Let's Go to Kyoto! Day 1: Bullet Trains, Temples, and a Capsule Ryokan
Well I'm back. I've been back for a few days, but I've needed the time to recover and sort through nearly 600(!!) photos and study for placement tests (next Tuesday ahhhhhhh) and also attempt to enroll for next semester (still haven't managed to accomplish that one; we'll get there), but I'm finally back on my feet (I think). Day one of Margaret and my grand adventure started at 5:00 AM on March 14. We were leaving at 7:00, but I hadn't finished packing yet, so I needed to wake up early because I spent more time playing The Sims 3 than I had packing the night before. But that was okay.
At 7:00 we started making our way to Shinagawa, where we would catch the Shinkansen, also known as the bullet train, to Kyoto! Kyoto is world-famous for, among other things, having a rather large concentration of UNESCO World Heritage sites within its general area (Kyoto prefecture, Uji, and Otsu) -- seventeen, to be exact. Additionally, Nara and its associated World Heritage sites are only an hour away from the Kyoto area, so it made for a really busy trip! Margaret and I made it a priority to see as many as we could!
Anyway, we hung out at Shinagawa station for a while as we waited for our train.
Here's me with the 700 series Nozomi train! This was the train before ours.
The full view of the train's front. Pretty cool, right?
We caught the Nozomi, the fastest of the three types of bullet trains running on the line from Tokyo to Kyoto. The Nozomi runs about 300 km/h, or 190 mph, so it's a pretty fast ride to Kyoto! It took just over two hours, if I remember correctly. I took some video from the ride home -- the train was pretty crowded on the way there, so I wasn't able to get a window seat until I was on my way home.
Anyway, since the train was pretty crowded, Margaret and I weren't able to sit together, so I spent most of my trip listening to music and napping lightly. When we reached Kyoto, we stashed our luggage in a coin locker since our hotel didn't start check-in until 4:00 and headed out to start our adventure!
First up, we decided to go try to find where our hotel was. We stayed at a place called Capsule Ryokan Kyoto, which was only a little more expensive than a hostel for a private two-person room. It was a really interesting place, too! They claim to be the only combination capsule hotel and ryokan in the world. We didn't stay in any of the capsules, though, but they did sound quite interesting!
Capsule Ryokan Kyoto!
Our room. Margaret is standing in front of the shower. It was a tight fit, but not too bad!
Capsule Ryokan Kyoto is also conveniently located right across the street from one of Kyoto's World Heritage sites, Nishi Honganji, the head temple of the Jodo Shinshu school of Buddhism. We decided that we should head over there to take photos.
Nishi Honganji from just outside of Capsule Ryokan Kyoto.
It's just about that time of year! The flowers are starting to bloom!
Cherry blossoms!
These are plum blossoms. Equally pretty!
After Nishi Honganji, we headed back towards Kyoto Station, where we decided to grab some lunch at one of the many restaurants in the complex before heading to Heian Shrine.
You can see Kyoto Tower from Kyoto Station. It's quite an interesting landmark.
My lunch -- it was a pasta with crab! So delicious!!!
After lunch, we hopped on the subway to head to Heian Shrine. I was super excited, as I hadn't seen Heian Shrine during my last trip to Kyoto (in 2008). I personally LOVED going to Heian Shrine; it's such a beautiful place. It's too bad the gardens weren't in bloom, though. We decided to forgo the ￥600 entrance fee for the garden, since we decided it would be too early in the year to enjoy much of it. It was ultimately okay, though, because we saw several other gorgeous gardens during our trip!
The main gate to Heian Shrine.
The main building.
The view out from the gate. You can just barely see the torii in the distance.
It's a little hard to see, but there's calligraphy etched into this stone. I couldn't understand it though. :(
The outside of the main sanctuary.
This is the first of two weddings we accidentally crashed during our trip...
The wedding hall. It looks like it was under renovation, which would explain why that wedding was in the main building.
After Heian Shrine, we decided we had enough energy to go explore Gion. We didn't really have any hope of meeting any geiko, though; the number of still-practicing geiko/geisha is VERY low, and we were not out exploring at the "right time" to meet any (apparently most geisha are out and about between 6:00 and 8:30 pm. We were exploring Gion around 2:00 pm).
Minami-za, the primary Kabuki theater in Kyoto since 1610! (This building was built in 1929.)
After exploring Gion and the hanamachi, we decided it was high time to head back to Kyoto Station and get our luggage so we could check in to our hotel as quickly as possible. We were so tired! So tired, in fact, that we decided we were FAR too exhausted to go to a restaurant, so we ended up picking up food from the convenience store. We even both fell asleep before 8:00!
A gourmet dinner of fried chicken and rice for me, and a sandwich and salad for Margaret.
Hey there Margaret! How's it going?
What a great start to our trip!
I'll post about day 2 in a couple of days; I don't want to overload everyone!! :)
Interesting places although I really don't know what they are about. A shrine to Buddha? I don't know a thing about Japan but learning through you thanks Aunt Trish
That's a great question, Aunt Trish. Actually, the shrines are not Buddhist. They're Shinto, which is the religion that was in Japan before Buddhism was brought over. The general rule in Japan is "Shinto for weddings, Buddhist for funerals," so both religions are still pretty active in Japan today. When something is called "X Shrine," it's Shinto. When it's "X Temple," it's generally Buddhist. :)
Interesting places although I really don't know what they are about. A shrine to Buddha? I don't know a thing about Japan but learning through you thanks
ReplyDeleteAunt Trish
That's a great question, Aunt Trish. Actually, the shrines are not Buddhist. They're Shinto, which is the religion that was in Japan before Buddhism was brought over. The general rule in Japan is "Shinto for weddings, Buddhist for funerals," so both religions are still pretty active in Japan today. When something is called "X Shrine," it's Shinto. When it's "X Temple," it's generally Buddhist. :)
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