December 26 – 29, 2002
We went to Kyoto for four days with Tam and her boyfriend Daniel. Kyoto is renowned for being the ‘traditional’ home
of Japan, and is famous for its many temples, beautiful scenery, and geishas. It was our first trip on the shinkansen,
or bullet train, which travels at 250kph!
Day 1 – Arrival, Nijo-jo
After waking up with the mother of all hangovers, some Japanese guy’s business cards, and vague memories of the night before, it didn’t seem like the wisest thing to be travelling halfway across the country. But I pushed through the pain barrier. We met Tam and Dan at Shin-Yokohama and waited for the shinkansen.
As we were standing on the platform, we heard this incredible boom right behind us, and the entire platform seemed to be shaking! We turned around, to see a blur of a train blitzing past, and then suddenly it just disappeared from view. It was that quick! As Dan said, “There wouldn’t be too much left of you if you got hit by one of those!”
The trip down was pretty uneventful, although its amazing to look out the window and watch the scenery rush by. There were some amazing views of Mt Fuji on the way! Dan was impressed with the way the service staff would bow upon entry and exit from each carriage.
We stayed at the New Kyoto Hotel, just near Nijo-jo, an old castle. So the first thing we did was wander down and have a look.
Nijo-ji Castle
Fantastic. It was shut. However, there were two girls sitting in the ticket office, just to let people know that it was shut. The temperature outside is just a shade over 2C, they’re shivering like anything (“Samui, desu ne?”). Only in Japan.
We wandered on, and quite by accident found the Nishiki-koji market. A long, covered street, filled with hundreds
of tiny shops that sold all kinds of Japanese food. Especially seafood.
For dinner, we caught a bus (after a 20 minute wait in sub-zero temperature!) to Gion. Gion is renowned in Kyoto for its traditional (expensive) restaurants, with the possibility of seeing working geishas. We didn’t see any, but had tea at a small soba noodle restaurant. The decor was ordinary, but as is always the case with those types of places, the food was great!
Day 2 – Temples, Geishas
Still disappointed with the closure of Nijo-jo, we decided to start the day with a visit to the Kyoto Imperial Palace,
which was three blocks away. Unfortunately, you can only enter the palace with a tour group. Unfortunately, there are only two tours a day – 10am and 3pm. Unfortunately, it was 10.03am. And, as is so typically the case with Japan, we were told that it was totally out of the question to catch up to the group.
Since there wasn’t much to do at the palace – circling the perimeter of a great big fence not being the most appealing
way to spend the holiday – we headed to the next destination on our to-see list.
Kinkaku-ji (Golden) Temple
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Our luck was definitely not holding. First Nijo-ji, then the Kyoto Imperial Palace, and now Kinkaku-ji. Tam was a little bit annoyed, since this was her ‘must-see’ attraction. Still, we did as the sign suggested, and it was a pretty nice ticket office.
Kyoto Museum for World Peace
By now we were making jokes about how this was going to be closed, too. Luckily, the Lonely Planet guide said that it was only closed for a few days after the New Year, so we should be ok. We were looking forward to this museum, too, since it is apparently one of the few museums where the Japanese atrocities in WW2 aren’t glossed over or justified in any way.
However, when we arrived to see the office window closed, and the staff tucking into lunch, we knew that something was up. And sure enough, when we were able to rouse said staff to bother attending to the public, it was closed. Why? Just because.
Ryoan-ji
Ryoan-ji is the oldest Zen garden in the world, You step out of your shoes, and walk through the wooden building in your socks.
The garden is incredible. The original creator didn’t leave any explanation, so its left to the viewer to interpret its meaning. It’s a raked sand garden, with 15 rocks placed in such a way that only 14 can be seen, no matter where you stand!
Ginkaku-ji Temple
After lunch, we crossed town on the bus to Ginkaku-ji (Silver) temple. The thing about Kyoto is that it has so many temples that you don’t want to get ‘temple fatigue’ by trying to see too many. Ginkaku-ji is set against a hill, with some incredible trees rising behind. In front, there’s a sand sculpture of a mountain, so perfectly round, and with a concave at the peak. Absolutely incredible. As we climbed to the hill behind the temple, it started to lightly snow, and with the city of Kyoto laid out in late afternoon light, it made for an incredible sight!
Kiyomizu-dera Temple
By this point, Daniel was reaching ‘temple fatigue’, and I wasn’t far behind. We elected to catch the bus back to the impressive Kyoto station to have a look there, while Tam and Kathleen went on. Kiyomizu-dera was built in 798 (!), but the current buildings are reconstructions from 1633. How amazing is that? Even the reconstructions are hundreds of years old. That’s what I love most about travelling – Australia is such a young country, and seeing monuments dating back hundreds of years, or even millenia, is just mind-blowing.
As they were leaving the temple, Tam and Kathleen saw a large crowd, and getting closer saw what I think they came to Kyoto to see – geisha!
The poor geisha were posing with every Japanese person who asked, and Kathleen got her photo taken with them. She was
so excited, and I think Kathleen was too!
Kyoto Station
While Daniel wandered up to the internet cafe to check his email, I found something totally unexpected and yet totally compelling.
I’d read about the Astro Boy (Tetsuya Atom in Japan) exhibition while I was at home in Yokohama, but since I never thought I’d get to Kyoto while it was on, I didn’t think much about it. Since I was in the city, though, it was a different story! The exhibition itself was fairly small; most of the display was a figure of Atom in a tube with a countdown until his ‘birthdate’, April 7 2003. A tad kitschy. The creator was prolific – there were at least 20 different cartoon series that he drew, with Atom being the most famous. There was a short movie (in Japanese), which was pretty cool.
Day 3 – Universal Studios Japan, Himeji-jo
Kathleen and Tam decided to head to Universal Studios Japan, in Osaka, 40 minutes to the south of Kyoto. Since Dan and I had already been to it in the US (LA and Orlando), we gave it a miss. I wanted to go to see Himeji-jo, while he was happy to look around Kyoto on his own for the day.
Himeji-jo
I went to Himeji-jo. The castle is renowned as being the most beautiful of all Japan’s castles, and it is amazing it has lasted this long. Most of Japan’s castles have been destroyed – by conquest, fire, earthquake, or by modernisation, and most of them are recent reconstructions made of concrete. The Imperial Palace in Tokyo resembles a large hotel. It’s an exceedingly un-castle-like castle. Himeji-jo was almost torn down during the Meiji Restoration, a time when repair funds were limited, and many other castles were demolished, but was saved. Given that it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it’s lucky that it was!
The castle is amazing – it sits on a hill overlooking the city of Himeji, and the main street leads staight to the base of the castle. Although by the time you reach the top level of the main keep you are quite high, the walk never seems steep, since there is so much to look at along the way! The women’s section, the armoury, the amazing roof tiles, Himeji-jo is an incredible attraction, and probably the most memorable thing I have seen while I have been in Japan. Well worth the 80-minute trip from Kyoto!
Universal Studios Japan
Day 4 – Kyoto Station, Return
Since our train left at noon, there wasn’t a lot of time to sightsee on the last day. A quick look around Kyoto station, before heading back to Yokohama on the bullet train.
Kyoto is an amazing city. Where Tokyo is all winding streets and neon and noise, Kyoto is wide streets, peaceful scenery and (relative!) serenity. The advantage of only staying such a short time is that we get a ‘feel’ for the city without overstaying our welcome, which makes it much easier when we visit again!
