Temple Entrance in Kyoto

Wednesday: Temple Walks in Kyoto

The next morning we took advantage of Hirota’s hot shower and deep bath and then headed out to more adventure. We ate a western style breakfast at an upscale French Boulangerie and then strolled through murky summer weather in a covered arcade filled with bustling shops offering Thai Goods, 100 Yen shops, High Dollar goods, tourist dreck and more. Then we pointed ourselves back toward Gion and uphill towards a string of temples in the Eastern Hills above Kyoto. Here we strolled through a half dozen immense temple complexes: the Yasaka, Kodaji, and Rynzen Shrines, each of which contained a peaceful enclave of shrines and outbuildings. We strolled southward through the beautiful hillside shops surrounded by high school students and international tourists shopping for knickknacks while rain poured down. As our trip took us higher uphill we came upon a crescendo of vending. We were actually getting nearer the World Heritage Shrine of Jishu and the Kiyomizuera Temple. This was immense complex of ancient buildings, fountains and shrines over a peaceful valley with views of downtown Kyoto. We drank from a holy fountain and viewed the temple from a number of spots along the general pathway that wound around the site.

Upon leaving this complex we wound our way down through the Nishi Otani Cemetary and Mausoleum which was packed with thousands of cemetery plots, grave stones and shrines to the departed of Kyoto. It seemed like we’d walked for miles but we just kept going through the busy streets of southeastern Kyoto toward the Sanjusangendo Temple (via an extra long detour around the Yogen-In Temple where Krissy was rebuffed by a female attendant and asked to leave the temple for some unknown reason). Sanjusangendo is Japan’s longest wooden temple structure built in the mid 1200’s and it contains 1001 statues of the Buddah, along with many historic and valuable statues of other Buddhist deities. It is also the traditional place of an annual archery tournament to honor Buddah and those who enter the contest fire as many arrows as they can for as long as they can across the full length of the temple grounds.

After a few hours at Sanjusangendo we hit the streets again, this time toward the the modern temple of Kyoto Station. This vast and modern station was more impressive to me then the few of the 3000 temples in Kyoto. This was vast beyond my imagination with more than a dozen elevators leading up to a rooftop garden with views of Kyoto, Kyoto Tower and the mountains of Kyoto. The station was designed to resemble to mountains with a massive canyon/valley between them and it’s an incredibly striking edifice the likes of which I have never seen in the states. We wound our way down it’s many flights to a place called the Cube, a strange conglomeration of stranger restaurants. We strolled across a flying skyway on the 11th floor over the station and then took a dozen escalators back down to the ground floor to wander through yet another bizarre department store basement food court.

Here we succumbed to the cute but coercive force of a senior citizen Sake Saleswoman who talked us into purchasing a bottle of “desert sake.” A few moments later, after strolling down several mall ways lined with restaurants we found a decent meal at a Soba & Tempura Joint. You’d think after 11 hours of wandering around Tokyo we’d get the hint and take a subway back to to Hirota Guest House but instead we wound our way uptown by way of a number of air conditioned Department Stores and back though the sweaty humid streets. At one point while slightly lost I asked a bunch of Japanese Punks with no English skills where a particular street was, but their response was not all that helpful.

When we got back to Hirota, Sunshine gave us a bottle of 1998 Commanderie du Bontemps Medoc Red wine as a gift in honor of our 10th wedding anniversary. Following a bout with the world’s worst corkscrew we drank about half and crashed hard.

Thursday – Last moments of Kyoto and on to Hakone

The following day would be our last few hours in Kyoto before heading via Shinkansen to the mountainous weekend getaway of Hakone. We had another French Boulangerie breakfast and then wandered toward Kyoto’s Imperial Palace Park: a wide open, under utilized park in the middle of town. We say several groups of guy playing Baseball, a bridge over yet another pond full of Koi and then we exited and wound our way west toward Nijo-Jo Palace. Here I paid Y 600 each and we toured this ancient Shogun’s palace filled with painted and gilded rooms, castle walls, a moat and a no photography policy due to the state of the ancient artifacts. This facility was filled with many touring high school students and a few Gaijin (western tourists). We did the tour circuit through the many gorgeous paneled rooms of the Shogun and also wandered through some of the royal gardens and ponds.

A Glimpse of a Royal Garden in Kyoto

Finally we wound our way back to Hirota to say goodbye. The 1200 Yen I spent at Nijo Jo Castle left me somewhat short of cash and I was short in my ability to recompense Sunshine for our two night stand at the guest house so I wandered out to find an international ATM Machine; a rare entity in Japan. Initially I had a great deal of confusion finding an ATM but was directed to a post office. Unfortunately this ATM would not accept my pin number and I was simply out of luck. Plenty of personal frustration ensued by I headed back to Hirota to apologize and wound up paying $40 US (about $8 too much) to Sunshine to cover the gap.
Sunshine bids us farewell. We talked of San Francisco, and that she should call us if she ever returns to the US. Upon our departure she tells us she knows the owner of Fuji-Hakone guest house, our hotel in Hakone, and that we should say hello to Mrs. Takahashi at Fuji Hakone Guest house on her behalf.
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Laden with backpacks we walk & subway back to Kyoto Station. It takes me a bout 20 minutes by I manage to find the one International ATM in the basement of the Kyoto Tower Hotel, across the street from the Kyoto Station. Our next challenge is trying to figure out which Shinkansen to take to Hakone as it is not a major stop on the Shinkansen Super Express line. A clerk informs us we must stop at a station called Odawara. In the meantime I purchase gyoza and beer while Krissy buys ham, egg and cheese sandwiches. Finally in a confusing encounter I notice a Japanese Rock Band and I ask one of its members to point us to right platform. He tries to explain in broken English about three different types of bullet trains (local, express and private) and like clockwork; we take the wrong train – a Nozomi (private train) with only three stops. Soon we are asked to move to another car by the conductor. This is a bit of a drag since the car we are on is so plush with it’s wide seats and wall to wall carpeting but we head back one car from this beautiful first class car to the front 2 seats of a much less glamorous car where we finished our hastily eaten snacks and exited only to browse a few minutes at Nagoya Station while we wait for the right train. This is a nothing much gained situation as Nagoya is an industrial city and all the shops in the station are filled with western fashions and tourist schlock.

We finally get aboard the right train to Odawara, but my decision to put us in Hakone for two nights turns out to be less than an acceptable to Krissy. The positive or negative of Hakone remains to be determined. Japan rolls by in a blur out the windows of the Shinkansen train

Disembarking at Odawara we stumble around like morons looking for a Hakone “Free” Pass only to stupidly by a 2 day instead of a 3 day pass which means we will lose whatever discount we might have gained by paying for our bus fair down the mountain when we return to Odawara station. Oh well – another travel lesson learned. We also have no luck with any of the bank machines so I decide to use my credit card as much as possible. To add insult to the injury of feeling like blithering idiots we are soon informed by a taxi driver that we are at the wrong end of the Terminal for busses departing for Hakone, so we stumble back across the terminal to bus queue #4. Soon mild panic ensues as the bus begins to depart. We are arguing about who has the bus passes.

A friend we’ve met, “Peter, “ from Melbourne, Australia informs us that the bus is leaving, so we manage to find our tickets and get on at the last minute.