Japan, day 5, Kyoto
Posted By Mike Gfeller on August 20, 2014
There are vending machines everywhere selling water, beer, soda, energy drinks, etc. You drink one and then look for a place to put it and you find there are no trash cans. In the states this would give free reign to those who would litter. Here it means you carry around trash for hours. I’m told the reason for this is that the sarin gas attacks were initiated from trash cans. The elegant solution was to remove them. You have to hunt for a recycling bin, which they are big on here by the way.
Day 5 started early for me again working on my day 3 post. We were trying to get caught up since we’d gotten behind on previous days. We had overspent in Osaka on taxis and so I wanted to get back to budget (Patrick – my version of an action plan). This simply consisted of not using taxis. The first place on our list was Kiyomizu Temple. We went to Shin Kyoto station and jumped on a bus to take us within ten minutes. About the buses: they are in pretty good shape. They can be tough to figure out if they charge different fares based on distance. Kyoto charges a flat fee of 230 yen. You enter the bus at the back and you only exit from the front, which is when you pay your fare. There is a change machine there that can make change for 1000 yen bills but you are encouraged to have the appropriate fare so as to not slow down the exit process. Seating priority is given to seniors, mothers with children, etc and from what I could see that is honored.
We got started around 8A and the bus dropped us off maybe 15 minutes later. We took the path that looked correct up the hill to the temple. A lot of temples are on hills. You will definitely do some walking. This path, as it turns out, was not the main path but a side path that went through a cemetery. The cemetery was essentially carved into the side of the hill and it looked like there were thousands of stones there. John told us later that they don’t generally bury their dead but cremate them and so the stones are close together because room for a body isn’t required. This was a steep climb finally culminating in us arriving at the temple.
This is a really old temple and is famous for the large wooden deck and for the view of Kyoto from above. The main temple was under renovation so we couldn’t go in. Instead, we walked around the grounds viewing the various shrines and buildings. We climbed even higher to get to an area where they had two stones set about 2 dozen feet apart. There is legend around these stones, which is if a person can walk unassisted from one to the other while keeping their eyes closed they will not need assistance in choosing their mate. If they require assistance, then they will require assistance from an intermediary in finding a mate. Wolfgang gave it a try but those results are ours alone.
At the ground level is a well that produces three streams of water. Each one has a property (such as a happy life) and you can drink from any of them but drinking from all three is considered greedy. Wolf drank first and then I drank. Then it was time to walk back down the hill.
This time we walked down through Higashiyama, which is a series of shops descending from the temple back to the streets of Kyoto. This was extremely cool. There were shops selling food, pottery, chopsticks, souvenirs, and many other things. Many of the stores were selling the same exact things. I wonder how they stay in business. We looked at several items but didn’t find anything we really wanted; that is, until Wolfgang spotted a spice shop. He saw it and said he thought because of my cooking I might be interested. I was indeed. We spent a few minutes browsing and ended up purchasing a medium hot pepper mix and some sesame sauce. I’m sure I’ll be using these in future BBQ’s! After walking back down the hill we jumped back on the bus almost immediately and headed back to Shin Kyoto. We were pretty hot and had jelly legs from the walk up and down the hill. We decided to go back to the hotel and rest. We stopped first in Kyoto station and had hamburgers for lunch. Then we got to the hotel and I crashed for an hour or two.
We headed out again around 1330. After discussion we decided we would add Nijo Castle to the mix, which had been optional, because we had the time. We found the appropriate bus and took it to the castle; however, the castle was closed Tuesdays in August (ugh), so we walked back to the bus station and jumped back on the bus that would take us to Kinkakuji, or the Golden Palace.
Again, the bus dropped us off at the bus stop but we had to walk uphill to get to the temple. It was very hot and humid. I was wondering whether or not this was worth it. We paid the entry fee (I think around 600 yen) and walked the route (again, a route) and was directed by a guard to the left. My goodness. The temple was across a lake and was so incredibly beautiful words are hard to describe it. It was like something out of a Disney movie. I took plenty of pictures. We weren’t allowed in the temple itself but the path took us around it and along a well manicured path. Where there was moss under the trees, there was a caretaker sweeping the leaves from the moss. This place was immaculate and they kept it that way. They took this stuff seriously. The route took us back to the beginning and so we walked back down to catch the bus. We jumped on what we thought was the right bus, but it took us to the main bus station. It took us a few minutes to figure it out, but we were able to change buses and get on the bus taking us to Shin Kyoto. This was rush hour and so it took us about an hour. We got back around 4:30 and Wolf had said we could check out the shopping mall if I wanted since we were finished earlier than expected. This was nice of him because he would have preferred to go back to the room.
We went into a department store that was 11 floors, staggered, with escalators. I’ve never seen anything like it. They had everything, including restaurants on the top two floors. I bought a couple of gifts and then we headed to the room. Along the way Wolf noticed a ramen sign pointing to the 10th floor of the store we had just left. We decided to have that for dinner. After getting to the room and resting about 1.5 hours or so we headed back to the 10th floor. There were many places to choose from but we settled on one. Now, many of the restaurants show pictures of their food, which I think I have previously mentioned, but they also have machines where you insert money, pick the items you want, and then take your designated spot in the chair outside and wait for them to prepare your food and find you a table. This process of picking is a challenge unless they subtitle everything in English, which they did not. We gave it our best guess. Wolfgang ordered a large Miso Ramen with roasted pork added for about 1300 yen. I ordered a large Soy Ramen with roasted pork and extra scallions for about 1400 yen. We drank water. The ramen came and as I posted on Facebook, it was fabulous. I could truly eat it for every meal. I would not starve if I lived in Japan. Wolfgang can eat but he couldn’t even finish it all. We left and walked back to the hotel, first stopping at 7-11 to pick up water and Pepsi for Wolf. I also bought this little container of lemon looking drink that was 1000mg of Vitamin C. I intended to have it for breakfast Wednesday as I’d been battling a sore throat since leaving Hiroshima.
We made it back to the room around 9P. Since John was arriving from Tokyo around 10P, he and I made arrangements via Facebook for our trip to Nara on Wednesday then I went to bed. Wolfgang stayed up for a while before heading to bed. The trip is halfway over. It feels like we have been here three weeks with as much as we’ve seen. Great sights and great food summed up our Day 5.
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