Kyomizu Temple

This morning we decided to go to Kyoto; I am sure Ross was tired of the somewhat industrial Osaka City. Mainly because at night there was not much to do since his hotel was a few minutes from Misato's condo which is in a residential area.

We had something of a late start and I wanted to upload my blog at the Yahoo in the Yodobashi depaato. Misato went off to exchange funds at a nearby back at Yodobashi while Ross and I went to the Yahoo BB. Although I had a card and free internet access the previous visit I was directed to a sign in English which said that only local Osaka residents could sign up. The fact that it was in English was interesting; obviously sick and tired of us traveling gaijin using up their free broadband.

The previous trip my wife signed me up using the address of her condo, but I no longer had that card. So we went next door to an internet cafe. I was trying to set up a wireless connection but could not do so before Misato returned. A normally easy task on a Mac was made a little more difficult by the fact that all of the instructions were in Japanese. So I called it quits since it was getting late and we needed to catch the train to Kyoto.

We went to a counter in the Osaka station and activated our JR rail passes, which will allow us to ride any JR train to any part of Japan (including the shinkansen or bullet trains). Then we all bought some bread, since we had not eaten breakfast, and boarded the train for Kyoto.

The ride to Kyoto from Osaka is interesting and serene. It is a rural area with nice, old houses. I suppose the people living in those areas can work at either Osaka or Kyoto.

After our arrival at the Kyoto Eki we followed Misato upstairs to the tourist office, where she picked up several brochures and flyers of events we may want to think about attending later. Then we left, caught a bus and disembarked a few minutes later on a street near Kyomizu Temple. The bus was packed, mostly with school kids also going to the temple.

The three of us walked up a narrow stone-paved street leading to the temple. The streets leading to the temple are lined with shops selling sweets, food, ceramics (Kyoto is known for ceramics, with Kyocera being one of the largest such companies, now a powerhouse in manufacturing cell phones) and items made of kimono fabric. It was a pleasant walk and we stopped in a few shops along the way. At one point we passed a group of teenaged school girls who began to gawk at me (for some reason I attract more attention than Ross, who is also gaijin). One of the girls said, "kakui" to her friends, which I think means something relatively positive. I at first thought she might have been shrieking in horror to her friends. ;0p

Kyomizu Temple is gorgeous!
I had been there during my first trip to Japan in 2000 and remembered the great view of the city from the hillside temple. And the temple itself was just as special this time as the first. We walked around and took lots of pictures.

My wife talked Ross into going to an adjacent shrine in order to pray to a god of relationships. Ross tossed a 50 yen coin to the statue, rang the bell then bowed for a few seconds in prayer. It was funny and he was embarrassed because only young girls had been performing the ritual. He was not only the sole gaijin praying at the shrine but the only man to boot. We figured one of the 16 year old girls ahead of him would end up being his bride one day!


On the way down another street from the temple, just after leaving a pickle store (not like the huge American-style pickles), someone grabbed my shoulder from behind! I turned to see an older gentleman gesturing and saying something in Japanese & broken Enlgish which I could not fully understand. I initially thought we was going to accuse me of stealing or something (a truly sad reaction... life in the U.S.). Turns out he wanted me to take a photo with the group of students he was attending to! Although it was a bit embarrassing I complied.

After the photo I ducked into an alley, produced the stolen package of pickles that I had stuffed into my pants and... okay, just kidding!

Later we passed a burial site of a famous samurai whose picture we had seen in a Hollywood restaurant Ross had taken us to maybe a year or so ago. Misato stayed behind but Ross and I paid the 300 yen and walked up to the burial sites. I was a memorial to the many samurai who were assassinated by the shinsengumi.

We walked down another beautiful Kyoto street enjoying the view then found ourselves in a temple area just outside of Gion Street. I thought we were heading away from Gion so I was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case.