Entries about kyoto

The guide book suggested a walk that sounded interesting, one which would take me to see most of Kyoto's temples. Well, maybe not most of them, as it has so many, 1600 apparently, but plenty enough for me. I probably should have made a record of what these temples were, as I really have no idea. I started out to the East of Gion - the directions said to take a bus and get off outside a particular noodle shack, then walk up a path, but made no mention of the big temple complex I was faced with. As a result, I yet again had the feeling of being completely lost, yet was exactly where I was supposed to be as the other details given matched.

The instructions said to take a path up a fairly long hill - I was intrigued to find it went along the side of a very tightly packed cemetary:

By the time I got to the top of the path, I'd already seen several temples and was in need of a break - I could see more above me, and two streets running down the other side of the hill, one seemed to have mainly food shops, so I made an executive decision that it was lunch time. I found this tiny wee curry shop, with just the four tables:

It is a little bit obscure, but the thing that had attracted me was that the curry came on its own little burner - it is to the rear in the above photo. Very tasty it was too but, like all Japanese curries, the beef was shredded to the point that it almost merged with the sauce. After lunch, it was back up the hill for some more temples: Oh, joy!

Quite a few people were on the same mission

My joy was compounded by the fact that I had left my guidebook in the curry shop, something I only realised when I was right at the top of the hill. I did dither, thinking maybe it wasn't worth the walk, and that I wouldn't be able to ask for it, as I have no Japanese and there had been no English spoken in the shop. I need not have worried: the girl in the shop recognised me immediately and smiled very graciously when she saw I had come back.

On the way back up, I had to stop - there was a bunch of people clustered around a shop window, and I just had to know what was going on. Turns out it was a cake shop, and people wanted to watch the cakes being made:

Not sure why I didn't try one, anxious to get back to temple examining, I suppose. This is the highest in Kyoto

I have no idea what these were about, but they intrigued me

The walk then became quite formalised, past a fairly large number of shops

Then there were more temples, some very peaceful ones:

At about this point, I became completely lost. I was looking for the Walk of Philosophy, a cherry tree lined path alongside a canal, so named because of one of Japan's most famous philosophers, Nishida Kitaro, who practiced meditation as he walked to work at Kyoto University. Never found it, had no real idea where I was, let alone how to get back to my hotel. Luckily I took off in the right direction, and found myself in Nishiki Market - which is realy a covered street which runs for about six blocks.

It was pretty much closed by the time I got there, which was a shame as I was keen to check out the stall of a fellow who makes knives, Aritsugu, like these:

I did get to go back the next day, only to find that his shop was not even open during the holidays. This was not my only regret about Kyoto - on my last day there, after my exhausting walk around all the temples, I discovered all these little laneways near the Nishiki Market which had interesting and very cool looking little shops and cafes. Might need to go back.

After reading Ryu Murakami's In The Miso Soup a few years ago, I was curious about the bell-ringing that the Japanese do on New Year's Eve to literally ring in the New Year. I didn't hear any bell ringing from my hotel and didn't quite know where in Kyoto I might get to be part of such a ceremony, so missed out. I did engage with one popular thing to do on New Year's Day: I went shopping. They call it hatsu-uri - the first sale of the year, and it looked like thousands were lining up at some shops to carry out the ritual. All I ended up buying was an incredibly small steak (as if the cow had been grown to scale with a bonsai tree): I spent the day largely walking around the Gion area of Kyoto. This is the oldest section, dating back to the middle ages. Instead of allowing development, the idea is to preserve this as a historical district.

On my way there, I came across one of the brightest temples I've ever seen (apart from Mega Mitre 10):

I didn't take many photos for some reason and the ones I did take might not be regarded as the most conventional tourist photos, mainly taken in the side streets of Gion, where there has been modernisation but in a respectful style. Here are some townhouses:



and some shops in the area (these ones didn't open)

Gion is a place where it is still possible to see traditional geishas, but their numbers have apparently dropped off dramatically. I didn't see any real ones, although I saw several women who had obviously rented the outfit for the day. The only bird who would acknowledge my presence was this one:

Something odd happened to me today, however: after seeing so many taxis like this one

I decided that when I got home, I'd have to get either a Toyota Crown or Nissan Cedric: cars that actually look like cars rather than air bubbles.

Back across the river from Gion, I wandered around looking for coffee shops my guide book told me I should be trying, found some donut places instead. In the evening, I thought that since it was New Year's Day, I should take myself somewhere nice for dinner, rather than noodle or curry houses or the food departments in supermarkets. I'd noticed a couple of narrow streets lined with restaurants, so made my way back there, to be confounded by the most interesting looking places having Japanese only menus. After wandering up and down the entire street a couple of times without making up my mind, I finally went into an Izakaya - pretty much the Japanese equivalent of a pub, but with small servings of food. This one looked pretty old and ramshackle - a square bar around the cooking area and bar seats around the bar - very small. They charged me a fairly hefty cover charge, saying I'd get snacks - all I did get was a bowl of endamame (people will know how much I love boiled soya bean pods (Yeah, right!)). But I was happy enough pigging out on yakitori (being careful to avoid those made of offal), kushiyaki, korokke and yakiniku.

Getting to Kyoto, even on the slow train, was a matter of a mere couple of hours and two changes of train. It was almost impossible to detect where one city finished and another started so it was not a very interesting trip. Kyoto, from the train station, is less than impressive, just another city:

I was beginning to wonder what I had got myself into. Then there was the very long urban bus trip out to the hostel: Kyoto buses are very good in that they have an electronic voice to announce each stop, and for most (but not all) stops there is an English version as well. I'd been on the bus so long and there had been a few non-translated stops that I was convinced that I had got on the wrong bus and would have to ride it back to the railway station. About two stops from the end, and on the very edge of Kyoto (I actually saw countryside), I was finally there: the Utano HI Hostel (although they also called it a pavillion). Once there, I felt I was in heaven: a new, spacious and rather flash hostel

There are some professional photos on this very site. They just got everything right with this hostel, and I'd have happily stayed for a week. There was even a little temple right next door:

After checking in and being told they had sold out of the evening meals (well, maybe not everything was perfect) I went for a walk around the district - it was raining a bit, so I had some periods where I was hiding in doorways, but it was interesting to look around a suburb. I think I went into every supermarket and checked out the various cafes and food places. The supermarkets had lots of pre-packed food, but most of it I didn't really know what I'd do with it: I did have some tempura shrimp (each about 6 inches long)

These were delicious, and wherever I went, I'd look out for more (although the price was so horrendous in some places, I'd give them a miss).

It was just after I'd started an ice cream and it began to rain that I was kidnapped. I was sheltering under the verandah of a noodle place, and the fellow came out: despite him having no English and me having no Japanese, he was very persuasive and within a couple of minutes I found myself gesturing at some pictures on a menu card (they all looked the same to me). Five minutes later, yet another food discovery: Miso Ramen. Back home, I'd decided I didn't like miso soup, so always left it untouched but here, here it was delicious. Of course, Miso Ramen is a little more elaborate that plain old miso soup - there are noodles, some vegetables and (most delicious of all) a few slices of wonderfully tender and very tasty meat, often pork, sometimes beef.

I would have happily stayed in the hostel over the New Year period, but it was fully booked so I was hoofed out after a single night, back to a hotel in the centre of the city. After spending half an hour stuffing all my belongings into a not quite big enough locker, I set off to inspect one of Kyoto's famous Zen Gardens, attached to the Daitokuji Temple complex (on Dragon Treasure Mountain).

This complex had about two dozen temples:

Each has its own zen garden - because it was holiday time, I couldn't get in to see many of them, but still seem to have managed an overwhelming number of photographs.

The general idea of a zen garden is that it is a very formalised representation, with sculpted trees, raked stone or sand but with no water.

My actual New Year's eve was a bit of a dull affair, as I hadn't worked out anything I should do (beyond getting a bunch of bakery products and some beer (this came out of a vending machine)). Ah well, it wasn't quite as weird as New Year's even 2008, stuck in Dracula's home town with nary a bite to eat.