Japan – Kyoto Day Two of the Fifth Season

Waking up on day two in the fifth season made us realise something extremely important. That was that we had actually not booked four nights in Kyoto, but only three, this was a bit of a revelation. Luckily enough this was actually because of a plan that we had but had forgotten about, which was, book three nights in Kyoto and book a fourth closer to the date or go to Osaka for one night. This was because we were unsure of whether Kyoto would have enough to do for four nights (of course there is plenty to do, some people even live here) given that we only had a relatively short time to spend in Japan travelling before skiing on grass and dirt we had to make the most of our time. This was a problem that could be fixed with money and it was once Expedia had accepted our room in Osaka with a small double bed (more on that later).

Our plan for the day was largely plagiarised from the Capsule Ryokan’s booklet. We haven’t handed over the whole thing – if you’re really curious head for the Capsule Ryokan as it’s a great place to stay.

Our first stop was breakfast, and that was straight to the cheap as Nakau Shichijoshinmachi for breakfast.

Next stop was to catch toe 205 bus straight from the breakfast place to Kinkaku-ji which was a golden leaf’d temple (The Golden Pavilian). This was a very nice place, apparently so nice that the Shogun at the time decided he’d make it his, it is a very short walk through the temp and unless you wished to spend some quality time basking in the glow it’ll only take a few minutes as it did with us. Interestingly enough the temple was rebuilt in 1950 as it has burnt down by a monk who suffered a mental breakdown.

We had long been interested in seeing a rock garden as they’re a curious thing and they genuinely look serene, maybe they could impart some Zen on us, is that even possible? To get from Kinkaku-ji we walked about 15 minutes to Ryoanji (Temple of the dragon at peace) to see the tigress and her cub crossing a river. The walk was quite nice and we stopped by a Japanese wood block art shop Gallery Gado which had some really nice pieces, looks nice on the website as well if you can read Japanese. However on a trip donning backpacks purchasing a piece of art seems fraught with complications so we decided it best to leave it for purchase another time in the future remotely. After that we managed to make our way into the temple and stopped off for a look at the last of Autumn (the fifth season) in their beautiful garden pond. According to the brochure that was kindly given to us at the entrance the pond was made in the late twelfth century. And until recent years many mandarin ducks were seen on the pond hence why the temple was used to be known as the temple of mandarin ducks. Look like the ducks haven’t visited this place for a while… Surprisingly there were a lot of quite pretty woodpeckers and silver eye’d finches skittering about throughout the garden. The gardens are very nice, if it was Autum and not the fifth season this would’ve be spectacular. We had to move on, seeing everything in such a short time leaves few moments for idle thought and genuine appreciation of beauty.  Thus we headed off to the UNESCO heritage listed Zen rock garden. This famous garden was created around 1500 by a highly respected Zen monk. It appears as a rectangular (25 meters to 10 meters) and is completely different from the gardens of the noble people of Middle Ages. No trees, just 15 rocks and gravel. Now I must say at this point, don’t call us heathens, but I think we failed to appreciate the garden. Shuffled through the temple hustling with other tourists eagerly snapping away while shuffling along the viewing bench left not even the slightest Zen moment (is that even a thing) to be had. Instead it was a rather lovely raked garden with some nice moss covered rocks. We are quite sure that there is more to it than this, I’m sure with the correct explanation (maybe a guide would be a good idea) you would be able to see the tigress and her cub crossing the river. For future analysis we did manage to take a lovely panorama of the garden, you can download it, plug it into the TV and then tell us what it means.

From the temple of the peaceful dragon, we marched ever onward. We caught the bus toward the Imperial Palace which, we were going to skip, but then we figured maybe we’d regret this later in life when we could old manage a few steps from the bathroom. Upon arrival in the huge gardens you’re greeted with the lovely sight of a walled enclave and a large gravel road, in the fifth season gardens while green look like they’d prefer to be out of sight but otherwise its nice. We made our way to the entrace of the enclave only to see people going through if they had white papers. Upon further investigation we realised that you must be part of an organised tour to enter the Imperial Palace. Not only this but when they suggest you turn up at 1:40pm for a 2:00pm tour they’re neglecting to tell you that, there is only a 2:00pm tour. So if you want to go to the Imperial Palace in Kyoto, turn up at 1:40pm and if you miss it, you’ll have to try again another day. This meant that for us, we may regret that moment but there was simply nothing for it but to be more organised next time and forget about the incident.

Next stop was Kiyomizu. This was another one of Kyotos famous temples. This particular one has a large veranda where people had jumped from it and if they lived they would be granted a wish. Given that it’s a 13 meter drop onto a stone pavement and some terraces I am not surprised that only 14.4% (courtesy of the Wikipedia) of them survived. While not the top attraction in Kyoto area or quite away down the spurious trip advisor ‘top things of Kyoto’ list this was a lovely place and the sheer size/ grandeur of the structure can be seen well in the fifth season. This also seemed to be incredibly popular with the local residents (or at least Japanese) who were hiring/ wearing their best kimonos as couples, singles, girls together or families all together. This looked like good fun, although I believe dressing up in formal Japanese wear when you’re a westerner always looks a bit strange so we did not partake in the affair but enjoyed and photographed those who let us.

From Kiyomizo we walked down to Gion to see the fabled Geisha, or more likely a stage production at Gion Corner to see some of the traditional arts. While you wait in the cue for the Gion Corner production to by tickets you will get to watch a short film about Geisha and Maiko, this was pretty good. You need to cue up as you can’t reserve tickets and thus you need to get there early as the line builds up very quickly. The show itself is quite informative and covers several areas of traditional Japanese ‘historic’ culture such as the tea ceremony, flower settings, kyogen theatre, Gagaku Court Music, and Maiko dance. The performances were well done and the effort put into the staging was great, the problem was the audience who were disgraceful talking on phones, eating (packets of aromatic dried fish), drinking, talking, hundreds of phones up taking photos at all points babies crying. It was like taking something beautiful and doing all you could to wreck it. If they got rid of the audience this would be an excellent show.

After that we headed for a dinner which involved meeting a well versed Ukranian in a Japanese restaurant which seemed a little lost in translation but the food was great. We then caught a bus from Gion back to our hotel, now we should mention that you should be careful with the busses as unlike in Australia where a bus which follows a similar route but in the opposite direction has a different number in Japan they do not. This means that as we did, catching the 205 to return to our hotel (20 minutes away) resulted in an hour and a half journey through an enormous loop in the opposite direction. This was not clearly indicated in our hotel guide so it might be something worthwhile for other travellers to observe. If you wish to catch a bus, make sure you know which direction in the loop it’s taking before you hop on.

Day two of the fifth season has drawn to a close……