Been awhile! Apologies. Been a couple very busy days and more quiet ones hanging around the house and neighbourhood. We spent Christmas day travelling to Kyoto and visiting a few temples and doing some shopping. It was a very long day and not my average Christmas. More on that later.
One of the parks near Naomi's parents houses has been a good place to go with Charles and we have been a few times. Has a big field and park area, though it is mostly all to big for him. He still manages to enjoy it. Here he is sporting the new sweater Naomi got for him.
They have little cages around every sandbox you find. It is a neat idea actually and keeps them quite clean.
The other day we stopped by a bakery near there for lunch. Couple sandwich buns (fried chicken was one, ham and other stuff ), a curry filled fried bun, a normal sandwich with ham and cucumbers and sesame seed bread, a bacon and pepperoni bun, and for desert a walnut cinnamon bun and sweet potato pastry. Delicious!
As I mentioned we headed to Kyoto on Christmas. I may have taken a picture of this before but this is the platform for their subways. No way to fall on the tracks! Instead it feels like being inside a space ships airlock. The train doors line up perfectly with these and there you go! Safely hop on board!
On our way to the temple planned to go to Naomi half haphazardly mentioned this one we were passing was where her grandmother (dads mother) was half buried. Wait, half? In her religion (Jodo-shu, a variation of Buddhism) when your body is cremated (not fully to ash, still with bones) the remains are put into 2 separate boxes. One box goes to a 'main' temple which the person belonged (which may not be close by to family, its just like a parent temple basically), the other goes to your local temple. Naomi mentioned her grandfather donated a lot of money to the temple and thus her grandmother got an extra fancy funeral with high ranking priests!
I of course insisted we then had to go! It turned out to be a really neat detour. This is the Chion-in Temple. It was established in the 1200's but burned down and was rebuilt in the 1600's by the Tokugawa Shogun and still remains the same to this day.
After going through the gate shown above, and up a long road you get to the main gate, the Sanmon. This was built in 1619 and is the largest surviving structure of its kind in Japan.
A shot through the huge doors you enter.
And somebody climbing through.
After that you head up these terribly tiring stairs. They are rather largely spaced and you get pretty tired at the top! Charles walked the whole thing though.
Right at the top on the left is a small pagoda.
As we got up there a guide mentioned to us that we came at a really neat time! Apparently 101 student priests were graduating and in the middle of submitting..something..to the main temple. They had paper in their hands and were chanting while walking from one temple (above) into the main one. It was really something. I took a video and if you listen carefully, or crank the volume, you can hopefully hear them. That and Charles dragging his feet through beloved gravel.
Another shot of the small pagoda.
So as is the theme of this trip, we were in a great shock to find that yet again, the main feature was covered while being repaired and fixed up. Totally this time, in an ugly metal structure. So ugly I didn't even bother with a picture. But here is one from the internet to get an idea of what we were missing. Apparently it is huge inside.
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Down the road we there is another small temple over a small stone bridge. It had a large incense burning cauldron that you could add a stick to for 50 cents!
And another building. Most likely one of the guest houses, again from the 1600's.
Up these stairs off another path..
Leads you to this massive bell. They ring it on new years eve 108 times. Must be something to witness!
As we headed down another path we, as far as I know, left these temple grounds into a park. Here lies the danger with Kyoto. Not danger to ones self, but the danger to a properly planned schedule. Go to one temple and it can lead you constantly into another temple and another and another if you follow the right paths. Until you finally put your foot down and pull yourself away.
This was a shrine (if you recall when they have those specific gates, Torii gates, it means shrine) that we passed on the road leading out of Chion-in beside a small house.
Inside the park was a statue of Sakamoto Ryoma. As it turns out we were entering places we visited last time through different routes. Pretty neat. If you forget who he was check back in the older ones as I am pretty sure he popped up often!
Across a bridge in the park! This place is apparently amazing in the spring/summer.
This pond was full of HUGE koi fish swimming around, as you can see below. Charles are more interested in the ducks.
This bird statue (meaning unknown) is in front of a large Sakura tree, that is unusual because the cherry blossoms bloom facing down, as opposed to up facing the sun.
Down another path we inadvertently ended up in a shrine we had visited last time! So you might see pictures in the blog from before. They were setting up for new years and had a bunch of to be filled booths everywhere.
Here was a mini shrine with guard foxes.
Charles really liked these sake barrels hanging everywhere.
In this temple we came across a very odd man. He was dressed in an American SWAT uniform, fully complete (without gun) and just wondering around. It was bizarre. I regret the lack of picture.
After that we headed out on the road to the temple we had actually come to see! Here are just a few random shots of the street.
You can see a rickshaw in the picture below. These guys are quite the sweet talkers and go chasing after couples trying to convince them to use their service.
I thought this was cute. A 2 choice vending machine! Both alcohol.
We came across another small temple that was for children related things (sick kids, moms to be etc).
These are all prayers written by people on these odd little fabric balls and hanging everywhere.
Then out of nowhere this. The Yasaka-no-to Pagoda. 5 levels, the biggest I have seen. It was built in 1440 and looks every bit that age. It was truly gorgeous. It houses 5 golden statues and under a cornerstone is apparently a cavity with a reliquary containing bones of the Buddha.
There was a couple in official wedding dress getting pictures right under the tower as well.
A weird art store on the road, I saw after I took the picture a note saying to pay $1 for copyright if you took pictures (which you can see in the middle if you zoom in hopefully). Oops.
A road to graveyard.
And some fake geisha! It should be pointed out that any geisha you see in the daytime are just people dressing up as them for fun. They get to act like stars and most tourists don't really know. The real ones you will only see at night going from home to work. Watching the fake ones it is pretty easy to tell by the simple lack of being able to walk properly in those wooden shoes!
Up some stairs to the huge shopping area before the temple in the old streets of Kyoto. A note to any who may go, don't buy anything here from the main tourist stores (which you can tell as they all sell mainly the same thing). Find what you want, remember, and get it later from other areas in the city for much cheaper!
And finally we made it. Kiyomizu Temple! With a monk outside for good measure. I loved this temple last time we came and wanted to come back. My goal now is to come all 4 seasons. Funny enough, this place too, was undergoing renovations. Thankfully we came here last time so I wasn't to bothered! As I wrote all about this before I will just let you enjoy the pictures!
He really loves stairs.
As you can see, construction.
View looking out form the main area. You can see a pagoda in the distance that, last time, was also under construction! This time though I could actually see it. Small victories..
Naomi putting some incense in. After that you fan it all over yourself.
Looking down on the water flowing that you use to clean your hands....and soul. Always a big line!
Might be hard to tell but where it steps down it leans on an angle by about 30 degrees. A bit unnerving.
More construction!
Shot inside the main temple. I took a bunch last time so I didn't take many this time.
Looking back on the temple itself.
Looking back up from the ground path. A long fall!
A group of girls in kimonos in front of the pagoda. There were many people out today in their kimonos, groups of girls or couples. Neat to see! Very colourful.
And that was it for round 2 at this beautiful spot. I look forward to seeing it in the spring!
After we stopped for lunch at a small udon (a thick noodle) restaurant. I got the beef curry udon, which was just awesome, and Naomi got the duck udon with a side of rice.
He eats pretty much everything we throw at him. I hope this trend continues.
We split ice cream with red bean paste, mochi and gelatin for dessert. I was already stuffed!
I will end this blog here! Tune in next time for random Christmasness.
