A Really Long Post about Kyoto (京都)!

Kyoto may well have taken over from Birmingham as my 'City of Dreams'. Its absolutely fantastical- it has impressive tourist "sights", secluded back-alley temples, contemplative walks, buzzing bars and an absolute massive and incredibly shiny train station- everything anyone could want from a city. It managed to make a cynical athiest gaijin like myself feel a zen-like calm, a true sense of peace, as well as an appreciation of the Japanese aesthetic values of わび さび（wabi sabi). Plus I finally found a kebab take-away in Japan! Back of the net!

I got to Kyoto on Sunday morning (well, early afternoon), and was immediately in heaven as I entered the massive station building. As you can see, it has sky walkways, strange Star Wars esque floating platforms, and seven levels of escalators heading up to a garden on the roof. At the time school bands were playing songs just under the massive Christmas tree. It was also absolutely packed with tourists; I had to wait about 20mins just to get a locker to shove my bag into! After I eventually left the station, I got a bus to Kinkaku-ji, the "Golden Pavilion" in the North-West of Kyoto. It was picturesque, although again packed with crowds which I unceremoniously barged out the way to get my pics. It would easily be the best thing ever if it wasn't for the crowds, but as is the case in most of the famous temples and shrines in Japan, the prescence of masses of ppl takes away from the peace and traquitiliy you go to a temple or shrine for in the first place. C'est la vie. After Kinkaku-ji I walked south west to Ryoan-ji. Its claim to fame was a rock garden that apparently 'hides infinite truths within its riddle of rocks and sand.' To be honest I reminded me of a Zen Garden kit I'd got for Tim as a birthday present (complete with rake). Whilst Timmy's face had lit up at this, it hardly reached a deep philosophical level, and neither did this garden. Still it was alroight- although I had to listen to fat Americans moaning about the number stairs and having to take their shoes off on tatami..grrrr. After this I walked far too far to get to the Imperial Palace Gardens- they were expansive, and the hidden Palace- which I didn't get to see- is apparently more intruiging from the outside than inside so I guess I didn't miss much. I met my friend Hannah and her friend at an Irish pub, and we had kebabs for dinner- yay! Then we walked round Gion, found a nice pagoda up a backstreet, and spotted a geisha.

I woke up fairly early on Monday to get a full day of fun sightseeing underway. Armed with my guidebook, a map, a camera and an uncharacteristic sense of enthusiasm, I set out! First was the Heian Shrine, which appears in Lost in Translation. As I got there early it was fairly empty, and really pleasant, with a large courtyard and striking red buildings. It had an "out of the ordinary" feel to it that was really nice, especially as I'm getting used to seeing Japanese temples and shrines. The walks around the complex were also good- autumn leaves and quiet backstreets. As I walked up to Nanzen-ji I spotted a sign pointing the way to Yamagata Aritomo's old house. I followed it and found Murin-an, the very house at which the decision to go to war with Russia in 1904 was made! For those who don't know, this is what I wrote my dissertation on, so I was filled with geeky enthusiasm. I poked around the old house, and sneakily took some pics of the room where the decision was made (see above photo). Anyway, after that excursion I got to Nanzen-ji. There were lots of temples and shrines, and an aqueduct which was cool. By this point my foot had started acheing- a pain that has lasted all the way till now. It was pretty bad on Monday eve and Tuesday morning, when I was actually limping round Kyoto. Thus, when I set off on a 30mins walk to Ginkaku-ji, known as the Tetsu-go-Michi or "Path of Philosophy", the only philosophising I got to do was how hard it must be to be an old man. After a brief stop at a small udon restaurant I got to Ginkaku-ji, another major tourist hotspot in Kyoto. Ginkaku-ji wasn't as visually impressive as Kinkaku-ji, but it made up for it with some exceptionally well-raked sand (see picture at the bottom). In fact, this is probably the only case in which I will ever describe sand as exceptionally well-raked, but it really was. There was even a pile of sand that was meant to represent Mt.Fuji- good stuff. Also I found some "Very Important Moss"- labelled with the helpful "like V.I.P" in case you were confused. That night I met Hannah again and we went to a really great 2nd hand clothes place- with a bath full of goldfish! Then we went for sushi, and drinking in the evening.




And so we finally come to Tuesday. The last day in Kyoto was the coldest, but it was also the best. I didn't do much- simply wandered round the streets of Gion, and found some lovely spots to sit and think, amazingly free from the hustle and bustle of the tourist crowds. I did go to Kiyomizu-dera, a temple perched on a hilltop that may have been the busiest thing I saw in Kyoto. Nicer though was the walk down through Gion to Maruyama-koen- on the way I managed to get the pic of a geisha you can see below. At Maruyama-koen I was truly feelin the wabi-sabi. By the time I'd finished chilling out round there it was almost time to start my long journey back to Okayama, but I raced to Fushimi-Inari Taisha, a shrine with over 30,000 torii's lined up in 'tunnels' that stretch for several kilometres. You can see a pic below. And note that, to my credit, I avoided making another 'torii' joke.