Kyoto: Day 2

We started our walking tour early Tuesday morning at Sanjusando Hall.  Inside are 1,001 gold covered wooden statues of the thousand-handed Kannon, carved from Japanese cypress during the 12^th and 13^th century.  It truly is a sight to behold, and since they won’t let you take any pictures, you really do have to see it for yourself.  The hall was rebuilt in 1266 and is almost 400ft long – making it the longest wooden building in Japan.  Seeing such an incredible dedication to their beliefs made me want to learn more about them.  But seeing how I’m not terribly religious, I might need to get “Buddhism for Dummies”.

Our plan was to go to The Kyoto National Museum, a World Heritage site, across the street after Sanjusando, but it’s just my luck that it was closed for renovations for the month.  Instead, we walked through the Otani Mausoleum and Toribeyama, where there are tombs as far as the eye can see – over 15,000 to be exact, on our way to Kiyomizu Temple.

Kiyomizu Temple is known throughout Japan for its grand views.  It resides on the top of Mount Otowa, with the main hall constructed over a cliff.  The larger wooden veranda is supported by 139 pillars, each 49 feet high.  The place is absolutely massive.  We got lost several times trying to find our way around.  Unfortunately, all the explanations were in Japanese, so I can’t really tell you anymore than that.  We watched men lining up to try to lift steel poles off the ground, no idea what for, but it seemed like fun, so we tried.  More than a couple young kids were amazed at the giant gaijin lifting it with ease.  His girlfriend? ...ehh not so much!

Below the larger veranda we stopped for a very Japanese lunch: soba, sake, and shaved ice.  *Shaved ice in Japan is nothing like America’s.  It’s served in big bowls.  The ice is light and fluffy, not crunchy, almost like snow, and they pour sweet milk and flavoring over the top.  The most common flavors are strawberry and green tea.

While we ate, we watched the Japanese wait for hours to drink from Otowa falls.  Kiyomizu literally means “pure water”.  I’m not sure if the Japanese think it has special healing powers or drinking it will bring you luck, but it could have been the best water ever tasted and you wouldn’t get me to wait for hours in the sun for a sip.  We could have spent all day at Kiyomizu, but we didn’t want to find our way home in the dark.

We walked down Sannenzaka street admiring the traditional goods and sampling sweets.  I had to practically drag Kirby out of the stores.  A tall American gaijin sampling everything isn’t very inconspicuous.  But we did get to try just about every flavor of mochi (green tea, chocolate banana, chestnut, cinnamon, sweet potato, strawberry, etc).  We also tried our first crepe, blueberry cheesecake.  The Japanese sure know how to do deserts.  Little did we know that they would become our customary breakfast for the next couple days.

We continued our wandering towards the giant statue of Kannon at The Ryozen Kannon Temple.  The statue is a war memorial for the Japanese that died during World War II and is 80ft high and weighs approximately 500 tons.  On to Maruyama Park, we viewed one of Kyoto’s most famous giant cherry blossom trees.  It will not bloom until the spring, but the sun slowly setting behind it still made quite a tranquil sight.  It’s at times like that I wish I had a DSLR camera.  My Canon Powershot is great for quick pics and party nights.  But its pictures don’t do justice for Japan.

We wandered the park, trying to play with wild cats (I’m still dying for something fuzzy of my own), and eventually walked out of the Yasaka Shrine into Gion, which was quite convenient since that’s where our hostel was.

Later that night we went back to Pontocho (and Kappa Sushi for Kirby).  After dinner we wanted to check out the bar scene.  So we went to The Hub, an English-style pub that was recommended for foreigners.  The atmosphere was right – wooden bar top and stools, taps, darts, and pool.  But all the details were wrong.  First of all, they only had Japanese beer – which should have been our first clue.  Everything was overpriced, too many drinks made with Redbull, and cocky Germans who pegged us as Americans the minute we walked in.  Let’s just say we only stayed for one drink.

So we decided to have a little party on our own.  Bought some Chu-Hai from the nearest combini and meandered down the main strip.  We found a crepe shop that served both breakfast and desert crepes!  *The Japanese don’t know how to do breakfast.  Unless you like having rice, miso soup, and fish for breakfast…  We even tried purikura (a photo sticker booth).  At first Kirby wasn’t so keen, but after my begging and pleading, how could he say no?

Unfortunately, we are stupid gaijin and walked around the machine for a half an hour trying to figure out how the dang thing worked!  Eventually we had to ask a nice J-girl how to do it (thank you liquid courage).  Taking pictures in a photo booth is fun.  But editing your own pictures is 10x more fun!  Foremost, the Japanese are obsessed with big eyes (like Westerners) so the machine automatically makes your eyes big and sparkly!  You can change your hair color, plump your lips, write messages, put a cute bowtie on…whatever, it does just about anything.  We probably spent 1 minute taking pictures and 15-20 minutes editing ours.  The nice J-girl even stayed until we were done to show us where the picture stickers pop out.  They are so overly cute and colorful; I want to put them on everything!  No wonder my middle schoolers are infatuated with it.

Wait…what does that say about me?