Advertisement
Published: February 9th 2010
Edit Blog Post
I didn't sleep that much last night. Stayed up late editing, like tonite, and at night they have these older movies on that are in french, so I'm getting addicted to watching them. I love the sound of old movies and French is the only language I understand on any of the stations. Then I Ended up for some reason being wide awake at 6 in the morning so I decided to go for a run. So dragged my roommate Tony out to the hotel gym, and ironically ran into Jill and yuki coming out of the elevator and then ran into Dave and Bonnie on the way out. Super funny. So having an early start to the morning and after our traditional Japanese buffet breakfast, we decided to hit some temples today, starting with the Kinakuji temple, also know as the Golden Pavillon. It like all the temples have a lot of history( that I wont get into now,but definitely look it up,) and was one of the ones I was anticipating most.And this did not at all disappoint. As we rounded the corner and saw this magnificent building,glimmering in the sunlight, it took our breath away. The shine of
the gold leafing that this temple is lacquer with almost had an angelic glow about it. I took my time taking a lot of pictures even though the building itself is quite photogenic and I find it hard to believe that a bad picture can be taken of this temple, especially with the pond it sits on giving it the perfect reflection of itself. i Think the pictures themselves are all I need to say about this one.
After Kinkakuji , on the advice of the bus driver, we headed to the Ninnaji temple. I really had no expectations of this, knowing no history on it, but this ended up being the surprise winner of the day. Upon entering this little room, you are asked to remove your shoes. I assumed that the extent of this building was what I could see from the outside, but ended up stretching farther back into the beautiful well kept zen gardens and Japanese style hallways with small rooms off the the side, all individually decorated with Cherry blossom paintings on the wall and painted peacocks on the doors. This is the current temple of the buddhist shingun sect, but walking on the
bamboo style mats as the older wood gives way to creaks under your feet, its hard not to feel the history here or imagining how this place functioned hundreds of years ago. It was so peaceful and serene, we ended up staying there longer then planned and exploring the grounds more,discovering the 5 story pagoda and yes, I did find a cherry tree, or more like a bush really. I dont care I'll take it. This is also home to the omuro cherry blossom trees which are specific to that area. This was definitely worth the time.
We decided to head back down more centrally to go to the Nishiki market, and ended up at the same market we went to yesterday.We thought we might have missed the market all together but after a left a right and another right,we enter this smaller alley with these food purveyors on either side. This ended up being the best lunch-diner I have had. Of course I am always about food, and the food down this market, ranged from very scary to oishii! I love food markets like this, I love sampling all the different types of food, and we sampled a
lot! This alley stretched down quite a ways and had people selling everything from dried fish and pickled vegetables to different types of meat and seafood. I also found my old best friend mochi which is a ball of glutenous rice dough wrapped around red bean paste. Its slightly chewier in texture and a bit of an acquired taste. I love it and I think you probably remember me raving about this on my last trip to Hawaii. This market was an amazing experience and I almost would like to go back for round 2! Check out the pictures for more details.
We were all pretty tired after and took a mini break at the hotel, but once we were recharged it was back to Shijo st, one of my favorite streets, to walk around. It was super busy and I love streets that seem to fill up more at night , buzzing with activity and energy. We found the nameco arcade and decided to hang out there for a bit and try our hand at some of the games . So they have a lot of these claw games, the ones where you insert your money and maneuver
the claw around and try to grab your prize, except instead of the cheap looking stampede toys, there was food. yeah, food. They would have chips or crackers and even ice cream! Now i think this is a very smart marketing gimmick because I see how it could be so much easier to walk away and give it up if what your fighting for is just a creepy cheap stuffed animal, but throw haagen Daas in there , and then you have people with more of an incentive to plunk their money in. People like me who think that ice cream should be in its own food group like peanut butter. What a brilliant concept! We also did a mario cart throwdown, which I have to say I am terrible at. Its actually embarrassing. Tomorrow- the search for ramen!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.057s; Tpl: 0.024s; cc: 6; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0251s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
barbina
non-member comment
wowwzzers!
temples, food, markets oh my! shannon i love your photos! im sure the temples could still be standing after hundreds of years, because japanese people actually respect their space! what an amazing feeling to be in a temple though, you probably felt the peacfulness overcome you! i do agree with you about the whole icecream thoery, it should definitely be in at least one of the 4 food groups! temples....ahhhhhh! hugs!