I haven’t written in a while because this new year has been really busy. But I had to write this Kyoto post before it gets moldy. I was planning to only show a few photos to save myself some work, but as it turned out I took about 300, so “a few” was a lot more than I expected…

So I went to Kyoto on the 3rd of January. I met up with Kayo, who I met in Philly a few years back at the JASGP conversation club, and we toured the city together. It was cold and snowing hard in Fukui, and I fell asleep on the train ride, but I woke up in a whole different world — a warm, bright, sprawling city surrounded on all four sides by mountains. It was like entering a new world. Actually… it wasn’t all that warm, but people had been warning me about how cold Kyoto is, and so I bought all this extra warm gear and was wearing it all, and it turned out to be way more than I needed down there.

It had been ages since I’d seen so many gaijin… actually it’d been ages since I’d seen so many human beings! Kyoto station is new and very stylish. The city is wide, but not huge like Nagoya or Tokyo. Apparantly, Kyoto has really strict building standards too, so even convenience stores and fast food chains have to tone down the gaud and blend in with the historic-ness of the city. McDonald’s doesn’t quite look like an izakaya or anything, but it certainly blends in a lot more than in other places.

So our first stop was Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion. Kyoto was crowded due to New Years, so the bus ride over there was insanely tight. Like a New York subway at rush hour… only cleaner, and I could see over everyone’s heads.

Kinkakuji was smaller than I imagined it, but a lot more beautiful. The weather was perfect, so I got a real nice shot… only one… the other shots were all full of people. The grounds were amazingly beautiful too, following a winding path up a small mountain and past small statues and shrines.

After Kinkakuji, we decided to walk instead of taking the bus… walking was nice, but we walked all day long, so my feet and legs really hurt afterwards. Our next stop was Shimogamo-jinja, a very old and very famous shrine. It was absolutely gorgeous as well, and of course really crowded too. I took a lot of photos, but I’ll just show you this one.

Next we went to the Heian Jingu, a castle of a shrine that was bigger than a couple football fields. I didn’t get any photos that capture the sheer size of this beast, but it was absolutely breathtaking. As it was New Years and really crowded, all of the shrines and temples had tons of food parked out front so it looked and smelled like a Japanese festival. That was really cool too.

After that we walked around quite a bit, visiting other shrines whose names I forgot, and walking down many streets. The crowds were fun to watch, and the buildings of course were all so pretty. And it seems like wherever we went in Kyoto, there were little alleys full of ponds, and gardens, and classy little streets with really old buildings all over them. It’s hard to describe in words how pretty it is, and the feeling you get walking around this environment… even a few snapshots don’t do it justice. It’s almost like visiting a movie set or entering a book, and it was really a feast for my eyes.

We were looking for the path to Kiyomizu-dera, one of Japan’s most famous temples, and we got a bit lost… but got to see a number of beautiful things along the way, including this mountaintop covered in gravestones, and beautiful crowded streets full of old, old shops and women dressed like maiko.

Finally we made it to Kiyomizu-dera. We had been walking for a long time, and we got there just as the sun was setting, so our timing was really lucky. From the temple we could look over all of Kyoto, and see the sun set behind the mountains. Again, sorry that there’s only a couple photos, but no matter how many I posted, it could not come close to replicating the experience of being there yourself.

After that, we walked, feet very tired, back to Kyoto station. Kyoto Tower is right outside the station, and quite beautiful. It was an awesome one-day trip, and surprisingly close to Takefu, so I will definitely be going back again to get more painting references and just to soak up the beauty.