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Nishi Honganji Temple
Between all 5 of us taking and sharing pictures, plus Jesse's drone shots there are lots of pictures in this post. I hope you like them! (And we're even in a few of them! We're much better about taking photos of ourselves when our friends are here lol).
Tomato
We stayed at a renovated machiya, which are traditional Japanese town houses, and there are a lot remaining in Kyoto. Our first order of business was to find food.
A quick google search brought us to "Tomato" a Japanese hamburger* place nearby. We were the only people there, and the couple running the place were lovely. He did most of the cooking while she helped and served us. She had a bit more English than I do Japanese, so with the occasional help from translation software, we had a lovely time. She took a immediate liking to Adnan, commenting on his beard and serving him extra rice with the already large and delicious multi-course supper. We took a photo with the two of them as we left, although selfies late at night with a street light behind you are tricky to take well.
*In the same way we have our own versions of foods from other cultures, the Japanese have created "hanbagu". It's a loosely packed beef patty, generally with onions and other seasonings mixed with the meat, served without a bun and with a demi-glace sauce instead. It is eaten with chopsticks, rice, and usually a side of cooked veggies.
Nishi Honganji Temple
Kyoto is a very historic city. Since it was largely spared bombing during the Second World War, and it was the capital of Japan until 1868, Kyoto has retained much of it's history and has a different feel from many other Japanese cities. There are lots of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines which we explored. It is fascinating how Buddhism and Shinto co-exist throughout Japan.
This temple was a short walk away from our Machiya. It is one of Kyoto's largest temples, very central in the city. It was also bordered by a small moat with many Koi fish swimming around!
One of the things that stood out to me most was the size of the wooden columns for the Temple. They are completely solid pieces of wood made from a single tree, and they are MASSIVE. Easily as wide as my shoulders. There was a small diorama depicting how they would load a single tree onto a large boat and float them down or drag them on sleds.
Kamo River, Pontocho
For supper one night we went down to "Pontocho", a popular dining and nightlife area next to the Kamo River. There were nice walking paths along both sides of the river for the entire distance we walked, and restaurants had raised patios for patrons to dine at.
There was also the Yasaka Shrine nearby, which is very pretty at night because they light hundreds of lanterns every evening. It is also in a fairly large park, and has smaller shrines branching off of the paths.
Arashiyama - bamboo forest
While in Kyoto we also visited Arashiyama. It's a district within Kyoto with a range of outdoor attractions. We started the day with a bamboo grove. It reminds me a bit of going past all the telephone pole "forests" in Canada where the tops are the only parts with foliage and it's just a sea of trunks as far as the eye can see.
It has been interesting seeing different flora and fauna. I just realized I haven't seen a squirrel in however many months, and here in Sendai there are a lot of Gingko trees, including the female ones that produce interesting smelling fruit. Most of them are still hanging onto their yellow leaves, and I saw a pretty Japanese maple tree the other day in a nearby park whose leaves were a deep red. (Below is a one of Jesse's drone photos and in the bottom right you can see the different tops of the bamboo forest)
After the bamboo, Jesse wanted to fly his drone a bit to get some interesting photos and I found a lovely lookout to the river below. We had hiked upwards quite a ways and after taking some photos, resting, and admiring the view we hiked down to the river on our way to continue our to-do list for the day.
The river was quite busy! There were pedal boats, kayaks, and traditional japanese boats filled with groups of people all coming and going. There was also a traditional boat that had a small outboard motor fitted on, and it had been converted into a store (bottom left photo). It would pull up alongside other boats as they passed by, and people could purchase a selection of drinks and snacks right there on the water.
A riverside selfie with the help of the drone
(Above: A couple more of Jesse's drone photos, these ones were taken from the lookout at the top of the park)
(Below: A video compilation of Jesse's drone shots from Arashiyama)
Iwatayama Monkey Park
In the Arashiyama area, there is also a Snow Monkey park on top of Iwatayama. This and the bamboo forest were the main reasons for visiting the area. It's quite the climb to get up to the top, but there's a very well developed path. You see practically no monkeys on the way up, but eventually it opens up to a clearing where there is most of the group. Pretty neat to see them just chilling there, doing their own thing. Sometimes they would chase each other around, or drink from the pond, or start grooming each other. Fun to just sit back and observe.
At the top there was also a small building that you could enter, and there you could buy small bags of cut apple or other foods to feed the monkeys through a fine mesh on the windows if you wanted. There was also a fence around the building so no tourists wandered into the monkey's feeding space. They made sure the rules for interacting with the monkeys were very clear as you walked up. (1) Do not show them food, (2) do not look them directly in the eye, and (3) keep your distance. I also appreciated the staff at the top watching to be sure the rules were followed.
Biking Across Kyoto
Considering how much fun we had biking in Kinosaki Onsen, we decided it would be a good idea to rent bikes in Kyoto too! So in the early afternoon, we grabbed 5 bikes and headed off. It was a little tricky cycling on the narrow city streets, but we got to our destinations without much trouble.
Fushimi Inari Shrine
This shrine is famous for its thousands of Tori Gates. There's a fairly large wooden Tori Gate at the entrance, and then many many smaller ones throughout the grounds of the Shrine. We didn't have enough time to explore the whole Shrine, so the group split up to explore on our own. Marlena and I grabbed some food and delicious Daifuku (filling wrapped in mochi topped with a strawberry). Then it was going through the Tori Gates up the mountain. At one point, we diverted off the main path to explore a smaller shrine and ended up in a mini bamboo forest.
Kiyomizu-Dera Temple
The route to this Temple took us up a very steep road. Marlena and I had regular bicycles, so it was a bit of a struggle to get up. The rest of the group was on electric bikes and barely even noticed the 10° degree incline. Outside of the temple, there were a couple of nice shopping streets. At the temple, there were some impressive and beautiful looking structures. Nothing too fancy, but definitely a good stop along the way.
Yakiniku Dinner
This was a fancy dinner that Sammi had scheduled well in advance. Yakiniku is a place where you get slices of raw, usually marinated meat and cook it yourself on a little grill in front of you. The set we ordered came with multiple different cuts of very high quality meat. One of the cuts was apparently so high quality that they wouldn't let us cook it ourselves, instead one of the staff had to come over and cook it for us. Very tasty!
And finally, here are a few more silly pictures from Kyoto
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