5/15
For the last two days, we spend only the first halves of the day exploring, while the second halves were spent in department stores. The first day, we went to the famous Kinkaku-ji by bus. The temple is pretty far away; it took about 45 minutes to get there. We had read from other blogs about how crowded this place could get, so we decided to go early. It didn't matter though; the place was packed with students from multiple schools. While the temple was pretty, the atmosphere was kinda ruined by the sheer amount of people squeezing past or reaching out to take photos.
Did my best to crop out the crowds...
Along the route, there were numerous statues with bowls which people would try to throw coins into. I got one in after the third try!
The bird on top of Kinkaku-ji is not a rooster, but a phoenix!
A shrine at the end of the path.
The wooden block would hit the metal plate whenever someone pulled the rope, making a deep, ringing noise
The route around Kinkaku-ji was pretty short, and we were eager to leave the huge crowds, so it was time to hop onto a bus for Ryoanji temple. Ryoanji is known for its iconic rock garden, where the pebbles are raked into lines around fifteen stones dotting the garden. Scientists have actually tried to decipher the meaning of the garden, which I think is going a little over the top! The explanation of their methods in the Wikipedia article (which may or may not be accurate) is pretty interesting though.
Along the way, there was a large pond that was blanketed with beautiful pink/magenta water lilies. The path itself was surrounded on either side with lush greenness.
The temple itself was dark inside; the majority of light came from the long opening to the rock garden. The temple had a very long step where people could sit before the garden and contemplate its design. The light drizzle that was going on also helped add to the mood. An ideal place for spending time in solitude on a less-crowded day.
Miniature rock garden!
We were still kind of hungry after that, so we looked for a green tea dessert shop that my mom had heard about. It turned out to be on the tenth floor, and we were able to sit in front of a large window overlooking the front of the station!
Each of us ordered something different so that we could try as many things as possible.
Green tea whipped cream with green and red tea jellies, red bean paste, yellow chestnuts, and green tea and vanilla ice cream.
Same thing except with plain and red tea rice flour balls, and vanilla ice cream.
Green tea ice cream with red bean paste, chestnuts, rice flour balls, and clear jelly noodles on the bottom. On the right is a black sugar sauce to pour over everything.
For the rest of the day, we explored Kyoto station's department store until 7:30pm, when we once again rushed to buy discounted food in the basement supermarket. It was a shorter day, but it was also a good break from yesterday...
Light show on Kyoto Station's stairway!
5/16/14
The rain stopped overnight, and we were greeted the next day with deep blue skies and perfect temperatures. Today's destination was a city about forty minutes away from Kyoto called Nara. Nara's main attractions are all gathered around the large Nara Park, so it's pretty convenient as a day trip. We took the Kintetsu line, but accidentally boarded the Limited Express, which was all reserved seats! Luckily, when the ticket master asked for our tickets, he accepted the ICOCA cards that we initially used to get through the gate.
The train zoomed through Kyoto, which gradually gave way to suburbs, then countryside.
Wrong train! Kintetsu Limited Express is orange.
Kind of similar to Taiwan's countryside!
The remains of Heijo Palace near Nara.
Nara was the last stop, so we didn't have to worry about when to get off. The city outside of the station looked really nice; there were a lot more trees and there weren't as many people in business suits. Nara Park was close by and we walked there in only ten minutes. That was also when we spotted our first Nara deer...
!
In fact, there were deer all over the place! They were walking and lounging around, completely unafraid of humans. These were sikha deer; smaller than the white-tailed deer in Michigan, with a reddish coat and occasionally white spots. There were also numerous stands along the sidewalk that sold deer cookies so people could feed them. It was sometimes a little scary though, because all the hungry deer would mob anyone holding cookies, sometimes even nipping at the person's bag or butt. The ones with uncut antlers were especially intimidating!
All three of them were waiting for people to buy some cookies...
O_O
The vendor had to push its head away because it was trying to steal some.
None of us had the courage to feed the deer yet, so we moved on.
It was such a gorgeous day...
Our first stop was at Todaiji temple. In addition of tons of people, there were also herds of deer lying in the shade nearby or weaving through the crowd to get to people with deer cookies.
???
Some of the deer had beautiful, reddish fur.
There was a gigantic stone statue guarding either side of the temple gate. At first, I was a little confused by the very "dramatic lighting" that the statues appeared to have, as it didn't match the lighting of everything else. Once I looked closer though, I realized that the statues were painted black in the folds of their clothes and where the shadows would have fallen on their bodies.
Once we walked through, we passed a large pond and came to a great, red gate.
Behind this long gate was the largest temple I've ever been to. The sheer size of the structure along with the sprawling green yards and blue sky created a dream-like scene to me.
This building, the Great Buddha Hall, held the world's largest bronze buddha statue. Indeed, it was HUGE...it was almost as tall as the ceiling. It was easy to see why people considered this temple to be an important place of Buddhist worship. Every sound echoed around the vast space, as people snapped photos and walked through the various exhibits in the hall.
Bishamonten, a guardian of the temple.
When we went back out through the gates, I finally decided to try my own hand with feeding the deer! Fortunately, most of the deer were lying down in the shade, but there were still a few hungry individuals. Feeding them was actually quite fun, despite getting nipped once and having to nudge them backwards. I also suddenly remembered that someone had made the deer bow before giving them a cookie, so I tried it out. It worked! We bowed to each other multiple times, and I gave them a piece of cookie each time. :)
Ran out of cookies.
"I'll have ten, please."
Our next stop was Kasuga Taisha, a temple famous for the pathway lined with beautiful stone lanterns that leads up to it, as well as the rows of lanterns hanging from the temple itself. To get there, we passed through the park, and I fell in love with Nara even more. The entire atmosphere of the area was very laidback, yet sunny and alive.
The path to Kasuga Taisha wound through a forest of tall, dark trees. Initially, there were very few lanterns, but gradually they appeared in larger and larger numbers. Even then, there were a lot of deer. They wove in and out between the lanterns and trees, either following the flow of people, or stopping to rest under the trees.
This guy suddenly got spooked by something and leaped vertically into the air!
"Excuse me, you dropped your homework."
We finally made it to the top where Kasuga Taisha was, but my mom and grandma wanted to sit and rest, so I went in by myself. There were only a couple people inside the small grounds, so it was very quiet, even if there were a lot of people milling around near the entrance. These people also left soon after I came in, so I was now alone. The exterior hallways were all lined with rows of gorgeous metal and golden hanging lanterns. The breeze made a soft whistling noise as it blew through them, but none of them moved.
On the other side, the hall was covered in long, white banners with red writing. They fluttered gently in the breeze, making a deep, flowing sound. I couldn't help standing around for a while, listening and watching them.
After I came back out, we walked around some more and then returned to the strain station to go back to Kyoto. This time, we took the Kintetsu Rapid Service, which no one checked tickets for! At Kyoto station, we waited again for the discounted food at the supermarket, and then brought the food back to the hotel for dinner.
Anyway, that was the end of the last day in Kyoto. It had been a hectic and tiring four days with tons of walking, but I got to see a lot of really amazing and beautiful things. :)
