Kyoto
京都
Kyoto is the historic capital of Japan and contains (allegedly) over 1,000 temples along with beautiful old streets and traditional buildings. No trip to Japan would be complete without a visit to Kyoto, so we stayed there for a few days after leaving Tokyo. The vibe in Kyoto was markedly different to that in Kyoto. The city was very walkable and everyone seemed to be moving at a much slower place. Tourists were in abundance and signs pointing towards tourist spots and heritage sites were everywhere.
My family decided to stay in a traditional style Japanese house, with tatami mats, futons and very low dining tables which required you to sit on the floor to use. The house was very cozy and comfortable and really added to the experience of transporting yourself back in time while in the historic city.
By the time we arrived at our accommodation, it was fairly late in the day, so we decided to go out for drinks and dinner before getting some rest in preparation of the days ahead.
We headed to a restaurant called Katsukura which is known for it's-you guessed it, Katsu pork. The eating experience involved everyone at the table being given a mortar and pestle with different spices which you had to grind down before adding your chosen sauce.
Langton hard at work before the meal.
I ordered the Katsu pork along with a vegetable croquette and it was incredibly crispy!
The next day we decided to conquer the north of the city and headed to our first temple, the famous Kinkakuji.
Entrance to the temple complex.
On the way in, we passed a big bell which you were allowed to ring for 200 yen.
Kinkakuji translates to 'Golden Pavilion' named for the two story pavilion it contains which is coated in gold leaf.
After looking around the temple complex and its surrounding gardens, we headed to our next stop, Royanji Temple, which is famous throughout Japan for its rock garden.
The temple was founded in 1450 and is supposed to be the finest example of a 'dry landscape' garden, which consisted of carefully placed large rocks as well as raked gravel. The garden was cool to see, although I think the subtleties of why exactly it's such a fine example of a zen garden was lost to me.
My mum purifying her hands at the Ryoanji Temple.
We ended our morning temple adventure by visiting my favourite temple of the day, Ninnaji Temple. Ninnaji Temple was founded in 888 although its oldest surviving buildings only date back to the 1600s. The temple consisted of lots of beautiful wooden buildings, peaceful gardens and elegant Japanese artwork.
These huge, fearsome figures stood at either end of the entrance to the temple.
Some of the artwork from the old resident of the head priest.
One of the rock gardens in the temple.
Enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.
The temple was filled with vegetation and greenery which made it very picturesque!
Some of the raised walkways between the various buildings.
As you can see, the temple consisted of lots of individual separate buildings and the actual complex was huge and really interesting to walk around!
After leaving the Ninnaji temple, we decided to get on a short train journey to Arishiyama, famous for its enormous bamboo grove.
One of the old style trains headed toward Arishiyama.
Langtons on the train!
Upon arriving, we decided to stop for some lunch. The area is supposedly famous for it's soy bean milk skin (I guess if you have to be famous for something), so we stopped at a restaurant which specialised in that.
My meal consisted of lots of small dishes made of various kinds of soy and included a bucket of soy milk with pieces of soy skin that you could dip in a number of sauces before mixing the sauces in with the milk and drinking that. It was a little unusual but really tasty!
After eating our fill, we headed to the forest!
These carts which were pulled by men in strange traditional looking clothes seemed to be very popular.
Walking through the forest! The pathways and fences were a little disappointing as they made you feel a little detached from the actual bamboo grove itself, but we still had fun.
Some people being pulled in one of those carts.
After seeing the grove, we headed back down to the city centre. That night we decided to have a break from Japanese food and instead sought out a pizzeria. Good pizza can sometimes be a bit of a rarity in Japan, but this was amazing!
The next morning, feeling a little templed out, we decided to check out Nijo castle, which is a bit of an anomaly among Japanese castles, resembling an Imperial palace more than a fortified castle.
Some detail on the entrance to the castle.
The temple itself was really beautiful on the inside with really pretty watercolours covering all the walls and ornate patterns decorating the ceiling. The floor had been designed in a special way sot hat it creaked really loudly when you walked on it, presumably to prevent anyone from sneaking around the castle unnoticed...
The moat in the castle had some little carp swimming around.
Some of the more fortified structures within the castle grounds.
After leaving the castle, we headed to Nishiki market, popularly referred to Kyoto's kitchens to check out some local snacks.
The market was basically one long covered walkway with hundreds of open front shops selling all sorts of food, ranging from fresh vegetables to dried fish to various kinds of fried meats and seafood.
One store was selling this bright orange octopus on a stick, the head having been stuffed with an egg yolk.
Some fresh wasabi.
These vegetables were very common here. If I remember correctly, the powder comes from the bottom of used sake barrels, or something similar...
One little stall was selling some wagyu beef yakitori, which, though expensive (£4 for one!) tasted incredible and merited a second visit shortly after the first!
After having my fill of the market, I decided like to explore Kyoto a little bit. But first, still feeling a little hungry, I decided to have a brief shop at a ramen restaurant...
After stuffing myself on ramen (the bowl was huge and pretty much filled with noodles), I headed to the city's old geisha district of Gion, famous for it's really beautiful traditional streets and also for providing the opportunity for geisha spotting.
While walking around the little alleyways, I suddenly noticed a change in the atmosphere of the people around me and a few second later saw a geisha hurriedly walking through the streets (and avoiding the gaze of the many onlookers staring at her and taking pictures). I initially thought I shouldn't take a picture (some websites advise against this), but after she had walked some considerable distance from me, encouraged by everyone else who seemed to be taking photos, I decided to take advantage of my zoom button and take a quick snap.
After some further research, I learned that the woman I saw was actually not a geisha, but a make, or geisha in training, distinct for their longer kimono tie and partially un made up necks and lavishly decorated hair.
One of the beautiful old buildings in Gion.
With the sun close to setting, I decided to head back home to get ready for our family's dinner plan out.
The outskirts of Pontocho Alley, which sits along the river and is another famous geisha district next to Gion.
A funny little scene at one of the shops I passed.
My family still hadn't had our craving for Japanese beef satiated and we decided to go to a steak restaurant that specialised in it's wagyu beef. The food was delicious and consisted of about seven courses including squid sushi, soup, grilled cod and salad...
Eventually our steak (accompanied by garlic chips) arrived to the delight of everyone.
Before heading home, we decided to head to Pontocho alley and stopped at this jazz bar which had a nice menu of whiskey cocktails and a live jazz band.
Highlight of the night included the drummer, who at one point posed for a photo when he noticed my dad was taking pictures, making the peace sign with his fingers.
On our last day in Kyoto, my brother and I decided to start our day by checking out Sanjusangen-do, a temple that makes the proud claim of being Japan's longest wooden structure, and the home to exactly 1,001 carved wooden statues of the goddess of mercy, Kannon.
We weren't allowed to take photos inside, so here's a photo I found on the internet to give you an idea of what it was like.
Being an ancient wooden structure with no air conditioning, the temple offered no escape from the summer's overbearing heat and humidity. My brother and I, eager to get away from the wrath of the elements, made a quick escape to the Kyoto National Museum, partly to check out the artwork, but mostly just to cool down.
The museum had some pretty cool wooden sculptures (though none that could rival the centrepiece of Sanjusangen-do) as well as some huge amazing dragon watercolours.
That afternoon my whole family met back up and made our way to the last big site we had planned to see in Kyoto, the Fushimi Inari shrine. The Fushimi Inari Shrine is a Shintoist shrine dedicated to the god Inari, the god of rice.
The shrine is notable for its numerous statues of foxes, who are believed to be messengers to Inari.
The shrine also sold little white fox heads people could buy to decorate and write messages on.
The shrine is also noticeable for it's thousands of Torii gates. The whole area allegedly holds over 10,000 torii gates. These have all been bought buy donors, with the larger gates costing around 400,000 yen and the large ones costing around one million.
These gates led up a mountain trail, which offered some pretty views of the city.
After climbing to the top of the trail, and having sweated a few gallons of sweat, we decided to say our goodbyes to the torii gates and head to the nearby town of Fushimi which is famous for its sake breweries (apparently sake breweries are clustered around areas with particularly good water, which the town of Inari has been blessed with).
The path to the breweries took us along a very quiet and picturesque river.
One of the shops in the streets of Inari which sold Matcha tea from the town of Uji.
Eventually we found the breweries where we sampled a few different kinds of sakes before buying some bottles and some sake glasses.
And finally... I can't quite remember when this gyoza came into the picture during my Kyoto trip but the skin was amazingly thin and crispy and the dish was too photogenic to not include in the post!
And with that comes the end of my stay in Kyoto. Stay tuned for Hiroshima and Miyajima!
