Wawa's Ramblings

Kyoto Part 1

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Arrived in Kansai International airport early Sunday morning. Took the shuttle taxi which we had booked earlier to Kyoto. After a 2 hour long journey, we arrived at the Westin Miyako Hotel (Ji's conference hotel). Unable to check in (check-in time only at 3pm), we decided to take the hotel's shuttle to Kyoto station. This place was massive and packed with local travellers. Had lunch in one of the many restaurants. Wait staff do not speak any English but are very polite and all we needed to do was just point at the various dishes on display. A huge Isetan is attached to the station and the food hall was simply facinating with all these sweet local treats and bento sets in pretty packaging. They let you try so many yummy mochi with different fillings.

the modern kyoto station

inside the station

eastern part of the city seen from our hotel

The second day began with some sightseeing on foot around the eastern-southern part of Kyoto on my own since Ji had a full day session. First up was Shoren-in Temple which unfortunately was closed that day.

Entrance to Shoren-in temple

A little down the road was Chion-in Temple. This is the head temple of Japan Buddhism and the film location for the 'Last Samurai' starring Tom Cruise. The place was very serene, very peaceful.

The gates of Chion-in temple

A ten minute walk away was Maruyama Park. The park is the main centre for viewing cherry blossoms in Kyoto. Apparently, the star attraction is a weeping cherry tree but I did not notice any (maybe because the tree was bare in autumn).

Maruyama park

Kodai-ji Temple has a dry rock garden (or Karesansui) which is a large area of raked gravel punctuated by conical gravel formations. The raked gravel is meant to evoke the ripple patterns in water.

Kodaiji-temple

Walking further for 15-20 minutes, one enters into Sannenzaka, a pretty cobbled stone lane lined with old wooden houses, restaurants and souvenir shops. This little lane will join to the main road leading up to Kiyomizudera. I did not visit this temple 'cos Ji and I would be doing it the next day. So, after oogling at all the sweet treats being sold along the streets and tasting and buying quite a fair bit too, I decided to hop on the city bus and proceeed to Heian Shrine.