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Published: December 1st 2007
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Nishiki Market (錦市場)
Food of many kinds are sold in this market that stretch for blocks. We traveled to Kyoto, Japan for a five-day vacation. We decided to base our travels from Kyoto, visiting sights within Kyoto, Nara and Kobe. After visiting several sights in Kyoto, we decided to skip Nara and Kobe (except for a scrumptious meal in Kobe). We stayed at Aranvert Hotel Kyoto, which is like a business hotel with American-sized rooms (a rarity in Japan, as most hotel rooms are smaller than my bathroom at home), free internet (very important), and a public bath on the top floor of the building (public baths are common in Japan, which includes a large hot tub). Looking at the night view from the top of the building while soaking our tired feet, calves and body after each day of sightseeing rejuvenates the body to ready for the next day's activities.
We felt very fortunate that we can read Kanji, which is Chinese characters to us. Reading road signs and maps were not a problem. However, the pronunciation of these characters are totally different between Chinese and Japanese; when we had to ask for directions, we usually get away with pointing to the destination on our map, and then resorting to charades to communicate. It works
Kinkakuji Temple (金閣寺)
Another very popular temple though! and in a way, it was fun. We actually had full-blown conversations with people that way.
Sightseeing
When we first arrived in Osaka's Kansai International Airport, we took the bus to Kyoto. After checking into the hotel, we started exploring Kyoto. We went to Nishiki Market, which stretches for more than 4 street blocks, to look at what we can buy for either raw food, cooked food, or pickles. At one end of the market, there is a shrine. Wow, there are just shrines and temples, even in the middle of town, by a market!
For next 4 days in Kyoto, we rode public transportation to visit 21 more Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. Some of these are popular, famous sights, while others are lesser known, and nonetheless, beautiful and worth seeing. These include:
Temple/Shrine (Chinese)
Day 1 Ginkaku-ji Temple (銀閣寺)
Honenin Temple (法然院)
Eikando Zenrin-Ji Temple (永觀堂禪林寺)
Nanzenji Temple (南禪寺)
Maricideva Temple (摩利支天)
Konchi-in in Nanzenji Temple (南禪寺之金地院)
Day 2 Kinkakuji Temple (金閣寺)
Ryoanji Temple (龍安寺)
Lotus Temple (蓮花寺)
Ninnaji Temple (仁和寺)
Tenryuji Temple (天龍寺)
Gioji Temple (祇王寺)
Day 3 Shisen-do (詩仙堂)
Hatidai Jinja Shrine (八大神社)
Enkoo-ji Temple (圓光寺)
Manshuin Temple (曼殊院)
Heian
Ginkaku-ji Temple (銀閣寺)
One of the popular attractions. Shrine (平安神社)
Kiyomizu Temple (清水寺)
Day 4Sanzenin Temple (三千院)
Jojakukoji Temple (寂光寺)
Sanjusangen-do (三十三間堂)
Most of the temples and shrines have integrated gardens, ponds, and rock gardens. The gardens are well manicured. We saw ground staff squatting on the ground, picking up leaves by hand. Ponds are mostly integrated with small flowing water elements, like a small brook or small waterfall. Rock gardens have a raked sand field, with the raking in patterns, and rock formations strutting out of the raked sand field. At the entrance to the temples, there are usually a flowing water "bird baths" with ladles, so that the temple-goers could cleanse their hands prior to entering the temples.
The temple buildings are all raised-floor wooden buildings and have the particular Asian shape to the roofs. Some roofs have tiles but others are protected by grass thatch. Some have actual live grass growing on the roofs! There are many boardwalk-like pathways on the outside of the building, twisting and turning to lead occupants from one building to another. The window panes are made of paper. All these scenes remind me of kung-fu novels (武俠小說) set in ancient China, say in the Tang or Sung
dynasties, and the spies running around, poking holes in the paper window to peer inside to spy upon the occupants.
Kiyomizu Temple (清水寺) appears to have a different taste. The buildings rise out of the hillside with massive beams and girders, holding up the structure. In addition, I didn't see any gardens or ponds. With its locale near town, this temple is by far the most crowded, packed with both tourist and locals.
Shisendo (詩仙堂) and Manshuin Temple (曼殊院) were schools for lesser royalties. Though technically neither temples or shrines, they still have the manicured garden and ponds, and have a taste of the religious culture built into the grounds. We understood that the first-tiered princes went to school at another location, but we were unable to get permission to visit.
Sanjusangen-do (三十三間堂) is also different from the other temples. Its main hall houses 1001 Kannon (千手觀音) statues. Unfortunately, time has taken most of the paint off the writings that adorn the building. No pictures were allowed inside the main hall.
The nippy weather has turned some of the Japanese maple to a beautiful red, but we are probably one week too early to see the
Path of Philosophy (哲學之道)
Path between Ginkaku-ji Temple (銀閣寺) and Nanzenji Temple (南禪寺). In between these two temples, the path also reaches Honenin Temple (法然院) and Eikando Zenrin-Ji Temple (永觀堂禪林寺). full-blown foliage, as the weather should turn cold in the next few weeks. Actually, the sight of red leaves in a sea of yellow and green makes the photographs stand out more.
Food
The restaurants in Kyoto are mostly excellent. We only had one "so-so" meal, and that restaurant was advertised in one of the tour books. All the other restaurants that we chose, we just walked in after looking at the menu.
We also went to Kobe to have a taste of real Kobe beef. We decided to have it as part of a Shabu-Shabu course, rather than Teppanyaki. We believe that Kobe beef is too fatty to really bring out a roasted flavor. The Shabu-shabu was really good, and we splurged and ordered two additional plates of beef.
Public Transportation
Other than the two taxi rides between the bus terminal (bus from Kansai Airport to Kyoto) and our hotel, we took the bus and the railway to and from Kobe. The public transportation net is very convenient and covers all the places that we had to go. There are one-day City Bus passes that allows the cardholder to ride the bus unlimited times for the
day. There are other passes that allow cardholders to ride other bus system and the subway, but we were contented with riding the city bus.
There were some very funny moments though:
1) For a bus ride outside of the city region, an additional charge is required. In the beginning, we had no clue on how to figure out how much the extra charge was. The hotel people told us that the extra fare was the total fare minus 220 yen, the amount for each ride with the city region. Not! By the time we put in the amount we thought was due, the bus driver started exclaiming something is wrong. Well, we have no clue what he was saying. Fortunately, the lady behind us spoke English, and translated for us. It turned out that the extra bus fare was indicated in one of the rows numbers on the digital board.
2) In areas where there are popular tourist attractions, the buses are jammed pack with people. We are talking about bodies adhering to other bodies on a moving bus. We actually stood on one of the bus routes for one hour, the whole way to our destination.
Eikando Zenrin-Ji Temple (永觀堂禪林寺)
This temple is one of the lesser known, but very worth visiting temple. But that was still appreciated for not having to walk!
Other Interesting Observations
We saw some window washers cleaning windows of a high-rise building. Three or four of them were lined up along one side of the building, responsible for a swath of the building side. They were actually dangling/rappelling down the side of the building, and swinging sideways to cleaning each of their swath. Can you imagine OSHA seeing this?
We also went to a large department store where there is a supermarket selling raw and cooked food. It's not the food or that a department store selling food, it's.... well, I feel like I was in a bird cage listening to chirping birds instead of in a department store. The sales people were constantly yelling out to attract potential customers in their high-pitch voices. When each sales person at each counter is doing the same thing, the sound level of all the chirps becomes quite overwhelming and garbled. It felt really weird to feel what a bird would feel?
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