Today we woke up early in the morning, said goodbyes to the nice and friendly hostel and took a bullet train (shinkansen) to Kyoto. Riding the train was a pretty interesting experience by itself! Not only shinkansen trains look futuristic and go up to 300 km/h, but they are also extremely smooth and noiseless. When we hopped on a train right when it was leaving the platform, we took a few minutes to settle in. Then, at some point, I noticed motion in the window, but the train felt perfectly still and no acceleration was noticeable. So, at first, we though there was another train moving in the opposite direction, but it really was the platform and the train station that were moving in the window :) Another interesting note about shinkansen: all seats are facing in the direction of the motion and they rotate when the train switches direction!
So, we arrived to Kyoto fairly quickly and almost without adventures (not counting being kicked out from our seats 5 minutes before the arrival to Kyoto by a conductor, because we were seating in reserved seats by mistake)
. We found our ryokan (Japanese-style inn) not far from the station where a smiley hostess took our bags and bowed us out, since the rooms were only available after 4pm. So, we took our camera gear and headed to the top tourist attraction in town: Kiyomizudera temple.
On the way there we met an old Japanese man, feeding and taking photos of herons on a river bank. He could speak English very well and helped us shoot a few amazing photos :)
What's funny is that we met a group of conference attendees on the way to the temple and walked with them for a while before losing them somewhere in crowded temple grounds. The temple had beautiful gates and pagodas, but the most impressive attraction was a tall wooden terrace providing wonderful views of Kyoto and densely forested hill surrounding the temple. Near the base of the temple's main hall, there was a clear Otowa waterfall from which people drank in belief that it will bring them longevity, success at school and a fortunate love life. Some of the other highlights of the visit were: donating money to a monk and a Studio Ghibli store, which took a lot of effort to get out of without buying every single souvenir :)
After the temple we had a long and tiring walk that brought us to a restaurant, recommended by my travel guide, which was run by 6 old ladies (one of them spoke English and was sent to talk to us :) ). Tasty lunch restored our strength and helpful grandmas pointed us towards a nearest bus station (not without having a considerable conference about it between themselves) from which a bus brought us to the beginning of Philosopher's Path, a 2-km walk along a canal
. The path got its name due to Nishida Kitaro, one of Japan's most famous philosophers, who was said to practice meditation while walking this route on his daily commute to Kyoto University. Stroll along the canal lined with maples and cherry trees brought us to Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion) temple.
Upon entering the temple grounds we were immediately stunned by a large dry sand garden, consisting mostly of flowing curves, straight diagonal lines and a massive sand cone named "Moon Viewing Platform". Another striking feature of the temple was an exquisite moss garden, where reflective ponds, smooth rocks, gently curving streams, tufts of long grass and tiny rolling hills of short moss painted a sublime image of peace and tranquility. In fact we were so enthralled by the nature that we nearly missed the silver pavilion itself! However we managed to take quite a few pictures of the pavilion from different angles :)
Nearly exhausted we made our way back to the ryokan, where we were greeted by a helpful hostess again and then shown to our room. The room was small, but extremely tidy! It had 2 Japanese-style futon beds, 2 real yukatas, a thermos with hot water and some green tea, and the tiniest neatest bathroom I've ever seen :) Even though the beds were made on the floor, they were extremely soft and comfortable! Also, since we had a bus pass for that day we took advantage of it and rode a bus to a nearest onsen :) This one was fancier than the one in Kobe, but it didn't have a natural hot spring. Instead it had a "5 herb soup", a hot bath brewed with some herbs, it really smelled like soup :) Other baths included water jet bath, electric bath, bath with white foam and there was also a steam room!
Overall, this was a great end for a wonderful day :)
Kyoto, Day 1
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Kyoto, Kinki, Japan
Other Entries
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1First day in Japan!
Nov 125 days priorTokyo, Japanphoto_camera2videocam 0comment 3 -
2Arrival to Kobe
Nov 125 days priorKobe, Japanphoto_camera1videocam 0comment 7 -
3Kobe, Day 1
Nov 134 days priorKobe, Japanphoto_camera14videocam 0comment 12 -
4Kobe, Day 2
Nov 143 days priorKobe, Japanphoto_camera5videocam 0comment 6 -
5Kobe, Day 3
Nov 152 days priorKobe, Japanphoto_camera4videocam 0comment 1 -
6Kobe, Day 4
Nov 161 day priorKobe, Japanphoto_camera0videocam 0comment 2 -
7Kyoto, Day 1
Nov 17Kyoto, Japanphoto_camera19videocam 0comment 6 -
8Kyoto, Day 2
Nov 181 day laterKyoto, Japanphoto_camera15videocam 0comment 6 -
9Nara Daytrip
Nov 192 days laterNara, Japanphoto_camera3videocam 0comment 1 -
10Osaka Night
Nov 192 days laterOsaka, Japanphoto_camera1videocam 0comment 4 -
11Arrival to Tokyo
Nov 203 days laterTokyo, Japanphoto_camera4videocam 0comment 1
Comments

2025-02-07
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smaran
2011-11-22
wow, very nicely done! you included several details i completely forgot..
on a related note, didn't we go to another bath that day? :)
pyres
2011-11-22
Oh, right! Good job remembering that :)