Posted by Jess
30 October 2010

Another long post today!  The last full day of Kiki-fest arrived on Sunday the 17th.  We checked out of the hotel, headed back to Shin-Osaka station (again by taxi) and took the express train to Kyoto - about a 20 minute ride.  Once we got to Kyoto station, we worked on finding lockers to put our luggage in.  We looked for a long time!  After we finally found a few, we tried to get a taxi.  Because there were 5 of us (if you count Abby), the cabs were not so willing to take us.  Kiki finally found a guy that was willing to take us because he wisely realized that we only needed 4 seats, not 5!

We asked the taxi driver to take us to our first spot - the Kinkaku-ji or Temple of the Golden Pavillion.  This is a Zen Buddhist temple all covered in gold leaf and a pretty famous photo spot for Japan.  Like almost every thing we see in Japan, the original was built in the early 1400's but was burned down and rebuilt.  This version was rebuilt as a replica of the original in 1955, after an arsonist burned the original down in 1950.  The gardens that the pavillion are in is pretty and each item in the area (including the pond) have special meanings.  


Kyoto was bustling with tourists and tour groups and the Golden Pavillion was no exception.  Traffic was routed through the garden areas.   We stopped to take photos and wander around the grounds a bit, plus throw our coins into a wishing area.   We think that if you are able to throw your coin into the little pot in the middle of this area, your wish will be granted.  And I got mine in on the first try!!  Look out Powerball...

Just some notes for any future tourists - you cannot go into the pavillion itself and there are a lot of stairs in this temple area as well.  It cost about 300 Yen per person to enter.   We walked around for about 30 minutes.
At the end there are stalls with local people selling crafts and foods, but we didn't find anything too interesting there.  

Ella with her entrance ticket

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy

The Wish Area.  Can you  see the little dark gray bowl in the center?

After the Golden Pavillion, we headed back to the taxi area and asked to be taken into town.  Our destination was the area near Kiyomizudera Temple.  We had been told of a walk that we could do that would bring us past a few temples and some local shopping and restaurants all in one.  The streets were much narrower here and our taxi driver had to honk as he went up the road to have people move to the sides.  He got to the end of the street and dropped us off at the bottom stairs of the temple.  And then proceeded to back his way down the street again as we watched in disbelief.  I hope he didn't run over the geisha in training we drove past!  


The Kiyomizudera Temple is again a large area with lots of things to see.  The original temple was built in 750, but this version dates back to 1633.  There were about 30 different buildings/sites as a part of this area.  We walked past all but only stopped at a few.  We walked out onto the wooden veranda, which is held up with 139 very large wooden pillars about 50 feet tall.  We also walked by the waterfall, where people drank the water from metal cups in hopes of good health and success.  We went up to Jishu-jinja shrine, dedicated to the god of good love and matchmaking.  Legend is that if you can walk from one lucky stone to another (about 60 feet apart) with your eyes closed, you would soon have good luck in your love life.  Many people were making this walk with the help of their friends to guide them!  We passed a few areas dedicated to prayers for children and enjoyed the garden areas.  

Wooden Veranda

View of Kyoto from Veranda

View into the Valley - The building is a pagoda under cover for a remodel

Jishu-jinja Shrine

Main Hall

In the Gardens

 From here we walked down the shop filled streets in search of souvenirs and lunch.  Souvenirs were easy to find, lunch was more difficult for us unadventurous eaters of the group!  After much searching, we finally found a place to get some basic Japanese food - noodles, curry and tea.  After lunch we headed back out on our walk through some more shops - we stopped to buy some fun Japanese style items and Jason bought some sticky rice treats.  Jason said "everyone is in line for them, I wonder what they are?  they must be good!"  and that's all he needed to buy some for himself.  After that, up a large hill on our way to the next temple.  This as the entrance to Adashino Nenbutsuji temple which is a famous temple cemetary, but the hill seemed too daunting to us and we just didn't have it in us that afternoon!  So a quick break here, a few photos and on we went.






Back down the hill to the Ryozen Kannon.  This was built in honor of the Japanese that died in WWII.  It cost a few yen to go in, so just Kiki and Ella went and Jason, Abby and I hung out in the parking area.  This temple has a 80ft Kannon Statue on top and 2 million memorial tablets inside in honor of the dead.  There were many different areas inside, including one shrine dedicated to the "world's unknown soldier" of WWII as well.
 





We left this area a little "shrined-out" for the day but still had some time before our 6pm train.  So we headed to Nijo Castle.  Kyoto was the capital of Japan from early times until the mid-1800's so the Ninomaru Palace inside the castle walls was the imperial residence from 1600 when it was built to 1867, when the capital of Japan was moved to Edo/Tokyo.

In the palace you could walk through all the rooms and see the murals on the paper walls which was neat.  The palace was not furnished anymore though so the only way to know what the rooms were used for was through signs.  The wood floors around the outside of the rooms was called a Nightingale floor.  It squeaked with every step (no matter how graceful you are!).  The floor was designed that way so that intruders would always be heard when entering - you couldn't sneak into this place without the floor squeaking!  There were also hidden doors (they looked like walls, but slid open) that the shogun's bodyguards would be behind and could come out in a hurry if needed.

The gardens here were pretty as well and we walked through and noticed some other buildings and tea houses.

I don't understand how she had so much energy still so late in the day!

After this, it was time to taxi it back to the station.  Unfortunately we weren't specific enough with the driver and he dropped us off at the main entrance to the station, but that's not where we got out that morning.  Normally that would be fine, but we needed to find the lockers with our luggage in them!  After much frustrating searching, we found them.  Whew.  We grabbed some McD's for dinner and headed onto the train for the 2 hour trip back to Tokyo.  By the time we got home that night we were all exhausted!  A great weekend of sightseeing outside this city though and lots of culture too!

Anyone need a taxi?

On Monday, Kiki headed back to the airport for her trip home and Ella headed back to school.  We were sad to see Kiki go and Ella kept forgetting she was gone for a few days after.  It took us all a little while to get back in the swing of things and snap out of a post-Kiki funk.  We did though and October has flown by since!  I can't believe Halloween is tomorrow.


Thanks Kiki for coming to visit.  We loved having you here and we miss you!  So glad I get to see you again in just two short weeks as I head back to MN for work.  


And of course, thanks to Kiki for all the fantastic pictures from the 10 days of Kiki-fest!  


Kanpai!
Jess