After strolling around the streets near to the central station in Kyoto I headed for some of the better known tourist spots. The only problem is that most of the sites are located on the outskirts of the town which males it very difficult to see a lot in one day. And keep in mind I was still hurting from wandering all around Osaka yesterday, so this became a test of endurance.
The first place I wanted to go to was the Fushimi-Inari shrine in the southeast. This place is most famous for the enormous amount of gates built right into the forest. Apparently the god of the shrine is believed to bring good fortune in business so the gates have been donated by people in search of fortune for their shop or business. I read somewhere that it was only a ten minute footwalk from the central station, but that turned out to be a misunderstanding. It took me around 45 minutes to get to the shrine, passing train tracks, a sports festival at a school and finally a temple area which began to stretch out right next to a loud street. Tofukuji is a very nice place and stretches over a huge area. At some point I wasn’t sure whether all the buildings belonged to the temple or whether they were simply normal houses of people. Whatever they were, the sight was very beautiful. I passed a lot of huge gates, crossed a bridge in what looked like a park area (with another bridge crossing the same valley-like setting slightly higher than the one I took) and went back to the street going parallel to the train tracks which led to Nara.
I finally reached Fushimi-Inari through a side gate after seeing a lot of flags with a fox on it on the street I had been following. The fox is the animal which is worshipped at Fushimi-Inari so it’s basically everywhere. The main buildings look like any other shrine but once you climb up a little into the forest you enter the vast amount of gates set up one after another. At first I went through a set of bigger gates which then led to a junction which divided the way into two smaller archways. The feeling was a bit strange as it felt slightly claustrophobic walking through the red posts, but after a short time I reached an open space with a few buildings on it. To my left another, this time again bigger, archway was opening up which I used to climb down again from the mountain.
After reaching the train station for Kyoto I was a bit startled that even japanese trains can have a delay (which in my case were only 3 minutes, but well…). Back in central Kyoto I bought a day pass ticket for the subway and bus service (1.200 yen) and set off for Kinkakuji. I wanted to take the bus, but the quques were so long I decided to go down stairs to enter the subway which took me to the old imperial court. But that site is closed to the public and only the northern area is accessible so I went west for the old shogunate castle Nijo.
Nijo is a lot smaller than the imperial court, but impressive nonetheless. I entered it through the main gate and went inside taking off my shoes at the entrance (something, just like in Nikko, is an impossible task to do for foreigners). The halls and rooms had a lot of explanations in english and some even contained figures of the personel which used to live her, giving a very thorough impression of what it might have looked like 400 years ago. The house was huge and it took me some time to walk through it. Each step made a squirking sound which is intentional as it was used to recognize intruders back then. Going out into the hot sunlight again I walked a little bit through the castle garden and then headed for the bus stop to finally go to Kinkakuji.
Travelling by bus in Kyoto is rather easy as the streets are organised like a chess boad and the station names usually consist of the street the bus is currently driving on and the street the bus is crossing. At Kinkakuji the expected hordes of tourists flooded the area so it was easy to find the entrance right away. Here as well a broad forest way leads up to the entrance and after a light turn to the right you stand in front of the most photographed building in Japan. Of course, there were a lot of people taking pictures today as well, and count me in. The sight is very awesome, a golden building on the banks of a small lake with the mountains in the back. This might sound a bit cheesy and a lot like a postcard picture, but when you stand in front of the temple in person it’s very impressive indeed. Behind the temple and the lake, a stone stircase leads up to a second level where there is a second, smaller lake with a couple of other buildings near it. The walk through the area is short, but the admission (400 yen) was worth every yen.
After going back to the inner city I decided it was time for something more contemporate and so I searched for the Kyoto International Manga Museum. Mangas might be one of the main things that get people interested into Japan today as they are sold all over the world and the corresponding television series are kid favourites everywhere, I guess. The museum itself isn’t as impressive as some might think, but that’s because it’s not normal. You enter and then hve the chance to dive into a lot of books, just grab the one you like. Yes, set in a former elementary school the yard can be used just to lie down there with a book and read for hours and hours. They even have a section fr foreigners where mangas in all kinds of languages are stored for your pleasure. The lady at the admission was even apologizing that they only had so little variety of german books. But, she reminded me, the museum was open until 8 pm and the admission was valid the whole day. So if I left I could come back anytime and read something more. I didn’t go for reading and instead walked through the building which had permanent installations explaining the evolvement of manga culture from the 18th centry until today, but also special exhibitions of Bome, a figurine artist (they displayed a huge number of female figurines) and of sketches done by Miyazaki Hayato of Ghibli studios. Definetely worth the visit.
I got hungry after leaving the museum and searched for a small shop in the inner city labyrinth of shopping districts and small streets. I settled for katsu donbori at a small price, which wasn’t special, but very tasty and satisfying, giving me strength to walk around some more.
I then headed back to the central station to buy some stamps for postcards but on the way I recognized the battery of my camera was running low. Had I gone to the hotel to recharge it it would have been to late to go to other places. I tried to find a bus to Ginkakuji, a temple in the east of the city, but when looking at the timetables I saw it might have become very hard to come back easily, so I dismissed the idea and really headed back to the hotel. A little rest would be fine as well, after running around for such a long time during the past few days.
So tomorrow I will head out down south a little further. A friend informed me this morning that she found a hostel for me somewhere near Kumamoto and we will have the chance to go for a little sightseeing on Sunday.
And now I will turn my attention to the last innings of the Softbank Hawks vs Nippon Ham Fighters baseball game which is shown live on TV.
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