Sfter the bustle and fuss of the last few days, I decided to take it easy today. Somehow, taking it easy involved walking up a massive hill in 25oC heat, then bussing it across town to a huge temple garden. But compared to yesterday, it was still a lazy day.
I took a little while to get started, as I was busily hunting for information about my next-but-one stop, Hakata (Fukuoka). The information desk at Kyoto station suggested that it wouldn't be a good idea to head down to Kyushu at the moment, but that the trains were running into Hakata. This wasn't an official opinion, just her own thoughts, but it seems fairly sensible (and a fairly predictable line from someone in her position). On the other hand, various travel forums are saying that Fukuoka city is absolutely fine and that there's no need to worry (with reference to friends and relatives living in Fukuoka). I suspect it's all okay, but I've e-mailed my travel company to see what they suggest. No decisions yet, but I've still got 3 days.
Back to today. At about 11am I boarded a bus to take me across to a temple called Kiyomizu dera. The fact that the queue for the bus went half way around the bus station hinted that the route was a popular one with tourists, and getting off at my stop confirmed it. The road up to the temple was busy, very steep, and not at all shaded. The sun was absolutely blinding, and half way up I wished I'd put shorts on (I hate shorts). Still, the view from the top was amazing.
There were so many people I decided not to pay to get into the temple proper, so I wandered around the free bit and took loads of photos. Also, after 6 days I think I'm starting to get a little shrine-blind. Maybe I need a little break.
So with that thought in mind, I wandered off to find some lunch and plan my afternoon. On my way to lunch I encountered a little shop that sold food on sticks, so I started lunch with a huge lump of squid and something 'onna stick'.
It was huge, and it was lovely, but it wasn't quite enough for a meal, so I found a little place that did gyozas. This was possibly a mistake. Don't get me wrong, the food was beautiful, but for ¥840 (about £5.40) I had a meal that was fit for two of me. And there's a lot of me. Gyozas, omlette, tofu, rice, and egg-drop soup. Whoever says Japan is expensive is clearly not eating in the right places!
Afterwards, since I was sitting pretty heavily in my shoes, I felt that a nice stroll would be just the ticket to help lunch go down, and breaking my morning promise to take a break from shrines, I decided to visit the Toji temple. Well, I had to go, didn't I - it's the tallest pagoda in Japan, and that sounded like something I ought to see.
The pagoda, while being the tallest in the country, has never fallen to an earthquake. Fire, sure. Practically every temple and shrine I've shown you has burned down at least once in its history, either because of lightning, fireworks, crazy monks, or people going 'screw you Buddhism!' (This last one apparently happened a lot in the 19th century, when Japan met America and started to westernise their culture.) This particular pagoda has burned down more times than I can recall (at least 4), and the one you can see here is from 1644.
As you can see, there are some beautiful gardens within the temple grounds. (I feel, at this point, calling any garden in Japan 'beautiful' is a bit of a given.) I spent a long time making friends with a crane (at a distance - the friendship was one-sided) which was sunning itself by that pond, and trying to photograph the Koi carp without them staring suspiciously at me. Seriously, I never realised that Koi were such beady-eyed fish. One rushed over to me when it saw me sitting by the water, then when I didn't feed it it backed away, giving me the evil eye the whole time. Creepy.
Toji temple is only a block or two from my hotel, so I had a nice stroll back, then wandered around the shopping malls for a little while. There was nothing in the Gucci or Dolce & Gabbana stores that I liked the look of (ha!) but I bought some omiyage (a souvenir, usually edible, that is pretty and sharable, like a box of sweets) for people back home. And I discovered the name of the triangle food I mentioned yesterday - it's called nama yatsuhasi. I had some strawberry ones, and now I have chocolate and banana just waiting to be opened.
That's it for today. I'm planning on visiting the national museum tomorrow, as it's forcast to be a bit rainy. Hopefully that'll be the shrine break I was thinking of. Sayonara!
I took a little while to get started, as I was busily hunting for information about my next-but-one stop, Hakata (Fukuoka). The information desk at Kyoto station suggested that it wouldn't be a good idea to head down to Kyushu at the moment, but that the trains were running into Hakata. This wasn't an official opinion, just her own thoughts, but it seems fairly sensible (and a fairly predictable line from someone in her position). On the other hand, various travel forums are saying that Fukuoka city is absolutely fine and that there's no need to worry (with reference to friends and relatives living in Fukuoka). I suspect it's all okay, but I've e-mailed my travel company to see what they suggest. No decisions yet, but I've still got 3 days.
Back to today. At about 11am I boarded a bus to take me across to a temple called Kiyomizu dera. The fact that the queue for the bus went half way around the bus station hinted that the route was a popular one with tourists, and getting off at my stop confirmed it. The road up to the temple was busy, very steep, and not at all shaded. The sun was absolutely blinding, and half way up I wished I'd put shorts on (I hate shorts). Still, the view from the top was amazing.
The view from Kiyomizu dera.
There were so many people I decided not to pay to get into the temple proper, so I wandered around the free bit and took loads of photos. Also, after 6 days I think I'm starting to get a little shrine-blind. Maybe I need a little break.
So with that thought in mind, I wandered off to find some lunch and plan my afternoon. On my way to lunch I encountered a little shop that sold food on sticks, so I started lunch with a huge lump of squid and something 'onna stick'.
Squid onna stick.
It was huge, and it was lovely, but it wasn't quite enough for a meal, so I found a little place that did gyozas. This was possibly a mistake. Don't get me wrong, the food was beautiful, but for ¥840 (about £5.40) I had a meal that was fit for two of me. And there's a lot of me. Gyozas, omlette, tofu, rice, and egg-drop soup. Whoever says Japan is expensive is clearly not eating in the right places!
Afterwards, since I was sitting pretty heavily in my shoes, I felt that a nice stroll would be just the ticket to help lunch go down, and breaking my morning promise to take a break from shrines, I decided to visit the Toji temple. Well, I had to go, didn't I - it's the tallest pagoda in Japan, and that sounded like something I ought to see.
Toji pagoda.
The pagoda, while being the tallest in the country, has never fallen to an earthquake. Fire, sure. Practically every temple and shrine I've shown you has burned down at least once in its history, either because of lightning, fireworks, crazy monks, or people going 'screw you Buddhism!' (This last one apparently happened a lot in the 19th century, when Japan met America and started to westernise their culture.) This particular pagoda has burned down more times than I can recall (at least 4), and the one you can see here is from 1644.
As you can see, there are some beautiful gardens within the temple grounds. (I feel, at this point, calling any garden in Japan 'beautiful' is a bit of a given.) I spent a long time making friends with a crane (at a distance - the friendship was one-sided) which was sunning itself by that pond, and trying to photograph the Koi carp without them staring suspiciously at me. Seriously, I never realised that Koi were such beady-eyed fish. One rushed over to me when it saw me sitting by the water, then when I didn't feed it it backed away, giving me the evil eye the whole time. Creepy.
Zoom in, if you can. The little beggar is almost dead centre.
Toji temple is only a block or two from my hotel, so I had a nice stroll back, then wandered around the shopping malls for a little while. There was nothing in the Gucci or Dolce & Gabbana stores that I liked the look of (ha!) but I bought some omiyage (a souvenir, usually edible, that is pretty and sharable, like a box of sweets) for people back home. And I discovered the name of the triangle food I mentioned yesterday - it's called nama yatsuhasi. I had some strawberry ones, and now I have chocolate and banana just waiting to be opened.
Strawberry nama yatsuhashi
That's it for today. I'm planning on visiting the national museum tomorrow, as it's forcast to be a bit rainy. Hopefully that'll be the shrine break I was thinking of. Sayonara!
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