I had booked us a night at the super-easy-to-find and close-to-the-station, Tomiya Ryokan (a place I couldn't recommend enough) and we arranged an early check-in. The staff at the ryokan spoke English rather well and were very helpful, providing us with maps and directions to all the sights we had on our hitlist. Our room was a small, traditional Japanese affair - one shared tatami room with futons on the floor and a couple of easy chairs by a coffee table and refrigerator. It was functional cute but I wasn't looking forward to the snoring that'd no doubt keep me awake later! In any case, we dropped off our bags, freshened up a little, repacked some supplies to take with us and set off to find the Golden Temple.
Kinkaku-ji, or the Golden Temple, is one of the most famous sights in Kyoto and indeed all of Japan. It is roughly the equivalent to Burma's Shwedagon Pagoda - a Buddhist temple that has been covered in shining gold leaf. Of course, as it is listed as a World Heritage Site tourists cannot go near, into or touch the Golden Temple. Instead garden paths have been constructed to allow pilgrims almost 360 degree views of the 2-storey building.
We caught the bus to Kinkaku-ji and though it wasn't that far away from Kyoto's main station, with so many stops the entire trip took us nearly an hour. Stepping out of the bus into a blisteringly hot day didn't help matters and nor did the enormous crowd. Anyway, we paid our 500yen entry fee each, collected some reading materials about the temple and started down the garden path...
Kinkaku-ji
The Golden Temple
Our next stop was lunch and we headed up to the 8th floor of the Isetan (a department store in Japan) station building to find a restaurant. Dad was beside himself with glee - as this was to be his first Japanese restaurant meal - and decided on a rather classy tonkatsu place. We both ordered variations of the set lunch (crumbed pork cutlets, rice, miso soup, shredded cabbage, pickled vegetables) and after a short wait our huge meal trays came out. I could barely finish mine, but the crab croquettes and clam miso were highlights.
Kyoto Station
Dad getting excited over his first Japanese restaurant meal
After lunch we decided to visit the Fushimi Inari Shrine, located a 20-minute train ride out of Kyoto central. Once upon a time farmers used this shrine to pray for good harvest, but these days it has come to represent good fortune in business in general and many companies pay to have a torii gate erected bearing the company logo. Fortunately for us, all of the advertising is in indecipherable-to-our-eyes kanji and the shrine still looks as beautiful as ever. We wandered along the path for just shy of an hour, taking photographs and trying not to get eaten alive by the mosquitoes in such a woodland setting at dusk. Truthfully we could have taken the full path around the shrine (roughly 2 hours of walking) but with places to be and dinner to eat first, we decided to cut our visit short and head back to Kyoto Station.
Dad posing in front of the main temple rooms at Fushimi Inari
Acting like idiots along the torii gate path
On our way to the Imperial Palace Gardens we stopped at a combini to buy a light dinner and then began the walk to find the perfect viewing location for Daimonji... Every year at Obon time (12-15 Aug) the people of Kyoto arrange several bonfires on the mountains surrounding the city. Each fire is shaped into a kanji character that represents different things. The idea is that in lighting these bonfires, they are showing the spirits of their loved ones (who come to visit during Obon) the way home. The bonfires are visible from certain points of the city and it was at the Palace Gardens that we decided to pull up a pew and watch the world burn.
Dad at Daimonji
Unfortunately, our spot was a little far away from the action and though we could see clearly we didn't get as up close and personal as we both had wanted. We were also a little disappointed at forgetting to buy sake at the combini and managing to find probably the only two "dry combinis" in Kyoto within walking distance from our seats. Nonetheless, we watched Daimonji, ate our dinner and took photos using the closest zoom we could manage on our cameras.
On the way back to the ryokan we decided to stock up on more food and drinks, culminating in a mini impromptu party back in our hotel room where Dad tried sake for the first time. We also took the opportunity to visit the sento (public bath) downstairs and after a 20-minute soak felt as good as new. We ended up crawling into bed at around midnight and pleasantly, there was no snoring to be heard!
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