And we’re back! Today, I’m going to talk a little bit about Japan’s Old Capital, Kyoto, and what I did there. Kyoto was the capital of Japan and the seat of Imperial power from 794 until the Meiji restoration in 1868. It’s a very historic city and has a very high concentration of old shrines and temples, which I was really excited about.

    We left off in our hotel in Hiroshima packing for our trip to Kyoto. Thankfully, the trip to Kyoto was much smoother than the one to Hiroshima. We arrived in Kyoto station, just a ten minute walk from the hostel we were staying at. A ten minute walk in the sweltering heat. Kyoto, while still a major city of 1.5 million people, is a lot smaller than Tokyo. The buildings are shorter, and there is much less shade on the streets. The 97 degree heat played a big role in what we did in Kyoto, because it made it a lot harder to enjoy the beautiful outdoor shrines.

Kyoto Tower

    Staying in a hostel is a very different experience than staying with a host family or in a hotel. When we arrived, the common room was bustling, full of travelers from all over the world. They were all pretty friendly and it was cool to hear their different stories. I would love to stay in more hostels in the future, because it seems like a great way to find a group of people to go sightseeing with. They also have a kitchen which meant we got to make some of our own meals!

    After the heat drove us inside the first day, we set up a plan for the next few days that would be taking us inside pretty frequently to get a break in the AC. So, on our second day, we started off the morning at Nijo Castle. Nijo Castle is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is the place where the Tokugawa Shogunate began in 1603, and ended in 1868. It was a lot bigger than we expected, with two fortified palaces on the inside as well as a couple beautiful gardens. It was cool to see what the living quarters of the shogun looked like. After exploring the gardens, we decided to escape from the heat and get an early lunch before going to the Manga Museum. 

Grey Heron at Nijo Castle

Ninomaru Palace at Nijo Castle

    Now, Japanese cuisine is pretty good, but I will say it is a lot of noodles and soups and we were starting to get a little tired of it. What I was craving for after leaving that museum was a big, juicy burrito. We found a Southern California burrito place nearby that had good reviews on Google Maps, but when we got there it was closed. Google Maps is not very reliable in this country. It’s missing a ton of restaurants, and has the wrong hours in for many of the ones it does have. Because of this mixup, we ended up eating at a Japanese Burger joint where we both ordered veggie burgers. Honestly, they weren’t too bad. Were they as good as a burrito? Definitely not, but they got the job done. We were fed.

    The Kyoto International Manga Museum doubles as a library. Each of its three floors were filled with shelves covered in manga dating all the way back to the early 1900s. They even had some of Hokusai’s work, an important ancestor to today’s manga from the 1810s. The museum part was also pretty neat. They had information on the history of manga, and a cool sculpture exhibit of a bunch of different manga artist’s hands. We spent a couple hours there before heading to Nishiki Market, and then to our next stop, the Arashiyama bamboo grove.

    It was about a ten minute walk through the grove, with towering bamboo trees packed closely on both sides. Very picturesque. Once we got to the other side, we found ourselves in a park at the base of Arashiyama mountain. It was getting dark as we walked around the park and the heat was very tiring, so we decided to head home. Have you ever had the urge to just roll down a hill? Yeah, me neither. I would never even imagine doing such a silly thing… Anyway, that was our first full day in Kyoto. A pretty good one, despite the heat.

Arashiyama Bamboo Grove

    Over the next two days, we visited a couple famous shrines and temples, and found some pretty nifty shopping streets. We also had a koto lesson, and went to see a non-verbal stage show.

    Let’s start off with the temples and shrines. The three coolest sites we visited were Kiyomizu Temple, Fushimi Inari, and the Founder’s Hall at Higashi Hongan-ji. Kiyomizu Temple was a massive complex of buildings built into a hill overlooking Kyoto. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is built entirely without nails. Very cool. Next, Fushimi Inari Shrine consists of 10,000 torii gates up a mountain in southern Kyoto. It was quite the hike, but the view of Kyoto at night was worth it. We also saw a wild boar, which in hindsight is really cool, but in the moment was kinda scary because there were a bunch of signs saying “Danger: Wild boars have been seen in the area”. The last really big temple complex that we saw was Higashi Hongan-ji. The temple grounds burned down four times between 1788 and 1864, and the fifth and current reconstruction of the biggest hall has been standing since 1895 and is one of the largest wooden structures in the world. It was massive! And what made it even better is that we weren’t planning on seeing this temple; we just stumbled upon it when we were walking back to our hostel. It was a great find. We saw a bunch of other smaller temples, but to be honest, I don’t have much to say about them. They were cool though. Unfortunately, we did miss a couple of the big ones. If I ever go back to Kyoto, I definitely want to check out the Golden Pavilion, and the Silver Pavilion. I hear they’re very cool.

Three-story Pagoda at Kiyomizu Temple

Kiyomizu Temple

Shrine near entrance of Fushimi Inari

Me under the Torii gates

View from the top of Mount Inari

Founder’s Hall

    Okay, on to the shopping streets. There were two main ones: Nishiki market and Kiyomizu-Zaka Street. Nishika was mostly food while Kiyomizu-Zaka was mostly shops selling chopsticks, fans, kimonos, etc. They were both very good at convincing us that we needed their products. I love the bustling of shopping streets. Everyone is off buying their own thing, but there’s a strange togetherness as everyone is there to buy something.

Kiyomizu-Zaka Street

    Last but not least, we had some pretty cool musical experiences in Kyoto. First, we went to a koto lesson. The koto is a traditional Japanese instrument that has 13 strings. It’s kind of like a harp if you turn it sideways I guess. Ryan and I were taught two traditional pieces and it was a lot of fun. Ryan caught on very quickly and I didn’t struggle too much. Our teacher then gave us a little performance. She was so good! I was very impressed. The second performance we saw was the non-verbal stage show. It was the story of four robots in an old toy factory that found a doll who came to life. It was a very simple story but very impressive. Each of the robots became more human throughout the story and there were some really cool magic tricks, breakdancing, juggling, and mime. Despite not having any words, the music helped carry the story forward. It was amazing!

Koto Lesson

    Yeah, so that was Kyoto. Despite being put off by their lack of a good metro system at first, I ended up really liking the city. The concentration of shrines and temples is really amazing. If I ever go back to Japan, I’ll make sure to spend a few days in Kyoto. My trip went on for a couple more days as I returned to Tokyo before flying home. I’ll tell you about that in my next blog. Stay tuned!

- Justin Dunn