あけましておめでとうございます！ Happy New Year!
I’ve just spent a week staying at the Palace Side Hotel in Kyoto with my mum. When I went to Kyoto for the first time, almost three years ago, I stayed at K’s House for four nights, and thought that was more than enough. Both are places I would recommend for somewhere cheap and simple to stay, but up until now I wouldn’t have recommended going to Kyoto at all.
I think the problem was that I had hyped up Kyoto the first time. I was expecting this postcard of Japanese elegance, and I was met with an ultra-modern train station and pachinko parlours next door to shrines and temples. Not what I expected. So, this time, I wondered how I was going to cope with seven whole nights!
I decided it would have to be a Kansai trip – not just Kyoto – and, whilst that was a wise decision, we actually found that Kyoto held so many hidden delights that we had to drop Osaka and leave it for another time! So, in summary, here’s where we went: Kobe, Arashiyama, Fushimi Inari, Nara, and all around Kyoto itself, of course. I’d never been to Kobe, Arashiyama or Fushimi Inari before, and they were all highlights of the trip. Other highlights included Nishiki food market, discovering an amazing 24 metre high Buddha at Ryozen Kannon, and New Year itself, which was certainly unique!
So, I’ll begin at the beginning… On the first day we pretty much just got our bearings and wandered around downtown Kyoto and Gion. We found a couple of cool shopping arcades:
…and also explored Pontocho – an area of Kyoto which used to be famous as a red-light district and Geisha hang-out, and is now mostly bars and restaurants, but still preserved in a traditional style (and possibly still full of Geisha, although we didn’t see any).
The next day, Monday, we started off with Nishiki food market, which I hadn’t been to before. I was very impressed, and we spent ages shuffling from stall to stall, smelling and snapping the food! It was very busy, but still quite easy to take pictures of the extremely photogenic food!
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One highlight at the food market was seeing mochi being pounded. I love mochi, but have never seen this before! It’s quite amazing to watch. The guy on the left of the photo has a big hammer, and the guy on the right has to get in there and do something to the mochi between the pounds of the hammer. It’s quite an art!
We tried a couple of things. Tofu doughnuts, which were very yummy:
And something else which I don’t know the name of, which smelt better than it tasted. The texture was a bit funny.
No trip to Kyoto would be complete without a visit to the station. Kyoto’s main train station is a sightseeing spot itself, as it’s architecturally quite amazing.
Also, it has these cute Astro Boy characters everywhere!
I had a temple-hopping plan on Monday, but it went slightly awry! Kyoto has this fantastic bus system, which I used on my first visit to Japan when I didn’t even speak any Japanese. It’s just as good, if not better, than any subway system I have ever used. However, on Monday, there was a ginormous queue for the bus, and I just couldn’t face it. Even getting a bus map seemed to be impossible at the time! So we decided to run away and temple-hop on foot, which is where it all went a bit wrong and we got a bit lost – wasting many hours wandering around the back streets of Kyoto. Oh well. These things happen, don’t they?
We did eventually manage to get to Ryoanji. My mum had said before that she would like to see a Zen garden. Unfortunately Ryoanji is the most popular Zen garden. I say “unfortunately”, because its popularity means it’s far from Zen-like.
On Tuesday we started the day with a visit to Kinkakuji (or, The Golden Pavilion Temple), probably one of Japan’s most famous sightseeing spots. We were lucky to get there early before too many people arrived, and it was also a gorgeous sunny day, which only made it shine even more!
The reflection in the water was simply postcard-perfect!
The rest of the day was spent in Kobe. I’ve fancied going to Kobe for a while now, and had heard that it was a very international city. I get the impression it’s not high on most people’s itineraries (like Nagoya), but I thought it was well worth a visit!
Kobe has this quaint area called Kitano, which is basically a collection of themed houses. These houses were originally designed by the foreigners living in Kobe, and now many of them are kind of museums. We didn’t actually go in any, but it was fun to look at them. The most interesting for me was England House, which seemed to be more of a homage to Sherlock Holmes than anything else!
Around the Kitano area, I also tried an interesting and delicious drink – hotmilk beans:
It seemed to be azuki beans in hot milk, and it was very sweet and yummy! Especially yummy as it was so cold!
One highlight of Kobe was the amazing discovery of Kobe Pudding flavour Kit Kats!!! Naturally I had to get some for my collection. They were pretty good, too.
Actually, a lot of the food in Kobe was good. They also made amazing cheesecakes, which we had to sample:
Kobe is famous for it’s international food, especially it’s range of Indian restaurants. I would have killed for a curry but, unfortunately, they all close in the afternoon, and our timing was off. Ironically, we actually ended up in McDonalds (the excuse being that my mum had never tried an ebi burger!)… I’d like to go back another time and checkout some of their restaurants though.
We also looked around Kobe’s China Town, which was pretty impressive.
In China Town we saw these Kobe beef pineapples…
…how bizarre!
The next day was December 31st – New Year’s Eve (or, ‘omisoka’ in Japanese). The first mission of the day was to go to the department store and buy some ‘osechi‘ for January 1st. We went to Isetan, and it was totally packed! Most people seemed to be queuing up with long lists and buying ingredients, probably to make their own osechi. Eventually we found one that was in our price-range (although still very expensive, I think!) bought it, and escaped. We opened the osechi on January 1st and took it out with us as a picnic lunch, which I guess wasn’t really very sensible given that there was snow in the air, but it was kind of fun. Here’s what it looked like:
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Anyway, back to 31st December… After the osechi-hunt, we headed to Arashiyama for the day. I hadn’t been to Arashiyama before, but I wish I had known about it on my first trip! It was everything I wanted Kyoto to be! So my advice to anyone visiting Kyoto is to take the bus out to Arashiyama. It’s not far, it’s very easy to get there, and it’s well worth the visit!
At Arashiyama we visited Tenryuji Temple, which had a really nice garden:
And then ventured off to find a bamboo grove my mum had read about. Along the way we visited other temples and shrines, including Nonomiya Shrine, which was really lovely:
The bamboo was cool, although we didn’t see anything quite like the pictures in the books. Mind you, with all the New Year’s decorations being made out of bamboo it’s a wonder anything is left! 
The other reason for choosing Arashiyama was to visit Togetsu-kyo Bridge. It was freezing cold when we got there, but the views were stunning and well worth the freeze!
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We thawed-out in a great restaurant called Obu Cafe, which was open all day and had a really good menu. The food was tasty, the staff were friendly, and it was right by the train station and bus stop. What more could you ask for!
I spent a while agonising over where to spend New Year. I sought the advice of my friends and students, and eventually concluded that I would like to go to Kiyomizu-dera to hear the New Year bells ring (‘joya no kane’) and then head to Yasaka Shrine for ‘hatsumode‘ (the first shrine visit of the year) and to see what kind of festival was going on in Maruyama Park.
Well, my plans went a little awry, but it all worked out amazingly well but what I can only call pure fluke. We got to Kiyomizu-dera to discover that it was actually shut (for the night, as far as I could make out). There were plenty of people around, including a massive bunch of security, but it seemed to be closed, so we took a couple of pictures and left. I guess it might be a bit of a riot to let New Year’s revellers run wild at Kiyomizu-dera, given its size and the amount of high places people could fall from. I was surprised to see it closed though.
So we decided to just head to Yasaka Shrine, which turned out to be the best idea going! Our timing was such that we managed to get in a good spot to see all the happenings of New Year, and escape the crush at midnight. I had no idea quite how busy it would be – I can’t even describe in words how many people were there. By the time we left the shrine, at maybe 12.30 or so, all three streets leading to Yasaka Shrine were filled with queues of people waiting to get in. The queues were deep and wide, and stretched all the way into Gion, as far as the Starbucks where we sought refuge, and hot chocolate! Our very own kind of ‘hatsumode’!
Seeing as my words can’t really do it justice, I’ll add some pictures…
This was before we went to Kiyomizu-dera.
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And by the time we came back to Yasaka Shrine the whole place was stuffed full of festival goers!
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Special stalls were set up where people could buy their o-mamori (good luck charms).
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‘Okera-mairi’ – I believe this is unique to Yasaka Shrine. You get a piece of string (‘kitcho-nawa’, or ‘lucky string’) and light it from the flame of ‘okera’, a medicinal herb. You then carry the string home, swinging it to keep it alight and, traditionally, use the flame to light your own fire and cook the first meal of the new year, which should be ‘zoni‘. If you do this you will enjoy good health for the coming year. I didn’t. Partly because I was staying at a hotel, and partly because when I tried to get a string from one of the young lads holding them, he tried to charge me 700 Yen for it, when I hadn’t seen anyone else paying!!
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People began queuing around this central shrine building, controlled by security. They were waiting for midnight to say their first prayers of the New Year.
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People at the front of the queue swing their lucky strings to keep them alight…
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It still looked like this as we left, and from what I could gather the crowds here didn’t cease for much of the next few days either!
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It was a very unique New Year. Apart from a group of young girls nearby who sort of did a countdown, there wasn’t the same atmosphere as there is when everyone stands together, “10…9…8……..Happy New Year!”. None of that. Basically, my mum and I stood there watching everyone and just waiting to see what would happen. We thought we would hear the bells of nearby temples, given that there are so many, but surprisingly we didn’t! I guess with all the people, coin throwing, clapping, gonging and generators from the food stalls we were making too much noise. In a way it was an anti-climax, but it was still one of my better New Years! It was really interesting to see what people do traditionally, and to see that so many people still do it! And it was also nice to stay sober and not wake up feeling rubbish the next day!
So, what do people do on January 1st in Japan? Well, it felt like everyone decided to go to Fushimi Inari Taisha with us!! We had both heard about Fushimi Inari Taisha – famous for its hundreds of red tori gates and also for its foxes. I didn’t go to Fushimi Inari Taisha before, but I would now like to go back on a quieter day, as I’m sure I missed a lot because of all the people. Still, it was quite a controlled crowd, and we managed to hike up the mountain to eat our osechi in the icy wind!
Everything leading from the train station was packed full of people:
We basically had to just shuffle along, but it was a very calm crowd, so not too unmanageable really.
There were more tori gates there than I have ever imagined!
These people are all going to do their ‘hatsumode’ (first prayer of the year) and try to ring the gong. The air was full of the clanking of coins, the rattling of gongs and the clapping of hands…
I think these are New Year gifts from local businesses or organisations:
This is where you queue up (and push a little) to buy your good luck charm for the year!
I actually bought good luck charms at most of the places I went to. I like the colours and designs – they’re really pretty! And, well, if they give me some good luck too, that’d be nice!
And here are the famous tori gates…
The only way I could get a photo with no people in it was to take one of the side, rather than down the middle!
There are lots of foxes at this shrine:
This was the point we climbed up to to have our special picnic:
It was so cold though! I think we were both wishing there was a Starbucks!!
Every shrine we visited had special New Year offerings in front of it:
In this area, they eat grilled quail (uzura) and sparrow (suzume)…
They certainly don’t feature on my menu though!! Yuck!
To finish the day off, we visited Sanjusangen-do, where were saw one thousand life-size statues of the Thousand Armed Kannon. We weren’t allowed to take photos, so I’ve stolen one off the internet!
It was really impressive, and quite spooky. I almost expected them to suddenly start moving or something.
After our shrine and temple visits, it was time for a pilgrimage of my own, to my very own place of worship: Next. You might remember from previous blogs that, finding it hard to buy decent clothes big enough for my bum in Japan, I often try to seek out the local Next store when I am visiting somewhere. Well, I had directions and I had matched those to my map. It looked like a bit of a walk, but only just outside of central Kyoto, so, fuelled by another Starbucks, my mum and I set off. And we walked, and we walked, and we walked. Until it was almost time to give up. I was so sure it was supposed to be on this particular street, but we had by that point walked so far out of Kyoto’s centre that I didn’t really know where we were any more! But, with hope in our steps we continued walking, just one more block, one more block… and there it was! The shiny Aeon Shopping Mall of my dreams! (Thanks mum!!!) It did indeed contain a Next store, and enough clothes to keep me happy for a while – phew!
Another interesting thing I saw for the first time at this store was Japan’s seasonal ‘mystery bags’, or ‘fukubukuro‘ (actually, I did see a couple in small stores in Arashiyama, but it was on a much grander scale in the shopping mall!). At New Year, many stores sell these lucky bags, the idea being that you pay a fixed amount for mystery goods, which are guarenteed to be of a greater value. I think they’re a nice idea, but I have had to ban myself from buying them as they’re quite addictive if you like the idea of a bit of a gamble! I have bought two so far, only for 1000 Yen each, and been very pleased with my goods. Some bags sell for a much higher price, but then the goods are worth more. Still, it’s a bit of a gamble really.
On Friday, January 2nd, we spent the day in Nara. I’ve been to Nara before and quite enjoyed it, although last time I went I got ridiculously and utterly lost. Fortunately we didn’t do that this time. As with everywhere else at this time of year in Japan, Nara was alive with grilling festival food and many many people – both tourists and non-tourists. Oh, and deer, of course!
In Nara, the deer roam freely around the park, by the temples and shrines, and even into some of the stores!
You can buy special cookies to feed them with – if you’re brave enough!
One actually tried to munch on my paper shopping bag when I stood still for too long! Fortunately, they didn’t seem very interested in the food stalls and didn’t bother people with hot food, which I found rather puzzling. So we tried these rice balls with mountain potato dough, which were very yummy.
The main reason for going to Nara is to see Todaiji, a Buddhist temple complex including the world’s largest wooden building which houses a 15 metre high bronze Buddha.
It was pretty impressive, even the second time round. It is, however, very hard to take photos of it. So please excuse my bad attempts…
This Buddha seemed very serene, especially when surrounded by so many tourists and worshipers! Unfortunately, I didn’t feel very serene in Nara on this particular day, and I think both me and my mum got a bit peopled and templed out! So, after a peaceful (ish) Starbucks, we headed back to Kyoto again.
And with just one more day in Kyoto, there was nothing to do but visit a whole bunch of temples and shrines! Haha! Actually, I saved the very best one for last, and Saturday was a really good day.
We started out at Ginkakuji, The Temple of the Silver Pavilion. Unfortunately, it was undergoing renovation, so we decided to give it a miss. It was the same price to get in, but we probably wouldn’t have seen anything worth photographing.
Instead, we moved on to the Path of Philosophy, or ‘tetsugaku no michi’. Last time I was there, it was cherry blossom season and very pretty, but even in winter it’s a nice walk, and still pretty scenic.
Along the way, we stopped off at Eikan-do, which amazingly (I’ve just discovered) has its own website! This isn’t listed as one of the main must-see temples, but I think it’s well worth adding to any itinerary! The gardens are lovely, and you can climb up some steps for a really nice view.
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Also, I think the Zen garden is one of the best I’ve seen!
Definitely one the guidebooks missed!
We continued walking, and bypassed Nanzenji (which is very expensive!) and Chion-in (which didn’t seem worth bothering with, and had about six tour coaches parked outside!) and paused for a while at Heian Shrine – mostly because they had food, and we were cold and hungry!
It was very busy, but we got some piping hot takoyaki and the lovely little man behind the stall took us to a tent where we could sit by the fire and eat! How kind!
After that brief pit-stop, we continued on to one of the overall highlights of my Kansai adventure. Another temple the guidebooks forgot to mention – in fact, this one isn’t even in my Lonely Planet Kyoto – not even a whisper of its name. Ryozen Kannon. I discovered this temple by chance on New Year’s Eve. We were stood in the carpark at Kodaiji, where we were pausing briefly, and I glanced up at the hills behind me… and saw a massive, 24 metre high Buddha staring back at me through the night. It was unbelievably spooky, and impossible to capture on camera as it had no light of its own. But I was totally drawn to it, and couldn’t stop staring at it. So we went back in daylight and found the actual temple, where you could not just go in and see it closer, but actually go right inside the Buddha, which was kind of weird! Inside are lots of smaller Buddhas, one for each of the Chinese star signs. The whole place is a memorial to Japanese soldiers who died in World War II, and also to the unknown soldier (in memory of more than 48,000 foreign soldiers who died on Japanese soil).
On the way in we were given a piece of incense – usually you have to buy it – and the entrance fee to the whole place was only 200 Yen!
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Amazing, huh?
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Even looking at this photo makes me feel sad. This is a memorial for kids.
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The atmosphere at Ryozen Kannon was very peaceful. Actually, they played music the whole time, which is something I have never experienced at a temple before. I kind of hope this place never becomes a tourist trap, but if you’re in the area, I do recommend a visit.
Finally, the last temple visit of the trip… Kiyomizu-dera! Which, thankfully, was open this time. Kiyomizu was my favourite temple in Kyoto until Ryozen Kannon bumped it down to second place, but it’s still awesome, in a very different way. And, because of its fame and popularity, it was, of course, crawling with tourists and worshippers!
This is just the street leading to it:
The best thing about Kiyomizu-dera is the height, and therefore the views!
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And so the Kansai adventure ended… and it ended on a rather wonderful note… Just as my mum and I were wondering what to do for dinner, we stumbled on an Indian restaurant in Gion! It was perfect – real Indian spicy food, Indian music playing, and even Indian staff! Haha! We did eat some Japanese food during the trip, but it was great of my mum to indulge my need for some spicy food!
The next day we returned to Nagoya for my mum’s flight home to England. The week went very quickly, but we also packed a lot in. And I’m very glad to have found a new love for Kyoto! I take back all the mean things I said about it before – it is a wonderful city, you just have to know where to look! 
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Amazing pictures!
New Year visits to shrines are a mixed blessing. On one hand it’s great to see a festival and the other the crowds are a bit too much. (Not liking crowds I had to get out of Atsuka pretty quick at New Year) I recommend Inari Taisya when it’s more deserted.
I wonder if Ryoanji is ever deserted, but I was lucky to visit very early in the morning so it was fairly empty. The moss garden around the corner had no-one admiring it.
I might have felt the same way about Kyoto until I managed to figure it out, and found some of the backstreets etc. I think what can be strange to Europeans is that it’s more on the edge of the city rather than the center where all the temples etc are.