Japan Diaries [Day 11]

2007.10.06

Walking up the hill to Kiyoumizu-dera (gorgeous, gorgeous weather!)

How could I go to Japan and NOT photograph geisha in some form or another? Sadly, these women were not true geisha - women could pay to be made up and dressed like geisha and wander around the temple areas of Kyoto. Still, authentic-looking nonetheless. The attention to detail was great. :)

Kiyoumizu-dera, from the entrance. The temple buildings extended far back behind this (into the mountainside)

From the highest point of the temple (you can see Kyoto in the background).

People at most temples in Japan can write their wishes for the future on wooden plaques (there were even some in English, I found).

(lighting incense sticks)

Torii of Jishu-jinja (a matchmaking shrine within the temple grounds)

We took a walk through the back of the temple, to a quiet place with older (restored/maintained) architecture. This is looking back to the place where all of the previous photos were taken (entrance was to the far left).

'Skirted' stones, which are tributes to Ksitigarbha (Buddhist protector of unborn children; looking after their souls)

Onward to Ginkakuji Temple, which is where the above picture (and the next few) were taken.

This sculpture is made entrely of sand and is said to depict Mount Fuji (I wonder what happens when it rains?)

Have a look at the gorgeous gardens (besides Matt, that is!)... so lush and green, with over a dozen different varieties of moss.

People can throw coins into the river (aiming for the hole in the stone), if they land in the hole the person is granted good luck.

We ascended the mountainside for this magnificent view of Ginkakuji, and Kyoto in the background

(Otoyo Shrine)

Sanmon Temple, within the grounds of Nazen-ji (which we climbed).

(triumphant after scaling the temple!)

Day 11 [October 6th]

* Today is our big sightseeing day in Kyoto. After an early breakfast (I mix egg and fish with my Western-style breakfast), we set off on our journey to…

- Kiyoumizu-dera (temple built by one man as his retirement villa in the 1600s. Huge expanse of temple grounds and we get an awesome view of Kyoto from the mountainside. Lots of Buddhist artefacts and crawling in tourists and school groups (yes, school groups on a weekend!), but definitely a place I was looking forward to seeing. A calming experience despite the mid-morning crowds. To find out more about the cultural significance of this temple, read this Wikipedia page and take in the photos [below] I took).

- Ginkakuji-dera (otherwise known at the ‘Silver Temple’ in Kyoto. Another of the more well-known sites in the area, also dating back to the 1600s. A very beautiful place and draws a lot from the Zen movement, with raked sand gardens and sand sculpture (signifying Japanese landmarks). We take plenty of great photos here and it is hard to whittle them down to show online – it still looks like too many to me!

* Breakfast was so filling that we skip lunch and lightly snack on ice-cream, rice crackers (thick/crunchy and the size of your palm!) and what we thought was meat-on-a-stick, but seemed a bit gelatinous instead. Whatever it was, ‘twas yummy. ;)

* I have my first ‘squat toilet’ experience over here, which turns out to not be as scary as I thought. It took a lot of courage to use it, but when you need to go, you have no choice! The nearest thing to a female urinal, in my opinion (though luckily this version had cubicles).

* We head down ‘The Philosopher’s Walk’ in the afternoon, which is a 35min stretch of path that runs parallel with a canal, and has temples, shrines and family-run businesses (ie, cafes and places to buy art) along the way. We visit the Honein-in Temple (very peaceful and tranquil, nearly no other tourists around, since it was off the beaten path), Otoyo Shrine (run-down and desolate, but beautiful with statues of ‘house’ animals and lush greenery) and finish with the Nazenji Temple, which is gorgeous and HUGE, but a tourist trap – charging to enter each different part of the temple grounds. It would have cost us more than $20 apiece to view everything within the grounds (expensive, by Japanese standards), so we choose one area and photograph the others from afar (12x zoom comes in handy :P), and also climb the massive steps of Sanmon Temple, all the way to the top! It is late afternoon and the sun is beginning to dip low, a great place to sit and unwind after a long day (and many others seem to share the same sentiment, as people silently sit and watch the sun setting.

* Arrive back into Kyoto via Shijo’s covered arcades and try Japanese KFC (Matt’s craving :P) for dinner, subtly different from the AUS version. Portion sizes much smaller (ie, a large is our medium) and chicken much less oily. Agrees a lot better with my system, which is also a bonus. ;)

* An electric jug has magically appeared in our hotel room during the day, much to my excitement (there was an archaic broken hotplate and tin contraption before, which was burnt nearly through, and held about 100ml of water, by my estimation :P). We take advantage of the new jug with strong cups of tea (we brought our own teabags from Australia, which Matt initially laughed at, but have proved so comforting and useful along our trip!).