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Published: September 24th 2013
Once again, I am off overseas on a solo journey. This time, it’s Japan – a country with a rich history, fascinating culture and ninjas! I am not quite sure why it’s taken me so long to get here, considering I was interested in Japanese history before European. Better late than never, though.
I left Sydney early on Sunday morning with Japan Airlines on a direct flight to Tokyo. The flight was fine, but uneventful. I watched 2 movies – Oblivion and Iron Man 3 – but I missed the end of both: Oblivion because I started snoozing; Iron Man 3 because we arrived in Tokyo.
My first task was to get a train into Tokyo before hopping onto a Shinkansen, or bullet train, to Kyoto. I probably should have flown, but it was a good taster of what is to come on this trip – I have a 21 day rail pass and plan to use it as much as I possibly can. I had to buy a ticket for this trip on the Shinkansen though, because I will be in Japan for 25 days and I wasn’t going be using the rail pass
for the first couple of days in Kyoto. I was able to buy the ticket for both trains at the airport, and true to the reputation, the trains were perfectly on time. Navigating the train stations was also straight-forward.
Just over 2 hours after leaving Tokyo, I was in Kyoto and hit my first hurdle of the trip. I had to buy a ticket for the subway, and even though I knew which station to go to, I struggled to work out how to use the ticket machine. Within 30 seconds of me looking lost, a friendly local asked me if I needed help and I was soon on a subway train to Karasuma Oike station. I checked into my hotel and did very little before hitting the hay.
Monday morning found me ready and raring to go. I had breakfast at the hotel before hitting the streets. My first stop was Nijo castle (jo is the common suffix for Japanese castles. Unsurprisingly, it means castle. Another suffix I’ve noted is “ji” for a temple). On the map, the castle was just around the corner from my hotel. It was definitely in walking distance,
but it surprised me because it was actually about 1.5km away. Lesson for the day – pay attention to scale when reading maps.
So after a pleasant walk through Kyoto, I arrived at Nijo castle. The castle was started by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa Shogun who reunited Japan after a long civil war. It functioned as the Shogun’s palace in Kyoto, but was clearly designed for defence as much as anything else. A visit to the castle follows a set path through the grounds, but you could do it in a different order if you really wanted to – this seems to be a common theme in places I’ve visited so far, and it works nicely.
The designated path at Nijo castle took me through the Great East Gate and past a guard barracks, complete with some mannequin samurai. Directly ahead of the gate is a large wall, which is common for castles and the Japanese have made an art of the convoluted passage into a castle. Off to the left, round a corner, through another gate and I was at the Ninomaru Palace, which was where the Shogun met visitors. Shoes off
(another common theme here, unsurprisingly) and I had a look around. No photos are allowed inside, but each of the rooms was decorated with beautiful wall paintings. There were also more mannequins, showing the Shogun meeting with his Feudal Lords (Daimyo). Also interesting were the “nightingale” floorboards, constructed so they squeak when anybody walks on them – even ninjas had trouble sneaking on them!
With shoes back on, I continued through the lovely garden over the inner moat and into the inner sanctum. Or rather, into the Honmaru Palace where the Shogun lived (when he was in Kyoto). The palace is not visitable, so the highlight of the inner keep is the massive corner tower which was very impressive. I was also fascinated to see that, unlike European castles, the castle walls were entirely backed with steps, rather than having a couple of strategic stairways. I imagine it makes it easier to move large numbers of troops to where they are needed, but an enemy breaching the walls would have instant access to the grounds so I’m not sure if it is better strategically.
That was mostly it for the castle, except for a
View of the Honmaru Palace
From the large corner tower at Nijo castlewalk through some more gardens. I then decided to catch a bus up to my next stop – Kinkakuji temple. I had purchased a 2 day bus + subway pass from the Hotel, so there was no problem there. The only difference from catching a bus elsewhere is that you board the bus from the rear and exit from the front and you pay when you get off. Even though the buses look old, inside they had screens telling you which bus stop was next. This made it easy for me to get off at the right place.
The Kinkakuji temple was a short walk from the bus stop and it quickly became apparent that I was not alone in visiting the temple. There was a decent crowd at Nijo castle too, but Kinkakuji temple was much more popular. This is probably not surprising because if you were only going to visit one temple in Kyoto (and there are many!), it would be this one. The famous “Golden pavilion” is the main drawcard and it is easy to see why.
The pavilion is actually one of the first sights on the set path through
the temple grounds. Before that is a large bell which you could learn to ring for 200 yen. I decided not to. Next it was through a Chinese style gate to the lake in front of the golden pavilion. There were signs up all around which at first I thought meant you weren’t allowed to take photos. However, one had English on it and it was actually no tripods. Heading to the viewing area for the pavilion, it was obvious to see why. Everyone was packed in, taking photos. People using tripods would have been very annoying. I am pleased to say that the pavilion certainly lived up to its reputation – viewing it across the water was spectacular.
I continued on through the grounds, which were very pleasant despite the crowd. Each of the little shrines and other features has a history. When I reached the top of the hill, I decided to partake in some Japanese culture. For a few hundred yen I went into a teahouse and had some green tea and a sugar cake. I can report that green tea tastes pretty much the same in Japan as it did when I tasted
it back home. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it. I was told to take a bite of the cake, and then drink some tea. I did this, thinking it would improve the taste (like lemon, salt and Tequila) but I didn’t really notice any difference.
On the way out I stopped for some famous Kyoto soft-serve ice-cream. I’m not sure if it is famous, actually, but a fellow from work told me to have some. So I did and it was very nice. It was also nice to sit down in the shade because it was very warm (over 30 degrees). Suitably refreshed, I headed to my next destination – Daitokuji temple.
I walked to Daitokuji (probably 1.5-2km) so I could see more of Kyoto. The street wasn’t particularly noteworthy, but because I haven’t been to Japan before, it was interesting. One thing is that many shops (and may be houses?) have vending machines out the front. Not the famous used-underpants ones, but drinks, ice-creams, cigarettes and so forth. The one I liked the best was one for batteries – not something you’d use all the time, but it would be
very handy when you need some batteries when the shops are closed!
Daitokuji is either a temple surrounded by many others, or a precinct of temples – I’m not sure. Either way, there were a bunch of temples together and I was pleased to see much more reasonable crowds (i.e. not many people at all). I walked around, taking photos where I could. The first temple I went into was the Daisen-in which is famous for its Zen garden. Not only was I not allowed to take photos there, but I wasn’t even allowed to have the camera out of my bag. The garden was quite nice, but I relied on the guidebook for most, if not all, of the symbolism. On the way out there was a monk with a lady at a souvenir stand. She handed me a guidebook that had English text and I decided to buy it because it contained all of the photos I wasn’t allowed to take. Apparently I also wanted to get the book signed by the monk. I am not entirely sure who he was other than his name is on the guidebook (he pointed it out to me).
On the plus side, I now know how to write my name in Japanese characters.
I kept walking around and the next temple I went into was Koto-in. The temple has bamboo lining the entrance, and a fantastic garden. I have quickly found that I am more impressed with temple gardens than the buildings, which are not all that different from each other (except the golden pavilion). After looking around some more, I was absolutely buggered and I decided to call it a day. I still had over a kilometre walk to the subway station but before I knew it I was back at the hotel.
When I travel, I always forget something. Always. And until I discover what it is, I worry about what it’s going to be. Fortunately I have already discovered what I forgot on this trip – my mouse. Not a bad thing to forget when you’re going to Japan, really. So my first mission for Tuesday was to go and buy a replacement. This was my first opportunity to visit a Japanese technology shop. It was pretty cool, but really was just like going to Dick Smiths or something.
I got a replacement mouse whose biggest selling point, as far as I could tell from the packaging, is that it has a blue LED.
Anyway, from there it was back onto the subway and I headed out to Keage station so I could visit the Nanzenji temple. First sight was a pedestrian “twisted tunnel” which was actually quite straight. I was puzzled by the name until I realised that the bricks of the tunnel are actually laid in a sort-of spiral pattern – actually pretty cool. On the other side of the tunnel, I visited the Konchi-In temple, which featured another beautiful garden.
I continued towards Nanzenji temple and decided to visit the Tenju-an temple on the way. Again, the highlight was the garden (although unlike Konchi-In, I couldn’t even visit the temple itself). The gardens were beautiful, however I have been a little disappointed about how my photos turned out – they certainly don’t do it justice. Part of the problem is difficult lighting, mixing direct sun with shade. I think post-production will save most of them, but unfortunately the ones for the blog will be straight from the camera and don’t
do justice to the gardens here.
Next stop was an old red-brick aqueduct. I’m not quite sure what the story is - it is clearly old, but not as old as the temples. Next it was the Nanzenji temple. More of the same, really and again I enjoyed the garden the most. Next I decided to try and visit a shrine behind Nazenji which Lonely Planet says is often overlooked by visitors. Although crowds at Nanzenji were not big, I only saw 4 other people on the way to and from Oku-no-in. The walk was up a reasonably steep hill path, but it is in the forest and the shrine itself is nestled next to a small waterfall. Definitely worth the effort.
My plan was to then visit the Eikan-do temple, but time was getting on and I was getting tired. So I decided to skip it and head up the Path of Philosophy to Kyoto’s second-most favourite temple – the Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion). The Path of Philosophy has a story that I can’t remember, but the important thing is that it is a lovely pedestrian/cycle way that runs along a canal for
most of the 2km up to Ginkakuji.
The crowds here were on par with Kinkakuji, although probably a touch less because it was late in the day. The walk up to the temple from the end of the Path is also highly commercialised – with plenty of food stores and many, many crappy souvenir stores. I don’t mean that souvenirs in general are crap – I actually quite like to buy souvenirs, as many of you know – but these were really cheap and tacky. And not a fridge magnet to be seen!
Anyway, like Kinkakjui, Ginkakuji definitely lives up to the hype. Once again though, I preferred the gardens to the temples themselves. The path around the garden leads up the hill and gave excellent views of Kyoto. It was a fitting end to my 2 days of sightseeing in Kyoto. Although I am staying in Kyoto for a total of 9 nights, the rest of my stay will consist of day trips by train to nearby (to varying degrees) temples and castles, including Hikone, Himeji , Nara and Osaka.
All in all, you could spend a week
looking around at all of the temples in Kyoto. Not to mention the other sights, including museums. I probably haven’t done it justice by only allocating only 2 days, but such is life when travelling.
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