Kyoto Weekend
so I haven’t updated for a long ass time.
my apologies.
KYOTO
So a few weeks ago we decided to go to Kyoto for the weekend. we found a package deal online, pretty cheap for an entire package, hotel, bullet train, everything. so we meet up on Saturday morning, jump on to the bullet train, and head out towards Kyoto.
the train ride was about 3.5-4 hours long. but we’d gone 900 km. which means that the average speed including the stops would be over 200 km/h. that in itself was amazing. the scenery zipped by so damn fast. and they had a food service on the train. the woman bowed nicely every time she entered and left the car. overall, the trainride was amazing. more fun than an airplane ride for sure. surprisingly, it didn’t jerk around so much. though apparently karma hit me when I went to the bathroom, because I swear it was harder to piss than on a plane.
we arrived in Kyoto and checked into the hotel. it was already 2 in the afternoon, so we decided to go balls to the wall and see at least 2 things during the day before the temples closed for the evening. first we set out to Fushimi-Inari temple, which is dedicated to Inari. He’s the god of rice and the foxes (there were many statues) are thought to be his messengers. the entire trail is covered with shrine gates, and it takes about 2 hours to walk through the entire thing. it was pretty crazy, made a lot of shots. haven’t edited them properly yet, so I am posting some travel guide ones :)
after the Fushimi Inari shrine we tried to make our way to the Kiyomizudera temple, which has a porch-thing that looks out onto the valley. we sorta lost our way and then ended up stopping at a convenience store to ask how far the temple is. she said 30 minute walk (which in reality was only 10, I guess Indonesia isn’t the only place where people can’t estimate time), so we ended up going to a different temple which wasn’t very interesting. she also told us that the temple closed at 6 pm, but it closed at 6.30, it was 5.40 when we asked her, so with the 30 minute walk we wouldn’t have made it. oh convenience store people.
after visiting the boring temple, don’t even remember the name because it was that insignificant (it was called Kodaiji, dedicated to an Emperor’s wife), we started walking towards the Gion district of town. this is apparently where all the cool Geishas hang out, though they tell us that the geishas don’t actually go on the street. the ones we saw around were Maikos, Geisha trainees. couldn’t get a shot though because I remember seeing a guy in the red light district of Amsterdam get pimp-slapped for taking photos. not gonna happen to me here. we visited a shrine that was open at night and had hundreds of paper lamps. it was definitely an amazing site, though it’s too bad I forgot the name of it.
we ate dinner in the Gion district, lollygagged around a little bit, took Purikura photos and headed back to the hotel to call it a night.
One of the trails at Fushimi Inari
Entrance to Fushimi Inari
A photo off a travel site. Weather was crappy so i didn't get one like this.
Kiyomizudera Temple, the one we didn't get to
Kodaiji Temple
the next day we woke up at 6 am. I know some people in the group weren’t a fan of it. but I paid my money and I wanted to see everything. we jumped on a train to go to Nara, where the oldest standing wooden building in the world, a deer park and a large Buddha temple were located. we walked through the deer park to get to the Todaiji temple. the deer were VERY friendly (Ruben knows everything about that). or maybe Ruben was just being very friendly with the deer. anyway, Dr. Dolittle had a field day with the deer. the temple in itself was an amazing structure, built entirely of wood. it was restored at only 2/3 it’s size. it was still huge. apparently, they are now trying to rebuild the rest of the temple that had burned down a few centuries ago. by 2010 they are to add the 2 pagodas on either side of the temple that have not been restored. the Buddha inside was an amazing site as well. there was no doubt this thing was about 2-3 stories tall if not more. y’know, after living so long in Indonesia maybe I have trouble estimating measurements as well. who knows.
ANYWAY, after buying some souvenirs in the form of little cakes for our host families (that were coincidentally shaped like deer shit. it was amazing), we went back to Kyoto to continue sightseeing. we stopped at the Kinkakuji temple. The Golden Pavilion, or the most famous building in Kyoto. It gets its name from the Gold plated outer walls of the temple. Quite extraordinary. However, this temple has been around for only about 40 years. It had to be restored after a crazy dude set it on fire and ruined the whole thing. Douchebag. The temple was amazing though.
we walked up the street and headed towards the Ryoanji zen gardens. it was quite a trek, but we eventually made it there. the gardens were very, Zen. what can I say. the rock formation was very soothing to look at. the fact that the temple was so secluded from civilization was amazing. I’m sorry, I just like that word. after zenning for about 30-40 minutes, we headed back towards Kyoto, it was getting darker, getting late and we were all tired as hell from the trip.
at one point during the day, we ate Subway. don’t remember if it was for lunch or dinner, but my footlong tasted good. not as good at Jimmy Johns. but it was still quite a change. oh yeah, I remember what we had for dinner, we went to a traditional Japanese restaurant by Kyoto Station. I had Japanese fried noodles called Yakisoba, and I swear it was one of the most amazing things I’ve eaten in Japan, apart from the noodles I had after rafting (read my Chichibu post). we hung around the Kyoto station for a while, the architecture was beautiful and it was just a cool place to chill. we also tried to go up Kyoto Tower, but it was 20 bucks to go to the viewing station. after all, this was Kyoto. not too exciting. LOL. went back to the hotel at like midnight and watched a movie.
Dr. Dolittle
Way to discriminate against us
The Todaiji temple
The huge buddha
Model of the temple
The Golden Pavilion
Ryoanji Zen Garden
Kyoto Tower
woke up a little later the next day, checked out and headed over to Nijo Castle. The castle was used by the Emperor to entertain the Shogunate I believe. I latched onto an American tour and listened to what their guide had to say. it was definitely interesting. one part of the castle that struck me the most was the construction of the floors. the floors were constructed as “swallow floors”. Or some other bird. anyway, when people step on it, it makes the sound of some kind of bird. this was a way for the emperor to be woken by anybody trying to enter the inner chambers of the castle. oh yeah, it was made entirely of wood. the walls around the moat and the fortifying walls were stone. anyhow, the paintings on some of the sliding doors were amazing too, and still relatively intact. though underrated, I believe this is one of the places to check out while in Kyoto.
After visiting the Nijo Castle we tried to go see the Imperial Palace. It was hot as hell, and we weren’t going to get inside the imperial palace compound without an invitation a year in advance (or so they say), so we headed out to a quaint Japanese place for lunch. the place was ridiculous. it looked like the food cost 30 bucks a plate. we had our own waitress in a kimono, with a view onto a zen-style garden. it was ridiculous. and my meal only cost me 11 bucks. which is CHEAP in Japanese standards. And for the style of restaurant this was. I was scared to go inside at first because it just seemed so nice. but the food was amazing, the atmosphere was awesome and it was worth the money.
we headed back to our shinkansen, and proceeded to go home. I vowed to study on the train, and I did get my share of ECON studying done.
so our weekend trip (and 1 skipped day of school) was done. definitely a great weekend, and a successful touristy trip.
Nijo Castle
The View at the restaurant
Studying on the Train
and for shits and giggles.... WHAT THE....????
my apologies.
KYOTO
So a few weeks ago we decided to go to Kyoto for the weekend. we found a package deal online, pretty cheap for an entire package, hotel, bullet train, everything. so we meet up on Saturday morning, jump on to the bullet train, and head out towards Kyoto.
the train ride was about 3.5-4 hours long. but we’d gone 900 km. which means that the average speed including the stops would be over 200 km/h. that in itself was amazing. the scenery zipped by so damn fast. and they had a food service on the train. the woman bowed nicely every time she entered and left the car. overall, the trainride was amazing. more fun than an airplane ride for sure. surprisingly, it didn’t jerk around so much. though apparently karma hit me when I went to the bathroom, because I swear it was harder to piss than on a plane.
we arrived in Kyoto and checked into the hotel. it was already 2 in the afternoon, so we decided to go balls to the wall and see at least 2 things during the day before the temples closed for the evening. first we set out to Fushimi-Inari temple, which is dedicated to Inari. He’s the god of rice and the foxes (there were many statues) are thought to be his messengers. the entire trail is covered with shrine gates, and it takes about 2 hours to walk through the entire thing. it was pretty crazy, made a lot of shots. haven’t edited them properly yet, so I am posting some travel guide ones :)
after the Fushimi Inari shrine we tried to make our way to the Kiyomizudera temple, which has a porch-thing that looks out onto the valley. we sorta lost our way and then ended up stopping at a convenience store to ask how far the temple is. she said 30 minute walk (which in reality was only 10, I guess Indonesia isn’t the only place where people can’t estimate time), so we ended up going to a different temple which wasn’t very interesting. she also told us that the temple closed at 6 pm, but it closed at 6.30, it was 5.40 when we asked her, so with the 30 minute walk we wouldn’t have made it. oh convenience store people.
after visiting the boring temple, don’t even remember the name because it was that insignificant (it was called Kodaiji, dedicated to an Emperor’s wife), we started walking towards the Gion district of town. this is apparently where all the cool Geishas hang out, though they tell us that the geishas don’t actually go on the street. the ones we saw around were Maikos, Geisha trainees. couldn’t get a shot though because I remember seeing a guy in the red light district of Amsterdam get pimp-slapped for taking photos. not gonna happen to me here. we visited a shrine that was open at night and had hundreds of paper lamps. it was definitely an amazing site, though it’s too bad I forgot the name of it.
we ate dinner in the Gion district, lollygagged around a little bit, took Purikura photos and headed back to the hotel to call it a night.
One of the trails at Fushimi Inari
Entrance to Fushimi Inari
A photo off a travel site. Weather was crappy so i didn't get one like this.
Kiyomizudera Temple, the one we didn't get to
Kodaiji Temple
the next day we woke up at 6 am. I know some people in the group weren’t a fan of it. but I paid my money and I wanted to see everything. we jumped on a train to go to Nara, where the oldest standing wooden building in the world, a deer park and a large Buddha temple were located. we walked through the deer park to get to the Todaiji temple. the deer were VERY friendly (Ruben knows everything about that). or maybe Ruben was just being very friendly with the deer. anyway, Dr. Dolittle had a field day with the deer. the temple in itself was an amazing structure, built entirely of wood. it was restored at only 2/3 it’s size. it was still huge. apparently, they are now trying to rebuild the rest of the temple that had burned down a few centuries ago. by 2010 they are to add the 2 pagodas on either side of the temple that have not been restored. the Buddha inside was an amazing site as well. there was no doubt this thing was about 2-3 stories tall if not more. y’know, after living so long in Indonesia maybe I have trouble estimating measurements as well. who knows.
ANYWAY, after buying some souvenirs in the form of little cakes for our host families (that were coincidentally shaped like deer shit. it was amazing), we went back to Kyoto to continue sightseeing. we stopped at the Kinkakuji temple. The Golden Pavilion, or the most famous building in Kyoto. It gets its name from the Gold plated outer walls of the temple. Quite extraordinary. However, this temple has been around for only about 40 years. It had to be restored after a crazy dude set it on fire and ruined the whole thing. Douchebag. The temple was amazing though.
we walked up the street and headed towards the Ryoanji zen gardens. it was quite a trek, but we eventually made it there. the gardens were very, Zen. what can I say. the rock formation was very soothing to look at. the fact that the temple was so secluded from civilization was amazing. I’m sorry, I just like that word. after zenning for about 30-40 minutes, we headed back towards Kyoto, it was getting darker, getting late and we were all tired as hell from the trip.
at one point during the day, we ate Subway. don’t remember if it was for lunch or dinner, but my footlong tasted good. not as good at Jimmy Johns. but it was still quite a change. oh yeah, I remember what we had for dinner, we went to a traditional Japanese restaurant by Kyoto Station. I had Japanese fried noodles called Yakisoba, and I swear it was one of the most amazing things I’ve eaten in Japan, apart from the noodles I had after rafting (read my Chichibu post). we hung around the Kyoto station for a while, the architecture was beautiful and it was just a cool place to chill. we also tried to go up Kyoto Tower, but it was 20 bucks to go to the viewing station. after all, this was Kyoto. not too exciting. LOL. went back to the hotel at like midnight and watched a movie.
Dr. Dolittle
Way to discriminate against us
The Todaiji temple
The huge buddha
Model of the temple
The Golden Pavilion
Ryoanji Zen Garden
Kyoto Tower
woke up a little later the next day, checked out and headed over to Nijo Castle. The castle was used by the Emperor to entertain the Shogunate I believe. I latched onto an American tour and listened to what their guide had to say. it was definitely interesting. one part of the castle that struck me the most was the construction of the floors. the floors were constructed as “swallow floors”. Or some other bird. anyway, when people step on it, it makes the sound of some kind of bird. this was a way for the emperor to be woken by anybody trying to enter the inner chambers of the castle. oh yeah, it was made entirely of wood. the walls around the moat and the fortifying walls were stone. anyhow, the paintings on some of the sliding doors were amazing too, and still relatively intact. though underrated, I believe this is one of the places to check out while in Kyoto.
After visiting the Nijo Castle we tried to go see the Imperial Palace. It was hot as hell, and we weren’t going to get inside the imperial palace compound without an invitation a year in advance (or so they say), so we headed out to a quaint Japanese place for lunch. the place was ridiculous. it looked like the food cost 30 bucks a plate. we had our own waitress in a kimono, with a view onto a zen-style garden. it was ridiculous. and my meal only cost me 11 bucks. which is CHEAP in Japanese standards. And for the style of restaurant this was. I was scared to go inside at first because it just seemed so nice. but the food was amazing, the atmosphere was awesome and it was worth the money.
we headed back to our shinkansen, and proceeded to go home. I vowed to study on the train, and I did get my share of ECON studying done.
so our weekend trip (and 1 skipped day of school) was done. definitely a great weekend, and a successful touristy trip.
Nijo Castle
The View at the restaurant
Studying on the Train
and for shits and giggles.... WHAT THE....????
posted by Piotr Jakubowski at 2:11 AM
4 comments
