picture of it (see Sam to the right) is actually quite small, and fairly crowded with folk. Nonetheless, it was neat to walk through.

At the end of the path we went to Tenryuji Temple, one of the city’s most important zen temples. The building itself was first built in 1339, but seems to have been destroyed many times over. The garden here is another picturesque walk. I’m glad I no longer use film cameras, I would have run out of film from gardens alone.

Still in Arashiyama, we headed to the Monkey Park. Its basically a sanctuary for Japanese macaque monkeys that you can wander around in. There aren’t any fences keeping the monkey’s in, but they still hang around. And there aren’t any fences keeping you away from them, just don’t stare at their eyes. Sam loved it. It was actually pretty fun.

7/20 - Daytrip to Himeji (click for page)

7/21 - Kiyomizudera, Trains and Gion Matsuri Night Festival

Once again we got an early start. In many cases we were doing it to be able to take a break during the hottest parts of the day. In this case, however, we wanted to arrive early to get to Kiyomizudera Temple without crowds and in early morning light.

Side note: Another thing people often talk about related to Japan are the vending machines. I was expecting vending machines with a ton of crazy stuff, and I think those exist, though we didn’t see many. What really struck me was how they are everywhere. Everywhere. You don’t need to stop into coffee shops, just go to a vending machine and choose between 5 types of iced coffee. No need to carry water, just stop at a vending machine. You are at the top of Fushimi Inari and want a coke, not a problem. They are like the hot dog vendor in the Simpson’s episode about Bleeding Gums Murphy. I note this here, because if you take a walk of any distance – like an early morning 2 mile walk to Kiyomizudera – you you can just keep stopping for coffee and water along the way. It really is the best.

Arriving at Kiyomizudera (initially founded in 780!), the main large temple was being restored, so the outside was covered in scaffolding. However, the inside was still accessible and the giant pagada at the entrance and the Koyasu Pagoda nestled away in the trees at the edge of the complex grounds were in fine shape. Just past the Koyasu Pagoda you can enter into a hiking path that goes further up the hill. We weren’t really prepared for it and made a half-hearted attempt to explore, but after walking through many spider webs and an unfortunate, though predictable combination of a seersucker outfit and running down a steep, uneven path resulting in a dramatic fall into a bush, we retreated back to the temple grounds.

Feeling a bit peckish, our next stop was the Nishiki Market. It’s a covered collection of fish, vegetable and other random stalls that wasn’t the most exotic market I’ve seen, but worth experiencing.

Our recent love of Japanese trains fully influenced our next decision of going to the railway museum. It was extraordinarily informative (the audio guide was more of an audio tome), with a lot of great exhibits showing how everything works. It definitely had Japanese aspects to it, but it was also good just as a train museum. Definitely great for kids, train lovers, or just bookish folk who like to learn how things work.

As noted before, Gion Matsuri has two main parades, one on the 17th and the other on the 23rd. However, on the 2 nights leading up to the parade, they bring the floats out into the streets to create a sprawling street festival. They perform songs and dances around the floats, and each float has signs with their respective histories. Also, many of the houses open window and doors that allow you to look inside at elaborately painted screens (at least leading up the parade on the 23rd – the lead up to the 17th has a different theme).

As we left the festival area, we found a small sushi place. The restaurant setup more like a bar, with very little space. A family trio ran it – the father and son (who spoke English well enough to help us, thankfully) were the chefs and the mother did everything else. I can honestly say that this was hands down the best sushi I’ve ever had. I admit that I’m not exactly a connoisseur, but the best I’ve had is still the best I’ve had. And the atmosphere was fantastic.

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