Kyoto Part 1

June 04, 2013

Kyoto Part 1

We arrived in Kyoto! Kyoto is about a 2.5 hour trainride outside of Tokyo. I was more excited to explore this area than Tokyo so this is where we spent the majority of our trip.

Our Ryokan, The Watazen Ryokan. You pull the beds out at night.

We dropped our bags and explored on our way to dinner. This is some shopping in the stalls near our ryokan.

Our ryokan was very close to Nishiki Market

No idea what this was but it was seriously disturbing.

We had tempura for dinner that started with a strange salad.

Can anyone tell me what these are?!? They didn't really taste like anything. Strange.

Wine shop nearby

Our nightly ritual. Change into our robes and go down to the hot baths located in the basement of our hotel building. Heavenly. Here I am looking really cool. Thanks Mom ;)

Mom also insisted on a picture of our beds.

The next morning we got up early to explore some temples. Our doorman insisted we take a picture under the umbrella as it is very "Japanese". Ha!

Coffee here is a million times better than what you find in Hong Kong, they just don't give you a lot.

Taxi's are still pretty expensive, so we took the bus. We missed our stop as our bus map was in English and everything on the bus was Japanese. We did some additional exploring before we got to the temples.

We arrive at Kiyomizu-dera, considered the most famous temple in Kyoto. It takes its name from the waterfall within the complex, which runs off the nearby hills. Kiyomizu means clear or pure water.

Best part of this tour. These students came up to us and asked if they could be our tour guides. In return they could practice their English. Win-win!

Some cherry blossoms.

There isnt a single nail used in the entire temple structure.

If you were able to lift this pole, it signified some sort of good luck.

I asked the students about the black face, but they didn't seem to know why.

Smoke for more good luck, what else!

The students were telling us the survival rate if you jumped from this deck. They made sure to emphasize that only 25% of the people that jumped died. Not really sure what that was all about so I did a quick look on Wikipeia and learned this:

The popular expression "to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu" is the Japanese equivalent of the English expression "to take the plunge". This refers to an Edo period tradition that, if one were to survive a 13m jump from the stage, one's wish would be granted. Two hundred thirty-four jumps were recorded in the Edo period and 85.4% survived.The practice is now prohibited

This area you made wishes and prayers for love.

Mom got a good fortune, but I got one that was dangerous. What the heck!?

View from the "jumping deck" on the other side.

They made these sculptures wear aprons. When we asked why, they had no reason. We saw this repeated at several other temples as well.

Another fountain which is believed to have wish-granting powers. Each stream was for different fortune: Health, Love or Education.

Um yes this surely sterilizes it.

I saw this turtle and thought of him as lucky so felt like that cancelled out my dangerous fortune.

Curry lunch- we were starving! Note: There are quite a few restaurants around the temple. We didn't want to eat at the tourist trap places so we ventured on. Not the best advice as there was nothing else around for quite awhile!

Exploring more temples in the Gion area. Just loved how Mom's pants matched the paint color.

Candy apples and strawberries

We spotted some Geishas!

We wanted to check out a traditional tea ceremony. This place was recommended by the hotel and ended up being right around the corner.

Our tea girl was lovely. She told us at the end that she went to tea school for something like 7 years. All to learn how to make and pour tea!

You ate a sweet candy to counter act the bitterness of the fresh green tea.

This tea store was recommended to us for buying tea supplies but we didn't go there.

More tea and snacks when we returned. It was quite cold that day. I think part of this was to warm us up.

We got lost about 100 times trying to find this place for dinner. It was pouring rain, but it made it that much better. Known for their steak but we loved everything!