Kyoto times two

With all of its temples, Geisha and culture, Kyoto is our favorite place to visit in Japan. For this reason we visited Kyoto twice in the five full days that Jessica was here. The pictures here were taken by Jessica & Chrissy.

Our first day in Kyoto, we walked the length of Teramachi Dori from the Kawaramachi station to the Imperial Palace. Teramachi Dori is one of the many traditional shopping in Kyoto, some of which date back more than 600 years.There are many ancient temples interspersed along the shopping streets.

At the Imperial Palace we had two goals in mind, first to get tickets for our return journey on Friday and second to have a picnic under some of the blossoming cherry trees. Both of these tasks we had apparently accomplished. As we exited the north end of the palace ground we found a bus that would take us to our next destination, Ginkaku-ji Temple and the Philosopher’s Path.

Ginkaku-ji is commonly known as the 'Silver Temple'. It is built on the Eastern side of Kyoto a couple of miles north of the Gion district, our usual destination. Across town from Ginkaku-ji is Kinkaku-ji, the 'Golden Temple'. Where the Silver Temple is a plain wooden structure, Kinkaku-ji is literally covered in gold leaf.

Ginkaku-ji turned out to be a little disappointing. This February they began tearing the building apart and now have begun reconstruction and maintenance. When you get to Japan, you will soon realize that there are very few truly ‘old’ buildings. In most cities, the buildings were destroyed during World War II or during massive citywide fires. Chrissy pointed out as we walked through parts of the city that there is a saying in Kyoto, “My wall is your wall.” Every house is built right next to their neighbor’s house. Often literally sharing the same outside walls, or if there is a space it might be only 1 ft in between dwellings. If a fire starts in one house, it would quickly spread to the adjoining houses. So the Kyoto saying has a similar meaning as "Do unto others...", serving as a reminder for all to be careful for their own sake as well as others. In fact there was a Great Kyoto fire in the 1800's that destroyed the majority of the city, which is where the saying comes from.

Furthermore, much of Japan’s ancient architecture has been with wood and in this climate the buildings will quickly rot. So many of the buildings were built to be taken apart for maintenance. Many of the older structures have been remade, recreating ancient structures but with fresh timbers.

We haven’t visited Kinkaku-ji yet, mostly because it was entirely rebuilt following its destruction by arson in 1955. I am sure that we will make our trip there before we leave, but we still have many things left on our to view list.

We did walk through the gardens of Ginkaku-ji and looked at the sand garden between the temple and the pond.
We always enjoy seeing a new Japanese garden, but the real treat was our walk along the Philosopher’s Path back to the Gion district. This path follows a small river lined with small shops and vendors. This path is another place to view the cherry blossoms.

We arrived in Gion just at dusk. Though the shops were already closed we did see some Geishas riding in rickshaws before we returned to the train and our ride for home.

Our second day in Kyoto we focused on the Gion district, the shopping streets that lead up to Kiyomizudera and the Imperial Palace. On our ride to Kyoto, before we even passed our first train station Jessica remembered that she had forgotten her passport. Identification is required to get into the palace, so as Christina and Jess continued onto Kyoto, I ran home for her ID.

We met up again in Gion and walked through the narrow shopping streets before we made our way for the palace. We had a 2:00 appointment for our palace tour and had to be there a quarter till to get into the palace. We arrived just in time, but as we walked toward the gate Christina remembered that she had left our tickets in a purse on the table at home. We ran back to the reservation desk to secure somehow confirm or get a copy of our tickets.

In the reservation office, however, our problems became insurmountable. The woman who had taken our reservation two days before could not find any record of them. She searched for several minutes before other office staff came to her aid. She eventually began to search a card bank for our handwritten reservations. Again, she wasn’t successful. Eventually, she found our reservations but they were for the 10:00 am tour. All three of us clearly remembered asking for the 2:00 tour, but in Japan the rules are not bent, neither are exceptions made. It is even considered rude to ask the question “why.” So we were out of luck and out of time. We walked to the front gate, disappointed but not defeated. Took this "sad" picture of ourselves and then we ate our picnic lunch, this time indoors because a cold wind had begun to blow.

That evening we finally made it to Kiyomizudera, our favorite temple. This temple has a large deck that overlooks Kyoto and Osaka in the far distance. Below the deck is a tree filled valley and a spring for which Kiomizudera is named. We have visited this temple four or five times and it continues to be our favorite.