Tuesday, June 25th 2013 - Kyoto, Round 1

Kyoto is full of temples and shrines, so many that it can be a little overwhelming trying to decide what to see when you're there. It should also be noted that most of the shrines/temples are pretty far apart, so you can't see them all. Mc and I scanned through the Lonely Planet Japan pages on Kyoto that I had copied and noted any places that had a unique or interesting-sounding feature. Then, since our hostel had free Wi-Fi, Mc got online and started looking at TripAdvisor reviews. Unfortunately, every review stated that the shrine/temple they were reviewing was the most beautiful and scenic with lovely gardens. What we took from this was that all the temples and shrines are beautiful and we basically couldn't go wrong and went back to our original list, cross-referencing points of interest with locations on the map.

*SuperNova Travel Tip: When you arrive and you pick up some information from the information desk, always always look at the calendar of events. If there is a local festival or event going on while you're there, go. Local festivals and activities are so much fun and will make your travel experience unique. The last time I was in Kyoto, I went to a fire-walking festival that was incredible.

The only thing going on while Mc and I were in Kyoto was a flea market at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine. We decided to go first thing in the morning before it got hot. (However, since the sun comes up at like 4am, you can never really get up early enough for it to not be hot, but we gave it a shot.) In Kyoto there is a Kyoto City Bus 1 Day Pass that you can buy for 500¥ and is a great deal. You can use the pass all day on both the sight-seeing buses and the regular city buses and the boundaries reach even to the far away shrines. You can easily pick one up at Kyoto Station (they also sell them at the front desk of K's House) and they work sort of like a Suica card - there's a machine on the bus that you send it through.

When we got to the flea market, it was hot. Individuals had set up covered stands and set out tables with various goods, or things were just laid out on the ground. There was fabric, antiques, knick-knacks, toys, collectibles, it was a lot like a giant garage sale, minus the baby clothes and furniture. Mc spotted a stand selling scrolls (a Japanese scroll is a painting or kanji mounted on a silk backing so it can be rolled up and stored when not displayed) and remembered that I had told him that the one thing I regretted not buying in Japan the first time was a scroll. I was skeptical, assuming that they'd all be really expensive, but we stopped and took a look. The people who owned the stand had cleverly taken a picture of each scroll and put them in books by type - animals, landscapes, kanji, etc. We looked through the landscape book and we found 2 that we liked that were under $100, I was shocked and wondering what the catch was. When we pointed out the first picture that we liked, a man found the corresponding numbered scroll in a plastic bin, hung it on a hook at the back of his stand, and dramatically let the scroll drop. It was beautiful, a mountain scene with one lone fisherman in the foreground mounted on gold fabric and was 6 feet tall. The couple beckoned us over, encouraging us to take a closer look, and we noticed it had tiny rust-colored age spots on it. We decided to look at scroll number two. It had no age spots, was smaller and mounted on light pink fabric, and was also lovely. It was a difficult decision; I liked the first painting more, but the second one was cleaner . . . and I would be standing there still trying to decide if I didn't have my amazing, decisive husband who also liked the first one better and didn't care about age spots you can't see unless you're very close to it. The scroll was 6,000¥ and 70 years old and was our 1st anniversary present (1st anniversary = paper) to each other. We continued on and the flea market was super long. On our way back, we looked for the scroll stand . . . and it was gone. I'm sure that we just missed it, but I'm sticking with the story that we happened upon a ghost scroll stand.

We also went to the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, which was lovely, and since this was the closest thing to a festival we were going to get (festival season in Japan doesn't usually start till July) we also got some of the food - a taiyaki (fish-shaped cake filled with custard cream) and these little round versions of okonomiyaki, both delicious.

Kitano Tenmangu

Walking through the chenowa wreath to get rid of misfortune and pray for good health

We decided to head to Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion), which is SUPER famous because the main building is entirely covered in gold leaf. As we walked onto the grounds we spotted a soft cream stand and Mc got to try macha (green tea) flavor this time. Definitely the least favorite so far. Kinkakuji is beautiful, be prepared to stand in line to take your pictures in front of it, and there is a marked path that you follow around the grounds. Admission is 400¥. 

Kinkakuji - it looks yellow here, but it's covered in gold leaf

Is there any other way?

When we were done, it made sense to us to head to Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion), which is not entirely covered in silver leaf. Apparently, they had intended to do it up all silver and went ahead and named it, then didn't. Surprisingly, the admission is more than Kinkakuji - 500¥. It's still worth seeing, the rock gardens and shrine grounds make up for the lack of sparkle on the building.

Ginkakuji - not-so-Silver Pavilion

We ended the day with Kiyomizudera. If you only have time to see one temple while in Kyoto, go to this one. One of the cheapest admissions (300¥) with the most to see and do. First of all, it's way up on a hillside so there is a great view. Secondly, when you arrive and wash your hands, there is a section of the shrine where you pay 100¥ and a man will hand you a bag for your shoes. Then you are directed to hold onto a handrail and go downstairs. Within a minute, you are submerged in complete darkness as you come to a level, concrete path. There is zero ambient light, so definitely do not let go of the handrail and accept the fact that you will get stepped on by the person behind you but this is evened out by the fact that you will step on the person in front of you. There are no more stairs after the first ones, so don't worry about that. After a while, you will see a beam of light ahead. There is a single light in the ceiling highlighting a rotating carved stone. Because there was a light, I turned to look at Mc, but the light is such a tight beam that I still couldn't see behind me. When it's your turn, you are supposed to turn the stone while making a wish. Then behind the stone is a curtain and you're back out into the light. It sounds skippable, I didn't think I would want to do it when I read about it, but it's an amazing experience, Mc's favorite of the trip. 

Kiyomizudera

Entrance to stairs down into the dark

Also on the same grounds is the Kyoto Jishu Shrine. This is the love shrine where you can pick up lots of omamori (good luck charms) for love and marriage, pray to the love gods, and do the walk of the love-fortune-telling stones. If you can walk in a straight line from one rock to the other with your eyes closed, your love will be realized. Mc did it perfectly (with many impressed exclamations of "hehhhhhhhhhh!" from the ladies watching), but I maintain that's because his love is realized. I did it when I first came and of course found Mc, but there was a 5 year gap so your love will be realized . . . eventually. 

There are many sights and photo spots and a lovely walk that takes you to the Otowa-Spring where you wait in line to drink the spring water from which Kyomizudera gets its name. The ladles used to catch the falling water are sterilized in the ultra-violet oven, but even then you're supposed to drink the water out of your hand, not the ladle. 

view from Kiyomizudera

After that we headed back. Some important notes for visiting shrines:
*Most of them close at 4pm, so keep that in mind if you want to do things like going down the dark stairs.
*Expect to spend at least an hour (although usually more) at each shrine. There is actually a lot to see as the grounds around the main attraction are generally large and beautiful. So if you think you're going to hit 10 shrines in one day, think again.
*None of the shrines are that close together, or that close to the bus stop for that matter. So with waiting for the bus, walking to the shrine, looking around, then walking back, waiting for the next bus, and then the bus ride, each shrine takes some time even though the buses run very often.
*Admission fees are anywhere from free to 1,000¥, so be prepared for that. It is easy to break any size bill in Japan, they ticket window person will not even bat an eyelash if you pay for a 600¥ admission with a 10,000¥ note. Don't forget to save some change for tossing into the shrine boxes before you pray. If you have ignored my advice about learning the change and have a ton of coins in your pocket, now is your chance to unburden yourself.

We thought about trying another night walk in a geisha district, but we were tired and Mc said, "If we see a geisha, ok, but it's not like it's a monkey," meaning that we rounded out the evening with a delicious conbini dinner and a solid round of watching Japanese commercials (I highly recommend this activity. They have beer commercials in Japan with the same frequency that we have car commercials in America and they are hilarious - Hard day of playing soccer and working out? You should probably have a beer . . . ).