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Published: February 24th 2008
Kyoto
02/20/08 - 02/23/08
If Tokyo is the business center of Japan, then Kyoto is the metropolitan center. I likened it to Madrid (as the business hub) being similar to Tokyo, and Barcelona (as the metropolitan sister city) being like Kyoto.
As we were looking for our ryoken (a Japanese inn) a friendly lady went out of her way and walked us to the hotel. This was the type of hospitality we were to experience throughout our stay in Japan. Hannah thanked her by offering a trinket from California.
Our ryoken was awesome! It was basically a big room with tatami mats on the floor. There were futon like cushions that are used for sleeping and a short table that we would take our tea in. You had to take your shoes off in order to step into the room and they had slippers that you could wear when using the toilet. Also, the ryoken had a communal bath (actually, there was one for the ladies and one for the men). For the bath you basically: rinse off, soak in the hot water tub, get out of the tub and scrub with soap and shampoo , rinse
off again, and finally soak back in the tub. It was quite the cleansing experience!
Kyoto is full of temples. To start off we went to the Toji temple. Coincidentally, this was the day of the month where there was a flea market at the Toji temple. It's hard to feel spiritual when there are thousands of Japanese (mainly elderly) rushing around bartering things. Still the temple was pretty neat.
The second temple we visited was the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine. There are about 10,000 orange Torri (sacred gates) and more than 20,000 Otsuka (sacred stones) at this temple. It was pretty amazing and quite the hike up a mountain.
The third temple we visited was Sangusanjen-do. This temple had 1,000 Buddha statues inside it. Unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed so I couldn't get any shots of the statues from ithe nside.
On 02/22/08 we went outside of Kyoto to a city called Himeji.
NOTE: It is very easy to travel around Japan if you have a Japan Rail pass. Most of the new trains go really fast (well over 100 mph if not close to 150 mph) so you get to your destination quickly and
without much hassle.
This was the site of the Himeji castle, one of the grandest in all of Japan. There was also a neighboring garden that we visited, but because of the season, most of the plants weren't blooming.
On 02/23/08, we went to Hiroshima, the site of the first atomic bomb (dropped on Aug. 6, 1945). While rebuilding the city, they put a peace memorial at the site of the bomb that was dedicated to teaching people about the travesties of war so that history would not repeat itself. There is also a flame at the peace memorial that will only be extinguised once the last nuclear weapon on earth is disabled. I hope to see that day in my lifetime. This was a very tasteful and touching memorial.
Neighboring Hiroshima is an island called Miyajima. This island felt like Catalina, bustling with tourists getting away from the city. It also had some friendly deer that would eat brochures or pretty much anything you gave to them. Also, it had a 'floating Torri' that is one of the most photographed spots in Japan.
That night, on the way home from Hiroshima and Miyajima, we stopped
by Kobe in order to treat ourselves to a traditional Japanese steak dinner. The meat was phenomenal, and although we went a bit over budget, it was well worth it!
The next day, our last day in Kyoto, we checked out of our ryokan and headed north towards the mountainous regions of Kanazawa. We also encountered some weather (snow) which was only likely to build as we headed into the mountains... our warm layers would certainly come into good use now!
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Eric
non-member comment
Drink Tobacco
"Drink Tobacco" sounds a little unsettling. The photos and the trip look amazing so far! Keep it coming.