Weekend in Kyoto

We've visited Kyoto twice so far already, and were surprised to find ourselves a bit underwhelmed on both occasions. The first time around, we were too much in a hurry to see the most famous temples (which were very impressive indeed, don't get me wrong) to really have the time to walk around and get a feel of Kyoto. And the 2nd time around, we only had about a day in Kyoto, which we spent mostly in the hypercentre, near the train station (which isn't really the most interesting part of Kyoto -as it's quite modern). So we were quite looking forward to joining Katja and Janne in Kyoto for a 3rd visit. This time around, we were hoping to get to spend a bit more time walking around.

Unfortunately, Janne and Katja were not feeling too good, so it ended up being a bit of a solo visit. We started off by catching a local bus to our AirBnb (hotels were ridiculously expensive, probably due to a national holiday on Monday, so we decided to go for Airbnb this time around), a bit outside the town center, but located near one of the temples we wanted to visit, Ginkakuji (aka the Silver Pavilion). Nobody seemed to be home at our flat (which was attached to a Spanish restaurant), so we decided to head off and visit the temple, and come back later.

Ginkakuji is one of the most famous temples in Kyoto (which is to say it's one of the most famous ones in Japan). Its construction was ordered by the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa in 1460 - the place was supposed to be a place of peace and reflection for him, and then become a Buddhist temple upon his death. Apparently it was a very restful place indeed, since Yoshimasa spent the rather nasty Onin wars (during which Kyoto was pretty much all burnt to the ground) contemplating the beautiful gardens at Ginkakuji.

Mind you, can't blame him, the temple, and in particular the gardens, are about as perfect and harmonious as only a Japanese  temple can be. Ginkakuji may be a bit less impressive than Kinakuji (the Golden Pavillion), since the restored pavilion itself is lacking the original silver color - but the place is still a pretty perfect example of a Japanese temple.



Our minds soothed by the beauty of Ginkaku-ji, we headed off for lunch. One of our Japanese teachers had recommended a good Udon noodle place near Ginkakuji, which we were able to locate. Excellent recommendation, the food was really good. After lunch, we dropped our bags off at the flat, and then continued our exploration of Kyoto.

We decided to walk down the so called Philosopher's Way, a pedestrian route following a canal, which goes past quite a few famous temples. (it starts near Ginkakuji). Along this lovely footpath, one really starts to get the feel of old Kyoto, with the old traditional wooden houses lining up the streets, and the beautiful temples fusing into the surrounding nature.

We stopped by at Honen-in, one of the less famous temples in Kyoto. Yet it's also a sublime place, so calm and harmonious in the middle of nature. What's so fascinating about the temples of Kyoto is that they are really all very different - and Honen-in for example is very different from Ginkaku-ji. Apparently the place is particularly beautiful a bit later on, in October/November, when the arrival of autumn turns the leaves red and yellow.

Our next stop was (of course) yet another tempe, Eikan-do. Again, a sublime place, with both very interesting temple buildings and some stunning gardens. It's a very venerable institution, dating back to the 9th century. The present structure dates back to the 16th century (the temple was destroyed during the aforementioned Onin wars). The temple grounds are very extensive, so we took quite a lot of time to explore it all.

We were starting to suffer from the Temple Overload Syndrome, which happens very easily in Kyoto (similar to the Church Overload Syndrome one can suffer from in Florence), but we decided to bravely push on to Nanzen-ji anyway. Nanzen-ji is one of the most famous temples in Kyoto, belonging to the Zen Buddhist sect. We contented ourselves with just visiting the temple grounds this time, rather than paying the entrance fee (due to aforementioned temple overload syndrome). We were less impressed with this temple than the other ones we'd seen (probably our opinion would be different if we'd have paid the entrance fee), but the impressive Sanmon port is a sight to behold, to be sure!

By now we'd seen enough temples (and anyway, it was getting quite close, so they were all shut anyway), so we decided to head to Gion and towards the town center. Our walk (which again took us through some really beautiful streets that give a pretty good idea about how Japan was like during the Edo Period) took us through the famous Yasaka-jinja, a famous Shintoist shrine, one of the most important ones in Kyoto. It protects and overlooks Gion, the famous entertainment district of Kyoto, home of the famous Japanese geisha.

We then walked on into Gion, which is still quite a fascinating place to visit, even though it has sadly become very touristy. There are still streets that evoke old Kyoto - and on a lucky day, one can even spot a real Geisha (rather than one of the many fake ones, most from Korea apparently??). I believe we spotted a Maiko (apprentice geisha), who was rushing down a busy street (trying to avoid the masses of tourists trying to take a picture of her).

We then started a rather long search for a restaurant in Kyoto. One would imagine that finding a good restaurant in Japan is about as difficult as finding a pub in Dublin, but the fact that most restaurants only have menus in Japanese does make the task a bit daunting sometimes. We eventually found a nice place serving soba noodles. After dinner, we were really knackered after all that walking, so decided to head back to our room to get some sleep. Still, in spite of our fatigue, we were very happy with our day in Kyoto - I really felt like I had finally discovered that "old Japan" that's quite hard to find these days here in Kyoto .

After a really good night's sleep, we got up and headed off to explore Kyoto again. We didn't have much of a plan, and had some logistical issues to deal with as we had to put our bags in lockers at the train station, and also a rather menacing weather forecast to look forward to. Anyway, we managed to eventually find lockers for our bags (not an easy task due to the public holiday coming up), and headed off to continue our exploration of Kyoto. We started, kind of randomly, with Sanjusangen-do, just since we happened to walk past it.

Turns out it's one of the most stunning temples I've ever seen. Well, the temple itself is not actually all that special. But the main building houses a hall, which houses 1001 rather stunning Kannon statues dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries. Since we had no idea what to expect, the sight of all those statues really blew our minds away. I was really gutted photography was forbidden, so no pictures of the stunning main hall, I'm afraid... But anyway, this temple yet again demonstrates the diversity of the sites in Kyoto, yet another temple that's totally different from the ones we'd visited the day before.

We spent the next couple of days to explore the area south of where we'd been the day before, walking in some of the most well-preserved parts of Kyoto. The more I walked around, the more I digged Kyoto. I had truly found the Japan I've read about in Clavell's shogun, the one inhabited by heroic samurais, mighty castles and stunning temples. OK, not that many samurais around anymore, but you get the point. We checked out a couple of other nice temples, Kodai-ji and Kennin-ji. We didn't pay the entrance fee in either case, so probably didn't see the most impressive parts of the temples. Our quota of temples was kind of full for this visit.

Unfortunately, Katja and Janne were still immobilized by a nasty stomach bug, so we only saw them in their Airbnb flat. Thankfully, they got better after we left, so were still able to appreciate Kyoto, as we had done. Our visit was over as well, as it was time to catch our train back to Tokyo (good timing, in the sense that the forecast rain started pouring down).

So, our impressions of Kyoto, then? As I guess you'll have guesses, I really love the place. It definitely merits further exploration! So until next time...