Shinkansen (train) to Kyoto
After breakfast and doing our final bits of packing, we
headed to the train station to go to Kyoto . When we got to the train station
we walked around for a little bit until we found where our train would stop. We
were going to be riding Shinkansen #13 in green car #9 at 9:32.Once everyone
entered the train the attendant asked for your tickets, so we gave her our tickets
and we were on our way to Kyoto!
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| Me next to the Shinkansen train |
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| Me, Ichida-san, and Niamh |
Once we arrived to Kyoto station we meet our tour guide
(Kiko) and we went to a van that would be taking us around Kyoto today. Our driver’s name was Ichida-san and he
was very nice and helpful, and funny too.
His English wasn’t very good, but he tried. Everytime the van stopped he would run around the van to put
a stool down by the door to help us get out of the van.
Chion-in Temple
Our first stop was the Chion-in Temple. This was built almost 900 years ago!! It is a temple for Buddhists, which is
a type of religion. The main hall
was under repair, they were fixing the tiles on the roof. You could pay a small fee to put your
name on the tiles, and we did this.
So now, for the next 300 years (or more), the words “Carroll Family”
will be on the roof of this temple.
Another really cool thing at Chion-in was a huge bell – it weighed 70
tons! It takes 17 people just to ring
the bell. It is only rung on New
Years Eve and a few other special occasions. The first temple we went into was a smaller one, and we
first took off our shoes to go in.
We knelt down next to carved wooden bells. You take the stick and hit it and then make a wish. It was very relaxing. We went into a
larger temple and there was a ceremony taking place. It was a celebration of the anniversary of a family members
death. People were not sad, but
they celebrated their life. It was
very interesting to watch.
Finally, we walked around the gardens, everything was pretty – but our
tour guide said things were even better during Cherry-blossom season in
April. I want to come back for
that!
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| The entrance to Chion-in |
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| The 70-ton bell! |
Nishiki Market
Our next stop was Nishiki
Market. There are over 140 shops,
and this market has been around since the 14th century!! Its mainly used as a “kitchen” market,
where food and cooking utensils can be bought. It smells really good because of all the food. At one end we went to a small shrine (a
Shinto one, which is a different religion). We then walked down a long hall. It was very crowded.
We saw many interesting seafoods, including octopus on a stick!! At many places, you could try samples
for free or buy a small taste. I
tried a shrimp on a stick and it was delicious. My Dad wanted to buy some sake (a Japanese drink for
grown-ups), so he tried samples and then picked a bottle. We went to a knife shop, and they had
custom-shaped cookie cutters, but most cooks use them for vegetables too, so
the food looks pretty. Ichida-san told us to try some deep-fried chocolate, and
we did. It was very good!
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| Vegetables at the market |
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| Fish!!! |
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| Fresh beans! |
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| The car parking system |
After the market, we had worked up an appetite. We went for lunch at a traditional
noodle house. My Dad and I had
udon noodles with chicken and onions.
These noodles are thick, long, round noodles. And they are yummy!!!
Like all the other places, we ate with chopsticks. Noodles are slippery, but I was able to
eat mine after some practice. This
was like chicken-noodle soup, Japanese style! My Mom and sister had rice with chicken and tofu. I got to have a small glass of Coke
with lunch. Our tour guide had
noodles with a whole fish on top.
When we went to the parking lot we saw a very interesting
parking garage. It had shelves that stacked the cars. It made it so lots of cars could be parked in very little
space. It was automated so the
cars would just move around up-and-down and side-to-side until the right stall
was on the ground and the car could come out. Very cool.
Kiyomizu Temple
After lunch we were ready for another temple. We headed for Kiyomizu-dera, which has
been around since the 8th century. The name means “Pure Water Temple”. That’s over 1300 years
old!! It is a UNESCO World
Heritage site, which means it is a very important part of our world’s
history. The buildings that we saw
were built in the 1600’s, so they are only 400 years old. To get to the temple, we walked up a
long small street (called Chawan-zaka, or teapot lane) with hundreds of shops –
we stopped in a few to try sweets. Some Japanese students asked my Mom if they
could practice their English with them and take a photo. It was interesting. There were a lot of school groups
there, we could tell because they all wore uniforms. When we got up we say 2 girls in kimonos, so Niamh and I
asked to have our picture taken.
It was cool. The view from
the temple was beautiful.
We went to the Otowa-no-taki waterfall, where three streams
of water come out. Each stream is said to have a different benefit, long life,
success at school, and a fortunate love life. However, drinking from all 3
streams is greedy so you don’t do it.
My Mom and I each received an omikuji (which is a paper
fortune). My Mom’s was unlucky, so
she tied to the poles where all the other bad fortunes. These are burned each night. Mine was 2nd most lucky, so
I got to keep it!!
The last thing we did was to go through the basement of
Zuigudo Hall. There is no light at
all. You have to hold a railing
made of beads with your left hand and just walk and trust the path. There are a lot of turns, and I almost
ran into a wall. At the end there
is a dimly-lit stone that you turn and make a wish.
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| Our new Japanese friends! |
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| Teapot lane |
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| A dedication to the earthquake victims |
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| Our first view of the temple! |
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| The main veranda |
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| Some pretty leaves on the trail |
Gion at night
After our busy day, we got dropped off at our hotel. We checked in, got our room and then
decided to go out for dinner. We
went to the Gion district, which has been around for hundreds of years. This is well-known for Geisha
entertainers, as there is a theatre there. Geisha (which means “artist”) in the
Gion district are called “geiko”, which means "a child of the arts". We walked along pretty streets with
paper lanterns lighting the way.
We then found an Irish pub for dinner, since my Dad wanted to try a
Guinness! I had Shephards Pie, and
it was funny to be in an Irish place in Japan!
Today I went to the Fushimi shrine. It is known for having
over 10,000 gates! The first structures here were built in the 8th century.
It takes 2 hours to walk through all the gates! But we only walked through
about 2,000 gates. Some of the gates were stone and some were painted orange
and if you put a small rock on top of a stone gate you will be happy today. So
my mom and I got a couple rocks and placed them on top of a stone gate.
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We had a busy afternoon planned. Our first stop was Ryoan-ji, which is a rock garden and
temple. In Japanese, it is called a kare-sansui, which means “zen garden”. It
is part of the Zen branch of Buddhism.
This is another UNSECO World Heritage Site, and it was very neat to see
it in person, not just read about it in a book. The garden is hundreds of years old, and they even have a
small replica for blind people to touch and visualize where the rocks are
placed. We relaxed here in the
sunshine for a while.
We then went to the “Temple of the Golden Pavilion”, or
kinkaku-ji. The site is over 600
years old, but in 1950 someone burned the building down, so the main pavilion
was rebuilt. It has real gold on
the outside, and it was very shiny in the sun. People are rarely allowed inside. We found some stones, where people try to toss coins into a
basin and make a wish. We all
tried and missed, but my Mom got one in right away! She will be lucky today!
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