Temples, Shrines, and Pagodas Oh My!

Michelle standing by the Kennin-Ji
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Kyoto is what everyone pictures when they think of old Japan a small city that was the capital for more than 1,000 years.  Temples, Shrines, Pagodas, and gardens everywhere.  One of those places that you will never run out of things to do and see.

Well our trip to Kyoto was at the end of summer and was extremely hot, humid and crowded.  Plus if you think a busload of Japanese tourist is bad at any place you have been, try a country full of them.  Step, Picture, Step, Pose for a Picture (always flashing the peace sign).  Plus most of the temples have designated routes around them, that you are hearded like cattle barely being able to see or appreciate the temples.  Not to mention, for all the gardens and parks that they have, there are no park benches or places to just sit down and relax a little.  Needless to say we saw only a small fraction of the temples in Kyoto and focused on some of the ones that are not visited as frequently so we could avoid the crowds.

Make sure to put up the Peace Sign for your photo!

The Yakasa Pagoda from the street above
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The first day we tried to walk along the route suggested by Lonely Planet (our "borrowed", generally reliable, travel companion) through Southern Higashyama (linking to Michelle's story) this is where we ended up after the little bus mix-up.  We stopped at the Kennin-ji which was the the best temple that we visited because it allowed us to walk through and see many of the interior rooms.  After that we headed to Kiyomi Dera which was a huge temple built over the edge of a cliff.  There was literally a forest of trees used to support the massive observation deck that hung out over the edge.  It was very a very impressive structure.  After this temple we went to a temple renown for its famous garden.  For those of you who don't know, a Japanese Zen garden has very few plants and is mostly rocks that have been racked in straight lines.  Every now and then they get crazy and do some circles.  Apparently in the one we visited was special because there were two mounds.  I thought it just ment they had some extra rocks, or maybe did not finish spreading them out yet.  Anyways I can say I was not extremely impressed.  (That's just because Bill can't relax or see the peaceful side of these gardens!)

Bill and Michelle in front of Kiyomizo Dera
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The next day was the Gozan Okuribi Festival so we headed out to see some temples early in the morning.  Our fist stop was the Kinkaku ji (Golden Temple)  Which is extremely impressive, since the upper two floors are completely gold foiled.  Lonely Planet again went off about how impressive the inside was, but we found that you are just routed around to a couple places to take a picture then back to the parking lot, without ever entering the actual temple.  This may have been a good thing, since we probably would not have entered since there was such a dense crowd of people walking around.  To make the day even worse for Michelle, she was nearly carried away by the Misquitos who attacked her with reckless abandon (over 20 bites in the 30 minutes we were there).

The Pagoada outside the main temple complex of Kiyomizo Dera
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That night we headed out to get a spot to see the festival.  The owner of the hotel recomended a spot on the other side of town, but we need to rush because it was probably too late to get a good one.  We went to a small bridge over the river that he recomended, we got there it was starting to fill up but far from crowded.  So we waited the 90 minutes until the symbols started burning.  It ended up that we could only see one, and did not have that good of a view of that one.  But our spot was much better than many of the people who had been waiting who had to push there way up onto the bridge to see anything.  There were 5 symbols around the city that were set on fire.  The fire was made from the sticks written with the wishes of family and friends.  Overall it only lasted 15 minutes and was mostly over in 5 minutes.  A big build-up that did not deliver.  The ironic part was that from the roof of our hotel we could have seen 2 clearly and another 2 partially, so we would have been better off to buy a couple beers and sit up there an wait.  On a side note, Michelle met a couple that night who was also traveling around the world.  Their plans were to get married on their return.  But 10 months into their trip they got burnt out and were heading home.

The main temple of Kiyomizo Dera built out over the edge of a cliff
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Our last day that we spent walking around Kyoto, we went to the Fushimi Inari Shrine.  This was very interesting because there were very few buildings there.  But the people had build Todi's (Gates) on this hill.  They put them so close together that it was almost like a tunnel.  The covered a path of nearly 4 km around this hill with these orange and black gates.  It really was an interesting sight.  One of the most peculiar things was the fact that from the bottom of the hill there was no writting on the gates.  But from the top of the hill, as you walked through the gates they were covered in carved characters, painted black.

People writing wishes to their dead relatives for the Gozan Okuribi festival
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Overall, Kyoto started out a little disappointing.  I think that the weather and crowds had a factor in that.  Also the fact that this was one of the places that I really wanted to go to.  But by the end I think that both of us started to warm up to the city and would consider coming back to.  But not in the summer, we will try the spring with the cherry blossoms or the autumn with the changing of the maple leaves.

Bill (with an occasional jab from Michelle)