Kiyomizudera

So on one of these days--I'm just going to say it was day 5, although the chronology is all messed up at this point--I decided to visit Kiyomizudera. I decided to go in the late afternoon, after visiting some other sites earlier, and I was really looking forward to it. Kiyomizudera is probably the most famous temple in Kyoto, at least for Japanese people. Whenever I told a Japanese person that I was planning to go to Kyoto, or asked them if they had ever been to Kyoto, they almost inevitably mentioned Kiyomizudera. I think every school child in Japan visits the temple.
Kiyomizudera is located up on a hill, in Eastern Kyoto. To get there, you take a bus to a street nearby, and then walk up a long, winding road, positively infested with tourist shops. Traditional ceramics, woodwork, kitschy Japanese souvenirs, Hello Kitty merchandise--you can get just about any touristy thing you can dream of on this road. It's actually pretty damn cool, in a way. Most of the shops carry similar things, and it's terribly crowded, but it's strangely atmospheric. This is the real Japan, warts and all, and in its own way, it is beautiful. Below you can see part of this street, with Kiyomizudera's pagoda in the distance.

Kiyomizudera was very crowded, and very beautiful. It was late afternoon when I arrived, and the sky was extraordinarily blue.

Kiyomizudera, up on the hills, overlooks Kyoto like a guardian statue. The beautiful red of the traditional gate makes a pretty amazing contrast.

Below you can see the main gate entrance to Kiyomizudera. The sun was starting to set at this point.

Kiyomizudera is pretty high up, and once you get away from the main areas, you can find some incredible sites. Here the sun was just beginning to set. The views were amazing. Here you can clearly see Kyoto Tower, illuminated against the sunset.

Another view from a path I took away from the main area--there's quite a few paths to wander around on. I believe I took this picture from another random pagoda that I found--this is part of the main temple.

Below you can see the great wooden terrace that Kiyomizudera is most famous for. It's built up on a hill, over the pure spring that give Kiyomizudera its name (mizu=water, kiyo=pure.) I didn't take a drink, though--there were hordes of school children, all eager for their drink.

As you can tell from the picture, it was pretty busy. It is the most famous temple in Kyoto, after all! It was still a pretty amazing visit, though.

Fushimi Inari Shrine

After leaving Byodo-in, I headed back to the train station and took a train to Fushimi Inari Shrine. Like Uji, this shrine is located on the outskirts of Kyoto, in front of a mountain (Inari-san.) Below, you can see the main entrance (there's a torii behind me, when I was taking the picture).

One thing I discovered in Japan is that I really like Shinto shrines. I appreciate that they don't charge money for entrance, although I understand why famous Buddhist sites do. I like that they are often open all day and night. And I like how alive and vital they seem, even now. Anyways, it was a beautiful day when I arrived and I felt really excited. Below, you can see the two foxes on each side of the gate; Inari is the Shinto kami (deity) of fox spirits (a.k.a. kitsune) among other things.

Fushimi Inari was recently featured in Memoirs of a Geisha, apparently (I didn't see it.) No doubt this is because it's remarkably beautiful. Basically, the most famous part as this shrine is the long, endless paths of torii that wind up through the mountain. They have been donated,over the centuries, by various people, families, companies, etc. for good luck. There are thousands of them, packed together so tightly that walking inside of them is like being inside a tunnel.

But not just a tunnel... a bright orange tunnel. This is the traditional color for torii. Although there were quite a few people here at the shrine, the paths are so long and winding that you can go for quite some time and not run into anyone. It's very beautiful--impossible to describe how unearthly it seems at points.

The torii are inscribed on one side with the names of the donors, and I think, the date? Or possibly some other information. My Japanese skillz are not quite up to snuff here. You will notice that they all look quite fresh and new. I saw a gentleman repainting one of them while I was here--bright shiny orange. That's one of the things about Shinto shrines--they are constantly being refreshed. Like Ise shrine, torn down and rebuilt every 20 years.

This is the entrance to one of the paths. They actually diverge in a few places, so it's not just one long path up the mountain. There are an uncountable number of torii. It's a very old shrine.

In addition to the main shrine buildings and the torii, there are a number of smaller shrines off to the side. I saw this one in the distance when I was walking along the main path and decided to investigate. It was this run-down, dirty looking shrine with a concrete torii and various garbage strewn around. But it was still really cool looking. There seemed to be a house or some kind of building in the distance but I didn't want to venture somewhere I wasn't wanted so I just stayed back at the shrine... you can see the line of torii in the distance, through the trees.

Once you got up further, shops starting appearing. I wonder how these people get up there everyday. Do they just live there? There are no roads, as far as I know. How do they get their supplies? They are restaurants, and they sell various refreshments. I just had a small, strangely shaped coca cola at one of them. It was pretty cool. They were very traditional, raised tatami mat type places, clinging to the mountainside. Very commercial, but they've probably been there long enough to classify as historical monuments themselves.

Not everyone is rich enough to sponsor a full-sized torii themselves. Here are hundreds of smaller, miniature torii, hung up alongside the road. The shrine was a really beautiful place. I was in a hurry, unfortunately, so I didn't make it all the way to the top of the mountain. I probably walked for at least half an hour, not even counting all the various stops, and I still didn't make it to the top. I'm not even sure if I was going in the right direction. I'd like to come back someday, and make it all the way to the top.

Byodo-in

On day 5--which I believe was actually day 4, but never mind that--I decided to get out of Kyoto. It was gorgeous, perfect weather once again, and I woke up nice and early to make the trip to two sights I'd really been looking forward to seeing. They were on the same train line, IIRC. The first place is called Byodo-in. I've really wanted to see it ever since I first learned about it in class--it's really, really beautiful. It's also one of the few remaining Heian-period structures left in Japan (I think the only one, actually), and the Heian period is just a ridiculously romantic era.

So I set off for Uji, which is a small town a little ways outside of Kyoto. It is also somewhat famous for being a major location in the classic Japanese masterpiece, "The Tale of Genji." So when I was walking to Byodo-in, nice and bright and early, I saw this lovely statue and a plaque beside the river! The plaque was in Japanese, I think, but I can recognize a Heian-era lady when I see one. This statue represents Lady Murasaki, who wrote "The Tale of Genji." I doubt it's particularly ancient or anything, but I really liked it. It also has Uji Bridge in the background. Uji River was very important because it was the site of many battles.

Anyways, I eventually arrived at Byodo-in right as it was opening. It was quite nice and fairly uncrowded at that point. When I got in, the first tour of the day was starting--the temple was raising funds to restore the main Buddha image, which is inside the Phoenix Hall, and because of this, they were selling special tickets for some extra cash, for which you could actually go inside and check it all out. Of course, I bought the tickets. Not only is the Buddha very cool, but there are some really ancient paintings inside--very famous, especially if you're an art history major. It was amazing seeing them in real life, although they were quite hard to see! But still, definitely worth it.

Anways, the main building at the Byodo-in temple, the Phoenix Hall, was actually built in the early 11th century. It's almost 900 years old, and somehow managed to survive all these years. Everything else around it was burnt down at some point, but the hall survived. Now there's pretty much nothing there except this pond (man-made) and the hall itself. It is an incredibly graceful structure. Some people say that it's known as the Phoenix Hall not because of the bird statues on its roof, but because it looks like a phoenix, wings spread, elegant and symmetrical in the midst of a famously reflective pond.

The building was originally not a temple, but a pleasure-villa, built to resemble the Pure Land paradise. The pond surrounds it, and is probably one of the reason it has survived for so long.

It's hard to make out in this shot, but the central Kannon image can sometimes be seen in the reflection, because it's so perfect. It makes it seem like it is "floating."

One of the things I really liked about Byodo-in is that you can see how old it is. It's not restored and prettified to an uncomfortable degree, like many locations in Japan. It's weathered, but well preserved. You can see the paint flaking and degrading (although it's not the original paint, of course.) But every little element is just so graceful, so elegant, so perfectly imagined. I really loved it.

As you can see, Byodo-in is a very well known locale in Japan. It's featured on the back of the 10 yen coin--that's how important it is. Loads of school children began to arrive shortly after the temple opened up for business. These elementary school kids all wear hats so they can be easily recognized (and, I presume, avoided.) They are standing near the Kannondo, a later structure built to house some images. There is also a shiny new museum there, detailing the restoration process and showing some various images. It's very classy.

I lingered here as long as I could, but eventually I had to move on. My day was not over yet!

Koryuji and Sanjusangendo

So on one of these days--it may have been day 4, or maybe not, I can't really remember now--I went to Koryuji. Koryuji is not really on the typical temple-tourist-trap-route for Kyoto. Although it is one of the oldest temples in Kyoto, it is not particularly shiny like Kinkakuji, it doesn't have beautiful gardens like Ginkakuji, and it doesn't have a famous rock garden like Ryoanji. It is also on the outskirts of Kyoto, in Arashiyama, the eastern mountains. When the bus dropped me off nearby, I thought I was in the wrong place at first. It looked like the suburbs, if the suburbs were in an old-fashioned Japanese town. I persevered, though, and was rewarded.

The grounds of Koryuji do not look like much, although there are a number of old buildings and such (see below). They were quiet though--no school children, no tour busses, just me and a few old Japanese people.

However, I was not going to Koryuji to see the grounds. Koryuji is home to a number of extremely important pieces of Buddhist art, including one of my absolute favorites (also very famous)--the Miroku Bosatsu. Miroku refers to the position it is in, a distinctive kind of thinking pose (that's what it looks like to a westerner, anyways), with the hands near the face. It is a friendly figure, dating to the 7th century, and it has an archaic smile. It is polished and shiny from the centuries, and is very beautiful. Seeing it in real life was pretty awesome. The museum at Koryuji has a lot of other great works of art as well, and is very serene and pleasant. There was almost no one there, again, and the elderly Japanese man who was taking the tickets seemed surprised to see me. Definitely worth a visit, at least for me.

At some other point, possibly during this day, and possibly not, I decided to go to Sanjusangendo. I took the bus, and found it quite quickly. You couldn't miss the enormous groups of school children. But that was okay. Sanjusangendo was another of those sites I'd learned about in Japanese art history, and always wanted to visit.

Sanjusangendo is essentially just this building in the middle of a courtyard, surrounded by a somewhat later wall. It is remarkable primarily because it does not look like a normal Japanese temple at all. Sanjusangendo means, basically, 33 bay hall, and this is what it is. Because of this, it is extremely long. In the old days, people used to do an archery contest here, shooting arrows down the long length of the hall. It is also very old, and quite impressive, in a strange way.

You can see the bays... I didn't actually count them, but I am confident there are thirty-three.

This is the back view. There were surprisingly few people wandering outside--it was nice. This is because all the people are inside. This temple is famous for holding 1001 images of the Kannon. They are lined up inside, identical statue after identical statue, vast rows of them all along this long, long hall. The images are life-size, and covered in gold. It is a profoundly impressive site, but unfortunately I cannot show it to you as you are not meant to take pictures inside. This did not prevent one deeply obnoxious German man from doing so, however. Everyone glared at him, but he didn't notice. They never do, I suppose. There are also two gorgeous images of Fujin and Raijin in the hall... very cool.

Ryoanji

As I mentioned previously, it was on day 3 that I moved to a new place. Well, when I woke up on day 4 I decided I wanted to check my email briefly before I left for a shiny new day of sightseeing. Much to my sorrow, the computer was broken--and they only had one. I was quite bitter, as I had been looking forward to free internet. There were no internet cafes around, as far I could tell, although the ryokan owner told me that there was one in a nearby barber shop. I was fairly dubious about this, and decided to find one on my own. I eventually ended up going to this nice little restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet. Although they charged exhorbitant prices for my sandwich and hot chocolate, that included 2 hours of internet access, and I was pretty much in heaven. So it all worked out.

By the way, if you ever decide to go to Kyoto, I highly recommend buying an all-day bus pass, especially if you are a crazed temple-seeing machine like me. They cost 500 yen, and are good for all buses within the city limits--which will take you to most sites. Considering that a basic ticket costs about $2 each (if I remember correctly) it doesn't take many bus rides to make it really pay for itself. Plus it's a lot more convenient than fumbling around with change. I think that I probably took about 8 different bus rides one day--it doesn't help that I'd sometimes get lost. Also it was convenient for going to internet cafes, for example!

I believe I actually went to Ryoanji before Kinkakuji. I remember I wanted to go as early in the morning as possible, because I'd heard that Ryoanji got very crowded very fast. It kind of worked. When I first arrived, it was fairly quiet, but by the time I made it to famous rock garden it had become quite busy--although I'm sure it was nowhere near as bad as it could have been! Ryoanji had some lovely gardens (the normal kind), and a beautiful lake. I enjoyed taking some pictures of that.

As you can see, the leaves were just starting to turn red. I really like the ladder looking thing which is propping up that tree--so beautiful! It's such an elegant way to do things; I really approve.

The lake had a lot of lily pads as well. I imagine it must be beautiful when they're in bloom. As you can see, the weather wasn't quite so perfect yet, but it was still very nice.

So this is the famous rock garden of Ryoanji. This was one of the places I was definitely excited to see, because I'd learned all about in various art history classes, of course. Basically the story with this is that these 15 rocks, placed in a carefully raked sea of sand, are meant to provoke thought, general contemplation, and, presumably, enlightenment. Apparently you can never see all 15 at once--until you're enlightened. I have no idea if this is the case. As you can see, there are only a few boulders visible in this shot.

I was not the only one who was fond of Ryoanji, as you can see. It was nice, though, despite all the other tourists, that you could sit next to the rock garden and just contemplate it. I imagine that during the height of tourist season it must be pretty horrific, though.

Ginkakuji

On my fourth day, safely ensconced in my nice new ryokan, I decided to go to Kinkakuji. It was comparatively quite close to my ryokan, and extremely famous.

Now, there are two things you need to know about Kinkakuji. First, that it is a big old pavillion covered in gold (hence the name--kin means gold, just like gin means silver), and secondly, that it is the biggest tourist trap in Japan. The original Kinkakuji was burnt down in the 1950s by a deranged Buddhist monk, apparently, and so they naturally rebuilt this precious cultural heritage... with even more gold added on.

Kinkakuji is undeniably a gorgeous, picturesque site, but that's about all it is. You go there, you take about a million pictures (from a distance, since you can't actually go up to it or anything--maybe they're afraid another monk is going to come along), together with every single school child in Japan, and you go on a brief walk through some fairly decent gardens, and you come out on the other side. It's like an assembly line! Still, it's so famous, it's pretty much a requirement for going to Kyoto. And it is remarkably beautiful, especially on the perfect sunny day that I went.

I suspect roughly 1 bajillion other people have taken this exact picture. Still, the reflection is pretty amazing there.

A broader shot...

I like this one, just showing the reflection. It's absolutely blindingly bright, isn't it?

This is in the gardens somewhere--I believe you're supposed to toss a 1 yen coin into the bowl, and if you get it no doubt you get a wish or something. I'm not sure of the exact details. But that's what all the silvery things are--1 yens. In Japan, they are made out of aluminum and really strangely light, like toy money. A brisk wind can blow one away.

The mystery temple!

My memories are still a little confused, but on one of these days--possibly day 3, though I'm not sure--I moved out of the Tour Club hostel and into a small little ryokan (or actually a minshukan--those are the cheap versions.) It was called Rakucho Ryokan, and was located further north than the Tour Club, past Kyoto Station. This was actually a somewhat less convenient location. However, it was still near a major subway station, and there were plenty of bus stops there as well, it being a big transportation hub, so it wasn't too bad. In addition, it was generally a pretty nice neighborhood, near a river. It was considerably more expensive--around $50 a night, for a single! But I wanted to stay somewhere that resembled the traditional Japanese style inn, and this fit the bill. It was a nice, and quite large, room.

This is a picture I took when moving out of the Tour Club hostel. It was on this tiny little street with many sketchy white vans, for some reason. It was quite nice, though, despite that. Nice and quiet at night, too.

Anyways, at some point, possible day 3, I went to... a temple... Well, it's rather embarrassing, but I have no idea which temple it is. It was located in a large park-like area with a number of other temples, it took me forever to find, and I think it was somewhat near Sanjusangendo, although I'm not sure. However, I've tried to reconstruct where I could have gone that day, but no luck! I do remember visiting the place quite clearly--but the name has completely slipped my memory. It wasn't very famous, but it was a nice place. Very quiet, and lovely grounds as you can see below.

There were some really beautiful stands of bamboo there.

I randomly wandered up to this place in the middle of a bamboo stand, and saw this beautiful little shrine. I decided that this would make the greatest picture ever, and would definitely win me a prize or something, so I took like a bajillion shots. This was the best one, but it wasn't actually that great. Still, it was a remarkably lovely place.

It was really green and nice there, and they let you go in practically every building, and wander wherever you liked. Wish I could remember what it was! I think it was in Lonely Planet; I'll try to look it up sometime.

Had some really beautiful traditional architecture... I love this picture, it looks so warm and inviting. It was a really beautiful day, as you can tell. Like I've said before, I got so lucky with the weather for this trip.

I'm pretty sure this was some random place I saw as I was walking along, but I didn't have time to stop. Again, I have no idea where it is, although presumably it's some kind of entrance gate. There's a sign, but sadly, my Japanese knowledge is not exactly up to par when it comes to reading signs.

Gion Shrine

I'm still not quite sure about the chronology here, but I believe that I eventually made my way over to Gion Shrine later that day (i.e. day 3.) Shinto shrines are typically open much longer hours than Buddhist temples (if they ever close at all) and they pretty much never charge admission either (of course, they don't generally have any famous artwork.) Anyways, I guess it was getting late and I decided to go visit Gion. It took me so long to find this place (I do remember that part.) T'was truly a pain in the ass. But I eventually found it, and got one of my favorite pictures of the trip. It was just getting dark, and the moon was now--a perfectly clear night. I think I took about 20 pictures of this scene, and this was the only one that came out. But man, did it come out.

I am glad that I visited Gion Shrine at night--the lanterns, in particular, were so beautiful here. I can remember it so clearly; it was a nearly perfect spring evening, and I was absolutely exhausted, but I still walked around to all the little nooks and crannies that I could find, the paths lit up by lanterns and lights.

Another view of that ridiculously pretty building... It's actually part of the main shrine, with deities enthroned within (open to the world) but you can't really tell from these shots--it was getting too dark.

This is taken from the main gate leading up to Gion Shrine. It's taken with my back facing the shrine, so that we're here looking out on the neighborhood of Gion. It doesn't look that romantic, I know. This was a big road, with lots of up-market shops. Honestly, I was a little disappointed of what I did see of Gion--very touristy, as could be expected, and it just basically looked like any other neighborhood in Japan. But I may have seen the wrong bits. I also got lost in this dark and mildly sketchy neighborhood when I took a wrong turn. I found my way back in the end, obviously, but I just made a bigger circle around the area then I had planned. This probably contributed to my annoyance with the Gion area in general.

Later that night--or it might have been the night before, it's hard to remember--anyways, I went to a really cool ramen place. I can remember so clearly--I was absolutely exhausted from a full day of sight-seeing, and I really wanted some food. More specifically, I really wanted some ramen, but I just couldn't find a decent looking place. I walked around and around for what seemed like hours, and it was getting dark and cold and I only had my sweater. Usually, in Japan, you can't go for 5 minutes without bumping into a ramen restaurant, but for once, that was not the case. I finally gave up, and decided just to head back to my hostel, and stop at any old restaurant I saw, even if it was just a fast food place (which I didn't really want--I wanted ramen!)

It was then, of course, that I found a ramen restaurant. It was just this sketchy little place, the seats all located around a central food-preparing area, like a million ramen places in Japan. It was staffed by one elderly Japanese man, and the only other customers were a small gaggle of school boys. I really wanted ramen though, so I braved any possible stares and walked in. And oh, it was like unto heaven in there! So warm and nice, and they had something I'd never seen before--all these bowls of hardboiled eggs, and you were allowed to take 2 for your meal. So I had one right then, absolutely starving as I was, and ordered some ramen. It was soooo good--enormous bowl, of course, lots of green onion, and I put my second egg in it. It was one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted--no doubt due primarily to my exhaustion and frustration, but I really do think it was quite good ramen as well.

Even more luckily, I was by that point quite near my hostel, and was able to immediately head back home to crash. It was amazing.

Honen-in and Otoyo Shrine

From this point on, my memories get a little fuzzy. However, I believe that after visiting the Gosho, I went back to the Philosopher's path to see a few more sites. However it happened, I ended up visiting Honen-in. This was a temple recommended in Lonely Planet as a pleasant, quieter place. Indeed, it turned out to be very beautiful, and considerably less crowded than the more famous locales. Of course, "less crowded" is all relative. There were still quite a number of tourists there, but it was really lovely and definitely worth a trip. Also, unlike a lot of Buddhist temples in Japan, this one had free entry! Yay.

As you can see, the temple was located in a forest. It was all very green.

Like Ginkakuji, this temple had a number of sand garden features as well, as you can see below. I guess they get remodeled all the time. You can't see as well from this picture, but there are images drawn on top of these mounds of sand.

The temple was set back in the forest, and you had to go up this long path to get there. I wasn't sure at first if I'd found the right place, since all the signage was in Japan. But it seems I was correct, and this was indeed Honen-in. There were a number of "mini-stupas" like the one below, at various locations within the grounds.

There were a lot of really cool things at this temple--just small details. Here is a wooden knocker of some sort. I'm not sure exactly what it's for, but look how deeply worn in it is! Hard to imagine how many times it must have been hit.

There was this really beautiful little water fountain type situation set up, and I took a picture at just the right moment. It's one of my favorite pictures from my trip. I loved how they used a leaf in it.

Back behind the temple a bit, there was a statue of the Buddha and the imprint of his feet. Note all the pictures on his feet--these signs were actually supposed to be there; they were signs like the bump in his head, etc. In particular, you can see the wheel of the law in the center of the footprint, along with a lot of other auspicious signs.

After looking over the temple thoroughly, I went back out down the path. There was a side path going off in the opposite direction, and so I followed it for a bit. It led to a Japanese graveyard--the Japanese don't bury their dead, they cremate them, but these "graveyards" are places of memorial, grouped up by different families. People brings offerings here as well. As you can see, it was a beautiful day.

After leaving Honen-in, I wandered down the Philosopher's Path til I reached this shrine. I don't think I'd even read about it in a guidebook--it was just a complete coincidence I decided to go to this one, when I saw a signpost for it on the Path. It was a really great decision, because it was an amazing shrine. According to an English label I saw, it was called Otoyo Shrine.

As you can see, it was a kind of animal shrine. All the offering plaques had cute little animals on it, and the statues were all of various kinds of animals as well. I saw two foreign tourists as I was going up the path to the shrine, but once I got there it was virtually deserted. One of those really enchanting moments.

The statues were really neat, as I said. Here's a monkey, just doing his thing.

These mice are apparently quite famous, because they are in place of the typical dog guardian figures. This shrine has mice instead--some kind of legend connected with the area, apparently. The statues are really well done.

One thing that immediately became obvious was that the shrine must have been very popular with the local children. Virtually every single one of the offering plaques had some kind of anime decoration, as in the one above, or it was written in sloppy children's handwriting. It was really neat to see all of the drawings the kids had done.

A more traditional animal statue--the fox.

As you can see from the above picture, the shrine was not at all well kept up. But it was even more romantic because it wasn't... I try not to have this silly "romantic" view of Japan, but when places like this keep popping up, it's hard to resist!