Kyoto I

When I was a little boy, I can remember seeing on TV the blockbuster hit that had all the kids in school talking, Big Bird Goes to Japan. You know the one where he out bows the old lady? Anyways, in that movie he ends up in Kyoto where he meets some little girl who ends up being some princess from the moon (not to be confused with the life size, creepy, dancing monkey... that was Big Bird Goes to China. Well ever since watching that movie, I had always wanted to go to Kyoto; which is probably one of the biggest national/international tourist spots in this country. This past Saturday, we made the trek.

I don't want to explain all the history of the city, nor do I think anyone would care but, will include for starters this little snippet from the Internet on the city.

Kyoto was the capital of Japan and the residence of the Emperor from 794 until the Meiji Restoration of 1868, when the capital was moved to Tokyo. During its millennium at the center of Japanese power, culture, tradition, and religion, it accumulated an unparalleled collection of palaces, temples and shrines, built for emperors, shoguns, and monks.

Whenever you are looking at a book on Japan and it shows those old stereotypical Japanese pagodas and wooden buildings more likely than not, those pictures were taken in Kyoto. Anyways, as the article says, this place was the center of Japan until America forced Japan to open its doors to western trade and the capital was changed to where it is now. With that being said, you can imagine that there is a lot of culture and architecture to be had there. Because we are so far from anything, we had to wake up pretty early in time to get there in time to have any time to see anything. Try saying that three times fast. We got up Saturday morning around four, so we could leave the house and be at the train station by five-fifteen. As you can see in the pictures, the station looked pretty busy. Well, three transfers and three hours later we found ourself pulling into Kyoto around nine in the morning.

After a few minutes of getting settled and finding our bearings we took off to a place called the Sanjusangen-do which is famous for having over a thousand of the same statue in this building all surrounding an even bigger, exact same statue... only bigger. All made of wood and all (once) covered with gold leaf. Very cool and very interesting. Taking pictures inside is forbidden but, here are some snaps I stole from the net.




As can be said with any photo taken, these don't do the site any justice. I am not quite sure the tie but, somehow Buddhism has a relation with Hinduism and some of the statues in this building are Hindu gods adopted into the Buddhist teachings. Maybe like how when the Romans took over the Greeks they merged their religion with the Greeks, or something along those lines. A place I would have loved to had taken pictures but, I guess in my memory will have to suffice for now.

Next we took a little walk to a famous place called the Kiyomizu temple. For lack of being able to write anything creative about it I will copy and paste an entry of the place from wikitravel and then write my comments underneath.

Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺). This temple complex, with a spectacular location overlooking the city, is a deservedly popular attraction, approached by either of two tourist-filled souvenir-shop-lined streets. Highlights of the temple complex include;

* The main hall's wooden veranda, supported by hundreds of pillars and offering incredible views over the city.

* Jishu-jinja, the love-themed shrine selling countless charms to help you snag the one you love, and featuring two "love stones" positioned around 18m apart which the lovelorn must walk between with eyes closed to confirm their loved one's affection.

* Otowa-no-taki the temple's waterfall, which gives it its name (Kiyomizu literally means 'pure water'). Visitors stand beneath the waterfall, and collect water to drink by holding out little tin cups.

Anyways, I have a few pictures of this place in the slide show at the top but, still have a lot of pictures to be added so, don't think that those are it, because they aren't. Anyways, got to run to class. Will write more later.