Japan - Kyoto - Day 8

- Thursday, October 8th 2015 -

 Today takes a lot of effort for me to blog about.  It's not super crazy or chaotic, but it's one of the days that for some reason, I just don't want to write about.  So, apologies in advance if this one is dry and less fun than the other ones.  This was also I believe, the point I stopped blogging regularly on facebook.

We woke up at a decent time so we could conquer breakfast.  Unfortunately breakfast wasn't as good as I was hoping, as it was fairly traditional, meaning... lots and lots of pickled things and seaweed.  There were some interesting things like beef stew and curry for breakfast, but for the most part it was a total experiment and everything was, at most, lukewarm.  Considering we were paying 1000 yen ($10) per person per meal, I honestly don't think we ate what we were paying for.  Oh well.

Our tour guide came to get us at 9am.  Her name is Ms Noriko Sato, and she didn't speak the best English.  Still, we were able to ask her enough questions to get Kyoto sorted, and she soon led us away to begin our sight seeing tour.

Approaching the gates.  See all those yellow hats?

First up was Kinkaku-ji Temple, basically the Golden Pavilion.  If you google it, you'll see exactly what it was. Breath taking, beautiful, golden place.  It had an entry fee, and we had to charge Ms Sato's IC card (transport card), which meant today was going to be painful on our wallets.  Oh well!

Gardens! kinda looking a bit thirsty...

Unfortunately I don't have a billion photos of this place, there was a field trip going on with TONS of children.  They're well behaved, but in the way for any of those lovely pictures I tend to go for.  Still, I did manage to snap a few where there's not quite so many dozens of kids about.  Our tour guide wasn't a very big fan of children or tourists, and her patience seemed a bit low. Emma and I were fine with it, so? Kids are here to enjoy and see their culture, fine by me.  Tourists? Well, I'm a tourist as well!

Kinkaku-ji Temple

The temple is known for its crystal clear reflection in the lake, along with the beautiful gold leafing that covers its exterior.  Unfortunately it happened to be gardener day as well, so the gardeners were trimming the island detail/trees and shrubs placed all along.  I still think it's beautiful, and the gloomy skies made it even more beautiful.  The backside of this building has chains going up it and a little tower up by the phoenix on the top, lightning rod!

Obligatory tourist picture. I look pretty rough.

Coming up is some garden photos, Ryoan-ji Temple, and Ninna-ji Temple.  There are hundreds of temples and shrines in Kyoto, a lot of them being World Heritage Sites.  Which meant our tour guide got in for free, and we had to pay.  Nice that we didn't have to pay for her, but still, ow!  Some free sites are always appreciated...

There were various tea houses, shrines, gift shops and such scattered around the temple.  Most of which were too mobbed by other visitors to really snap a photo of.


Following the Golden Palace, we went to the Ryoan-ji Temple.  Which is very well known for its Zen Garden.
Ms Sato had us take a taxi, which wasn't that badly priced at only 650yen.

Approaching the Zen garden, we had a lovely walk over and around a Koi (carp) pond with a mini shrine across that bridge.

Koi!  This guy stood out a lot compared to the others, but the others did have a bit of orange to their black scales, which made them a bit more interesting to me.

The up close of the Tori gate shows rocks that are placed on it for good luck.

Mothers would knit bibs for the statues (Buddha usually!) to pray for their children. This was a very popular thing, and we'd see it on Buddha statues for the rest of the trip.

It's said the rocks are the ocean, the landmasses...well..obviously landmasses.  Visualize yourself there?

inside of the temple.

Then we proceeded to leave the Ryoan-ji Temple, heading by foot down the road a ways to the Ninna-ji Temple.

Random little shrine on our walk.

Our destination! You can see the lightning rod in this photo, hehe.  Unfortunately I really don't have much to say about this one.  It was pretty, the amount of information we got from it wasn't a lot.

It was probably about 11:30, and we had our guide until 1.  We wanted to go see some Geisha and explore Gion (Geiko are the Geisha in Kyoto.  From now on I'm calling them Geiko).  It took about 45 minutes to cross Kyoto and get there.  Ms Sato showing us around the area a bit.

A Kabuki theater, which next time I'm into Kyoto I want to visit!

Older themed streets of Kyoto

These are 5 names of Maiko, trainee Geiko.

Poster of Maiko we saw everywhere.

Adorable couple at a rather randomly placed shrine.  Apparently there's a wedding place near by, and that shrine costs a ton to rent/shoot at!

The actual wedding couple being photographed.

Even older streets!

Snapshot of a door in the room I was waiting in for awhile.

While I was waiting, I heard the shuffle of these ladies.  Jumped out onto the street and snapped this photo!

Quick picture of Yasaka Shrine as we walked by it while shopping on the streets of Gion.

it was pretty...

Emma and I stopped to get a drink and snacks (coffee for me) and she accidently ordered a coffee based drink as well.  I finished hers, and it was amazing as mine... ahem. I mean.  While I chowed down on hers she saw commotion outside and ran out, getting to spot a Maiko!  Someone asked for the Maiko's photo and she just ignored him, j-walking across the street.  She's got a place to be! Traffic won't stop her!

Unfortunately I didn't record what we ate that night... crap! But I do think it was some noodle dish at a very narrow semi crammed place. I remember because I needed to pee like a racehorse and someone wouldn't get out of the restroom. XD