Golden Week (Part 2)

I could just about kill this computer. I had written more than half of this post already. I have been working on it for almost two weeks. I know I saved it. I clicked "save" every time I closed my computer, but I guess that's not as effective as the auto-save feature on this blog site, which didn't work either. As the Japanese would say, しょうがない (show-gah-nai), which means, "it cannot be helped". In other words, "Fuck it. Move on with your life." 
Now that my Golden Week ended well over a month ago, it is time for this post to go up. I'm still angry that the computer erased my previous post, so this one will not be as epic as if I was writing it for the first time. That doesn't matter either since my parents are the only people that read this and they've already heard all my stories. 
I believe I left off just before we all headed to Kyoto (京都). We left Shizuoka later than planned because we took some time to find the Toro Ruins (登呂遺跡) near my house, as well as, another photo sticker booth. 

That's my house in the back. Yeah, the random white one in the middle of the street!

The ruins.

Someone arranged our umbrellas like this when we ran upstairs to get our luggage. How nice.

We took the bullet train two hours to Kyoto and immediately checked into our hotel in the Kyoto Tower. We arrived later than planned and many of the temples close around 4:30pm so we took a side trip to Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社). This shrine is well-known for it's thousands upon thousands of red? orange? colored torii (shrine) gates that wind along a path up a mountain that leads to some mysterious place. We barely made it half way before we realized that dinner was a better option than dying in the crazy red? orange? maze, in the rain, might I add. After dinner at the station, we called it a night to rest up for our big walking tour excursion the next day.

Those are all folded paper cranes.

You can see how far the gates go up. We did not make it far..

Which way??

Yakisoba and Okonomiyaki!

 What better way to start a walking tour than to take a bus to the first destination, Sanjusangendo Hall (三十三間堂). This long building houses 1,001 golden statues of Kannon, lined up in stunningly gleaming rows. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed so I am unable to share the beauty and the intricate details on each statue. 

Aly owns Crocs. What has happened while I've been gone?

Area where they hold archery competitions.

 From there, we wandered down some random side streets and found the house and studio of a supposedly well-known Japanese potter, Kawai Kanjiro (河井 寛次郎); perhaps only among artists alike. We felt like giants in his little house, but it was really cool to see all the woodwork and pottery pieces he made in addition to the kiln he built himself. 

That's Kawai. 

This is the sitting room. So, we sat. 

 We then followed the road down to Otani Mausoleum (大谷本廟), a memorial hall for WWII victims. Just beyond the main hall is a sea of graves that slope upwards toward Kiyomizudera Temple (清水寺). This temple overlooks a cliff and offers fantastic views of Kyoto, and according to our well-informed tour guide, Aly Fried, this structure was built without a single nail. Within the temple grounds there is a smaller shrine dedicated to ♥love♥ called Jishu Shrine (地主神社). I'm not going to say we're desperate, but we're also not getting any younger, so we decided to check it out. There are a pair of rocks, one at each end of the shrine. If you can successfully walk from one to the other without looking, you will succeed in love. I didn't try it, but instead wrote my love life troubles on a piece of paper, then submerged it in water, and watched my words, "I need a man. Stat." float to the surface. We made our way down the long shopping street away from the temple and stopped for lunch at a restaurant that doesn't know the difference between pasta sauce and soup. 

Otani Mausoleum

GRAVES!

Aren't they pretty??

Kiyomizudera

Jishu Shrine  ♥    

 Right off the busy shopping street is Sannenzaka (三年坂), another cute shopping street that leads to Ryozen Kannon Temple (霊山観音) and Kodaiji Temple (高台寺). We didn't go to Ryozen Kannon, but you could see from the parking lot, the giant white statue dedicated to more soldiers who died in WWII. We did go to Kodaiji Temple and saw a beautiful garden. From here, we followed another path, stalked some geishas, and ended up at Maruyama Park (円山公園). This park would have been amazing if 1) we weren't so tired and 2) the famous old cherry tree still had blossoms on it. 

Sannenzaka

Geishas!

Ryozen Kannon Temple

Garden at Kodaiji Temple

"Cherry Tree" at Maruyama Park

 We finally made it to what we thought was our final destination at Yasaka Shrine (八坂神社), sometimes known better as Gion Shrine. It was still light outside and we had a bus pass, so I wasn't ready to head back to the hotel just yet. I suggested we visit the GIANT shrine gate at Heian Jingu Shrine (平安神宮). They were impressed with the large orange gate, but less than impressed by the closed-off shrine I made them walk to. My bad. We hopped back on the bus back to the hotel and then out to a sushi dinner. We somehow got a private little room where this guy came around and made sushi for us on the spot. It was the perfect opportunity for the girls to try out their Japanese skills, introducing themselves. Instead, we all turned into 12-year old girls, trying to force one another to speak, "No! You say it!" and then erupting in a fit of giggles. That poor man was so confused. 

Yasaka Shrine

Heian Jingu

It was closed.

Yukata photo shoot!

The next morning, we started early with a bus ride to Kinkakuji Temple (金閣寺)--the Golden Pavilion. This temple is my most vivid memory of Japan from my previous visits 13 years ago and it was still just as marvelous. From here we took a bus straight across town to my new favorite temple in Kyoto, Ginkakuji Temple (銀閣寺)--the Silver Pavilion. One would think that since the Golden Pavilion is painted gold that the Silver Pavilion would present the same illusion in silver. Right? Wrong. There's no silver, but there were a lot of people and really pretty views of Kyoto. 

Not so silver temple

We returned to our hotel, went to the top of the Kyoto tower, gathered our belongings and began the final leg of our journey to Osaka. Which will be in another post...I'm too tired. Until next time! またね！

View from Kyoto Tower

From Kyoto Tower

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New Vocabulary:
~芸者  geh-ee-sha  Geisha
~クスクス笑う koo-sue-koo-sue-wah-rah-oo   giggle
~間違った  mah-chee-gah-tah     wrong