The site was established in the 8th century and the current buildings built in the mid 17th century. The temple name means Pure Water, which comes from the fact there is a small waterfall in the temple that comes from the mountain its built on.
This place, like many of the famous ones, was packed with tourists as well. However it didn't diminish the atmosphere as it did for me before. The first picture shows the main gate into the temple. Next is the stairs leading up to it and then a 3 story pagoda. Sadly I couldn't get a picture, but in that green fence area in the main gate are two gods that look down at you as you enter. Kaze-sama and Raiden-sama, the gods of thunder and wind. They had these really creepy huge life like eyes watching you as you go in.
I couldn't get a picture of the area you walk onto next, but here it is from the other side, you certainly get the gist of it. This is the main temple. Not a single nail was used in the building of this temple.
There is an expression in Japanese "Kiyomizu no butai kara tobioriru". It means to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu, which is the same in English as saying "To take the plunge". It came from the belief that if you could jump off the main balcony and survive the 13 meter fall, your wish would be granted. Sounds like something people would simply say, however over 200 people are recorded to have done it and about 85% survived. This is now banned, of course. No word on if those wishes came true or not!
Here is some shots of the view from standing on that balcony. In the last picture you can see where the waterfall comes out. I should also mention the balcony kind of slopes down a bit near the edge. A tad creepy.
Here is a shot showing more of the main area. The green roof you see is a big tarp covering a building that is being restored.
After here you walk back down to the bottom and along the way you pass the waterfall. It runs out into 3 separate steams and there was a huge line to drink from it. It will give you goodluck and healing. However to drink from all 3 is considered greedy and will give you badluck! I didn't care to stand in line for 20 minutes so on we went!
Here is a couple shots looking up at where we were. Really wonder how anyone survived that jump! Also really gotta admire the work that went into this place. Don't forget it was all done in the 1600's..amazing they could build such a place.
After this we headed off back the way we come to find some very much needed lunch/dinner.
Here is another shot of that super busy street, and a of a large pagoda. After that is an old Kabuki theatre (huge line up outside for that one!)
Here is another shot of that super busy street, and a of a large pagoda. After that is an old Kabuki theatre (huge line up outside for that one!)
We planned to go shopping after the dinner, so we got lunch over near the shopping area. Here is a shot going over a bridge to get there. Those are mostly restaurants overlooking the river.
We went to a store that specializes in Omurice (Japanese omelet). We shared a Japanese KFC and french fries. I got a omurice that had ketchup inside, beef stew sauce and a cream korokke (the Japanese version of a croquette) on top. Naomi had a fish egg sauce (the same she had with her pasta at the Italian place we went to before actually) on hers with nori (dried seaweed) and green onions. They were amazing! You got to pick how many eggs you wanted and different types of sauce inside the omelet as well. So cool.
We pulled ourselves out of the restaurant booth and down to the shopping area. We spent a good couple of hours picking up souveniers. The area was the same design as the big shopping area you saw in Osaka and Hiroshima, and my friend Nathan showed me pictures of Okinawa that has the same kind of thing. I guess this like this style, I do too. Here are various shots from that place!
The last one was a hobby store with a great name that I forced Naomi to go too. It was mostly all for card games (like Magic the Gathering etc) but had some model stuff too. They had a tiny shelf with GamesWorkshop stuff on it which made me happy! The place was full of young guys playing cards around tables too. Felt like I was back home again.
That wrapped up the Kyoto trip! Dead tired we headed back to the station and arrived home late that night. A great time for sure.
Next up is our second adventure to Kobe!
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