Kyoto in the autumn time!

Wow, this appears to be the month of the blog!  It’s getting colder out and darker in the evenings and late afternoons, so I am spending more time indoors on my computer.  My house doesn’t have insulation and so I end up cranking the heater up and wrapping myself in blankets as I bask in the warm glow of my new computer.  The cooler weather has reminded me that Japan is supposed to be famous for it’s Fall Foliage and I haven’t really gone anywhere special in the last little while.  (I think I might have mentioned this in my Tarui posts from last week that I have a voice in the back of my head telling me to check out the various sights and sounds of Japan before it’s too late.  I’m only here for one year and it’s only going to be autumn once.  And I know, in my post from last week I was saying how happy I was to have seen more of Tarui and I hope to see a lot more of it, but I also want to visit some other famous spots across Japan, too, while I'm here.  Time sure flies by fast!)

So last Wednesday was a holiday, and I decided to take a daytrip to Kyoto.  I wanted to go to many different places around the city and see many beautiful things, like the temples.  I especially wanted to see the autumn leaves.  I didn’t get to all of the places I wanted to, but it was still a great daytrip.  It’s funny, my holidays never go as expected, and to some people it might end up being disappointing because they didn’t see absolutely everything.  But to me, it’s perfect every time…even if it is not what I planned or what I expected to do.  (I must sound like a broken record, rehashing the same themes…but I really am enjoying Japan and I can’t help sharing it in this blog).

Anyway, let’s talk about Kyoto!  First, I slept in by an hour, but I still managed to get to Kyoto by 9:30am.  I love taking the Shinkansen.  It’s so fast and convenient!  I ended up sitting next to a lady who was brave enough to talk to me in English (how could she tell that I wasn’t from around here and that I spoke English? ;-) and she was patient enough to let me practice my broken Japanese, which my sensei calls “Janglish.”

Once I arrived at Kyoto station, I bolted for the JR Nara line and just made it to the train on time.  And then I realized that I hadn’t paid.  Opps!  But luckily, I was speaking to a friend a week ago and she was bragging about the Japanese transportation system.  She said that even if you are running behind and haven’t paid enough (or in my case, at all), you can pay after you leave the train.  That way you can catch your train and not fiddle with money if you are running late, and then you simply pay as you leave.  So I tried to keep this in mind even though my guilty mind was buzzing.  Thank goodness I only had to go two stops!

I got off at my stop, and of course I couldn’t get through the subway gates because I didn’t have a ticket because I didn’t pay for the Nara Line, but there was a person at the gates who deals with this sort of thing.  In fact, there were a couple of people who hadn’t paid or hadn’t paid enough and had to go through the booth.  I was actually able to explain in clear Japanese that I came from Kyoto station and was now at Inari station without a ticket, and I told her I knew it was going to be 140 yen.  Hooray for my Japanese lessons paying off!!

So after paying, I walked out of the station and this was the first sight I saw across the street:

This is Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, the Shrine I really wanted to visit.  It’s nice to know that I didn’t have to search high and low for this place! 

The leaves weren’t very colourful, but the 1300 gates were amazing.  Here are some pictures…see if you can guess what movie had a famous scene filmed at this Shrine.

Check out the stray cat in the Shrine!  I guess this Shrine isn’t just for humans!!

There was a group of guys fixing and maintaining the gates.

Did you guess the movie, “Memoirs of a Geisha”?  You’d be right.  It was the scene where the little girl runs through all of these beautiful gates and decides she wants to be a Geisha, and so she spends all of her money to pray at a temple that she will become a Geisha.  She hopes to become a Geisha so that hopefully, one day in the future, she will meet the gentleman who was so kind to her that day.  It was quite a hike, and I think I only went through 20% of the gates, but I had other things I wanted to see that day and I had a feeling I would be back here again, one day, with my husband or a friend or another family member, hiking though these beautiful gates.  Do you want to see something funny?  The guys in the following picture were on their phones calling and texting the entire time I was around them. 

What a time to play with your technology, boys.  But who knows, maybe they had an emergency or something.  I shouldn’t judge.  Besides, I know they weren’t paying attention to their surroundings because of their technology, but I, too, was distracted by watching and listening to these two guys play with their toys.  I am just as guilty of not appreciating the wondrous sights and sounds around me at the Fushimi Inari Shrine because I was paying too much attention to these guys.

One thing that I noticed when I go to various places in Kyoto or Nara is that sometimes people tend to dress up.  People wear kimonos, people dress up their kids (including the boys).  So I took a couple of pictures because I thought everyone looked great in their traditional Japanese clothes!  (I didn't take too many pictures...I didn't want to seem like I'm stalking anybody!!)

Anyway, I left the Temple and searched for the other nearby Station that I was supposed to catch if I wanted to go north, past Kyoto Station.  I found it and figured out how much I had to pay.

Next stop, Heian Jingu Shrine.  I started walking down the street and I came across a small coffee shop.  The workers were just opening up their cute little café.  Beside their shop was a very formal, Italian Restaurant.  Now, I was planning to eat later on in the heart of the Gion District.  But you know when your gut or your instinct pulls you in a different direction and you just have to follow it?  (My gut didn’t just speak to me, it growled.  I think it was time for an early lunch!)

And, boy, am I glad I stopped at this café!  It was an answer to my prayers!!  Just this week, I was whining to my husband on Skype how I enjoyed Japanese food, but I was starting to long for good, Canadian food.  You know, Multi-grain Bread and REAL cheese, homemade autumn soup with root veggies, and real Chinese food.  If you don’t know, my husband is Chinese Canadian and he (and his whole family, for that matter) are fantastic cooks.  I was longing for REAL Chinese food (I find the Chinese food to be quite bad here, in Japan…and I even had the opportunity to eat at the largest Chinatown in Japan!  I’m sorry Japan, but your Chinese food is awful!)  Dim sum, yum cha!!  Oh, I miss Canadian/Chinese cuisine!!!

Well, this cute little café reminded me of home.  So much so, that I took pictures:

Also, the menu (and the workers of this place) explained that this was a healthy café that didn’t serve preservatives, MSG, etc.  I mentioned that I didn’t eat meat, and two of the three lunch specials didn’t have meat!!!  Yay!!  I could be a vegetarian and not feel guilty about it!!  (Just to clear things up, I still eat fish and seafood.  How could I possibly be in Japan and not eat sashimi or sushi?!)

Here are some pictures of my lunch:

And to top things off, they had a special imported Chinese tea that tasted so good that it reminded me of the tea I tried in Beijing and in Hong Kong.  Like I said, my prayers were answered that morning!

After lunch, I went to Heian Jingu Shrine and took a couple of pictures.  It seemed that there was an event going on, so I couldn’t explore the grounds and the gardens like I wanted to.  Here are some photos:

People normally tie their prayers on a fence, but at this temple people tied their prayers on these trees.  Beautiful!

So I apologize in advance, because I took many many MANY pictures of the autumn leaves because I started to see some very lovely sights.  If you are bored, feel free to scroll down.  I just couldn’t decide which ones to show, so I'm showing you most of my pictures that day.

First, the walk to the Nanzenji Temple was incredible.  I was walking down a path beside the river and the Kyoto Art Museum. 

This is the Kyoto Art Museum.

This was an awesome statue reaching towards the museum.  I love the size of his hands compared to his body!

So the temple I wanted to go to had a tonne of people who had the same thing in mind.  There were soooo many people that I almost turned around.  Finally, the herd…I mean, we, the crowd of people, arrived at the gate.  Oh…my…gosh.  Holy Autumn Garden!!  I only spent about 15 minutes at the Nanzenji Temple (I didn’t even go in or get close enough to take a picture because of all the people), but I did take pictures of the garden and the trees.  (Like I said, I only stayed for about 15 minutes because the crowds were that bad).  Here are some pictures of the trees and the leaves:

It’s hilarious watching other Japanese tourists because they would all flood towards the coloured trees and then just stare at the leaves and take a hundred photos…like myself.  I was guilty of doing this, too!  But it’s because the different colours of red, green, orange, and yellow (and I’m talking different shades of red, different shades of orange, etc) was simply stunning.  Now add a temple into the background and it seems like you are in autumn paradise!!  Here are more pictures:

Around this time, I looked at my clock.  Wow, it was later than I wanted it to be.  By this time, I wanted to have finished visiting the Gion District and the Kiyomizudera Temple and take a cab to the Daitokuji Temple, where the leaves are supposed to be outstanding.  From there, I was planning to walk to the Golden Temple and one of my favourite temples: the Ryoanji temple.  But time was short, and I had to make a decision.  I decided to hang around the very crowded Gion District and to stick around the Kiyomizudera Temple and actually go into the shops.  I always walk by them, but I wanted to take my time.  And, boy, am I glad I did!  I had a snack of mochi:

I even tried s black sesame soft serve ice cream cone.  As I was eating it, I saw a vendor selling a pumpkin soft serve ice cream cone with roasted pumpkin in the cone.  I was disappointed I didn’t choose the pumpkin cone instead.  But just as I wished it in my head, my wish was granted!  I had two older Japanese ladies approach me to admire my black ice cream.  I admired their pumpkin cones.  So one of the ladies scooped some of her ice cream and roasted pumpkin into my cone and I gave her some of my black sesame seed ice cream.  I made the right choice…the black sesame ice cream was much better (and cheaper, I might add!)  Here is a picture of the shopping area near Gion corner:

I bought a couple of gifts and a couple of things for myself.  Then I ended up at the Kiyomizudera Temple.  I have been there so many times before, but I never grow tired of this Temple.  The leaves were spectacular as you can see from the following pictures: 

It was starting to get dark, so I walked west towards the river and the subway station.  I took a picture of the river.  You should have seen all of the couples sitting on the riverbank!  Actually, here are some pictures:

This is a picture of the subway station...yeah, I had time to kill, so I took a picture.

Now I had a choice.  Take the subway back to Kyoto Station and go home, or go into the heart of Kyoto and shop for my husband’s Christmas gift (I had something very specific in mind and I hadn’t found it yet…but I knew I’d find it further north.  I’m sorry I can’t be more specific, but I know that my husband will be reading this.  Sorry, honey, I’m not giving away what your present is!!)

Here are a few more pictures of what I saw that night.

The outdoor shopping area:

The river:

Interesting pictures of things I saw on the street:

Many strange signs. (I’ve decided that one day I am going to dedicate an entire post to all of the strange signs I’ve see in Japan.  English can be difficult to translate, but even the correct translations sound strange to me…like the sock shop sign you are about to see.)

Finally, after an hour and a half of walking and shopping, I found what I was looking for.  So I headed back to the subway so that I could head back to Kyoto Station.  As I walked closer to Kyoto station, this is what I saw:

Ah, Christmas in Japan.  I have to admit, the giant tree at the station brought a tear to my eye.  For a moment, I felt sad that I was missing Christmas in Canada.  I instantly felt better knowing that I was going back home for the holiday, but I still felt a little sad.  But again, I reminded myself that in exactly one month I would be on a plane going back home.  So until then, I will have to enjoy the holiday season in Japan.  Which is easy to do, because Christmas is everywhere!!  

(Isn't the Christmas Sale supposed to be AFTER Christmas?  Why am I complaining?!  It's a sale!!!)