Japan 2010 Day 8

Today is probably going to be a longer story so strap in for the ride. We had already decided to stay in Kyoto for Sunday and move Nara to Monday. This played fairly well with getting Brien set on his train to Tokyo. He had originally reserved his train for 10am but since we weren't going to wait until that late we had already decided we would go to do what we were going to before he left. However he decided to change his mind and instead would take the earliest train out of Kyoto by leaving with us for Kyoto Station. I figured our best bet was to get a bus to Kiyomizudera Temple and we may as well do that through Kyoto Station after getting some breakfast. We got to the station and got Brien through the swap of his ticket and then headed into the subway mall to get breakfast. We had a quick coffee and spot to eat and then headed up to the bus ticket office and bought another 1 day pass which in retrospect turned out to be a mistake but I will explain that later.

We got in the line for one of the trains heading to Kiyomizudera Temple, the pure water temple. Just waiting in line for the bus, which we had to wait through to the second but they jammed a ton of peope onto the bus we got on, we could tell the weather was going to be really nice out. There were almost no clouds and it was already getting to a beautiful temperature without any cold cutting breezes. The bus ride was cramped and a fair number of stops and starts. For some reason the majority of people got off at the stop before the one we took. I suspect it is a more common route to the temple up the hill. Kiyomizudera is a temple up on a hill that is famous for its balconies. It was also particularly unusual that there were no other gaijin on the bus. The stop we got out took us across the street and up a narrow road uphill until we met with an obvious shopping street. From there we climbed that marking that we would come back for some ice cream and to look in a few of the shops when we departed the temple. It was still very early in the morning but the shopping street was already very crowded with people. When we got to the temple grounds it was one of the best temple visits I have made in Japan. While the golden pavilion was nice it was really a very simple grounds and a quick pass through some gardens and done quickly. Kiyomizudera was a very large temple with some internal parts to visit and a vast expanse of temple grounds. With the weather being so beautiful I am glad we visited it today rather than the earlier cloudy/rainy day. While I am sure the golden pavilion would have glistened better in the sunlight these grounds were awash with cherry blossoms in full flight and the temple itself was very impressive to see. I am sure we were there for over two hours and then add in more time for the shopping streets outside the grounds so that we probably were in the vicinity for over 3 hours. Along the way we got soft serve ice creams. I had a cherry blossom and green tea mix and Ronni had a banana and strawberry mix. The one I had was very tasty and the cone sort of tasted a like either an American fortune cookie or perhaps slightly sweeter rice crispies. Either way it was a good ice cream. We followed up with a bit more shopping down the street until we hit the main road again.

Following the main road we were not very far from the Gion district which is supposed to be the main geisha district where there are still some active geisha and a fair number of women dressed as maiko which are not professional entertainers like the geisha. We did see a few women in dress and I managed to get a couple pictures.. Gion turned out to be larger than I expected and we walked around and found Kennin Ji Temple which actually had a a nicer Zen garden, in my opinion understanding that I am not nor probably ever will be zen, than the on we already visited and was different in that they let you take a lot of pictures of the inside of the buildings. We had only stumbled on it being that the Kyoto tourist office had not suggested it but it was a very nice visit and I am glad we found it. This is a major reason I like to do a lot of things on foot when traveling. You can't really stumble on a neat place in a subway, bus or cab so easily. After Kennin Ji we wandered around Gion some more and eventually decided to eat at a place that I think as a Korean barbeque with a grill right in the center of the table. They unfortunately didn't have any English on the menu but we were able to order drinks, rice and a beef set that was very tasty and something like a bul-go-ki. Given the fact that we were cooking our own I was able to have mine very undercooked. The food was very enjoyable. We didn't see any desserts on the menu but we had already had the ice cream beforehand so it was a not to worry thing.

After lunch, where I accidentally left my tickets and pamphlets behind (damn) we walked up the street in search of a bus that might take us to some of the other temples but by then the streets were so crowded with people I was basically awestruck. I could only repeat, "Wow," every so often. In our attempts to move through for buses we noticed that most of the buses were heavily packed with people. In our movements though we came upon another temple and park complex on the outside of the Gion district and decided to see what was inside. I almost immediately regretted that we chose to eat already because there were thousands of people and dozens of food vendors all over the place. It was one gigantic Sakura party that was just jam packed with people. We wandered through the grounds which included tons of cherry blossoms and a landscape garden and couple temples and shrines for some time. We bought some candied strawberries, which are like candied apples but with strawberries instead. A Japanese girl buying a stick herself told us they were very tasty and I fell in for it. They indeed were very good and the strawberries very nicely soft and sweet. This however meant we had trash and no place to put it after we were done eating them. Even in a park loaded with vendors selling all sorts of food there were no trash barrels to be found. People just police their own trash and carry it around with them forever, which is what we ended up doing until we were up at one of the temples and I found a bin. Somewhere early in the morning I had to take off my jacket and I didn't put it back on until my evening run. The weather was sunny and a perfect temperature all day. I could not believe how perfect it had turned out to be really.

After a while wandering through the park we decided we should start to find a bus back to Kyoto Station where we could pick up tickets to Nara and to Tokyo for the following two days. In trying to find a bus the sheer volume of people really showed itself on us. The bus stops were loaded with people all trying to pack into already jammed full buses. I suggested we move away from the eastern temple areas and more towards the center of the city in hopes of getting away from the crowds and maybe picking up a bus or the subway with less people. In reading the map it initially looked like Shijo Station may not be too far away. We had to cross back through Gion and this had become so much more overrun with people it was difficult to walk at anything faster than a stagger speed because that was as fast as the crowd was moving. After a while we got to the river and just beyond the river we found an entrance to a train station which I thought would get us to the subway. Instead it turned out to be a third party type train system that I had no idea where went. However the station apparently was the beginning of a vast underground complex and we walked along with less people under the city for what was probably about 5 blocks. I had no idea that there was a vast cavern system underneath Kyoto. We walked due west because I was sure that would bring us to Shijo subway station eventually and I was right. I unfortunately was in travel mode and didn't take any pictures of the tunnels though. It was basically like being in the longest subway exit ever. As I said we walked several blocks of the city down there. I know the weather was great outside but the place was so crowded there was no chance to move with speed and I am glad we ended up down there. We did eventually find Shijo Station and even more of the crowds but we were able to pack into a subway car and make it into Kyoto Station from there.

In Kyoto Station we went to the JR office and found out after waiting in line for about 10 minutes (The station was packed solid with people like the rest of the city) that you do not reserve seats for trains to Nara, instead you just show up at the platform and show your pass. Fortunately we had to get our tickets to Tokyo for Tuesday so the long wait was not really much of an issue in the long haul. We accomplished something for it aside from learning how to get to Nara anyway. After the JR office we walked through he subway mall in search of dinner and decided to eat at D's Place which is an Italian style restaurant specializing in pasta and pizza. I had the bacon and mushroom spaghetti which though not mentioned on the menu was filled with red pepper strips and was finally something spicy for me. I enjoyed it a lot. I couple tha with a beer in a fluted glass. Ronni had a set meal that included a pasta, doria (which appeared to be a burger on a tomato risotto though using Japanese rice) and a drink and dessert which was premade. The food was good and I really enjoyed the spiciness of the pasta. I followed up with a coffee then we went back to the subway and rode in a much less crowded car back to the hotel.

I spent a couple minutes freshening up but I wanted to see if the Imperial Palace park had churned out some of the blossoms that were still forming the couple days before so I headed back out to catch what I could before sundown and perhaps to snap a few night pictures of the blossoms as well, which is what I did. Surprisingly the blossoms in the park did not seem as far along as those near the temples. I am not sure if they are different varieties or their basic situations change things enough that they just haven't opened yet. Still I managed to bet a few hopefully nice pictures and to try my hand at taking some flash photos of the blossoms after it got darker. I walked through the park and around the palace. It was dark by I had turned the corner that started me on my way back south. There were still people in the park but not really that many by that point. The park is large so it took me some time to get through the circuit. When I got back to the main street I headed for the hotel and stopped at a Sun Kus on the way back to pick up a couple beers for the next couple nights and some snacks. I returned to the room and wrote this up while watching a candid camera type show on TV. There are a lot of pictures for today. Easily over 300.