The next two days (or so) are somewhat a blur to me. Partially because I failed to make note of what occurred during our Kyoto days. My memories of Kyoto went along the lines of "Heaps of temples, even more shrines and plenty of walking".The day before we had visited a Tourist Information Centre (TIC) inside Kyoto station. Given our previous interaction with Japanese people we fumbled about the foyer looking for maps on Kyoto and possible sightseeing activities. Eventually we approached the desk for help, we were given an English map of Kyoto Prefecture, a walking guide pamphlet and a hand-drawn map of Kyoto downtown. We were set for Kyoto!
Since Kyoto had two full days of activities we needed to book another night of accommodation here at the APA. We enquired and found it to be approximately ¥18000 for the extra night. Which was quite the premium on the previous nights we had spent there. That was also without breakfast! It would have seemed that Asiarooms had hooked us up nicely with budget accommodation. Given that all our luggage was already in the hotel room we obliged and took on the extra night.
It had been decided that our first full day in Kyoto would be spent exploring the left hand side of Kyoto with the right hand side being left to day 3.
Our first stop was Kinkajuki Template aka The Golden Temple. We walked over to the bus stop which was conveniently situated right outside the station and caught a bus to the temple. Despite having maps at our disposal we were immediately lost the moment we stepped off the bus. Thankfully another group of foreigners were also sightseeing that day. We found the temple and paid the admission fee (the first of many). The Temple was stunning, set upon the banks of lake situated in the middle of a delectable Zen Garden. What would be a reoccurring theme we felt a slight injustice to our trip with the photo capture ability of our point and shoot cameras. If only we had access to a Digital SLR!
Unfortunately the whole first temple experience had a slightly organised feel to it. Crowds were taking turns to get that 'perfect' shot of the temple. People were ushered about following signs whilst herded around the garden. Nonetheless the temple was a nice little gem that impressed us both.
Following the instructions on our printed "walking guide" we followed the road down to the Ryoanji Temple. This temple contains a Rock Garden with the quipe "It is up to each visitor to find out for himself what this unique garden signifies" (Ryoanji Temple Guide). Talk about gender specific! This would also be our first interaction with a Pagoda (which isn't such the rarity in Japan). One thing about this trip is my grown appreciation Asian gardens. Japanese gardens are lush and exhibit almost every possible shade/tone of green textures and if you're lucky there might be an extravagant water feature.
5:00 pm By this stage the temperature had become an annoyance and walking had perhaps taken a toll on my poor feet. We had completed the left hand side and we were off to complete Central Kyoto. We walked around the huge Nijo Castle complex albeit closed we promised to come back another day. A short stroll down we winded up at the National Garden and Imperial Palace. It was rather disappointing. There's nothing spectacular about walking down gigantic pebbled roads in 28 degree heat on an overcast day. Tired wanderers dragging feet around the like a zombie with a checklist of 'must sees'. So gave way to our other catch call "This would be nicer in another season".
I'm not entirely sure but it may have been that we ended up at Ponto Cho that evening for dinner. What we ate and what the place looked like I can't really tell you.
No comments:
Post a Comment