Kyoto - Fountains and Philosophers

Kyoto from Kiyomizu
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Day three in Japan was the first of three day trips to Kyoto, after frantically running back and forth and up and down the Kyoto train station looking for the tourist information centre, we decided to just buy a bus day pass and luck it out. Our first stop was Sanjusangendo, we took a brisk walk through the longest wooden building in the world, then back on the bus to Kiyomizu - the 'pure water' temple where a dragon drinks every sunrise.

Located in hills (steep hills), Kiyomizu provides a wonderful view of the city nestled in a valley between the surrounding hills. There are two famed activities to partake in at Kiyomizu, one is a blind folded walk between two rocks about 5 meters apart. If you make it from one to the other successfully you are sure to find true love, a note of warning though - if you choose the wrong rock as your starting point, tragedy abounds! This one we skipped because there were about two dozen leg warmer bedecked schoolgirls lining up for it.

we came across a crowd of rickshaw pullers, hovering like vultures preying on vulnerable tourists.

love shrines and leg warmers
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Activity two is drinking from the pure water fountains. There are three fountains that fall from overhead, you take a metal cup with a long handle from the UV light sterilizing contraption (!), hold it under one of the fountains and receive a blessing of either love, wisdom or health. Not knowing which was which I squeezed in at the first opening figuring a blessing is a blessing. Later upon recounting this I was informed the three fountains all come from the same source, you are supposed to think of which blessing you want, and then you shall receive it. All I was thinking at the time was "don’t drop the cup, don’t drop the cup," and I didn't, a blessing indeed.

don't drop the cup!
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Back to the bus stop again and we headed off to Ginkakuji - the silver pavilion. We stepped off the bus and not really knowing where to go started heading up the street only to be beeped by the bus driver who pointed us down the street. A pleasant change from the bus drivers I was used to who would start to close the doors before you are even off the last step. This kind woman was obviously accustomed to the timeless Gaijin custom of stepping off the transport, turning in a few aimless circles, shrugging and finally reluctantly pulling out the LP guidebook. Now heading in the right direction, we found Ginkakuji and wandered through the impressive gardens, alight with fiery autumn leaves.

Nito and Jas
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We then set off along the Philosophers Walk, which is a long path following a canal full of coi carp and eventually we came across a crowd of rickshaw pullers, hovering like vultures preying on vulnerable tourists. As we had already done as much walking as we could bear and admittedly we were lost, we agreed to pay 5000Y to hitch a ride to the Kyoto Arts and Crafts Centre, from where we could catch a bus back to the train station and then train back to Sakarai. Probably much more expensive than a taxi would have been, but it is an experience in itself, plus we got to go down some of the back streets and the puller shared some local knowledge with us. Our rickshaw puller guy was Nito, who had learnt his English from tourists while doing this job. Along the way he told us he had studied Sanskrit and Indian philosophy, "not very useful" he said, "now I pull rickshaws."

At the Arts Centre Jasmine bought some gorgeous vases (minus taxes if you show your passport!) and then won a postcard in a lucky draw that you get to enter if you spend over a certain amount of money. We got back to the train station just as the last express train was pulling in and managed to wrangle some allocated seating tickets from a machine by randomly pressing buttons, but found we had been allocated to the smoking carriage, so suffered the hour long trip home enclosed in this tight space with 50 or so people constantly smoking. The national passtime of Japan apparently.