After breakfast we walked down to the first shrine through some small streets and along a long, very clean looking stream. Some kids and grandpa were fishing in it, and further down a man was making a display. You can see the display on our way back.
At the end of this little path you saw the first signs of the shrine. And its a big sign. This is the largest Torii gate in Japan and boy is it huge.
Through the torii gate and your at the shrine itself. Its huge. It was built in the late 1800's to celebrate the 1100th anniversary of Kyoto city, and is dedicated to Emperor Kammu, who founded Kyoto It is also dedicated to Emperor Komei who was the last emperor to live his full life in Kyoto, and who set the ground work for the Meiji restoration. The temple itself is based on the old Kyoto Imperial Palace, but at 3/4th the scale.
First shot is of the main gate then inside.
Here is a couple of the places where you wash your hands before you enter to pray. They just looked cool.
As you head to the main shrine area, to the left is a path that takes you through a large garden area that leads all the way around to the other side of the shrine. So of course off we went! As it was sunday it was free!
The first area is pretty confined by trees and follows a few small paths. It had a small stream and pond in it too.
The path leads out to a large pond area. You can see a herring sitting right near us in this pic.
The path keeps going and through a bit of woods, then your out into the next large pond. Covered in lily pads and having multiple paths, it also has a part where you can go over stone steps in the pond. We of course took that route. As did many others, so it was like move one step..wait..move one step...wait..still cool though! Of course, they had a sign saying if you slip and fall you can't sue.
Back on the actual path you come to yet another huge pond. It has a large bridge going to the other side with places to sit. Of course it was totally packed with people as you can see.
After crossing the bridge and taking a peak in the water (which as usual had koi and turtles swimming around) you are back to the main shrine grounds. We spotted a couple getting photos before their wedding (parents must be loaded to get married here) and then there is a shot of the main shrine.
That was it for this shrine! Outside you can see a huge wall of sake barrels. On the way back I took one last shot of the torii gate.
And here you can see what that guy I mentioned was building in the water. Its for a little art store.
Next up was supposed to be the Kiyomizu Temple, but we got sidetracked a lot, by me.
We stumbled upon another shrine, Yasaka Shrine. I didn't know till later, but this is a reallllly old shrine, built in the 7th century. First is a shot of the entrance then one of the guardians.
Inside they actually had a bunch of vendors on the main path for food and little souvenirs. Much of this place was actually being fixed up and restored so there is not a bunch of pictures. But here are the best ones.
After leaving here we were once again on the path to our destination, until about 20 feet from the exit of this place I spotted another interesting site to our north..so we headed up that way!
Will post about in the next one!
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