Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan
Jackson and Abigail's 10 Fun Facts About Japan. It is all about the bike today!
71. Japan is ranked 7th in the world in regards to the most bicycles per capita.
72. 57% of the Japanese population are cyclists.
73. 15% of people in Japan commute to work by bike
74. Most people don't lock their bikes, even when left all day or night outside railway stations.
75. It is legal to ride on the pavement/sidewalk.
76. Cyclists in Japan aren't clad in lycra and riding state of the art road or mountain bikes. They are everyday people wearing regular clothes and who ride a mamachari (mum's bike).
77. Most bikes have a basket (both front and back) and often one or two child seats.
78. Outside of Tokyo and Osaka, Kyoto is one of the most popular cycling cities in Japan. It is often listed as one of the best cities to cycle in the world.
79. Two in every three Kyotoites own a bicycle versus one in every three who own a car.
80. More children cycle to school in Kyoto than almost any other city in Japan (only Osaka has more).
One of the first things we noticed about Kyoto were the number of bikes being ridden everywhere.
Even the rain yesterday didn't hinder the Kyoto city cyclists. Many just carried their umbrella as they rode (which we have read is illegal, however, there were many people doing this - and no doubt explains why so many umbrellas were made of clear plastic!), some actually had an umbrella holder attached to their front handlebar, and some wore huge ponchos that covered both them and their back basket. When they parked their bikes, they just placed their umbrella over the seat to keep the seat dry.
As we ride our bikes daily at home, we were missing being on two wheels. We were thrilled when Mum suggested we hire bikes. The weather today was supposed to be sunny; however, we woke to a light drizzle. We remained optimistic about a mainly dry day after seeing some blue patches in the sky and we proceeded to the bike rental shop.
Abigail at the age of 5 has been riding a two wheeled bike confidently for two years; however, she was still too short to rent their smallest 20" bike. Fortunately, her small stature meant she could still fit in a child's seat. The only bike with a bike seat was an electric bike. Now this was exciting for mum as she had never ridden with a child's seat or on an electric bike before!
Dad had plotted out our route. The bike rental man shook his head and said "Impossible!". He had obviously not met Team Ujimoto before!! We felt pretty confident about the route. Mum's electric bike had three modes. After hearing of our route, the bike rental man came and moved Mum's computer to "eco mode" as he muttered she would run out of battery.
Off we went!!
Our first destination was Katsura, one of two summer residences for the Imperial Family. Once we negotiated our way around Kyoto Station, we headed out of the city to the countryside. We passed city buildings, shops, huge bikes stores, and then houses. When we reached the edge of the city, we passed a group of young children helping in the fields growing vegetables.
We were proud of ourselves when we reached our destination, only to discover that children under 12 aren't permitted into the grounds. Mum asked if she could just go in to take a photo; however, in order to do this, you had to sign up to the hour long tour. She tried to negotiate to pay the fee so she could enter the grounds and take just a quick photo or two, however, there is no negotiating with the Imperial Residence guards. As much as Mum really wanted to experience the Katsura Villa and gardens, which are reputedly the most impressive in terms of both the architecture and garden design in Japan, it wasn't an option today unless we could all go.
It was a nice ride out of the city at least!
Back on the bikes, we now had to backtrack a little before heading north. For Uniqlo lovers, we rode past their offfices twice!
We knew we had reached the Kinkakuji, the famous "Temple of the Golden Pavilion" by the crowds. We parked our bikes in the full bike parking lot and joined the masses. It was initially built as a retirement home for the 38 year old, (yes, 38) Shogun Yoshimitsu Ashikaga in the late 14th century. He had a taste for fine things and the pavilion was covered completely in gold leaf. A fanatical young monk burnt the temple down in 1950, so today we all just get to see the exact replica built in 1955. We have to admit it was a little underwhelming and looked like someone had just used some gold spray paint on a plain building. The estate and gardens were beautiful - just busy! Dad said that when he was here last, it was an early morning and sunny fall day so you could see the reflection of the temple in the pond as well as experience the peace and quiet surrounded by brilliant red and gold autumn leaves.
It was a short bike ride around the corner and up to Ryoanji, the most well known of all Zen Buddhist temples. Now, there are a lot of people, cars and the odd bus to negotiate, and thus it was tough at times to get the momentum to easily ride up the hill. It was no drama for Mum and Abigail though on their electric bike! They cruised past Jackson and Dad waving gleefully!! They quite like their electric wheels.
Ryoanji is known for its famous rock garden which contains merely 15 stark rocks in some raked white gravel in a 30 x 10 metre expanse. There is not a tree, shrub or blade of grass to be found. (We haven't seen too many blades of grass yet in Japan. We are sure not many lawn mowers are sold here). Some people love it, while some don't. Adding to the enigma, they don't know who designed the garden. We didn't feel too zen observing the rocks. Mum said is glad we have grass in our garden. Dad offered to put rock gravel everywhere at our house so we could have our own Zen garden, but we prefer our nice big lawn!
We stopped off at a local park with foodstalls for Hanami to keep up our strength. We now had to ride across town, past the Imperial Palace. The mostly flat, grid-like structure does make cycling around easy.
We had seen the Gold Temple, now it was time for the silver one, Ginkakuji. Shogun Yoshimasa Ashikaga built this temple for his esoteric tea ceremonies and moonwatching. Sadly, the "Silver Pavillion" never received the silver-leaf covering that had been originally planned.
Next to the pavillion was a flat topped pile of gravel, which some say was designed to represent Mount Fuji. Others say it was just leftover sand. The cherry blossoms in bloom along the edge of the canal here were gorgeous and people were definitely out to enjoy them.
One of the prettiest and most famous short walks in Japan runs along the narrow canal from Ginkajuji to Nanzenji. This 2 km path is known as the Philosopher's Path and named after the Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitaro. It was a delightful cycle along the canal under the cherry blossoms. We were also impressed by Nanzenji, a former 13th century palace. It was beautiful!
You can't miss the entrance to the Heian Shrine. It a huge torii arch gate spanning the road. It is also famous for its garden, and in particular the large number of weeping cherry blossoms which bloom slightly later than the standard variety.
We detoured off the temple tour to check out some shops in the undercover arcade of Teramachi Street, and experience Kyoto's number one shopping precinct. We even found a store called "Ujimoto"! Dad went to find the owner, but sadly the owner was away.
Our cycling tour of Kyoto was coming to an end. The weather started out a little variable with a few very light rain showers, but improved and was perfect for cycling. Mum lost track of how many times she zipped and unzipped her layers and put her jacket on and off! We all had an excellent day, Dad calculated we rode about 30 kilometres, and yes, we did accomplish everything on our list, and Mum's electric bike had only dropped to 70%. She put it on maximum power for the last few blocks and she and Abigail really flew back to the bike rental shop. We just missed the Fushimi-Inari Shrine which we will visit next time as we have a train to catch.
If you are planning a visit to Kyoto, the cycling is only going to get easier as the city has committed to improving and increasing the number of bike paths around the city by 2020. It really is the best way to get around the city as the existing bus and subway system aren't ideal for temple hopping, and you can't truly appreciate the Kyoto neighbourhoods any other way.
We have had just the best day!!
Helen Shield
2019-04-16
Hi Ujimoto family. Beautiful shots and helpful info guys. Love your bunk beds kids!!!