Andrew + Japan = Awesome

A question that students ask me often at work is “Where in Japan have you travelled to?”. I tell them that I’ve been to Osaka, and Kobe. If they look at me quizically, I’ll add in Himeji, Takarazuka and Tsukaguchi. By this point they’ve normally interrupted and asked if I’ve been to Kyoto, to which I had to say no. However, not anymore. I have now been to Kyoto. Am I impressed? Not so much.

The Japanese people make Kyoto out to be the mecca of beauty in Japan. They hype up all its beautiful temples and shrines, and make out that it’s one of the finest places on earth. Now this might be true, if theres one thing my trip to Kyoto showed me, it’s that Kyoto is massive, and we saw a tiny portion of it. That being said, we saw some of the more touristy parts, which you’d expect to be the most awe inspiring.

Anyway, on with the story. We woke up early to catch a train to Kyoto. To get there we caught the JR to Takarazuka, and then the Hankyu towards Osaka, where we switched to a different Hankyu line to go to Kyoto. The JR would have taken us all the way to Osaka, but the Hankyu is just so darned cheap. We got to Kyoto in the late morning and found our way to Nijojo.

Nijojo castle was in the process of being swarmed by foreigners. Some of the few Japanese on the site were these schoolgirls. (Also of note is the gate behind them, closeups follow)

 

One of the main buildings at Nijojo has what are known as “nightingale floorboards”. They squeak as people walk on them, but not like a creaky stair in a staircase. The combined effect sounds like birds singing. We could go inside this building, but weren’t allowed to take photos. The walls and doors were covered in paintings, that were (presumably) very old and sensitive to light.

Also of note is this large Gaijin tour party.

Nijojo did have very nice gardens in it’s grounds. Lots of pretty ponds.

About three quarters of the way round, we also found a bridge over a lake which had some gigantic fish in it. (And a swan. And a turtle). I really like the way some of these photos came out after I ran Picasa’s filter over them.

After finishing up at Nijojo, we caught a bus to Kinkakuji, which is perhaps better known as “The Golden Temple”. Again there were masses of tourists here, but we arrived just as a large group of asians were entering, so it wasn’t quite the same gaijin invasion of Nijojo.

The whole top half of the building is covered in gold leaf. This version was built in 1955, since the original was burnt down in 1950.

Again, there was a nice lake. This one had an island with a curious stone… ornament thing on it. It intrigued me, so I took a photo.

There wasn’t much else to see at Kinkakuji, so we walked for about 15 minutes down the road to Ryouanji. Ryouanji had another lake, this one covered in gigantic lilypads. One side of the lake had normal ones that floated on the surface, but the other side, they were huge. I took lots of photos, but couldn’t get the scale in there.

The appeal of Ryouanji is it’s rock garden. The garden has exactly 15 rocks, and it’s designed so that from any one position you can only see at most 14. (Although Wikipedia tells me that if you’re approximate 1.8 meters tall, and stand six feet back on the far right, you can just see all 15. Design flaw if ever I saw one). There were lots of tourists just sitting looking at the rocks. Neil was drawn in by their hypnotic spell. I think that it was just people thinking that’s what you should do at a rock garden, and then the power of the herd. “They’re doing it so maybe I should too”. I mean, it’s rocks.

Near the rock garden was this… water thing. I’m sure it has a Japanese name, and probably a legitimate use. But there was an amusing sign beside it.

There was also a line of red buckets. I’m pretty sure these don’t have a Japanese name or a legitimate use.

After this we caught a bus back into the center of Kyoto, where we had Yoshinoya for lunch. Then we found a large mall called Teramachi. I mean, it has a cool name and all, but it did little to oust Motomachi from the throne. Then we headed out towards Gion, again walking (and somehow picking the right direction, I left my Buzz Lightyear compass at home).

At Gion, we saw some more temples. And found a narrow street with wooden buildings on both sides. There were lots of tourists again, but it was a nice area. Not really all that much to see or do though.

After seeing Gion we boarded a train headed for Sanda, and were thoroughly exhausted after a full day of walking.

So there it is, my first adventure in Kyoto. I certainly didn’t see anything to make it live up to the images the Japanese people I talk to conjure up. I’m unsure whether they see an idealised version of Kyoto, or whether I just didn’t see what they talk about. Either way, I have to acknowledge that I’ve seen so very little of Kyoto, and will definitely try to get back there to do some more exploring. Probably just walking or biking around as opposed to specifically targeting tourist spots. I seem to enjoy the discovery of new things more, and find it a more legitimate experience.