Nishi Hongan-ji and Higashi Hongan-ji

After I arrived at the hostel and deposited my bags there, I decided it was time to set off for some sight-seeing--no time to waste, after all! I had one week and roughly a bajillion temples to see. I looked at a handy map I'd gotten at the hostel, and realized there were two large temples within walking distance, just to start me off easy. So I promptly set off, for my first sight of Kyoto. It wasn't all that impressive, to start with. They say that Kyoto looks just like any old Japanese city, and, well, it's true. It's got lots of concrete, and lots of power wires. I had to walk along a big, 6-lane road to get to the first temple--called Nishi Hongan-ji.

Nishi Hongan-ji was the head temple of Jodo sect of Buddhism--Pure Land, one of the most popular of the time (and to this day), and because of this, they eventually got a little too uppity for Tokugawa Ieyasu, who decided, in the early 17th century, to divide and conquer. He built another temple a short distance away, which became the head temple. It was known as Higashi Hongan-ji (East Hongan-ji), and the original temple because known as Nishi Hongan-ji (West Hongan-ji.) Nishi Hongan-ji was, by coincidence, the first temple that I arrived at (see above.) It was virtually deserted at the time--it was late afternoon, and Nishi Hongan-ji is no longer such an important site. But it was interesting--it's an active temple, and there were monks wandering around. Because there were so few tourists, I felt as if I was intruding. I wandered around the grounds for a few moments before finally daring to take off my shoes (as requested) as climb up into the main building. It's a strange feeling--to be taking off your shoes in the open air, sitting on the steps of an unknown building. Famous, well-visited temples have places to store your shoes, but here, you just put them at the bottom of the tall wooden steps (or you could carry them with you.)

It was quite beautiful, though. Just a modest sized temple, kept in good repair, with tree-filled grounds and a long, sweeping expanse of white gravel in front of the Hon-do.

Apparently, they put the white coating that you see here at the ends of the support system in order to prevent insects from getting into the wood. It looks very beautiful, however--a good solution. I'm less fond of the wire netting to prevent birds from getting in and crapping all over the place--it detracts from the beauty considerably--but it is necessary. (You can see this in the first picture).

After a brief but peaceful time spent in Nishi Hongan-ji, I headed out. Since I'd seen Higashi Hongan-ji on the same map, I decided to try to find that temple as well, since I had quite a bit of spare time.

Higashi Hongan-ji was very different from Nishi Hongan-ji. It was huge--Ieyasu was an ambitious man--and crowded with tourists. You can see that the main gate is quite enormous--there's even a car for scale (and to remind you of modern Kyoto, just in case you start getting any romantic ideas!) A large part of the temple was also undergoing renovation (you can see the large white building in the photo above; this covered the renovation work, apparently.) But the main hon-do was still open, and was impressively large, so I hung around for a while.

The renovation work was going on to the right, with posters in Japanese telling all the details. Needless to say, I remained unenlightened on that one. Overall, I think I preferred Nishi Hongan-ji, simply because it was quieter. There was also a large flock of obnoxious pigeons at Higashi Hongan-ji, and I hate pigeons.

After I left Higashi Hongan-ji, I returned to my hostel, and--as I mentioned--asked the desk clerk about any delicious okonomiyaki restaurants. Turned out he'd worked for an okonomiyaki restaurant for quite some time, and sometimes thought about opening one in the US. I'd definitely go--I miss okonomiyaki a lot. The restaurant was delicious, even if it was located in a food court. You sat around the grill, and they'd cook various meals in the center, and then push it over to your seat when done. So you ate it directly off the grill (well, you could transfer pieces to your plate first). It was delicious, and in addition, I managed to convey my wishes in Japanese ("no shrimp please! no squid please! thank you very much!") Any day that happens is a triumphant day indeed.