City of World Heritage -Kyoto Day 1-

To be honest....I had not done sightseeing of Kyoto. As I was born in Kanto area, which is central mainland Japan, Kyoto is the most popular destination for school trip...almost that was the only place you would think of for Junior high school trip! However, somehow my school did not pick up some other local area which was fun but I was bummed not traveling Kyoto at that time.


Now, so many years later, here I am! After traveled from Kurashiki, we were off. A guy who knows Kyoto very well mentioned us good places to visit as the first time tourist. Some of my work friends and I took a cab to famous "Kiyomizu-dera" to start our short sight seeing trip. Kiyomizu-dera is one of the most famous spot for Kyoto. The temple origins way back....778 A.D.!!! This place consists of many temples and it almost like a huge park, on top of the mountain with a killer view of Kyoto. Hondou (main) was build in 1633 including a "butai" (stage). There is a saying "Kiyomizu no Butai kara Tobioriru" = jumping off from the stage of Kiyomizu, meaning something like "go all out" or "doing something with full courage". This stage is 12m high, standing on top of amazing wood structure that any nails are used to build. (please look at the picture!) Actually, in Edo period many people jumped off from the stage according to the belief you can make a wish come true. Jumping off from the stage is banned in 1872(!!). Kyoto used to be the capital of Japan, and religion has such a great impact to govern people so naturally Kyoto became center of all the temples and shrines. There are still so many temples and shrines. We walked around seeing more temples at Kiyomizu, then walked to Yasaka-shrine. Maruyama Park is a peaceful place with ponds with koi-fish. Visiting those places and praying, amazed by the detail and craftsmanship...By walking those peaceful area, good old time kind of atmosphere makes you think how hectic our life now is.

On the way, we saw Maiko-san!! We asked them to take pictures with us. Later I found they were not real Maiko-san, just dressed like them either for fun, or for tourist promotion. To see real Maiko-san, you have to be very very lucky since there are not so many Maiko-san. Well, we kind of experienced a feeling of it at least so I think it was good.
We went on to Chion-in. I was amazed by looking at a map, realizing the huge temple look like building on top of the stairs is just a gate for this Chion-in area. However, they were already closed...at 16:00. We wanted to go to Heian-Jingu so we took a cab from there. Heian-jingu is a beauiful shrine, just like an under water world palace I saw in a story book at my childhood. Bright orangy-red against blue-green roof. Very feminine and calm looking.

Later on, I went to Kyoto station. I remember my mom told me Kyoto station is very unique modern building as a train station. It is a big station holding shopping arcade on its underground floor. I heard there is a path seeing through or something like that supposed to be spectacular. There is an information center so I asked the detail. Looked up inside of huge open air feeling constructure.....and I saw the path running across one to another side. It is called Sky Walk, high up on the building. Looking towards the inside, you can see all the people downstairs busy walking by as tiny dolls. Looking towards outside of building, you can see the Kyoto tower right in front. Not so many tall building (maybe city regulations) so you can see the shining night view. I had 2 more morning to go sight seeing, I decided to go back to the hotel early. Too many things to see here in Kyoto!