![\"Shrine](\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230818_094623-rotated.jpg\")
<\/a>\nThis was early days yet, so we didn’t realize just how ubiquitous these shrines were going to be. You pass small ones on nearly every street, particularly in Kyoto, which was largely undamaged in WWII.\u00a0 Some estimates place the number of Shinto shrines in Japan at over 100,000, and the number of Buddhist temples at around 80,000.\u00a0 It’s truly impressive.<\/p>\n
“Impressive” is also the word I would use to describe our actual destination, the T\u014d-ji temple complex.<\/p>\n
The complex as a whole dates from 796.\u00a0 As would turn out to be a common theme throughout the trip, due to fires, earthquakes, and conflict, the actual BUILDINGS at many religious sites were significantly newer than the site itself.\u00a0 This pagoda, for example, was originally built in the 9th century, but was destroyed and rebuilt four times, so the current structure is ONLY about 380 years old.<\/p>\n There are two large temple halls, neither of which allow pictures inside.\u00a0 Both are amazing to enter, however.\u00a0 The rooms are huge, dark, smell of incense, and contain statues of Buddhas ranging from the merely very large, to the truly enormous, all of them hundreds of years old. Even without pictures, it was an incredibly memorable place to stand.<\/p>\n Which, I am aware, does NOT help you, the reader, visualize things.<\/p>\n After that, we needed to walk to the train station to catch the train to the other train we had tickets on, and Google directed us down a quiet back street of Kyoto to cut through a park to our destination.<\/p>\n At least, it was quiet at first.\u00a0 Soon we heard… drumming? Well, ONE drum, anyway. And… kids? We turned a corner and saw something we definitely wouldn’t expect in North America; there was a class of about 30 children probably around 5 years old, wearing matching uniforms, with several adults supervising.\u00a0 One of these adults had a marching bass drum on a stand and was hitting it.\u00a0 Every time he did so he’d shout an instruction and the kids would, in unison, perform a gymnastic move with their partner.<\/p>\n I used to teach five year olds – I was lucky if I could get 30 of them to not MURDER each other, let alone perform synchronized gymnastics to a beat.\u00a0 We didn’t take any pictures, because that would have been creepy, but my goodness I wanted to.<\/p>\n However, we had to get moving, because we had to get to the starting point for our trip on the world’s least romantic Romantic Train.<\/p>\n I should explain.<\/p>\n In the northwest suburbs of Kyoto, there’s a mountain gorge with a scenic railroad running through it.\u00a0 This train is known as the “Sagano Romantic Railroad.”\u00a0 In theory, you can have a lovely romantic time on a train going through beautiful natural scenery.<\/p>\n And to be fair, the scenery IS very nice.\u00a0 Here’s the station where we boarded:<\/p>\n And here’s a view from the window:<\/p>\n Lovely, innit?\u00a0 Now let me paint a picture of what it’s actually like to BE on this train.<\/p>\n The train is PACKED.\u00a0 Every seat is taken with tourists, families, children, none of whom are observing the usual rules of silence on Japanese trains.\u00a0 In addition to the passengers, the train itself is EXTREMELY noisy.\u00a0 There are a pair of photographers roaming the aisles insisting on taking photos of everyone, and requiring a crowbar to convince that you do not actually wish to PURCHASE a souvenir photograph. Over all of this chaos, there is an announcer on the PA speaking in rapid, highly amplified Japanese. Continuously. For the entire (20 minute) length of the trip.\u00a0 At no point does disembodied announcer person ever appear to take a breath.<\/p>\n It was utter madness.\u00a0 It was not in ANY WAY romantic.<\/p>\n It was bonkers, I’m so glad we went.<\/p>\n Upon disembarking, we got to experience the peaceful stillness of the Arashiyama bamboo grove… with several hundred of our closest friends.<\/p>\n It’s amazing, you should go see it, but if you want to get that perfect Instagram photo without running into several million people ALSO trying to get that perfect Instagram photo, you’ll need to get there very early.\u00a0 Fortunately for us, we don’t even know how to SPELL Instagram.\u00a0 I think there’s a “w” in there somewhere?<\/p>\n The grove leads to another temple complex, this one quite different from the one in the city, by virtue of its more rural setting.<\/p>\n At this point, we were hot and tired and in need of lunch.\u00a0 So we walked through the (extremely touristy) town of Arashiyama to a restaurant which promised… pancakes!\u00a0 They were very good, but not the super fluffy ones we had been hoping for.\u00a0 Our quest continued…<\/p>\n But there was no time to waste on longing for pancakes, because we had monkeys to see!\u00a0 There’s a monkey park in Arashiyama!\u00a0 Where you can hang out with monkeys!\u00a0 It’s just the other side of this bridge! (Built in the medieval period, current iteration dates from 1934.\u00a0 See what we mean?)<\/p>\n At least we weren’t like some of the tourists trying to do it in rented kimonos and sandals.<\/p>\n Once we got to the top and caught our breath, the monkeys WERE everything we hoped for, and the view was spectacular too.<\/p>\n You can buy apples to feed to the monkeys.\u00a0 In order to do that, you have to go in a cage, so they can make fun of you while you give them food.<\/p>\n Monkeys are neat.\u00a0 However, at that point, we had to haul ourselves back DOWN the mountain, catch the train back into Kyoto, and go find dinner.<\/p>\n We did this using a Japanese restaurant review site called “Tabelog.”\u00a0 The great thing about Tabelog is that there’s no grade inflation.\u00a0 If a restaurant has more than 3.0 rating, it’s good.\u00a0 If it has more than 3.5, it’s excellent, and if it’s over 4.0, you are NEVER getting a table, loser. The only problem is that it’s more or less entirely in Japanese.\u00a0 Thank goodness for Google Translate. (A frequent refrain on this trip.)<\/p>\n We decided to go to a place with a rating of 3.68.\u00a0 Down this alley.<\/p>\n What could possibly happen?\u00a0 Well, this, primarily.<\/p>\n Absurdly good.\u00a0 Tabelog is amazing.<\/p>\n We also selected this restaurant because it’s a block or so from Yasaka-Jinja, a shrine which is unquestionably best visited at night.\u00a0 Why?<\/p>\n That’s why.<\/p>\n This had been a LONG day, so we had a nice walk down to the bus stop and headed back to our hotel.\u00a0 Not much to see along the walk, really.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kyoto was the first time in Japan we really had time to sit down for a nice breakfast – Osaka was closed due to a typhoon, and we had trains to catch the next two mornings.\u00a0 We had heard a … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nIt’s just the other side of this bridge… and a twenty minute walk up a steep hill.\u00a0 In 95 degree weather.\u00a0 Oof.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nWell, OK, except that.\u00a0 Kyoto is really pretty.<\/p>\n