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.