Kyoto - our accommodation

The Hearton hotel is located in the heart of Kyoto! The subway is 5 mins walk away, and many attractions are in walking distance






The rooms are verycomfortable, clean, spacious and well appointed. At an average cost of about $AUD 130.00 per night, it represents great value. We had a room with a really nice view towards the mountains to the east of the city.







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Day 5 - morning

After breakfast in Kyoto Station we caught the JR local service to Inari to visit the Fushima Inari shrine. Inari are Shinto shrines dedicated to the Kami (deity) of cereal crops and the Fushimi
Shrine is the 'head' one. It's particularly notable for the thousands of vermillion torii stretching over several kilometres.











 More photos of Fushimi Inari Shrine

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Day 5 - afternoon in Kyoto

Over lunch we made our plans for the afternoon. We decided to head for Toji Temple.
The Toji temple is a short walk from Kyoto station. The temple was establised in 796 and is the headquarters of the esoteric Shingon Buddhist sect.

The lecture hall contains a series of 21 wooden statues carved about 1200 years ago. Together they form a three- dimensional mandala, a concrete representation of Shingon Buddhist cosmology.

The complex also includes a pagoda built in 1644. At 180 metres it is the tallest wooden
structure in Japan.


More photos of Toji-ji










After returning to the hotel for a short rest we headed across to the Gion area for dinner. This is an area of the city where the older style of buildings and houses are preserved, or a least recreated. There are narrow streets and charming laneways disappearing to the sides. The only problem is that the discreet hand written notices and illuminted lamps don't indicate what's inside the various premises. Here is one very good reason to learn to read Japanese.

We eventually find an establishment that offers english subtitles. It is great to experience the traditional style of dining. We are beginning to appreciate why bean curd (tofu) is a Kyoto specialty. Amazingly smooth and creamy taste and texture - nothing like the packaged stodge we know as tofu in Australia.

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Kyoto Transport

Kyoto is a city well served by public transport. Trains on the city's various subways, railways and tramways run frequently (we waited no more than 5 mins every time we travelled) and are really cheap. We usually paid about ¥210 per trip (roughly $2.50). Train drivers and conductors all wear uniforms and have a parade ground standard of presentation, including spotless white gloves. Every train we rode in and every station we visited felt safe and was modern & spotlessly clean. There was not even the tiniest spot of graffiti, not a scratched window, nothing broken, torn, worn, dirty etc. Every station is manned by polite and helpful attendants, the ticket macines are easy to use (many have a button for English instructions). There are clean toilets everywhere. This is such an easy place to travel around in.
It was also the same the day we travelled to Nara - so convenient and fast!









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Day 6 in Kyoto - Nijo Castle

Its a beautiful sunny morning in Kyoto. As the castle is only a 15 minute walk from the hotel we decide to enjoy the sunshine and the attractive streetscape. The main Streets in the centre of the city are impressive wide boulevards with wide footpaths used by cyclists more than pedestrians. It's not unusual to see immaculately dressed men and women, young and old, pedalling steadily along often whilst talking on their mobiles. When it rains they just hold an umberalla in one hand. No need for that today!











Nijo was originally built in 1603 as the official Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu and completed by the third shogun, Iemitsu, in 1626.





The castle contains the amazing
Ninomaru Palace which consists of 33 stunning rooms occupying 33,000 square metres. Elegant, exquisite! The palace uses 'Nightingale floors' in the corridors which 'chirp' when walked on so as to prevent undesirables (Ninja?) from sneaking in and possibly bringing harm to the person of the Shogun. This amazing design stll works fine- with all the hordes of fellow tourists walking along the corridors (shoes off) it sounded like a whole flock of nightingales!





The surrounding grounds also include a variety of gardens and ponds all this contained behind a huge stone wall and moat.

From the castle we kept walking on to Nijo station on the JE Line

More photos of Nijo
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Day 6 in Kyoto - Ryoanji temple

We caught the JR service as far as Uzumasa Station, then walked a couple of hundred metres to catch the 'Randen' tram that would get us closer to our destination.






These cute little trams operate on a single tracks with signals and lots of passing loops.






From the nearest tram stop the temple is only a 10 minute walk. This particular Zen Buddhist temple which was founded in 1450 features the world famous rock garden. It consists of 15 stones of various sizes on beds of moss, all of these in a 'sea' of raked white gravel. The backdrop to this garden is a wall made of clay boiled in oil, resulting in the peculiar colouring and pattern.







The temple also, not surprisingly, is surrounded by another amazing garden. Most of the green on the ground is not grass but moss, acres of it!

More photos of Ryoan-ji and the fun of getting there

By this time the members of our group were getting pretty hungry so as we walked to our next destination we keep an eye open for a lunch stop. We didn't have long to wait as we soon passed a cute little traditional restaurant. Another memorable meal (chicken yakitori and rice, soba noodles in Dashi broth with deep fried tofu skin - perfect!!).









None of us has yet mastered the art of sitting at low tables with any degree of dignity or ease - fortunately a lot of the locals appear to find it a bit of a challenge as well. Time now to head off to the next destination.


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Day 6 in Kyoto - Kinkaku-ji

A short walk from Ryoan-Ji brought us to Rokuon-Ji Temple which contains Kinkaku, the Golden Pavilion.

Originally built as a retirement villa for the third Ashikaga Shogun Yoshimitsu in the 1390's, the pavilion is entirely covered in gold leaf and not surprisingly is surrounded by beautful gardens. Kinkaku-ji is said to look particularly exquisite after a snowfall, but it also looks impressive in bright sunshine.






 More photos of Kinkaku-ji

We returned to The city centre by JR bus and saw an interesting method of collecting the fare. Passengers enter the bus via the rear door, take a numbered ticket from a small dispenser and then consult an illuminated board at the front of the bus which displays the fare. Passengers then pay the driver when they alight. At first we were a bit worried by this as we had neglected to take a ticket on boarding, but realized it was a JR bus and used our rail pass!

After all these adventures there was still daylight so we walked from the hotel down to Nishiki Market to buy a knife for Andrew from Aritsugu (they've been making and sling knives there for hundreds of years apparently). Whilst Aritsugu were just closing lots of shops were still open so we purchased some supplies for a 'light' dinner in the hotel room.


-- Post From Geoff's iPhone