Our second last day together was spent wandering around Kyoto.
Kyoto is an amazing city and one of my favourite places to visit. This is
because of the mix of old and new that exists almost seamlessly in different
areas of the city. It creates this image of a city that is modern, and yet
keeps a deep connection to its past.
On my first visit to the city I saw the northern sites. This was
the Golden Pavilion, the Zen garden of Ryoanji and a stop at Nijo Castle. This
trip I gave my mom and Donna the option of seeing these things or of seeing the
eastern part of the city. They decided that because I hadn’t seen the eastern
part that we should see those sites.
We didn’t have such an early start, but we did get to the city
early enough to spend the entire in the city. The first thing we did was to buy
a city bus pass. If you are ever in Kyoto I recommend picking up one of these,
as taking the bus is a fast and efficient way to see a lot of the city.
We started out first at Kiyomizudera. This is a Buddhist temple
that is found on a small mountain. This walk up to the temple was full of
people out enjoying the day. When we finally reached the temple we found quite
a few people dressed in yukatas taking photos. We decided to skip going into
the actual temple, as it was quite full.
From Kiyomizudera we decided to walk through the Higashiyama
District. This is one of the best-preserved historic districts in city. The
streets are lined with shops and restaurants that maintain the facades of the
old capital. We saw quite a few great things as we walked along. Including two
women dressed as geisha. The walk of Higashiyama leads to Yasaka Shrine and one
end of Gion.
Gion was a major stop in our visit of the city as all three of us
were keen to do some shopping. We all ended up buying these beautiful tenugui
used for decoration. I ended up picking out 3 different designs that I will get
framed when I finally get home. We also made a stop into a store to pick up some
other small gifts and trinkets. We hadn’t done much shopping for Japanese items
or souvenirs at any other stop; we had been saving it for Kyoto. It was well
worth the wait for the different things that we ended up getting.
After our walk through Gion we caught the bus to Ginkakuji or the
Silver Pavilion. The Pavilion itself is quite plain, it doesn’t have the same
impact as the Golden Pavilion, but the garden that it is in is very beautiful.
With the sun setting over the city the greens of the garden were really
beautiful. It was a nice relaxing end to a quite full day.
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| The Silver Pavilion |
It was also another night for non-western style food for dinner.
We ended up back in Gion and we ate a t the same place that Dad and I ate at
when we visited Kyoto in December. This time we decided to split しゃぶしゃぶ (shabu-shabu). The meal is a hot pot
which vegetable and then meat and finally glass noodles are added to cook. It’s
a very much grab your own helping as the portions cook. It was quite delicious
and filling. It was a great meal and an excellent dessert of macha mousse.
Over all it was great o experience Kyoto
again – this time not in the rain and to get to see parts of the city that I
hadn’t before.
Up next is my last day with Mom and Donna
where we get to see a little bit of Osaka.
Also photos are up on FB.
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