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October 16th 2017

Published: November 11th 2017

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Delek Delek

Fushimi Inari-Taisha

This complex of shrines scattered across a hill is most famous for its tunnels of vermillion torii.

If it's traditional Japanese culture you're after, then Kyoto is a must-visit. Packed with temples, there were so many listed in the Lonely Planet that I was templed-out just reading about them. Therefore my first job after arriving in Kyoto was to narrow down the list of which temples to visit.
To give some insight into this process, I'll describe what I actually do every time I arrive in a city and plan a tour of the sights.
Generally I will create my own walking tour connecting all the sights of interest, so that I get to see a bit of normal life in the city in between. But when a city has as many sights and is as big as Kyoto, I create multiple walking tours of different areas where sights are clustered. It is quite a painstaking logistical process but I like having a plan so I can hit the ground running as soon as I wake up every morning and ensure that I don't miss anything.

With Jose having followed me from Hiroshima, we spent the first day hitting Kyoto's big hitters, starting with the Golden Pavilion, which is beautifully set and with the autumn colours it

Arashiyama Bamboo Grove

One of the famous sights I had been most looking forward to seeing in Japan.

looked wonderful. Just a shame the whole experience was spoilt by Chinese-level crowds. The tour through the grounds was surprisingly short too - we were in and out of there really fast, in about twenty minutes.

One of the sights I had been looking forward to seeing the most in Japan however, was the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. An ethereal forest of soaring bamboo trees so tightly packed together, that a path cutting through it resembles a towering green corridor. Once again the autumn colours provided a wonderful setting as we walked alongside the Hozu River...but once again the sight was let down by big crowds of tourists ruining the quiet, eerie atmosphere that would've existed without them. The bamboo path was also disappointingly short - I was expecting a huge forest of several paths, enough to get away from the crowds. Alas, it is only one path about 200m long and our walk through the grove was over before we started. While it was an amazing sight, at the end of the day it can only be described as a bit of a let down.

Crowds threatened to ruin the third of Kyoto's most famous sights at Fushimi

Golden Pavilion

One of Kyoto's three big hitter sights, the local name for this temple is Kinkaku-ji.

Inari-Taisha. Shrines dedicated to the gods of wine and sake are dotted all over Mount Inari as well as graveyards containing tombstones like I have never seen before. Green moss growing on them also lends the shrines and tombstones a Tomb Raider feel. While there are also colourful temples at the bottom and decent views of the city up top, the complex's most famous feature are the hundreds of red torii that line the footpaths, forming tunnels of vermillion that contrast against the green of the forest. Every gate is inscribed with black Japanese characters and makes for some great photo opportunities if you have the patience to wait for hundreds of tourists to pass by. We spent about two-and-a-half hours walking around and was definitely the highlight of the day.

While fruitlessly looking for a reasonably priced meal or a good value deal for dinner, it was then that I decided I will need to come back to Japan again one day armed with more money. I've found that I've had to forego some classic cultural experiences such as a kabuki show, a geisha performance and eating wagyu beef, simply because I cannot afford to do them on my

Gion By Night

A geisha walks past an exclusive tea house in the geisha district of Gion.

budget. I've not been able to indulge fully in Japanese cuisine for the same reason, one thing I was looking forward to the most in Japan. I felt like I was priced out of seeing and eating more traditional culture than I have, which was a real shame.

And perhaps things don't get more traditional than the old neighbourhood of Gion. Described as "atmospheric" by Lonely Planet, the place that my trusty guide directed us to was most certainly not - a massive parking lot halfway up a hill with little civilisation, let alone a neighbourhood of entertainment filled with classic restaurants and tea houses. We did eventually find Gion and it really did have the authentic aesthetics of a traditional neighbourhood that I was looking to see. The lovely wooden buildings were replete with typical Japanese architecture and finishes such as lovely, smooth, wooden exteriors; frosted, grid-patterned windows and sliding doors; tatami blinds and paper screens; red, sausage-shaped lanterns. This was the old Japan you've always pictured in your head. It was similar in feel to Macau's Rua de Felicidades - which was a beautiful, atmospheric street...full of brothels. It was easy to misconstrue the seedy-looking optics in front of you

Gion By Day

The beautiful traditional neighbourhood and entertainment district of Gion.

as a red light district; gentlemen in suits being dropped off outside establishments by shiny black taxis; known as an entertainment district yet being distinctly quiet; everything seemingly taking place behind closed doors; and to many who might misunderstand Japan's most famous female occupation, the rushing between houses of beautiful and immaculately dressed geisha.

The reality however is rather more innocent. The literal meaning of the word geisha - geiko in Kyoto - is "arts person" or "child of the arts". Skilled dancers and musicians, they also have a great knack for conversations and continue to entertain small groups of patrons at exclusive restaurants and tea houses. Traditionally, geisha were brought up in an okiya, a geisha residence lead by a head geisha where young girls would initially work as a maid for free board and food, moving on to a kaburenjo (geisha school) to learn their trade, should they show talent at the okiya. Geisha would typically graduate from a kaburenjo after six years, after which they would initially be a maiko (apprentice geisha) before becoming a fully-fledged geisha. Geisha were often indebted to their okiya; to help pay off their debt, some would enter contractual relationships with

Yasaka-jinja

View out the main entrance of this Shinto shrine onto the brightly lit main street of Shijo-dori.

wealthy patrons. So perhaps in these circumstances, lines I'm sure have been crossed in the past in terms of the type of entertainment provided, perhaps lending some historical substance to the Gion's red light district optics; in any Western country, you'd be sure that a place like this - although beautiful - is a red light district. The art of being a geisha however has moved with the times - girls enter training no earlier than their teens, often won't go beyond being a maiko these days and live their lives free, like any other young girl would.

Jose lives his life free too, so he left me the following day, Mexico-bound. I enjoyed his company and we had a bit in common in terms of our previous work experience and our Japanese budgets!

With so many temples in Kyoto, most of which have an entrance fee, a temple has got to be very special for me to visit it and the popular Kyomizu-dera certainly sounded like one of the more interesting ones. While the main hall was unfortunately under renovation and its balcony overhanging a hill was merely a scaffolding, the temple complex had many other things

Kiyomizu-dera

One of the more interesting and fun temples to visit in Kyoto.

going for it. The Jishu-jinja shrine for example, has two stones 18m apart where blindfolded people would try to navigate their way from one stone to the other for good luck in finding love. Miss the stone and you miss out on love! It was funny seeing people aimlessly attempting to improve their romantic fates. There is also the waterfall of Otowa-no-taki, the water of which is believed to give health and long life. But perhaps the most fun diversion at the temple is the Tainai-meguri, a shrine which is completely dark on the inside and that you have to navigate it via the handrail. It is literally pitch black and you really have no idea if anything or anyone is in front of you. It is supposed to simulate the entering of the womb of a female bodhisattva and at the end of your blind walk is a stone where you make a wish.

Another Shinto shrine where odd rituals take place is the Yasui Konpira-gu where a slab of stone with a hole at the bottom of it is covered in pieces of paper with wishes written on them. People crawl through the hole to improve -

Yasui Konpira-gu

A Shinto shrine where people crawl through the hole in this rock to either build or break their current relationships.

or end - their relationships. As explained in an earlier blog entry, Shinto is the indigenous religion of Japan but more surprising is the popularity and prevalence of Buddhism, which arrived in the 6th century and became intertwined with Shinto, perhaps explaining why I struggled to differentiate Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples.
To get to Yasui Konpira-gu from Kyomizu-dera, you pass through two restored traditional Japanese streets lined with shops and a Starbucks. It is tourist central here and they got on my nerves a bit but the streets are a pleasant and impressive walk, though I could not help but be reminded of similar restored - or recreated - streets in China. These ones were a little bit more tasteful.

After a day walkthrough in Gion - which revealed the lovely, elegant old buildings in all their glory - I passed through the free yet impressive Yasaka-jinja temple to chill out a bit in the autumn-coloured and cat-filled park of Maruyama-koen. There were quite a few mostly Asian tourists dressed tourists dressed up in kimonos here - it was actually quite cool as it lent your photos a dash of colourful authenticity in spite of the tacky intentions

Ponto-sho

Atmospheric alley lined with classy local restaurants.

of those wearing them. I do like the style I must say, it is very beautiful, refined and elegant.

That evening, I had a stroll down Ponto-sho and Lonely Planet was right about this narrow pedestrian lane lined with traditional restaurants being atmospheric. Smelling the amazing cooking smells and seeing all the delicious Japanese food out of my financial reach was killing me. I hated how I couldn't just sample all the stuff that I was seeing. Also, when choosing somewhere and something to eat, I have to consider the size of the portion; I'd love to have eaten more ramen but soupy noodles just don't fill me up. This is where my ferocious appetite is costing me! In Japan, the prices are high and the servings are small. In this respect however, I will give out some rare travel advice (most people read my blog for the stories). If you're looking for a cheap, filling and delicious eat in Japan, then a shokudo is what you're looking for. Without knowing what they were called, I described one in my blog entry on Osaka. These restaurants- often part of a chain - have been a godsend for me. Nakau, Matsuya and Yoshinoya (also

Silver Pavilion

I enjoyed visiting Ginkaku-ji more than I did the Golden Temple.

found in some other countries) are the most common ones.

Having gone all the way out to Ginkaku-ji on my last full day in Kyoto, I wrestled with myself as to whether to pay the entrance fee to go in or not. After all, I had already seen the Golden Pavilion and was slightly underwhelmed, so surely seeing the "Silver Pavilion" would be second-best? I decided that since I was here that I might as well - I had paid to enter one temple a day so far so I might as well keep that record up.
And I was so glad I went in; although the pavilion and other buildings were good but not great, the gardens were beautiful. A combination of the rain and the temple's location far out from the city centre may have contributed to there being less people but I didn't care and made the most of it. This must be what the Golden Temple is like without the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds. With the autumn colours starting to come through and with Japan's refined flora, this was perhaps Japan at its natural best. Like the Golden Temple, the visit didn't last very long but it

Aqueduct At Nanzen-ji

A pretty picture with the autumn colours.

was longer and much more pleasant. Other features within the complex were the lovely ponds and massive, meticulously constructed cones of sand.

Connecting Ginkaku-ji to Nanzen-ji is the Path Of Philosophy, so-called because it was a favoured meander for the Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitaro. And you could see why. The path followed a canal that was lined with trees in autumn hues, creating a beautiful tunnel of colour. It is worth noting that you can probably find similar places elsewhere in the world but at that moment it was a lovely little stroll to take. Enhancing the walk was the fact that the path is located in a peaceful, quiet neighbourhood - it felt like you were in a small village rather than a suburb of Kyoto.
Nanzen-ji itself had yet more autumn awesome, as well as a brick-red viaduct and the ginormous San-mon gate, which wasn't far off in size and shape to the massive gates seen in Beijing and Xian.

The Kyoto Imperial Palace was closed by the time I got there but I still enjoyed a stroll in its huge park where trees, ponds and grass are interspersed with vast expanses of gravel. The palace

Nishiki Market

Here you can find all the sometimes strange ingredients but cool ingredients that goes into the local cuisine.

isn't amazing apparently but is still an important site as state ceremonies and the enthronement of new emperors still take place here.
Japan does actually still have an emperor - but like The Queen, the role is solely a ceremonial one. Interestingly, it is said that the original emperor - a strictly legendary figure - is a descendant from heaven. Emperors have held varying degrees of power over the centuries (and millennia).

The last sight I visited in Kyoto was the Nishiki Market. It was very similar to the Kuromon-ichiba market in Osaka. Marinated eel, fresh fish, egg delicacies, pickled vegetables and dried herbs are among the foodstuffs on sale here.

Overall I'd say that Kyoto has some great sights to see but I didn't like the city itself. It's not especially pretty, it is spread out and the public transport system wasn't the greatest. There are only two subway lines, one useful JR line and I had to rely on city buses of which there are two rival networks; a day pass for one would not cover the other and then you had to work out (in Japanese) local buses and express buses too, which don't stop

Kyoto Station Interior

The concourse of the futuristic main train station in Kyoto.

at every stop. The buses weren't especially cheap either.
Trash cans were surprisingly hard to find too, meaning you had to hunt them down or carry your trash with you for annoyingly long lengths of time.

But if you want to see classic, traditional Japan, then you simply have to come here. I felt that I saw the traditional Japan that I wanted to see; my aforementioned budget however means that I will definitely be back one day for a more immersive experience of Japanese culture.

For now however, I make my final stop in Japan and another Japanese must-visit - in the country's crazy capital of Tokyo!

じゃあまたね (ja matane)!
Derek

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