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Wednesday
Oct 4th 2007
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Japan Day 4
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Our second day in Kyoto began with a 5 hour walking tour of the old part of the city. Our tour was led by a 70+ year old man named Hajime Hirooka, or better known to the English tourists who he leads around Kyoto as Johnnie Hillwalker. An unassuming looking old man in a mid-length coat, worn out blue hat sporting and an Eddie Bauer backpack, Johnnie was the perfect tour guide who welcomed us as we followed him on 'his walk'. Beginning at the Kyoto Station, Johnnie led our group of 40 tourists first through Higashi
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Hongan-ji a Buddhist Temple, then through the back-streets of the old section of town to a fan shop, some out of the way gardens, Shinto shrines and even a small Japanese graveyard.
Johnnie(right), helped us to understand the intricacies of Japanese Buddhism - very different from the Chinese and Indian varieties. He also explained the workings of Shintoism, the native Japanese religion.
One highlight of the tour was our visit to the Shosei-en Garden, one of the most beautiful gardens in the city. Only recently opened to the public, this garden was typical of the Japanese style with ponds, stone pathways and beautiful waterfalls throughout.
Around lunch time our group stopped at a local restaurant to sample some vegetarian sushi - much better than our |
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| experience of the regular stuff two days earlier. We also were able to sample traditional teas and pastries from shops in the neighbourhood. |
The tour ended at about 3:30 pm. We decided to extend it by a bit when we followed the extra walking tour that Johnnie laid out for us. We walked up into the mountains to the Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto's most popular landmark. Kiyomizu is not one Temple, but actually a complex of many Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines - devoted to several different deities - the combination of Shinto and Buddhism in temples is common in Japan, reflecting the mish-mash of the two faiths. We were struck by the huge amount of tourists (many of whom were in matching t-shirts) in this area. We were also impressed with the gate to the temple which was painted a brilliant colour of orange. Kiyomizu, visible from several kilometers away because of it's location high above the city also provided some great views back down into Kyoto.
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Above Left: Jill tries to get her arms around the pillars at Higashi Hongan-ji.
Above Right: Tourists walk in the Shosei-en Garden.
Left: Fans on Display in a Kyoto fan shop.
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Above Left: The mountains provide an excellent backdrop for the temple roofs at Kiyomizu.
Above Right: the beautiful Shosei-en Garden.
Below: The Gate to the temples and shrines at Kiyomizu.
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After hitting some souvenir shops, our feet were not willing to take us much further, so it was back to our hotel to clean up and head out for a nice meal, and of course give Joel a call since it's his birthday today! Happy Birthday "Big Red!"
We've got a few possible options for tomorrow, our last full day in Japan. We were planning on traveling on the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Himeji, to visit a giant castle, or stay in Kyoto and see some more sights. We may even decide to rent bikes and see the town from a different perspective. But for now the only decision is where to eat, and how soon it will be until we get some much needed shut-eye.
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