To Kyoto and back again…

Yay for another long over-due post. I promise I’ll get better about posting regularly.

Anyway, where did we leave off? Oh yeah, off to Kyoto. No photos from monday since most of it was spent on the shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo and the rest was spent wandering aound the endless shopping arcades. Seriously, they never really end, they just run into a different arcade. They were interesting though; a little bit of everything with the high-end kimono dealers next to the trendy clothing shops and the kitschy souvenier places with a handful of restaurants thrown in for good measure.

Tuesday morning we hopped an early train out to Hiroshima and then a ferry out to Miyajima to see the floating temple at high tide. The huge red torri gate is truely impressive standing out in the water supported only by it’s own substantial weight and the temple itself is beautiful. The buildings are essential just a collection of bridges built just over the high tide line so it appears that everything is pretty much floating in the ocean. I was here two years ago but it was during low tide and, while still beautiful, wasn’t nearly as stunning as it was this time. It also helped that the weather cooperated; it was cold but sunny. After a warm and satisfying lunch of tempura shrimp udon we took the ferry back to Hiroshima to visit the Peace Memorial Park.

The a-bomb dome there is one of the few buildings that remained standing after the atomic bomb was dropped and is still an impressive and grisly reminder. The museum also serves as a reminder by exlpaining the events leading up to the bombing, the bombing itself, and the aftermath, including the lasting effects on survivors. The stories shared by those survivors are truely heartbreaking and visiting the museum is a sobering experience, even seeing it for the second time.

Wednesday was a late start as we made our way out to Fushimi-Inari, the fox shrine and graveyard that sprawl over the side of a mountain. The shrine is famous for it’s paths covered by long rows of red torri gates (if anyone’s seen Memoirs of a Geisha, the scene where she is running through all the red gates was filmed here). It’s one of my favorite shrines and the weather was good as we hiked up the first loop. We didn’t make it to the top of the mountain this time but one day I’m sure I’ll managed to set aside an entire day to do the whole thing since it’s supposed by be a pretty spectacular hike.

Thursday was really cold and fairly cloudy but we still went to see Kinkakuji, the golden pavillion. It was still beautiful and we had fun marvelling at the sheer amount of ice cream they sold there. Between the ice cream stands and the vending machines there must have been fifteen different places to by ice cream. And people were eating it even though it was like 35 degrees out!

From there we just kinda wandered around Kyoto since Ryoanji, the rock graden, was closed for renovations. That night we did a short (once the sun went down, it got even colder) walking tour through old Gion on a search for geisha and maiko (apprentice geisha). And we found one who was nice enough to let us take her picture before she hurried off to her next appointment.

Friday was our last day in Kyoto and we visited Nijo-jo, the castle with the singing floors. And they really do sing when you walk on them. The paintings on the wallscreens inside are stunning; the level of detail is just mindboggling and the care with which each design was chosen is very apparent.

Next stop was Heian-jingu. Though the gardens were mostly dead since well, it’s the middle of January, it was a nice walk and we sat on the bridge over the lake for a while to enjoy the sunshine and the scenery. Then the sun went away and it quickly became too cold to sit on the bridge so we packed up and went off to the train station to explore. Kyoto train station is a hyper-modern structure that is amazing to look at but incredibly confusing to navigate. Somehow we managed to find ourselves in what was essentialy an eight-story food court/ grocery store where you could get just about anything edible that you could ever want and most of which feature free samples. It took us nearly two hours to get through but we came out the other side with all sorts of goodies for the train ride back to Tokyo.

Saturday was the grand quest for dishes. See, when I was here two years ago I bought a set of dishes but only enough for two people. Well I kinda had the realization about a year ago that I really should have enough for four people. So Tara and I went to Kappabashi, THE street for anything kitchen-related from knives to dishes to uniforms. The dish shops were an experience unto themselves. They were so crowded and so disorganized. One shop we went into  my feet were too wide for the aisles at points and I had to carefully manuver around towering stack of plates and bowls. It was definetly a nerve-wracking shopping experience but a fun day that ended with seeing Tokyo Tower and night and marvelling over the sheer urban sprawl that is Tokyo.

Today found us back at Harajuku to explore Meiji-jingu. It was still incredibly crowded but not quite as bad as last week and there were ice sculptures. I have no idea why there were ice sculptures but the main path leading up to the shrine was lined with them. They really are amazing works of art and it made me even more excited to go to Sapporo for the start of the ice festival where they do hundreds of these sculptures all over the city.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Harajuku people-watching and eating crepes before hopping over to Shinjuku in search of a store I wanted to check out and finding dinner to take back to the guesthouse.

The next update will hopefully be on Thursday after I put my sister on a plane back to the states and find my way out to my friend’s apartment where I’ll be staying for the rest of my time in Tokyo. So check back then for stories of Disney, fish markets and hot springs!