Kyoto is the heart of old Japan. It became the capital in 794, and was home to each of the Emperors and royal families until 1868. It is chock-full of tourist sites, with over 1600 Buddhist temples, 400 Shinto shrines, and an incredible 17 protected UNESCO world heritage sites. You could spend ages looking at the sites, and in fact our guidebook suggests four days to a week! Unfortunately we only have two days in Kyoto, so we dove right in to some of the major sites.
We started at Fushimi Inari, on the Southeast side of the city. It's a magnificent shrine complex from the 8th century, with pathways of bright orange torii gates across the wooded hillside. It also has a number of statues of foxes, which are considered the messenger of Inari, the god of the rice harvest. It really was a spectacular place. Below the still pictures is a link to a video that we took that might help you get a feel for the site.
Pull the cord to ring the bell and then clap twice before praying to get the gods' attention!
Fushimi Inari
Row of Fushimi Inari torii gates across the hillside
Fushimi Inari - great sightlines!
From Fushimi Inari we went to a nearby Buddhist temple called Tofuku-ji. This temple is well known for its fall foliage viewing, and was packed with people doing just that. There is a bridge that crosses a valley filled with Japanese maples. It was really beautiful, despite the throngs of camera-toting tourists.
Tofuku-ji Gardens
It was really packed with tourists looking at the fall colors - notice the crammed pathway on the left!
Painted ceiling at Tofuku-ji
After Tofuku-ji we decided to go to the Kyoto train station to eat lunch and pick up our tickets for Tokyo on Wednesday. The station is bustling and very modern in design. From the roof on the 11th floor you can get a great panoramic view of all of Kyoto. You can even see the far off skyscrapers of neighboring Osaka.
Emiko's tempura at lunch
Looking down into Kyoto Station from the 11th floor
One of the most visited sites in Kyoto is Kinkaku-Ji, the "golden pavilion." It's a three story pavilion with gold leaf covering the top two sections, set in front of a picturesque pond and gardens. On the temple grounds we had some matcha (frothy bitter green tea) with a sugary treat with flakes of gold leaf on top.
Kinkaku-Ji
David didn't like this tea...his loss!
It was getting close to sunset, so we drove over to the Gion neighborhood. It's famous for geisha, historic houses, and lots of restaurants and bars. We walked down Shimbashi-Dori, a short but beautiful street along side a maple-lined stream, and also Hanam-koji, a street lined with 17th century buildings housing restaurants and tea shops. We stumbled upon Kenin-Ji, the oldest zen temple in Kyoto. Unfortunately the grounds aren't lit up at night, but one of the subtemples did have nice lanterns hanging from it.
Shimbashi-Dori
Kenin-Ji lanterns
Also in the Gion district was Chion-in, the headquarters of the Jodo sect of Buddhism, the most popular sect in Japan. It normally closes at 4:30, but it was open for a special event where they light up the temple and grounds, and you're allowed to go in the two-story temple gate (the largest gate in Japan). We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the top of the gate, but it was a breathtaking dimly-lit wooden space with carved statues and painted ceilings, including a large dragon. The main hall of Chion-in is massive, and quite impressive. Agian, no photos allowed inside!
Chion-in Grounds
The lit-up trees at Chion-in reflecting in the pond
Just down the hill from Chion-in was Yasaka-Jinja, a colorful orange shrine with lots of lanterns.
Yasaka-Jinja
For dinner, we had Chinese food for a change of pace. We tried a few different things, including spicy fried eggplant, jellyfish, a chicken dish, bok choi, and garlic shoots with pork. It was all really good, and a bit different than Chinese food in the US. David was not a fan of the jellyfish.
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