Adventures with KG!: Finally made it to Kyoto!

I've been in Japan over 7 months, and people (not just locals) are constantly shocked that I've never been to the city of Kyoto. Truthfully, I've just been waiting for a Japanese friend to offer to be my tour guide, and that day has finally arrived!!

Kyoto was the capital of Japan for over 11 centuries and is known as the best preserved city in Japan since it was spared by bombing during WWII. Kyoto has over 1600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines. It is also home to 13 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. (Remember we learned about these when I went to Europe?)

Since the city is so full of old world Japan history and culture, I wanted someone Japanese to read the signs and tell me the stories that go along with these amazing sites. A friend from work gathered up 3 more people from her English class, and we rented a "family car" for a day.

Here's our Toyota "Noah" mini-van.

The drive took about 2 hours, but we played plenty of games to pass the time. They really liked practicing their English vocabulary, so we played a lot of word games where you have to name things in English without repeating what others had already said and without taking too long. Categories included: fruits, vegetables, flowers, automobile makers, countries, world capitals, etc. When we ran out of categories, we simply switched to name any word that begins with the letter "T"! Obviously, I should have been really good at this game since English is my official language, but it was also kind of tricky to make sure I understood what they were saying with their accent so I didn't repeat it.

First stop is Nijo Castle.

Here is Ko, Kerri, Shinichi, & Eai ready to explore.

I kept looking for giant castle like Nagoya or Inuyama, but it doesn't exist. Instead, that one-story building in the background is the Ninomaru Palace built by Japanese samurai. It is 33 rooms and over 800 tatami mats (which is huge on a Japan scale). Pictures inside the Palace were strictly forbidden. My favorite part was the specially designed floors that squeak when they are walked on so your enemies could not sneak up on you!! They are called Nightingale floors because it sort of sounds like birds chirping!

Ninomaru Garden. In the center is the Island of Eternal Happiness, designed in 1626.

Oddly, no one can reach this island because it's not like you're allowed to swim across the pond.

Honmaru Palace inside the inner moat.

Stop #2 is Rokuon-ji Temple (a.k.a. Golden Pavilion or Kinkaku-ji)

As you can see, the rainy season of Japan decided to start, while I was hoping it would hold out for one more day. I bought my 5th or 6th umbrella from Japan and got on with the sightseeing.

Breathtaking view, built in the 1220's but restored with a new coating of gold in 1987.

Kyoko-chi (Mirror Pond) containing many large and small islands.

The public is not allowed inside, but it's still a great view from the outside. Even in the rain it was very shiny!!

My travel buddies say that the rainy season is the best time to visit Kyoto because all of the moss turns green. Hmm... I'm not sure how to respond to that one...

At the temple, they had English fortunes you could buy. Mine was rated "Very Good", and therefore I am supposed to take it home and hope it comes true. If it was a bad fortune, I would have tied it to a tree and hope it doesn't come true. (Remember from the New Year's shrine visit?)

Here's my fortune. (Click on the pic for a larger image.)

It's interesting that for Business it says "no loss, little gain", and for Love it says "Good. Tell your parents".

I love you, Mom & Dad!!

Stop #3 is Daitokuji Temple, which is home to 33 small temples. We went to only one: Ryongen-in Zen Temple, which is famous for its five gardens.

Constructed in 1502. Did I mention they were all rock gardens?

Kerri next to the world's smallest rock garden. Considering how small everything else in Japan is, I expected this thing to be the size of a shoebox. Imagine my surprise!

More rocks and symbols of life. Very zen, so they say, but I'm not going to on and on about it in my blog!

Dragon painted on the sliding doors, from the 16th century.

Another small temple inside the garden grounds.

I loved the stone walkway.

More "green" moss that everyone but me was so thrilled about!! LOL

Snack time! We decided to stop for Japanese sweets, which is always risky business considering they like to hide red beans in everything. Same as usual, I couldn't read the menu, and there wasn't any pictures, so I just let someone order me something. As it turns out it was very yummy ice cream! From the left the flavors are: soybean (tasted sort of like coffee), blueberry, and green tea. The other ladies ended up getting 3 other flavors of ice cream, which were terrible: egg, red bean paste, and wheat grass. (Seriously, there were blades of grass sticking out of it!). I tried them all, too, and goodness was I thankful even more for my flavors!

Last stop is Kiyomizu-dera Temple.

Here is the entrance.

It's still raining, and surprisingly, I was the only one who was cranky about it. I was sick of my soaking wet spongy shoes and socks. And I was tired of trying to find hands to hold my umbrella, take pictures & keep my camera dry, all while constantly pulling my pants up. (I finally got out the summer clothes, and surprise... they don't fit so well.)

Dragon fountain :)

I didn't really "get" what this place was all about at first. It just looked like a big forest, but eventually I figured it out.

View from the Kiyomizu-dera stage

And finally it all makes sense! Here is a view of the main hall Kiyomizu-dera, and the stage that I was on earlier. This temple is from 778, and Japan has an expression "to jump off the Kiyomizu stage". It's kind of like "taking the plunge" in English, but they used to let people jump off the stage, and legend was is if they survived the fall then all of the person's dreams would come true.