Kyoto and Osaka Trip! Day 1

Hey everyone, just warning you that the posts that deal with my Kyoto and Osaka trip are picture heavy. I tried choosing only the best pictures but it got all "Sophie's Choice" up in here.

So this trip started on 11/2/2016. I packed my bag that morning and went to work. I got off work right at 4pm and had to race to Fukushima to meet up with Jocelyn and Cormac and catch a shinkansen to Kyoto. I was battling rush hour traffic, so we were able to catch the second shinkansen, but it was all good cuz we still made it to Kyoto in time. We checked into our hostel, talked with some other people staying there in the common area, and got a good night’s sleep before starting our adventures around Kyoto on the 3rd.

11/03/16
We woke up fairly early and made our way to the train train station. Kyoto station actually looks pretty cool.

We caught our train and we got off a short distance from the Fushimimomoyama Castle. It was about a half hour walk uphill, and the castle was at the top. We took a lot of pictures from the base, unfortunately you can’t go inside the castle, but it’s ok, because it is so beautiful from the outside.

Sun was too bright for me to have any hope of a smile and not a grimace.

Because all of us are 12 at heart...

The main walkway up to the castle

We walked around the castle for a while and then wandered off to the surrounding park. There were a few children’s sports games going on, and the nearby park was quite the happening place. It was really neat to see the modern world carrying on with the old world so close by. The juxtaposition was amazing.

We found a nearby park with some stone slides.

                                           

((Hahahaha! Just realized it's upside down and I don't know how to fix that!! Lol! Good luck!))

We left the area and walked to the nearest train station, rode one stop to the next station which is the Fushimi Inari Jinja station.

You may remember three years ago that I went to Fushimi Inari Jina, and I was able to go part of the way up, up to the small lake, in fact. This time I had a goal. I was gonna make it to the top.

It was as beautiful as I remember it. We hiked up the whole way, there are dozens of little tea shops and charm shops, and tourist stuff all along the way, but its super cute.

Some cute Ema that belong to this shrine. You write your wish or prayer on the back and hang it at the temple. Periodically the priests take the ema and burn them, the smoke delivers your prayers to the gods.

Once again, I made a wish at the "Imagining Rock." See my last Fushimi Inari post for more details about that.

Along with the thousands of tori gates and shrines that cover the entire mountainside, it seems like a limnal place that you’d read about in a fantasy book. This is definitely one of my favorite places in all of Japan.

The city of Kyoto spread out before a watch point on the mountain.

This was a little water filled path coming from a little "waterfall' behind some shrines. Not sure of the purpose but it was nice.

This is an illustrated map of the entire shrine complex.

Finally made it to the top!

This is where they store thousands of extra/unused torii gates. They actually 

I was surprised by the amount of elderly people I saw climbing this mountain, let alone those amazing people that were able to hike all the way to the top! My knees were hurting by the time we made our way back to the bottom. Super impressed with the fitness of the Japanese elderly, to be sure.

Here's a statue of Kannon-Sama.

I found a shrine cat!

We headed back into Kyoto and walked in the direction of our next stop, the temple of 1000 Kannon-Sama, or Sanjuusangen-do.

On the way we passed a little restaurant that was trying to do European food, but I rebelled and did a funky mix. It was a smoked salmon wrap. All in all it was a sushi burrito. Raw fish and lettuce and a cream sauce wrapped in a flour tortilla. It was amazing.

We went to the temple and sadly they don’t allow any photography inside, so please be content with these images from google.

I was super impressed with the craftsmanship of all the Kannon-Sama. Kannon-Sama is the Goddess/Bodhisattva of Mercy and compassion in Buddhism. The statues have 48 arms that represent the 100 arms of Kannon-Sama. Kannon is also depicted as both male and female or androgynous because s/he is not limited to gender and has compassion for all. In 1249 A.D. the temple caught fire and most everything burned down. Of the 1000 statues in the temple 124 were saved from the original temple. The rest were remade. The statues are made from Cypress wood and have gold leaf all over, although it does look worn through in places.

In addition to the 1000 Kannon statues there are 28 statues of other Guardian Deities from both Buddhism and Hinduism, which better illustrates why Kannon and other Buddhist deities are actually considered deities. Even though Buddhism technically doesn’t have deitites. It’s all very confusing and it would take a lifetime to study thoroughly. The other deities represented are Vishnu, Lakshmi, Shiva, Garuda among many others.

This one is Garuda, but you can see some others standing in front of the Kannon-Sama statues in the image above.

Kannon (or 観音) literally means “Watching Listening” and is often translated into “One who hears/sees all.” It is said that one prayer to Kannon-Sama will do more good for the world than praying and giving offerings to all the other deities in the world. As a result Kannon-Sama is one of the most widely-worshiped deities in all of Asia. Kannon-Sama worship started in the 1st or 2nd century in India, and spread to the rest of Asia from there.

The temple is also a popular destination for those who suffer from headaches. Special ceremonies are held there for those who seek headache relief. From what I hear, they smack you in the head with a willow branch. I didn’t know this when I arrived, but I left with a small charm said to ward off headaches. Pretty neat idea, but the Japanese paper that came with it tells you to go see a doctor. Lol.


This is the outside of the building. There was a colorful wall around the temple. The temple itself was brown and white, though.

Here is a big Buddhist Bell.

Here are some demon faces adorning the roof tiles. This is quite common among temples.

A little shrine off to the side.

Detail of the artwork among the colorful architecture.

The temple grounds also had a beautiful little pond.

After Sanjuusangendo The sun was low in the sky and we had to hustle to make it to Kyomizudera.
We hustled our way across the city but we came across another little Buddhist temple. TBH I don't really remember it, but I remember liking the paint choice of the temple. I really liked the white and black.

We also came across an absolutely  massive cemetery around the corner from Kyomizudera. It is definitely the biggest cemetery I've ever seen.

On our way up to the temple I saw what looked like a wax figure of a Geisha standing in the entryway of a shop. I was absolutely floored when the wax figure started moving! Turns out it was a real Geisha! She was clothed in the most beautiful, extravagant, colorful kimono! I guess she saw me staring at her cuz she turned to me and bowed and waved. I was so excited! I waved back and we shared a moment! For the next hour I had the widest smile on my face and a squeal in my heart… also might have been audible.

By the time we got there the sun had set and the sky was darkening quickly. It was only 5:30, but the temple grounds close at 6. So we quickly make our way around the dark grounds and stood in line for the three fountains to drink from (you can read more about that on my previous post about my first trip to Kyomizudera three years ago.)

 Looking down the great stone staircase.

This is looking up the great stone staircase.

The three little waterfalls of Kyomizudera.

Cormac became a cliché.

And we headed out.
What a beautiful view!

Just outside the entrance to Kyomizudera start the beautiful, historic streets of Gion. We walked through these incredible streets, it felt really poetic and amazing. Here you can see the cobblestones and the shops.

This architectural choice is a rather old style meant to keep people from leaning against the walls of your establishment.

I walked into an umbrella shop and saw this traditional paper and wax umbrella. I didn't buy it, because it was like $280. Instead I bought a normal rabbit umbrella that was closer to my price range.

Further along the shops turn into residential streets. Technically you’re not supposed to take photos of these streets because people actually still live here…. But….
“I’m a rebel, Dotty. A loner.”

Here is a Gion, Kyoto manhole cover.

After walking the streets of Gion we stumbled through the Yasaka Shrine that was under construction, so we just walked through it and made our way to a main road called Gion-Shijo and stumbled upon a sake bar. They had a wide selection of sake and we sat for about forty-five minutes sampling sake and hanging out. We all sampled six sake, but each of us only had two. Our server was amazing. I would give this place five stars and recommend it, but joke’s on you, cuz I can’t remember the name of it!

You can see the different degrees of filtering for sake. The more clear, the more filtered.

We then went to another bar and hung out talking to a bunch of new people, cool and creepy alike. I tried Guinness for the first time, I did enjoy it.

We soon left with some people we met that night, including the bartender and went to sing some karaoke.

Then we went to McDonalds, because it was… definitely after 2am, probably closer to 3 and it was the only thing open. Plus it is greasy, although not as bad as in America.

Finally got back to the hostel around 4, and didn’t sleep at all because the other people in the room turned into elephants at 6am as they were leaving.