Kyoto...the last of the current Blog entries for Japan. For some odd and inexplicable reason, I had it fixed in my head that Kyoto, being the old, imperial capital of Japan, would be a small, quaint place dotted with the odd temple or two and perhaps a palace...a little bit like one of our old cathedral cities, say York or even my own home town of Salisbury.
Wrong...very wrong. Kyoto is big, not on the same scale as Toyko but big none the less. There are very comprehensive bus routes and a rudimentary subway system, so that together with a population of around a million people, it's a fairly daunting place to get around. As ever though, everything is so well organised that it's really quite easy.
Kyoto sits in a bowl surrounded by hills. The central part of the city is a huge, modern complex of slabby skyscrapers and department stores, set out on a grid pattern in the American fashion, with all the older parks, temples and places of interest further out towards the hills.
The city also was the only place in Japan where we frequently saw the locals in the traditional...
...kimono, where it's accepted as perfectly normal, which of course...it is! One of our party mentioned that the way that the '
obi' or sash is tied at the back indicates if the lady is married or not, apparently the two in the picture above aren't. It's also an opportunity for a bit of...
...posing!
One of the highlights of our stay in Kyoto was a visit to
Nijo Castle, set in fabulous grounds. The complex itself is huge, but by clicking the link you can gain a pretty fair impression of the place. As a bit of a woodworker, the most fascinating thing for me were the series of...
...'
Nightingale Floors' (or Uguisubari) in the Ninomaru Palace that surrounded the most important rooms. I thought that they would give an ear rending, parrot like squawk, but the sound given off, especially when there were lots of tourists walking on them, was a delightful, muted squeak that was exactly like bird song.
There's a graphic set on the wall in the entrance showing how they were constructed some 400 years ago, which I photographed and tried to understand, but it still didn't make a lot of sense. It wasn't until we were outside the palace buildings, (where we saw a teacher pointing to something underneath the floorboards), that the penny dropped.
What seems to happen is that there's a special soft iron nail used, where the end has been flattened and clenched over so that a hook is formed. This then bears on an opening in the underside of the floorboard so that when fixed the whole affair is slightly flexible...pressure on top of the board from people walking on it moves the iron nail slightly which then rubs in it's slot on the underside of the floorboard producing the sound.
The gardens were equally stunning, with the quite deliberate placement of rocks and trees.
The last few days of our stay in Kyoto was at the Ryokan
Yoshimizu Inn, located in the foothills of Maruyama Park, some 30 minutes brisk walk away from the centre of the city. It's the very last building on outskirts of Kyoto, so that by looking out of our window we just had a view of the green woodland rising behind.
After staying at the anonymous, soulless,
Toyoko Inn in the centre of town, the ryokan provided a haven of peace and tranquillity.
One trip that we made was to the Arashiyama district on the other side of the city, using the No12 bus from
Gion Corner and thence by...
...a tram through the suburbs. Once we'd arrived, we made our way to see the unique bamboo grove that's around 200m long, where a kind of...
...arched canopy has been framed as the bamboo grows.
In roughly the same area of Kyoto is probably the most famous of all the temples in Japan, the aptly named...
...
Golden Pavilion, though the one shown in the pic is only around fifty years old, the original one having been burnt down by a mad monk!...and yes, it is covered entirely in gold leaf. Apart from this one, there are approximately 1600 other temples and shrines in Kyoto, one of the most impressive ones being the..
..Kiyomizu-dera, built onto the side of a hill. As with all the temples and shrines in Japan, there's always somewhere...
...to make a wish (why did I have to wear purple socks and a pink shirt?..beats me!)
There were crowds of people around, many of whom were the immaculately turned out Japanese school children, who frequently accost Western tourists asking them to write a letter when they arrive home...something I did quite soon when we returned to England.
One of the things to see at the temple are the famous 'Love Stones', two large blocks set roughly 15m apart. The theory is that if you can walk blindfolded between the stones without aid, you are destined to find 'true love.'
Every temple and shrine has a Tori gate, which are always painted a bright orange colour. The purpose of the gate is to stop evil spirits from entering the holy place and this particular one...
...was just outside the Heian Jinju Shrine. I'm standing someway in front of it, but those concrete pillars are some 3 or 4m wide at the base! The 4Km path up to the Fushimi Inari Shrine though...
...has a
thousand!
One of the many temples we visited had a traditional...
...Zen rock garden, with what appeared to be a...
...dragon slumbering within the gravel. Also within the grounds of the temple is a traditional...
...Tea House, where the famous
Tea Ceremony was performed (and still is) by Geisha..
...shown above, though this pic was taken from the Internet. By all accounts, it's quite difficult to see geisha in Kyoto, as there are many young girls who assume the costume and naturally hope to attract the attention of the camera wielding tourist.
However, twice a year the genuine Geisha perform a series of three act plays in local theatres around the Gion District and we were fortunate enough to see them. Taking pictures is strictly forbidden in the theatre itself, so the first three pics have been lifted from the Internet...
....but I did manage to sneak one off ...
...during the performance, for which I received a disapproving glare from a severe looking Japanese matriarch just in front. All was not lost though, because after the show, I managed to snap a pic of...
...the genuine article coming out of the theatre.
Kyoto seems to be
the place to get married and it's common practise to have the wedding photos taken a day or so prior to the event and I was lucky enough to take a swift picture of the couple below, taken in one of the many small shrines that dot the Maruyama Park.
We did though, see a couple of actual weddings at the Yasaka Shrine.
On my many and varied wanderings around the centre of the city, I came across the famous
Aritsugu kitchen knife shop, who've been making blades since 1560.
I'd wanted a decent set of knives for the kitchen for some time, so I didn't waste the opportunity and bought...
...a couple, each of which was engraved with my name!
This brings to a close the gargantuan entry on Kyoto and also this series of Blog entries for Japan. Normal service will resume shortly where you'll no doubt chortle about the many and varied cock-ups that still keep occurring in the 'shop!
