The Old Imperial Capital: Kyoto City

After 2 weeks on the island, I just took my first trip to mainland Japan and realized that THIS is what I came to see. It's such a beautiful city, with ancient temples and monuments that contrast so sharply to the 'old' buildings at home. Their restorations alone are older than our original buildings. It's a humbling experience.

We rented bikes for the two days we were in Kyoto and I'm still in the process of calculating the miles we covered, but I'd say it's easily around 40-50 miles total. Not counting all the hills we climbed without the bikes just to get to the mountaintops. Amazing experience, but I'll probably spend a couple days just sitting down to recuperate.

Anyway, it seemed that literally every street and neighborhood had a temple or castle, and it wasn't unusual for us to arrive at our destination only to realize we had stumbled upon yet another Buddhist temple instead. Our first stop was Nijo Castle, which ended up being practically next door to the hostel we were staying at. Nijo Castle is different than many of the other castles we saw because it has unusually ornate interiors and the famous "nightingale floors." The architects built the floors in such a way that the nails in the floorboards would rub against each other when walked upon and make bird-like squeaking sounds (purpose being to warn against possible intruders). All the tatami mat rooms were lined with beautiful life-sized paintings of pine tree forests, lions, peacocks and flowers. I wish I could have gotten pictures of these wall paintings to show you, but the guards were pretty strict about their no photo policy. I got yelled at for taking my shoes off on the wrong part of the mat, so I wasn't about to take any forbidden photos on that trip.

You can get a glimpse of the ornate decorations of this place just by the carvings on the Karamon Gate here. Check out the gilded peacocks and flowers on this gate!
Angie and I in front of the inner gate, less ornate and imposing than the Karamon Gate before it

As we were riding along to find the Philosopher's Walk, we suddenly stumbled onto Nazen-ji Temple, which literally rises out of the forest as this massive ancient building. This Zen temple has been around since the 1300s and is surrounded by pine trees, waterfalls and gardens. The pictures here don't do it justice, but the size of this Sanmon (entrance gateway) of Nanzen-ji can only be compared to the redwoods of California.


Hopefully you can see how puny I look in comparison to this gateway
One of my favorite places we stopped at was the Rokuon-ji Temple, although everyone knows it by its more popular name, the Golden Pavilion. Like most the temples and fortresses today, the present building is a restored replica after having been burnt down by several fires. There's actually an interesting story around this one: in 1950, a young monk burned it to the ground because, apparently, he believed that the aesthetic beauty of the pavilion detracted from religious concentration...or maybe he was just obsessed with the temple itself. Regardless, his arsonist act spawned a famous book by Mishima Yukio called The Golden Pavilion, and a movie as well.
This temple is breathtaking because it's completely covered in gold and it shines iridescently regardless of sun or clouds. If you've ever seen that golden dome of Notre Dame shining, you'll know what I mean...

I can see how this might get a little distracting. There are over 105 pounds of gold coating this temple!



Last stop of our day: Kiyomizu-dera Temple. Over 1,000 years old, and an absolutely massive complex. Climbing all the way to the main pagoda gives great views of Kyoto.


In front of the main gate leading to Kiyomizu-dera main hall (left); Main gate guarded by the ubiquitous shisa, a lion/dog talisman that wards off evil spirits (right)

View from main hall. Know the popular expression "just take the plunge"? It comes from the Japanese epression "to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu." This refers to a tradition that said if you were to survive a 13m jump from the stage, your wish would be granted. Believe it or not, 234 jumps were recorded in the Edo period (from 1603 to 1868). Even more surprising, 85% survived. Thankfully, the practice is now prohibited.
Funny part about this temple: the Jishu Shrine on the side of the pagoda is a shrine dedicated to Okuninushi no mikoto, the god of love and good matches. Thousands of pilgrims write their love wishes on wooden plaques called 'ema' and then tie them to the wall by the shrine in the hopes that their wishes are granted.


Love requests written and hung on the shrine (left); And what's up with the rabbit?? Well, in ancient history, when a rabbit gained what it wanted by deceiving others, it was forced to peel off its skin. Okuninushi was a nice god, however, and healed it and made it mend its ways. So that's why the rabbit statue is here...and I guess it doesn't hurt to whisper your requests to the rabbit as well (right)


ANDDDDD next post: Osaka!