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Published: November 24th 2008
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Long weekend (AGAIN!) Family decided to make the mad rush for Kyoto on the peak weekend for fall leaf viewing. These fall colors (kouyou) are known all over Japan and the world, especially the Japanese maples (momiji). For about 2 weeks Japanese news has been showing these leaves. Family guy fans...picture the episode of the new yorkers who rush Quahog, RI. This place was packed in a way I've never seen before. Family loves intense vacations.
We got up at 5:30 on Saturday morning to hop on the Shinkansen, bullet train, to Kyoto that turned an 8 hour car ride into a 2 hour train ride. The train was packed, standing room only, which is why we got there at 6:00am. As soon as we got off we hopped on a 1 hour tour of Kyoto and some of the famous temples. We didnt get the chance to get off and walk around but we got to take some good pics from the bus. I want to go back and spend some more time at the temples. This trip, the temples were not the big focus, it was the leaves around them. On the bus I got some quality time
with my little bro, Koji, who swiped my camera and took random videos and pics. Some of them are on here. Kyoto is like Rome in that the temples and old Heian era buildings are right in the midde of the city in between colleges and houses. It was great to see even thought it was only a whirlwind tour.
Next we went to Tofukiji temple to see its garden. The line to walk through this garden was probably about 10,000 people deep. So we waited a bit and finally got in. The momiji were amazing. There was a small courtyard that opened up a a larger area with a bridge over a pretty deep valley underneath. Leaves were anywhere from yellow to purple, but most of them were not surprisingly, red. Colors that I've never seen before on trees, some looked fake. The ground was covered with fallen leaves as well so the entire courtyard was red.
Next stop was a place called Gion Corner for a bunch of short traditional Japanese skits. Miyako, Bunrako, Hyougen, koto playing and tea ceremony were all included. It was only an hour long but seeing these things were nice. Kyoto
plays the part of the Traditional city in Japan whereas Tokyo is the modern, western one. Kyoto was the capital for 1000 years so most culture was born there. Tokyo only took over in the late 1800s. There are no big buildings in Kyoto and but its very proud of its cultural heritage.
Kinkakuji is probably the most recognizable temple in Kyoto, being covered entirely in Gold plating. The pond is set up to reflect the images of the temple and leaves. It was a small area but we spend a good hour just looking at the trees and the temple.
One more stop that day for leaves...at night. Certain places light up walks of momiji so people can still see fall colors even when the sun goes down. In the dark it was alright, but it was very very cold and I liked the daytime better.
Original plans were to stay at a temple that night and participate in the daily temple routine the next morning but we wanted to see so much that we didnt want to go in for the curfew which meant we had to fight all of Japan for hotel rooms.
Nearly every place was full. Full seats on trains, road were impassable because of the extra tickets, no rooms at hotels, but somehow my family was able to find rooms for everyone in the hotel closest to the station we were leaving from the next day.
Next day we took a combo bus/train/boat ride through some of the outskirts of Kyoto to see move leaves and nature. We went to this massive temple/tourist complex that was packed with people. Grabbed some lunch there after looking at some of the most beautiful mountains...Kyoto is surrounded my mountains. Also got to drink some traditional macha tea that is typically served with something impossibly sweet because the tea is pretty bitter. It was some combination of mochi, sugar, and azuki beans. I thought the tea was fine without it.
The second leg was a train ride through a valley along a river. We then doubled back on a small boat driven by a hilarious crew. At this point the sun was going down and hitting the hills in a really beautiful way so more leaf pics. At the end of the boat ride a vending boat pulled up and we grabbed
some warm snacks and beer. It was pretty awesome because it was very cold at that point. The day ended in a mad rush to Kiyomizu-dera temple for some more light up action but the street were impassible even by foot at this point and we had a train to catch...which we caught by only 5 minutes. I've never seen people converge on a city like this.
They take intense vacations here and the family decides their moves at the last possible minute. I've learned to just go with it and say yes to everything because they have a tendency to make things work out really well. Today is another holiday. I'm going to chill and make up some work.
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David
non-member comment
Yo!
Hey dude, awesome pictures! I didn't know you were keeping a blog. I'm doing one too, at dshack.net