Kiyomizudera - Temple in Kyoto

On Wednesday, the girls took off for Kiyomizudera, a very spectacular and famous temple in Kyoto. On top of that, it was the height of the famous Sakura blooms. Not to be outdone, we took our own pilgrimage to Kiyomizudera on Saturday. I do believe the girls got the better deal – primarily due to the number of pilgrims wishing to view this spectacular sight. Our trip was definitely one to remember.
This was a “spur of the moment” trip – hey…we haven’t been to Kyoto for Sakura. Yeah..and it’s the peak right now. The girls really liked Kiyomizudera – and it is famous. We could go see it…yeah, why not. That got us out of the house, onto the shinkansen, heading for Kyoto. When we arrived, we should have figured out that this was a questionable decision….EVERYONE got out at Kyoto and EVERYONE went the same direction in the station. We split up for the bus with Jeff holding a place in the bus line (very long) and me going inside to buy a day pass for the bus (also a long line). We made it onto the 3rd bus to come through (and believe me, it was squished, well-packed). Then came the drive, no, crawl to the temple. We frequently sat in one place, moving nowhere. When we moved, it was often one car length – remember, buses are quite a bit longer than a car. We inched our way down the streets, heading for the temples. After over an hour, it’s normally maybe a 10 minute trip, we made it to the stop for Kiyomizudera. EVERYONE got off the bus though I must admit I don’t know if it was because they were all going to the same place or because they were all disgusted and figured they could walk faster – which was true. Nevertheless, the majority of us took off across the street and up the road for the temple. We never saw a sign after the first one but we figured that following the crowd would probably work, it did.
It was indeed well worth the effort. The grounds and temples were spectacular.

Welcome to Japan

What a whirlwind trip we had with the girls!! Janelle and Janice hit the ground running on Wednesday and we didn’t stop until they left.
We had to introduce them to Japanese culture immediately…driving down the road. The perspective of sitting in the driver’s seat – where there’s no steering wheel – is a bit unnerving at first. Then add on the narrow roads and cars playing chicken…we had a few white knuckles. Before they collapsed we toured the school and took them out to their first meal of conveyor belt sushi. It does indeed have vegetarian options so Janelle and I had no lack of food to choose from.

Sakae

We had warned the girls that they’d wake up at 4am – we heard a few choice words at that time (they hadn’t truly believed us). It did give us the opportunity to have a leisurely start for the morning. We started right off with a tour of Nagoya. We went to a Hokusai exhibit; the illustrator famous for 36 views of Mt. Fuji as well as the “Wave” picture. Talk about a packed house! There was hardly room to actually SEE anything. We met Eriko for lunch, okonomiyaki, a pancake like dish with noodles and vegetables (and dead animals if you eat those) all fried up and served at your table. You pour on a spice sauce and mayonnaise (if you like that) and enjoy. We took off from there to wander the streets of Nagoya, the Sakae shopping area and introduced them to the joys of shopping when you’re illiterate. It does indeed give you a new perspective for the problems illiterate people face around the world.

Meiji Mura

The next morning we headed out to Meiji Mura. Now, for those of you who have read these blogs on a regular basis, you’re going to recognize the name. Fortunately, Jeff and I had been unable to see the entire place on our first visit so we wandered about the streets and hills with totally new things to see and marvel at. The Emperor and Empresses’ personal rail cars were on display. They were beautifully preserved and definitely plush and luxurious. Unfortunately, they were locked up so we could only look through the glass – fine for viewing but lousy for pictures. Check out the website for better views. Actually, this website has great pop-ups of many of the things that are available here. It’s kind of interesting if you want to check it out.
#12 on the map is the coach thing.

Inuyama Jo aka Castle

From there we headed up to Inuyama to check out the castle. This castle has the distinction of being the oldest castle in Japan but …they can’t agree on exactly “when” it was built. There are certainly many debates raging about it but being gaijin, we’ll consider it the oldest and enjoy the tour and the great view from the top.

Shinkansen to Nara

Saturday we took off for the first Shinkansen ride. We went to Nara first – just so we could stop by and feed the deer. Now these are not ordinary deer, oh no. They’re specially trained to recognize crackers in someone’s possession no matter how sneaky they might think they’re being. I bought the crackers and pawned them off on the girls immediately. The deer, recognizing a pass when they saw it, quickly moved in on the unsuspecting girls, nuzzling them, knocking elbows as well as nibbling at anything they thought they could get away with. The squeals were coming quickly and they were hard pressed to feed the deer fast enough (and I was hard pressed to stop laughing long enough to take pictures). No matter how much you think you’re going to get the “hungry” one on the far side, the more demanding ones will get in there first. It was hilarious to watch but over SO quickly.
We wandered through the temple grounds, checking out the world’s largest wooden building with the world’s largest indoor wooden seated Buddha seated on a sectioned lotus (I think that covers it). Despite the world’s largest issue, it truly is a spectacular statue.
We also went through the Isuien garden. This is a garden that represents the kind of Japanese garden that was common during the Meiji period (around the turn of the 20th century). Walking through the garden you encountered distinctly different types of gardens - quite relaxing. After this rich, cultural experience we took off for our hotel…in Osaka! No grass growing under our feet.