Kyoto, Japan, & Why we'll be back someday

Kyoto is the heart and soul of Japan and is home to more temples, pagodas, castles, and shrines than you could possibly visit in three short days. But we'll give it our best. It occurs to me that Kyoto is what Angkor Wat would be if the integrated villages and towns had managed to thrive and the forests were kept at bay. Many of the Kyoto temples were built around the same time as in Angkor, but remain in perfect working condition to this day. The temples are dispersed throughout a huge area that requires trains, buses, and subways to visit. In hindsight, it would have been fun to have a bike.

Mar 13: Off to Kyoto
Considering getting from Osaka to Kyoto is no more than a standard 40 minute commute, we had the afternoon to do some exploration. Our first stop was to see the iconic orange tunnels of the Fushimi Inari Gates. Initially the throngs of tourists were a bit offputting, but once we made it past the initial climb, the crowd thinned and it became a calm and peaceful hike up the mountain through the thousands of gates and passed small shrines all the way up. It was hard not to take a picture every 100ft because the place is so unique and eye catching.

We were quite worried at the start as there was a herd of tourists crawling up the main path. 

Then, once the path gets moderately steep and remote, we nearly had the place to ourselves.

The gates follow side paths all over the mountain.

We never felt it appropriate to worship, but had we, this was a handy guide.

Lots of interesting shrines, statues, and other living creatures along the path.

Bryce seemed particularly keen on finding out Autumn's fortune from her messenger fox

Heading back down the mountain reveals the beautiful inscriptions on the back side of the columns.

Something I have been really looking forward to was connecting with David and Ali, friends that recently moved to Kyoto for a couple years. As it turns out, Autumn might have been even more excited as they were the serendipitous recipients of her replacement phone. Tonight we had curry dinner with them and it really was great to sit down and have a good old fashioned American conversation with friends.

After dinner we settled in to our Machiya style home - traditional two story wooden townhouses. This is about as traditional of a Japanese home as it gets, and frankly speaking, it's good we only had three nights in this accommodation as it was dark, cramped, and a bit drafty. I had hoped to stay in something unique, and this fit the bill, perhaps too well.

Paper soji screens everywhere. 

Futons on tatami mats in the bedroom

Mar 14: A day in a Kimono
Harnessing her inner one quarter, today was a day for Autumn to don a traditional Japanese Kimono and shuffle about the temples and the town. Wearing a kimono is quite common in Kyoto, mostly for visitors, but there were plenty of local women that wear them on a daily basis. We even crossed paths with a handful of real geisha.

I suppose the pictures shall speak for themselves, but from my biased perspective, Autumn has become such a beautiful young lady. It really was a special day.

Our path took us from Yanaka Temple, to Chion-in, then to Shoren-in. It was the last stop, Shoren-in that really impressed us all. It was such a peaceful and immaculately maintained place that invited you to just sit and take it all in. It wasn't huge, but you felt like you could be there all day.

A kimono was not designed for long distance speed walking, so after the morning temples, we sat down for a great lunch of Okonomiyaki (unique Japanese omelette pancake), then headed in to town to catch Autumn in some more modern settings.

Here we go, lots and lots of pictures... Couldn't help myself

Autumn getting dolled up, while the boys had to sit around and wait...

While waiting, we had an opportunity to add to our temple book. At each of the major temples, there are calligraphy artists that sign a special book with the name of the temple and the date of visit. The leading picture of this blog shows how many temples we visited between Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto. It is a beautiful and wonderful way of remembering our time in Japan. 

This bubbly group of Japanese tourists hijacked our kids for a photo op. Love these people.

A Kimono does not make for good stair climbing attire

Pics at the Shoren-in Temple. We really loved this place.

Almost looks fake

Nicole snapped this one. Well done.

The rear of the Shoren-in was a Bamboo forest.

We had to stop in to a Family Mart for some snacks

Sunset near a pagoda

The sign in the bottom right is so... Japanese. The honesty is wonderful.

Mar 15: More temples
Today we set out for some of the sites on the other side of town (now that Autumn's legs weren't bound in her Kimono).

First stop, Arashiyama Bamboo Forest and Tenryu-Ji Temple. We were a little disappointed with the forest as we had hoped we would have been playing out A Bug's Life and pretending we were in a forest of tall grass, but we were confined to a crowded concrete pathway.

The train to the outside of town was a quaint little single car train reminiscent of an SF Cable Car. 

Just a random shot of how everything has it's place. Notice the perfectly coiled hose. 

We then went on to Ryoanji, famous for it's Zen Rock Garden, and where we met up with Ali. The general consensus was that we all needed more training in the art of Zen, because the rock garden just kind of looked like a handful of randomly placed boulders in a rectangle of well manicured gravel. Perhaps if we stared at it for 24 hours straight we would find enlightenment, but we had a dinner date, so we left it at that.

The garden had these cool Dr Suess type trees. 

Sometimes you wonder how these structures are still standing after nearly 1,000 years. 

Then you look real close at the detail and craftsmanship and it becomes as clear as day. I took 10 pictures of this roof.

That's Ali, on the right, obviously. 

Our final temple of the trip was Kinkaku-ji temple, the Golden Temple on a lake. It was remarkably golden.

Our final dinner in Kyoto was a wonderful adults only affair with David and Ali. As much as we love our family dinners, having a couples night out sure was fun.

Good luck to these two as they embark on a two year work assignment in Kyoto. This was a fantastic Tonkatsu dinner. 

Final Random thought on Kyoto:
Kyoto is just a little too touristy, and we weren't even there during the peak season. Tokyo and Osaka felt like working towns that happen to have some tourists, which kind of made it feel like we had discovered a hidden gem of tourism. In Kyoto we were just one of the crowd. Having said that, it's totally worth a visit, and I would gladly return in a heartbeat (but probably in Fall).

Some Final Thoughts on Japan:
I'm writing this from the comfort of our apartment in Rome, which helped to put in perspective how unique and amazing Japan truly is. The following is not an indictment on Italy per se, as you could easily have experienced these two things in New York, Chicago, or San Francisco.

Case One: Upon arrival, our host warned us to be very careful with our wallets and phones as there are a lot of pick pockets, "just like any big city." Any big city except the biggest city in the world, Tokyo. It was, by far, the safest place we have ever been. We never once gave it a second thought to leave our valuables out and about in our apartment, and we never had to conceal our money, phones, or cameras at any time. In fact, should we had inadvertantly left our phone or wallet in the subway or bus, they would have been turned in to the local lost and found stations.

Case Two: As we were checking out of the grocery store, I felt like we were bothering the cashier. Quite literally, as he was scanning our groceries, he was slouched over on his stool checking his Facebook feed. After everything was scanned, he just pointed at the screen and held out his hand. He effectively tossed the receipt in my direction and I had to scoop it up from the counter. By contrast, we have never been surrounded by more courteous people than the Japanese. And I'm not taking about just the folks in retail establishments, I'm talking every living soul. On nearly a daily basis, a complete stranger would come to our assistance when we looked lost or confused.

To be perfectly candid, Japan is not without it's vices. It seems the businessmen have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, and there is a curious undertone of perversion (for instance, they have women only cars on the subway, and you can't silence the shutter sound on your cell phone).

Japan is a wonderful place to be a tourist. Going out was carefree as you always knew there was great food and snacks everywhere, and a clean public restroom not far away. If you are lost, just look lost. Someone is bound to come to your rescue. While sightly frustrating, the public transit systems can get you within a ten minute walk to any place in the city. And, as I mentioned above, everyone is so friendly, courteous, and helpful. I mean geez, they have posters in the subway system that asks: "Are your actions inconveniencing others?"

Final Family Thoughts on Japan

What started as a one month trial back in Vietnam, has persisted for the past 6 weeks - Going around the table at dinner for each person to talk about three happy or thankful moments that happened that day.

As an extension of this, we asked everyone on our last day to say one thing that they didn't like about Japan, and three things they liked:

Zane
- School (editors note, this is a constant, not just in Japan). I had to be quiet everywhere.
+ Snowboarding and landing a jump!
+ The Hedgehog cafe
+ ‎Sumo

Bryce
- It was cold
+ Getting better at skiing
+ ‎Sledding and seeing snow
+ ‎Sumo

Autumn
- My phone crashing on day two, so I couldn't take as many pictures (editor's note, she knows that had nothing to do with Japan). There was nothing bad about Japan.
+ Japanese food because everything I ate, I enjoyed.... Except the bean paste.
+ ‎Disneyland, Sumo, Taiko, Sushi making, Looking at tree blossoms, wearing kimono, snowboarding, etc.
+ ‎I loved the people and how nice and respectful they constantly are. And how cute (Especially the Bachans -grandmothers)
+ ‎I just really liked Japan. Favorite place so far.

Nicole
- The language barrier was difficult. Google translate didn't work well.
+ Pleasantly surprised by the food variety and quality
+ ‎The temple book and watching the calligraphy. It gave us something to do at the temples.
+ ‎Generally Tokyo. In particular Ueno Park

Steve
- The reliance on cash and getting around. Reloading our Suica cards seemed to be a daily nuisance forcing us to hit the ATM too often.
+ The Sumo tournament
+ ‎How clean and fresh everything was
+ ‎The Tsujiki Fish market

PS: I need to find a way to import one of these. It's a mini van. But like a mini of a mini van. A 50% sized van. And I love them.

All for now... Next Stop: Rome!