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Published: June 25th 2007
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When in Rome...
Jill modelling the latest fashion in Japan. We have been in the spectacular city of Kyoto for the past 5 days and have seen some wonderful sites.
We managed to catch the bullet train from Tokyo without any dramas and sat back in the very comfortable chairs (for a smaller that average population they know how to spoil you with legroom!) and watched the countryside flash past at a great speed.
Before we knew it we had arrived in Kyoto and after negotiating the mammoth train station found our way safely to our hostel.
A quick lunch later (in a restaurant in which you had to buy a ticket from a scary looking machine in order to get your food) and we were off and running.
We spent the afternoon wandering around a market in the grounds of To-ji temple which was fantastic as there was absolutely everything for sale there, and we could have come away with far more souvenirs than we could carry.
In the evening at our hostel we had our first experience of Sake, both hot and cold, and decided that it wasn’t quite what we expected. However I can say, a few tastings later, that it’s a grower!
Himeji Castle
Described as the most impressive and complete castle in Japan. The following day our long awaited summer ended and we were introduced to the Japanese rainy season (which apparently means that it only rains for a about half an hour a day......mmm, where have we heard that before?).
So, we decided to head off to Himeji Castle and spend the day as much out of the rain as possible.
The castle itself was pretty impressive sat up on a hill over looking the town and we spent the afternoon climbing up it’s steep staircases up to the top of the 6th tier. The views were pretty good despite the rain. It was strange being in castle that was made of wood and not stone, which in a way made it all the more impressive.
The day after the sun came out and we set out to explore some of the 2000 temples that you can find in Kyoto. We started with Kiyomizu-dera, which is currently a nomination for one of the new seven wonders of the world. It was a placed on the hills over looking the city, and would have been lovely had it been a little less busy.
We then walked along the ‘Path of Philosophy’ which
Kiyomizu-dera
One of the many world heritage temples in Kyoto. takes you to many of the temples near each other.
The next temple was Chion-in, which was much quieter and we enjoyed this temple more. Then it was off the Heian-Jingu shrine which had a beautiful garden to walk around (that for some reason had a train carriage in!).
After that we set off in hunt of a Geisha in the Gion district. This where you can find the ‘old’ Japan with the wooden teahouses and narrow lanes. We actually saw quite a few Geisha and Maiko (apprentice Geisha) as they set off for an evenings work (some in taxis which was a little weird). We felt a bit sorry for them as they were being ‘papped’ by all the tourists as they went along, although we have to admit we did take a photo of one!
As it rained again the next day we caught the bus around the city and visited a few more temples and Zen gardens. These were all very nice, but our lunch was definitely the highlight of the day. We stopped in a little noodle shop and did the whole sitting on the floor slurping our noodles thing!
Today we caught the
Heian-Jingu
The gardens of the the shrine (with a pond of enormous carp). train to Nara and visited, yep you guessed it, some temples. These ones were in our opinion much nicer that those in Kyoto as they were all in a huge park area. Also, in the park are hundreds of deer that wander freely (and try to pick pocket you if they think that you have some food for them!).
As we walked through the park we went through an emormous gate that had two huge, very scary, wooden warriors who are said to guard the temple area. These were amazingly life like.
We visited Daibutsu-den hall which was enormous and contained a 16m high bronze Buddha. In the hall we also had the pleasure of watching Japanese people trying to squeeze through a hole is said to be the same size as Buddha’s nostril. If they succeed then they will reach enlightenment - if they don’t then the fire service are called to rescue them!
We also visited a few more temples and shrines all of which were very pretty!
Tomorrow we’re off to Nagasaki and we’re going to try and avoid the temples.
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