Kyoto Day One

October 23rd Saturday

We hit the trail running early today and in our guide Lucy’s voice “Is OK to start 15 minutes early?” Actually, She has said this every morning which is fine because there is so much to do and see. I won’t be writing much today other than naming where we visited, but be sure to check the slide slow pictures. We saw so many amazing antiquities (Charlie says, translation – old things) and stunning gardens!

We started off the morning with the Kiyomizu Temple which is one of the most famous in Japan. It was a steep walk up and lots of steps!

Next was the Sanjusangendo Hall where we could not take pictures. We did take a picture of a post card for the slide show. This was the hall of 1,001 gods with lots of arms and 11 heads to help people for everything! Supposedly, they were called Kannons.

Nijo Temple was next – which also allowed no pictures on the inside. It was quite impressive. It was build almost entirely of Japanese cypress and has beautiful woodcarvings and paintings from the Kano School. One of the neatest features is its so-called “Nightingale floors.” To protect the shogun from enemies, special floorboards were installed which creaked when someone walked upon them in the corridors. The floors really do sound like they are “singing” when you walk on them. Outside was another beautiful garden. (We do have pictures of the garden in the slide show, but again we had to take some pictures of actual postcards of the inside because no photos were allowed.

All of the above we visited before lunch – it was a very full morning! (Actually it was an Advil morning – tons of walking up and down hills etc). We had our lunch at the University of Kyoto’s Faculty Dining Room. It was a lovely lunch and it was so nice to sit down!

Then off we went again starting at Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion) which was beautiful! This was constructed in the 1390’s as a retirement villa for Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiitsu. It is covered in gold leaf with a roof topped by a bronze phoenix. The reflections in the pond are beautiful. As with all of these temples, there was another lovely garden – this had a blue heron in the pond.

The day was not finished yet – off to the next temple, Ryoanji, where the famous part was the Zen Rock Garden. This was laid out in the 15^th century. One is suppose to sit here and contemplate what was trying to be communicated by the 15 rocks. I decided that it represented the 7 continents – the way they were clustered…….Charlie thought they were big rocks on top of smoothly raked small rocks – oh well!!

By this time, I think that I was on my 3rd dose of Advil! We got back to the hotel around 5, but we weren’t done for the day…..Lucy decided to have us all go and experience “Okonomiyaka” commonly known as Japanese pizza. It was a lot of fun. You sit at a table for 4 with a center cook top. You order what meat, vegetables etc you want and then they bring it in a bowl which you mix up. For example, I ordered shrimp and leeks and Charlie got cabbage and pork. So I got a bowl with flour, water or soup stock, egg, shrimp and leeks. I mixed this together in the bowl and then they have you pour it on the grill in front of you spreading it out. You cook it on both sides and when it is done you “paint” it with a sauce which we think was like a hoison sauce or tonkatsu sauce. It was really good and we want to try this when we get home. I actually “googled” Okonomiyaka and recipes came up for it.

We still were not finished for the day. Lucy walked us through the Gion District which is where the nightlife is as well as some teahouses used by Geishas.

It was truly a great day and Lucy is amazing. She is around 60 and never stops. We can’t keep up with her. So the busy day meant that this blog from yesterday is being posted a day late – we were exhausted! Do be sure to look at the Kyoto slideshow.