It's been a long couple of days, checking out from Tokyo and making my way (with help) to Kyoto, then doing lots of sightseeing, getting in late, and getting up early for my day tour today. First thing I want to say is that I had no idea about the earthquake until I read it on the BBC news website, so I'm absolutely fine. I'm staying on Kyushu (in Fukuoka) later on in the holiday, but that's right up on the outer edge of the impact zone (or whatever it's called), so it shouldn't have been too affected.
Back to the happier side of the holiday, then. Yesterday I got up early and headed over to the JR station to catch the Shinkansen to Kyoto. Dora came with me for a day trip, so I had some previous experience to rely on, which was incredibly helpful. Simply finding where to ask about tickets would have been a challenge!
The trains are amazing. The seats are wide, there's enough leg room for two people, and the train just doesn't end. I mean, it goes on forever. I stood on the platform and couldn't see the front or the back of it. I took a couple of photos of trains on other platforms, and I tried getting a panoramic shot of the whole thing, but my camera just wouldn't do it. No panorama is wide enough to capture the magnitude of the shinkansen.
The trip to Kyoto took 2 hours 45 minutes. To put it in perspective, the distance we travelled is equivalent to the distance between London and Edinburgh, a journey that takes 4 hours 20 minutes. And the shinkansen isn't even the fastest train they have. The nozomi trains take another 20 minutes off that time, and they're developing a maglev train that will go even faster.
To make a long story short, these trains are amazing.
Anyway, once we reached Kyoto, I dropped my stuff off at my hotel and we went to see what we could see. First stop was the Kinkaku-ji temple, or the Golden Pagoda.
I feel like I'm going to say this a lot, but if you ever come to Kyoto, come here. Be prepared for crowds - I'm not sure if there's a quiet time to visit, but middle of April isn't it. But despite the heaving mass of people, the temple and gardens are so beautiful it's impossible not to feel peaceful. I wish I could have taken that perfect picture to show you the perfection of the gardens, but even if I were a talented photographer I think it would have been impossible.
Incidentally, I visited Kinkaku-ji again today as part of my day tour - it was on Dora's list of things to see, and I didn't mind going twice, and honestly, day tours are so rushed I'm glad I had the chance to stroll around at my own pace. However, when I visited with the tour group, I managed to overhear that the pagoda in the picture is not the original one - that one was burned down in 1950 when a 'crazy monk' [sic] lit it on fire. It also has 20kg of 22 carat gold glued to the outside. Unsurprisingly, no one is allowed to get close.
After Kinkaku-ji, we went to the bamboo grove at Arashiyama. This is a long pathway througha bamboo forest, with clearings for shrines and little gardens, and occasional driveways for what I assume must be very expensive houses. I'm going to try uploading a video here, because I think you need sound to truly appreciate the walk through the forest.
There was a lovely breeze causing all that sway, and it was like being hushed to sleep. If only there'd been no other people there, I'd have been away. Although, on a scale of deserted to Kinkaku-ji, this was much closer to deserted, so that was nice.
These little guys were in one of the side-gardens. I assume you have to try and balance the money on them...? Or maybe it's just human nature. Anyway, I thought they looked so cheerful I just had to take lots of photos.
It was getting fairly late by this point, so we stopped for dinner then headed home. Fastforward to today.
We started today with a flying visit to Nijo Castle. It's been practically impossible to take decent photos today, what with the crowds and the lack of time, so I'll throw up the best ones I've got and hope they give you some idea of the places.
Nijo was, like Kinkaku-ji, absolutely beautiful. We couldn't take photos inside the castle, but the outside was beautiful enough. Here is the gate that greeted us when we arrived.
This was where the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu lived after he united a divided feudal Japan around 1600. Inside were lots of gold-leaf screens with paintings of trees and birds, and a thing called a Nightingale Floor. Despite the floorboards being made of enormous planks of (probably very heavy) wood, it's suspended with a long piece of wire running underneath, and a single person walking across it makes it move slightly up and down, which rubs the wire against a nail head, and produces a sound like a nightingale. This stopped assassins creeping up on the Shogun in the middle of the night, and our tour guide suggested using it to keep track of wayward husbands creeping home after dark! It was certainly in full song today, with all the people stomping around on it.
After Nijo Castle was Kinkaku-ji again (which I won't bother with a second time), and then came the old Imperial Palace. I'm uncertain if you can visit this on your own - our tour guide said that we had special permission to enter, and that security was very strict because lots of state administration things still go on here. Whether this was a bit of hyperbole, I'm not sure. However, we were definitely the only group there. There were still tons of people (6 coach loads, to be precise), but there was so much space it never felt that crowded.
I didn't hear much of the tour guide's speech for this visit, as I was always just a bit too far away, but the black building is part of the 'business' side of the Palace, and the red building is part of the shrine. The scale of some of the buildings was incredible, and the contrast between the shrine and the palace was breathtaking. If it wasn't for the security guards watching us like hawks the whole time, I would have taken a bit more time to get some good photos. But Japanese police are scary, so I didn't linger.
After the Palace came lunch (yes, that was all in the morning), and after lunch we drove out to Nara. For anyone who doesn't know, Nara is famous for these guys.
The white-tailed deer are sacred to Nara, and protected by the local government, so they are everywhere. They are the most docile creatures ever, and will eat anything you put in front of them. Before we got off the bus, the guide said 'Don't show important documents to the deer', and this is very good advice.
The other thing Nara is famous for is a monster of a temple, Todai-ji.
This building is so massive I can't put into words the feeling you get when you see it for the first time and then realise how fricken far away it is! And then, once you reach the building itself, you step inside and see this.
I've put in a shot from the side as well, so you can see just how massive this statue is. This is a daibutsu, or Great Buddha. It's pretty dark inside, so I was standing in the doorway for a good few minutes before I saw him, but once I did I couldn't see anything else. And he's sitting on lotus blossom petals that are completely covered with inscribed pictures and writing. You can walk all the way around him (and the two smaller buddhas either side) and see a bit about the history of the temple and the statues there. This, again, is a must see if you come to Kyoto. Make a day of it, rather than rushing like we were. It's a beautiful place.
The final stop of the day was a Shinto shrine close to Todai-ji, called Kasuga-taisha. Shinto is the original religion of Japan, while Buddhism is the newer religion, but they practice both side by side. This shrine had rows of stone lamps lining the hillside, and our tour guide explained that these are memorials for the dead. Paper panels with the person's name and details written on are placed over the holes at the top, and a candle is lit inside. Anyone who knows me probably knows I love my graveyards, so this was an amazing place to visit. There are no burials here, only memorials - the burials seem to take place in Buddhist graveyards - but it still had a very solemn air to it.
With the last shrine behind us, we headed back to Kyoto and a well deserved sit down. I am eating desert right now - a floppy triangle thing with paste or jam inside it - and I wish I knew what it was called so I could tell you all to eat it, because it's amazing. So I'm going to sign off now and finish my lovely triangles. Good night everyone, see you tomorrow!
Back to the happier side of the holiday, then. Yesterday I got up early and headed over to the JR station to catch the Shinkansen to Kyoto. Dora came with me for a day trip, so I had some previous experience to rely on, which was incredibly helpful. Simply finding where to ask about tickets would have been a challenge!
The trains are amazing. The seats are wide, there's enough leg room for two people, and the train just doesn't end. I mean, it goes on forever. I stood on the platform and couldn't see the front or the back of it. I took a couple of photos of trains on other platforms, and I tried getting a panoramic shot of the whole thing, but my camera just wouldn't do it. No panorama is wide enough to capture the magnitude of the shinkansen.
Front of an insanely long train, and somewhere in the middle of an insanely long train.
The trip to Kyoto took 2 hours 45 minutes. To put it in perspective, the distance we travelled is equivalent to the distance between London and Edinburgh, a journey that takes 4 hours 20 minutes. And the shinkansen isn't even the fastest train they have. The nozomi trains take another 20 minutes off that time, and they're developing a maglev train that will go even faster.
To make a long story short, these trains are amazing.
Anyway, once we reached Kyoto, I dropped my stuff off at my hotel and we went to see what we could see. First stop was the Kinkaku-ji temple, or the Golden Pagoda.
Kinkaku-ji
I feel like I'm going to say this a lot, but if you ever come to Kyoto, come here. Be prepared for crowds - I'm not sure if there's a quiet time to visit, but middle of April isn't it. But despite the heaving mass of people, the temple and gardens are so beautiful it's impossible not to feel peaceful. I wish I could have taken that perfect picture to show you the perfection of the gardens, but even if I were a talented photographer I think it would have been impossible.
Incidentally, I visited Kinkaku-ji again today as part of my day tour - it was on Dora's list of things to see, and I didn't mind going twice, and honestly, day tours are so rushed I'm glad I had the chance to stroll around at my own pace. However, when I visited with the tour group, I managed to overhear that the pagoda in the picture is not the original one - that one was burned down in 1950 when a 'crazy monk' [sic] lit it on fire. It also has 20kg of 22 carat gold glued to the outside. Unsurprisingly, no one is allowed to get close.
After Kinkaku-ji, we went to the bamboo grove at Arashiyama. This is a long pathway througha bamboo forest, with clearings for shrines and little gardens, and occasional driveways for what I assume must be very expensive houses. I'm going to try uploading a video here, because I think you need sound to truly appreciate the walk through the forest.
There was a lovely breeze causing all that sway, and it was like being hushed to sleep. If only there'd been no other people there, I'd have been away. Although, on a scale of deserted to Kinkaku-ji, this was much closer to deserted, so that was nice.
Tiny buddhas.
These little guys were in one of the side-gardens. I assume you have to try and balance the money on them...? Or maybe it's just human nature. Anyway, I thought they looked so cheerful I just had to take lots of photos.
BIG tiny buddhas.
It was getting fairly late by this point, so we stopped for dinner then headed home. Fastforward to today.
We started today with a flying visit to Nijo Castle. It's been practically impossible to take decent photos today, what with the crowds and the lack of time, so I'll throw up the best ones I've got and hope they give you some idea of the places.
Nijo was, like Kinkaku-ji, absolutely beautiful. We couldn't take photos inside the castle, but the outside was beautiful enough. Here is the gate that greeted us when we arrived.
One of the gateways to Nijo Castle.
This was where the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu lived after he united a divided feudal Japan around 1600. Inside were lots of gold-leaf screens with paintings of trees and birds, and a thing called a Nightingale Floor. Despite the floorboards being made of enormous planks of (probably very heavy) wood, it's suspended with a long piece of wire running underneath, and a single person walking across it makes it move slightly up and down, which rubs the wire against a nail head, and produces a sound like a nightingale. This stopped assassins creeping up on the Shogun in the middle of the night, and our tour guide suggested using it to keep track of wayward husbands creeping home after dark! It was certainly in full song today, with all the people stomping around on it.
After Nijo Castle was Kinkaku-ji again (which I won't bother with a second time), and then came the old Imperial Palace. I'm uncertain if you can visit this on your own - our tour guide said that we had special permission to enter, and that security was very strict because lots of state administration things still go on here. Whether this was a bit of hyperbole, I'm not sure. However, we were definitely the only group there. There were still tons of people (6 coach loads, to be precise), but there was so much space it never felt that crowded.
Imperial Palace and Shrine.
I didn't hear much of the tour guide's speech for this visit, as I was always just a bit too far away, but the black building is part of the 'business' side of the Palace, and the red building is part of the shrine. The scale of some of the buildings was incredible, and the contrast between the shrine and the palace was breathtaking. If it wasn't for the security guards watching us like hawks the whole time, I would have taken a bit more time to get some good photos. But Japanese police are scary, so I didn't linger.
After the Palace came lunch (yes, that was all in the morning), and after lunch we drove out to Nara. For anyone who doesn't know, Nara is famous for these guys.
Deer eating someone's ticket.
The white-tailed deer are sacred to Nara, and protected by the local government, so they are everywhere. They are the most docile creatures ever, and will eat anything you put in front of them. Before we got off the bus, the guide said 'Don't show important documents to the deer', and this is very good advice.
The other thing Nara is famous for is a monster of a temple, Todai-ji.
Look at the tiny people.
This building is so massive I can't put into words the feeling you get when you see it for the first time and then realise how fricken far away it is! And then, once you reach the building itself, you step inside and see this.
The daibutsu, front and side.
I've put in a shot from the side as well, so you can see just how massive this statue is. This is a daibutsu, or Great Buddha. It's pretty dark inside, so I was standing in the doorway for a good few minutes before I saw him, but once I did I couldn't see anything else. And he's sitting on lotus blossom petals that are completely covered with inscribed pictures and writing. You can walk all the way around him (and the two smaller buddhas either side) and see a bit about the history of the temple and the statues there. This, again, is a must see if you come to Kyoto. Make a day of it, rather than rushing like we were. It's a beautiful place.
The final stop of the day was a Shinto shrine close to Todai-ji, called Kasuga-taisha. Shinto is the original religion of Japan, while Buddhism is the newer religion, but they practice both side by side. This shrine had rows of stone lamps lining the hillside, and our tour guide explained that these are memorials for the dead. Paper panels with the person's name and details written on are placed over the holes at the top, and a candle is lit inside. Anyone who knows me probably knows I love my graveyards, so this was an amazing place to visit. There are no burials here, only memorials - the burials seem to take place in Buddhist graveyards - but it still had a very solemn air to it.
Gate with stone lamps.
With the last shrine behind us, we headed back to Kyoto and a well deserved sit down. I am eating desert right now - a floppy triangle thing with paste or jam inside it - and I wish I knew what it was called so I could tell you all to eat it, because it's amazing. So I'm going to sign off now and finish my lovely triangles. Good night everyone, see you tomorrow!
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