Let's Go to Kyoto! Day 2: World Heritage Sites and Bus Adventures

Sorry for the delay; I have my placement test on Tuesday, so I've been busy studying all weekend! I'm taking a bit of a break now, so I've decided to go ahead and update everyone on the second day of the Kyoto trip!

On Thursday, we woke up early because we had planned out a busy day for ourselves. We had plans to visit many places, including 3 UNESCO World Heritage sites, and we also needed to figure out Kyoto's bus system, since the subway system is, compared to Tokyo's, incredibly lacking. We were lucky enough to stumble upon two one-day tourist passes for the bus, thanks to some people who were checking out of our hotel, for free (they usually cost ￥500, or around $6.00), which was awesome because our plans for the day involved quite a lot of bus riding!

First on the agenda was Kinkaku-ji! Kinkaku-ji, with its gold leaf-covered pavilion, was our first World Heritage site of the day. I had visited before when I went to Japan with my Japanese class in high school, but I have to say I had no regrets about visiting again! We were lucky enough to go when it was just a bit sunny out, so the light catching the gold leaf was quite a sight!

The Golden Pavilion from the front

Around the back of the pavilion. I really liked how the sun would catch the gold.

After checking out the pavilion, Margaret and I walked around the garden area for a while.

A small waterfall on the garden grounds.

Margaret trying to toss a coin into the pot. As you can see, many have attempted this. It's not easy!

We grabbed a "breakfast" of green tea soft-serve before walking the fifteen minutes or so to Ryoan-ji, our second World Heritage site of the day. Ryoan-ji is famous for its zen garden, and it's considered to be one of the best examples in Japan. There are fifteen rocks in the garden, and they're arranged in such a way that anyone viewing the garden is unable to see all fifteen rocks from any position on the viewing porch, and according to the temple, the only way to see the fifteenth rock is by achieving enlightenment.

That said, I knew I had no chance, so I just sat on the porch and enjoyed the weather. It was a very nice day, after all.

The walk up to the temple itself.

A bell inside the temple. I've noticed I really like photographing temple bells...

The inside of the temple, with painted fusuma.

The world-famous rock garden.

Ryoan-ji is surrounded by a much larger garden, which Margaret and I decided to explore afterward. It was very pretty.

One of the other tourists was kind enough to take a photo of us together!

These little guys are statues of Jizou (Ksitigarbha), a Bodhisattva.

Here's another example of Jizou statues.

 

After Ryoan-ji, our plan was to head to the Kyoto Imperial Palace, so we hopped on a bus, and quickly found ourselves... at the bus depot. It turns out we were on the proper bus, but heading the wrong direction, so we had to wait an extra fifteen minutes for a new bus heading the opposite direction. It all worked out though, and we eventually found ourselves at the palace grounds. We had decided not to register for a tour booked through the Imperial Household Agency so that we could spend as much time at the palace as we wanted, since the palace is also open to the general public, but we apparently visited on a day when the palace was only open for tour groups, which was unfortunate. I was a little disappointed, but on the bright side, the Imperial Palace is located in a park with many shrines and also an historic house that used to belong to one of the court families, and it was open for public viewing!

The outer gate of the palace. All we were able to see. :(

Plum blossoms blooming in the Imperial Garden.

More plum blossoms!

One of the shrines contained within the park.

 

The front of the last remaining home belonging to one of the old noble families.

The inner courtyard. The building is a nature museum now.

After our brief visit at the Kyoto Imperal Palace, we decided to make our way to our third World Heritage site and last location of the day, Kiyomizu-dera.

The main gate, with the three-story pagoda in the background.

This is another site I saw in 2008, but it was fun to come back. Unfortunately, most of the site was under renovation, but we were still able to see some interesting things.

Like this.

Also, we happened to be there on the day of a big, important-looking ceremony for the Azure Dragon, one of the guardians of Kyoto. I wish I could give you some information about what was taking place, but seriously the only information we could get out of the other bystanders was "Azure Dragon." That's all they would say. So my bet is that most of them weren't quite sure about the details either. It was really quite neat though!

I got some video, too. It was quite crowded, but I was lucky and able to find a Catie-sized spot. :)

After watching the goings-on for a while, we decided to venture into the temple grounds and explore what wasn't blocked off, including some of the smaller shrines contained within the temple complex, including Jishu Shrine, a shrine dedicated to Okunishi, a god of "love and good matches."

The entrance to Jishu Shrine.

Click the picture for a bigger view. It has to do with the next photo. :)

That's a LOT of rage.

One of the big attractions of Jishu Shrine is the love stones.

If you walk between the two stones with your eyes closed...

You'll have true love.

Or so the story goes.

One of the other big attractions of Kiyomizu-dera is the Otowa waterfall, has three channels that fall into a pond. Visitors drink the water, in hopes that their wishes will be granted.

The view from above.

After a while exploring Kiyomizu-dera, it was time to head back to our hotel for a little bit of rest before heading back out to go out for dinner. I had fried oysters and it was DELICIOUS. Then we headed back to the hotel, watched some TV, and slept. Overall, it was a pretty awesome day.

Yummmmm.

Yatsuhashi! Super delicious.