In contrast to Tokyo, Kyoto was a city full of historical and natural sights. It's a great city to visit for a temple buff, or those who want a slightly quieter place to explore to escape the busy-ness of Tokyo.We took the bullet train using our JR pass straight down to Kyoto, where we headed down to the bus depot area to catch the 205 to Kinkakuji Temple. There is also a tourist center in the station where English speakers can assist visitors with transport routes.
Kinkaku-Ji is in no doubt a main tourist destination for anyone visiting Kyoto. We walked through a pretty scenic garden before arriving at the ticket box. The tickets come in a nice calligraphy written piece of paper so it made for an authentic keep-sake.
Visiting the golden pavilion for the second time around, nothing much has truly changed. The gold painted shrine still stood out shining among the forest and mountain scenery surrounded by the lake. We were able to walk around and take different scenic shots of the shrine before ending by a small temple.
Judging from the amount of coins around the small buddha stone shrines, people have been aiming their yens into the well or food bowl in the center for luck.
Bus 204 allowed us to travel from Kinkakuji to Nanzenji temple, where we could also walk down Philosopher's Path (cherry blossom area as mentioned in the previous posts). Ideally it would be a great idea to start at Ginkaku-ji Michi Temple (different from the Golden Pavilion) where the start of the Path is and walk down towards Nanzenji. But due to time constraints we were only able to visit Nanzenji. Plus the famous UNESCO Kiyomizu-dera temple was being refurnished so unfortunately we couldn't visit it either.
The spacious temple grounds of Nanzenji consisted of an impressive looking wooden Sanmon Gate and a long wide path leading towards the temple itself. The outer grounds are free to roam around, with a fee to enter the temple itself.
My crochet Charmander posing in front of the temple.
Fushimi Inari Taisha would definitely be the hallmark of Kyoto with their series of red Shinto shrines famously seen in the film Memoirs of a Geisha. Visiting the shrines in the evening had a more 'eerie' feel and look, and hiking to the top of the mountain was near impossible without freezing our butts off and returning late in the evening. Nevertheless, I will certainly return to Inari Taisha during the day and spend more time hiking through all the shrines.
The town of Arashiyama located on the west side of Kyoto is another well-known picturesque destination, mainly the bamboo forest. Coming here was quite simple, again via the train system towards Arashiyama station on the JR Sagano Line. On the way towards the bamboo groves, we passed by Tenryuji Temple which is the top Zen temple of Japan and a world heritage site. Payment is required to enter the temple and garden itself, but we were still able to enjoy the outer arena and smaller temples.
The main road along the way to the bamboo grove was chock full of tourists, with many tourist stores and restaurants on either side. There are clear signs pointing towards our destination, so it wasn't hard to find the entrance into the forest.
Below was one of the temples in the forest we visited, where couples can fill out a wooden plaque of their dreams and wishes regarding their relationships.
Finally we passed Kyoto Tower Hotel at night outside Kyoto station before training back to our accommodation in Osaka.
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