Kinkaku: the Golden Pavilion

Described as the second most famous sight in all of Japan (after Mt. Fuji), this temple was definitely not to be missed.  As a bonus, we happened to be there on a Saturday when one of the local colleges offers volunteer English tour guides at select sites, including Kinkaku.

Leading up to the main event . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 2nd and 3rd floors of the pavilion are covered in gold-leaf (not gold paint, actual gold).  Originally built in 1397 as part of a retirement villa for a shogun, the property was converted to a temple upon the shogun’s death.  The pond is called Kyoko-chi, meaning Mirror Pond.

A bronze phoenix crowns the building and, according to myth, is supposed to protect it from fire.  The phoenix hasn’t been particularly effective though, as the temple was burned down in 1950 by an obsessed monk.  It was reconstructed according to the original design in 1955.

Here we are!

I’ll be honest, I don’t really get Zen gardens.  According to our guide, the tree (which is over 600 years old!) is supposed to symbolize land and the stones symbolize the water/ocean.

There are a number of very famous Zen gardens in Kyoto; most of which we didn’t see, partly because it seemed like a rather bad idea to bring a 2 1/2 year old to a carefully arranged pile of rocks.

A classic tea house known as Sekka-tei, meaning “Favorable Sunset Teahouse”, referring to the view it provides of the setting sun reflecting off the Golden Pavilion.

A parting shot of the pavilion.    

A brief interlude amid the sight-seeing: we stopped for lunch at a little noodle shop/cafe and I snapped this picture not long before Naomi grabbed Jake’s bowl of noodles and dumped the entire thing into his lap.

The afternoon’s activity: Nijo Castle.

To-ji

Fushimi-Inari (see below) was Shinto; our afternoon adventure was of the Buddhist variety.  Toji is one of the oldest temple grounds in the city, built when the capital was moved there in 794 as one of a pair of guardian temples on either side of the southern entrance to the city.  It burnt down several times, so most of the buildings now standing date from around 1600.

Toji is a temple of Esoteric Buddhism and was the home of Kukai, the founder of Shingon Buddhism.  (Do you know what that means?  Because I don’t really know either, but there you have it.)

An idea of the scale: Logan is there in front of the gate.

The five-story pagoda is the tallest in Japan at 187 feet.  One of the symbols of Kyoto; they have even used it their marketing for the New Year.  This year is the year of the rabbit and, for Kyoto, one of the rabbit ears is this pagoda.

As usual, Logan’s interests are elsewhere.

The pagoda was interesting, but even more fascinating were the multitude of statues inside the various temple buildings.  Unfortunately, for preservation reasons (and possibly for religious reasons as well) you can’t take photographs inside.

A crysanthemum, symbol of the Japanese emperor, lays at the bottom of the stand for burning candles and incense.

Much more still to come from Kyoto . . .

Fushimi-Inari-Taisha

Day one in Kyoto dawned bright, clear and crisp.  Surprisingly, while it was definitely colder than Oki, it wasn’t the bone-chilling sort of cold that I expected/feared.  Humid cold vs. dry cold and all that.  Wanting to knock out the biggest must-do’s first in case the weather or child-related factors made things difficult later on, we started off with some pretty impressive, once-in-a-lifetime sights.

First up: Fushimi-Inari-Taisha, a Shinto shrine complex located on Inari-san (Mt. Inari).  Fushimi-Inari was dedicated to the gods of rice and sake in the 8th century, but now is devoted to ensuring prosperity in business and industry.  It is the head shrine of some 40,000 Inari shrines scattered throughout Japan.

The stone fox is a well-known symbol of the shrine; there are dozens of them around the site.  The fox holds the key to the rice granary in its mouth and is considered to be the messenger of the god.

Fushimi-Inari is a very popular place to make your hatsu-mode, first shrine visit of the new year.  Luckily we arrived about a week after most of that was over with and therefore missed the crowds.

New Year’s decoration in front of the monastery.

Getting your fortune for the New Year is very important.
  Pull the ribbon to ring the bell and get the god’s attention.  (Anyone else thinking about Elijah and the prophets of Baal?)

 A monk rushes out to begin a service.

This rather amused me.  There was a smaller shrine containing what looked a lot like a carousel horse and someone had left it some carrots. 

But the real attraction here (for the tourists), is the torii gate trail behind the shrine.  Thousands of torii gates form a 4 kilometer tunnel through the forest.  We weren’t able to walk the whole thing as Logan was getting rather hungry and antsy, but it was distinctly impressive.

   Next up: the tallest pagoda in Japan.

Kyoto

Kyoto was fabulous—a great city to visit.  So much history and beauty!  I really think you could spend a month there and not see everything.  Not exactly the number one city for a toddler and an infant, but we made it work. 

Before we get to the sights, I’ve got some odds and ends from the city to show you.  Two of the images that exemplify, for me, the city of Kyoto, I saw within my first few minutes in the city when I was too busy rounding up kids and bags to snap pictures.  The first image was a small family Shinto shrine set up right in front of the giant Nintendo headquarters building.  The second was a Buddhist monk in robes and sandals chasing after a bus. 

The capital of Japan for over a thousand years, Kyoto is said to be where the Japanese come to learn what it means to be Japanese.  The city center is a mass of modern steel, glass and concrete, ringed by a maze of wood and paper temples, shrines and traditional neighborhoods like Gion, the famous geisha district.  Then, just beyond the houses and apartment buildings, Kyoto is surrounded on three sides by mountains.

View from our hotel window.

Our pocket-sized Japanese hotel room.  Very cozy but sufficient for our needs. 

Naomi seemed to like it well enough.

Logan’s favorite part?  The multiple forms of transportation that we took most every day—subways, local trains, city buses.  Never-ending fun!

The experienced travelers.

  
Oh, and it was cold!  We stayed well-bundled the entire time we were there.  It even SNOWED!

We were definitely able to use the sweater that Aunt Sarah (SG) made for Naomi.  Thanks!


My one disappointment with Kyoto was the playgrounds.  We found four different playgrounds while we were there, but they were all really pitiful, ill-equipped and/or run-down in comparison with the ones we are used to here in Oki. 

On the flip side, one of many particularly cool things about the city was how bike-friendly it was.  There were a ton of people on bikes, bike lanes on the sidewalks, bike racks next to all the subway entrances, even little bicycle parking lots at many places throughout the city.  I saw several parents toting two kids around on their bike—one in a seat on the handlebars and another on a seat over the back tire.  I think I need a bike equipped like that!

Did you know they can grow oranges in Kyoto in the winter?

The rest (of this post) are all just random street scenes that I liked for one reason or another.  Hope you enjoy them as well.  I’ll be back with the really exciting stuff very soon.