I'd like to revisit Kyoto, the subject. Kyoto is a very interesting city, a city of contrasts. I'm not sure what I really expected before going, but I was definitely expecting the old history, the shrines, and so on, but I had also heard it was a large city as well. Even knowing so, I pretty much was only "prepared" for the old shrines and such.
When you arrive in Kyoto via bullet train, you arrive at the monstrous Kyoto Station in the south of the city. It's a huge station and especially arriving by bullet train, you really feel as though you could be in any city, anywhere in the world, it's all just so...modern?...cosmopolitan, perhaps. From Kyoto Station, you can get anywhere by the city's huge network of city buses.
Our first stop in Kyoto was the Kyoto Imperial Palace for a short 30 minute tour, in Japanese, no less. Sure, they have one hour English tours as well, but who wants to be stuck outside during the hottest and muggiest part of the day right under the sun, stuck with a bunch of English speaking tourists? Not me. Did I understand much of the tour? Not really, but I could understand some of the Japanese! And in any case, I got to see the Imperial Palace. The Palace grounds are enormous, taking a good 10 minutes to walk from one end to the other. After the tour, we ran into this tiny little shrine tucked away. Some other people (foreigners with screaming children!) walked up to the shrine but didn't enter. Their loss. I love these little shrines for a reason I can't really explain. Maybe because it's easier to get the real "feeling" of what the shrines are about--being close to the natural world. Later we saw the kids playing in a pond...not cool.
Next stop was Kiyomizu-dera. This gorgeous temple is on the edge of town, up a long, steep, shop lined, narrow little street. You finally arrive to the end of the shops and reach the final (steep) steps up to the shrine; it literally towers over you, but it is gorgeous. And the best part? after entering the shrine, the first section you walk through has great views of the city down below and the tree covered hills around. It started raining that afternoon, so the view probably wasn't the best. You walk though the shrine one way; at the end there's this waterfall type thing that you take a drink out of...sounds stupid, but there's some kind of folklore about why. Of course I can't remember what it is.
I had a whole list of places I wanted to see in Kyoto, but sadly it was too long to squeeze into one full day and two half ones. So I decided to "knock the fat" out of my list and only visit three shrines/temples and then one market shopping area in the city. Day two in Kyoto started off at Kinkaku-ji (the golden pavillion), then Kamigamo-jinja, Nanzen-ji, and finished off the day in the Nishiki market area.
Kinkaku-ji looks cool, but it's filled with tourists, making it largely unappealing. Kamigamo-jinja is one of those lesser known shrines it seems and it was my favorite place. Nanzen-ji was cool, but I'm not sure I'd go back. The shopping was, of course, good. My favorite part just might have been the yatsuhashi (a Kyoto specialty of Japanese sweets, made with sweet bean paste) shop where they had samples of everything! There was a tiny little shrine in the market...it was amazing. It was nighttime, so the shrine was lit up with lanterns. If I had to pick a favorite memory of Kyoto, that's it.
The last day, we went to Inari-Taisha Jinja. It's a shrine that's set in the foothills. There are thousands of orange gates over paved paths, with shrines and even a lake. I loved this shrine, perhaps the best overall (even above Kamigamo-jinja, which is hard to admit). The contrast of the orange gates against the green trees in the morning sun was simply amazing.
From there, it was back to the station for a bit of final shopping, then "home" to Tokyo on the bullet train.It's a bit strange to say, but when I was in Kyoto, I wasn't really crazy about it. I'm more of a city person, and riding around in buses from shrine to shrine really just wasn't very appealing to me. I guess I prefer just walking around and exploring one area, which is why the market appealed to me so much. My favorite thing about Kyoto is the contrast of new and old, the traditional among the city. The shrine at the market is a perfect example: you enter the shrine and completely forget where you came from because its so serene.
A parting scene, from inside the market shrine looking out:
0 comments:
Post a Comment