京都 二回目 Kyoto a second time

Manu, my friend from Germany who is currently visiting me, definitely wanted to see Kyoto, so I went there a second time. I asked around the new arrivals and Hung Lun from Germany/Singapore decided to come with us. So I followed the old procedure and booked a night bus and a Guest House for us in Kyoto.

連休 Long Weekends

The first thing I noticed is that there appear to be special prices for long weekends (last Monday was a national holiday) for night buses and other things. Apart from that it is hard to get a night bus and a place to stay at on such a weekend, because the whole of Japan seems to be traveling around. Anyway we eventually took a night bus for 4.500 Yen and left 新宿 (Shinjuku) at 23:00 pm after the BBQ party and after we spent some time in the all you can play arcade in 厚木.

ゲストハウス凡　Guest House Bon
http://www.guesthouse-bon.com

Of course I learned from last time, so we did not go to the Cheapest Inn but looked for something else. Alas most was already booked out because of the long weekend, but eventually the proprietor of Guest House Bon replied to me, that we could have a room for three persons for only 2.100 Yen per person, so really incredibly cheap.
And the Guest House was awesome, it is owned by a married couple with a tiny little baby and is completely Japanese 旅館 (Ryokan) style. That means 畳 Tatami mats, 布団 Futon and traditional Japanese bath facilities and toilets. It also includes a kitchen, and free TV and Internet. The owners appear to have been Globetrotters themselves and having experience how hard it is to find a nice cheap place to sleep, want to offer exactly that.
When we were there, we met a couple of really nice guests as well. For example two Japanese Studies students from Hamburg and Frankfurt/Wuerzburg. And one of them, Monika, is even going to my own university in Erlangen, because Wuerzburg and Erlangen's Japanese Studies chair are merged together and is planning to doi her ph.d. there. Apart from them we met a nice guy from the Netherlands, two French guys cycling around Japan and two British Guys doing the same by train. It was a really cozy environment and we spent a lot of hours in the Guest House common room talking to the others.



The rooms have 畳 (Tatami) mats



and you sleep on traditional 布団　（Futon）

金閣寺 Kinkakuji

Our first goal for the first day was the Golden Pavilion, Kinkakuji. Seeing the temple is really impressive and the surrounding gardens are very nice too. But the best part was the Chinese stories Hung Lun could add to certain items in the garden.

For example right above the 金閣寺 itself is a water fall called 龍門滝 (Dragongate Waterfalls). The story to this goes like this: In China people belive(d) that the fish called Liyu, which looks like a dragon because of his beard hairs standing out, at one point of his life is trying to cross the dragon gate 龍門. If he succeeds he turns into a real dragon, just like a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. But the humans know of this and know the location of the gate, so they wait with their nets and catch the fish just before he is able to cross the gate. So the difference between a served fish on a plate and a dragon is really really tiny and you should keep that in mind when eating one.

Afterwards seeing a garden with some ornaments he thought of another Chinese story. The story of the white snake. Once there was a snake hunter, because the testicles of snakes were said to contain great powers of healing. The hunter discovered a wonderful white snake and intended to kill it, but a little boy with a flute watching the snake asked the man:
"Why do you want to kill this wonderful snake? If you spare her life, I will play you a wonderful tune with my flute and you can relax a little bit on this stone listening to my play."
The man agreed and though a rest was a good idea, and thus the life of the snake was spared.
After 1000 years the snake eventually gathered enough power, intelligence and experience about magic to be able to turn itself into a human. So using its magic it did and started searching for the boy that saved her life. Of course humans do not life that long, but Chinese believe(d) in reincarnation, so the snake searched for the reincarnated version of the little boy.
Eventually it found him, married him and became his wife. The snake was a good and caring wife and protected her husband without him knowing that she was in fact a white snake.
One day a great magician fighting evil spirits came along and discovered her secret. Snakes pretending to be human were considered evil spirits, so he fought her using magic and imprisoned her in a magic tower. When the man heard about his wife's true nature he lost all hope about this world, everything even his wife being an illusion and became a monk searching for other worlds. However the two of them had a son, who loved his mother even though she was a white snake. This son became the best graduate of university and was thus allowed to see the Chinese emperor. He asked him one single wish, to release his mother from the tower. And after completing a series of tasks for the emperor the white snake was released eventually. However her husband had become a monk and she had to search for him again.
In the end he accepted her as a white snake and they lived together until their end.

Then the story continued with the adventures of their son, which Hung Lun could not remeber anymore.



金閣寺 Kinkakuji



龍門滝　The Dragon Gate



This reminded Hung Lun of the story of the White Snake



You can find money sacrifices like this very often

銀閣寺 Ginkakuji

After the 金閣寺 we went to its counter part in the east side of the city the 銀閣寺, the silver pavilion. Though being not of actual silver, like the Kinkakuji was of gold, Hung Lun and I came to some interesting results. Both temples were built in the same way, having a pond on the same side and higher level gardens of the others. Also the entrances were apt. Apparently the golden temple represents the aspect of sun, while the silver one is representing the moon. Similar to the global concept of Yin and Yang. So the two temples were actually built to maintain a healthy balance of spiritual power between the east and the west part of the city, with the emperors palace lying in between. Very interesting.
So if you decide to visit one of them, you should visit the other and look for similarities and opposites. Also you should do so to maintain the spiritual power balance within yourself.





銀閣寺 Ginkakuji



A typical Japanese stone garden





Temple gardens sure are wonderful, and they avoid looking too artificial by including nature's own beauty

Handcraft Center
Since both of them were looking for postcards we ended the day with a short visit at the handcraft center I told you about before.

二条城 Nijou Castle

Because Hung Lun forgot his passport at home, we could not enter the Imperial Palace this time, so we decided to visit 二条城, since it was his residence before he moved to the palace after moving there and back again, because of fires.
The Castle is truly worth seeing as you can go inside and visit all the rooms and since they provided 人形 puppets of the people that lived there to illustrate the usage of the rooms. Apart from the wonderful interior the exterior must not hide before the Imperial Palace. It contains really wonderful gardens and nice paths to walk on. Last but not least there is a nice platform where you can see the whole areal.



二条城 Main Gate



And the castle's moat



Secondary Gate





And the wonderful Castle Garden



Me with Manu



And with Hung Lun



Manu really loves cool trees


伏見稲荷大社　Fushimi Inari Shrine

Afterwards we went to the outskirts of 京都 to one of the surrounding mountains where there is a passage made entirely of 通り (Toori). After all the money we payed on sights, we were really glad this one was for free and still totally worth seeing it. This main shrine is dedicated to the Japanese Fox Godess 稲荷 and already the temples and shrines before the passage are wonderful. Manu and I tried a buddhist fortune stick box and it turned out that apparently I am a mystery to the gods. I will tell you more, once I should succeed in translating the fortune.
The 通り passage continues all the way to the mountain top and it takes about 2 hours to complete it. It leads though wonderful awesome forest/mountain nature landscapes and being tight together offers protection from the sun as well. It is a really awesome hike and I can recommend it to everyone...
However you should follow the way as pointed out by the 通り. Because at some point the split up and build a circular path and you theoretically could go either way. However the 通り have writings on both sides indicating, which way you should go through. The correct side has the Kanji receiving and giving to a higher stand person (god / spirit) on them.
What we did and it was my fault for being lightheaded, was challenging the spirit world by passing through the 通り the wrong direction. And indeed only after some couple of meters disharmony spread among our group and Manu said we should have taken the other road and that he has the feeling this road leads to a wrong place. Afterwards the 通り passage suddenly stopped and strange temples consisting entirely of 通り appeared on the sides. Then Hung Lun first lost some money and then his entire wallet (but could pick it up again). The disharmony spread and eventually we agreed that the path was wrong. In the end we passed on single more 通り, which however was broken. We had no choice but to go through it (the middle part was missing), because we could not go around. When we passed the broken 通り, we suddenly were where we started our journey again.
I really felt sorry for lightheartedly choosing to challenge the spirit world, when actually being responsible for two other humans. I will never do this again without thinking and I am glad nothing major happened. However it was a really scary and though fascinating experience.



The entrance to the 伏見稲荷神社 is free



but guarded by an archer



This is the map of the temple, you might see the path out of 通り which goes all the way up to the top pf the hill.



challenging fate






On the one side you can read the names and addresses of the donators



The nature around the path is wonderful



After this temple we followed the wrong path and challenged the spirit world



How does recognize this face?




三十三間堂 Sanjusangendo

Since this was one of the temples I enjoyed most about 京都 last time, I wanted to show it to Manu and Hung Lun. This time we had some more time than, when I was with my parents and could read the signs of all the guardian spirits adapted mostly adapted from Indian deities. Really cool!



Taking pictures was prohibited, I have no idea how this one came on the camera

祇園 Gion

Afterwards we went to the ancient 芸者 (Geisha) district 祇園. This time we were told, that going there at the right time, you are able to actually see 芸者 there. If you are lucky you can see one going to her tea house between 17:00 and 20:00 o'clock. We were and she looked impressive, but alas the camera was not fast enough to capture/banish her eternal spirit in its digital circuits. What was a bit embarrassing for us were all the western foreigners waiting with their camera ready lurking in front of tea houses.
Fat Woman: "The guide says, you can see Geisha here, but we don't. Let's claim our money back!"
Fat Man: "It's all swindle! I told you from the beginning, why did we come here in the first place?"

And another tip, if you really want to make a picture, don't do it like fat woman and fat man above by lurking in the shadows, making quick pictures and hiding your camera again going away. That is really impolite and stupid; just go ahead and ask a 芸者, if she would mind you taking a picture of her. Usually they like what they do and take pride in it (at least in this part of the city, where only the artistic entertainment aspect counts) and don't mind being photographed, as long as you don't see them as caged animals.



The 芸者 Geisha district in 祇園



祇園　at night

ポント Ponto

Manu was hungry, and Hung Lun and I could also need some food. So we decided to search for the cool restaurant I was with my parents at last time, but the hungerr in Manu grew and eventually, we just entered the first restaurant we found, which offered vegetarian food and reasonable prices. After all I am not sure, if I would have been able to find back to that place.

Mandarin Cuisine Restaurant

So we went into a Mandarin Cuisine Restaurant, which was as fake Chinese as Japanese restaurants usually are in Europe. Apart from that it would have been a real Ponto restaurant, where you could have sat above the river side, which we only realized too late, there were some fishy things about it.
For a start you had to pay at least 1.000￥ per person, although the meals we found were around 700￥. However this didn't really matter, since it said, one drink per person is obligatory anyway, and the cheapest drink were 500￥. Not enough there was yet another sign saying: "You have to tip the server!".
Well we were tired and hungry and did not feel like arguing, so we stayed and ordered. However our meals turned out to be mini size, like for gourmets and we did not get served rice, which would have been another 350￥ per small bowl. So we ate our tiny meal and asked for the bill.
"お会計をください" and were astonished yet again. There was another 600￥ on it saying チャージ (Charge). When I asked what this charge would be fore, they answered it was a general charged, charged to every guest. Something like a seat charge for sitting down.

帰り道 Going Back

So eventually we decided to call it two days and head back. We went back to the Guest House 凡 one more time to pick up our luggage, take a shower say farewell to the other guests we met and head back to the station. When we finally left 凡 it was a quarter to 10 and our bus would leave at 11. The others at 凡 wondered why we'd leave so early, but we didn't want to take a risk. We headed for the next bus station and took one of the two buses heading until 京都駅. However what we only realized later, was that they did not go there directly but took a huge way around the whole city. So when I asked the bus driver, when we would arrive at the station, he said 11:02. Damn! OK What should we do? First thing of course panic. OK we were panicking, so far so good. Then Manu said, there's a Taxi behind the Bus. Alright and now we got a plan, so at the next bus station we jumped out of the Bus and in front of the Taxi, but it just drove away. Argh! OK more panicking and then searching for another one. We found one quickly and in spite of panicking, somehow I was able to explain our situation in Japanese. The Taxi driver was really friendly and 一生懸命 (gave his best) to bring us there in time. When we finally arrived, we had 5 minutes left. However there are many night buses and you never know, which one of them is the correct one. So we panicked some more and asked all kinds of people, until one found our names and told us to wait here. Since we had to wait for another 15 minutes we still were really scared and people kept on trying to help us. Eventually another potential bus driver asked the guy, who told us to wait, what he should do with those scared foreigners (in Japanese but I think I could understand as much). So eventually this bus driver was the correct one and led us to the bus, which left about 25 minutes late...
But we didn't care anymore, we were just glad that we made it in time...

Extra Tips

If you consider going to 京都 I want to give you some advice along your way:

Getting there
Night bus is tiresome but the cheapest way of traveling around Japan and you don't loose time, since you will be traveling during the night. The best site I could find so far is this one:
(http://bus.travel.rakuten.co.jp)

Sleeping
As I already said above, you should definetely try to get a room at the Guest House 凡 (http://www.guesthouse-bon.com). No matter where you go, usually you can always leave you luggage at the hostel, house, 旅館 (Ryokan) even before you checked in and even after you checked out. That saves a lot of having to carry heavy stuff around.

Bus Ticket
In 京都 there is a really cheap wonderful Bus ticket for 500￥. You can get it in every Bus when asking for it or at 自動販売機 vending machines at the station. It is valid for one day and for every bus!

Express Bus
During the main day (9:00 - 17:00 o'clock) there are three express buses 100, 101 and 102 I think, which only stop at the major bus stops and at every sight on 京都 so you can go through the city a lot faster using them., but having the ticket I mentioned above you can use all the other buses as well.

Bus Map
In front of the station there is a building called バスセンタ Bus Center, where you can get a really helpful and good map of 京都, which has all the bus lines and bus stops in it. You have to ask for this map at the counter, but it is for free. It is really a great help, be sure not to miss to get one.

If you have questions about anything, you can of course always ask me as well! :D

challenging the spirit world
mika

大阪と京都 Osaka and Kyoto

[吃驚な訪問　Surprise Visit]

On Thursday the second of August evening I found a mail from my parents in my email account saying that they will come and visit me this Sunday morning. In such short notice they couldn't find any plane to Tokyo, so they went to 新大阪関西国際空港 (Kansai International Airport) on the other half of 本州 (Japan's main island).

Oh boy! Since I knew that it would be really hard for them to get along by themselves and due to a prior misunderstanding as of how long they were going to stay (I first thought less than a week), I kindly asked my boss, if I could get two days off on Monday and Tuesday. Usually we are to keep the paid "holidays" for the case of getting ill and only after it is clear, that we won't need all of them for sickness can we apply for holiday at least one month in advance.
However my boss Owa-san was really kind and understood the special situation. So it was decided, that I catch up my parents on Sunday 8 am at the international airport near 大阪. Yet this only meant that the trouble started, since I had to plan the three days including where we'd go, where we'd sleep and how we'd get back. After a lot of searching and booking, I started to clean up my little room in 厚木 (Atusgi) to make it fit for three people (if such a thing is even possible). Then on Saturday evening I joined the 祭り (matsuri, city festival) that was happening on that very day in Atsugi.

[厚木祭り:　花火 (Atusgi city festival: fireworks)]

The festival at the least doubled the number of people in the city, as it has already done the year before, and made the officials close every street in the center of the city. All these streets where filled with countless festival stands, where you could buy drinks, sweets, meals and other stuff. Also some performances and music was played all around the city.
I tried some fried soba noodles, which were very good and a かき氷　(kakikoori a kind of stomped ice cubes with fruity sauce). Then I met Tor, the Swedish intern and our Japanese teacher from Atusgi Rumi-sensei. Together with friends of them we made our way to the riverside, where the 花火 was going to be displayed. You can't imagine how crowded the place was. The riverbed and the shored were crowded by people in a way, that you couldn't be sure which was the river. But eventually we found a little spot in the midst of a path and settled down to enjoy the 花火.　Japanese 花火, at least the one I watched, is different to European ones in several aspects. For once, while European ones last for about 20-30 min, the one in Atsugi lasted for 3 hours. Therefore there is even a program for the fireworks which is parted in different Acts, like a theater. And each Act has a certain theme. To make a 花火 in such a large scale, sponsors are required. Therefore each Act was sponsored by a different company, which again hired a group of fireworks craftsmen artisans, which designed and prepared the fireworks.
It was truly amazing, there were some awesome effects, I had never seen before. Once they even wrote a name into the sky using consecutive rockets, but alas I couldn't decipher it. On the other hand they often used sophisticated combinations of a limited set of colors to get artistic messages across. And of course a major aspect of the art was to perfectly time multiple rockets and make them go to a certain direction and explode at a certain height to achieve a desired effect.
Alas I only could watch about 2/3 of the theater, because I had to move on to 新宿 (Shinjuku, Tokyo) to board my Night Bus to 大阪, so I'd be able to catch my parents the next morning.



There were so many people in the streets, that the city hired man to regulate the traffic



so many people



and the 花火

[新大阪関西国際空港　Kansai International Airport]

One thing you should know about Japan is that there is a kind of concurrence between its two biggest cities Tokyo and Osaka. Out of this strife to proof to be a center of commerce and travel as well as Tokyo and mostly just to show off, Osaka, resp. the Kansai region built an enormous airport in the middle of the Sea Of Japan during the period of great economic growth. An artificial island was erected and an enormous bridge spanned to connect it with the main land. On this island the airport was built. However after the so called bubble economy burst, the airport project proved to have been way to exaggerated. Therefore today only one single terminal of the airport is in use, and it is far far beyond its planned capacity. Also it has never become the center for Asian commerce and travel it was supposed to become. Nonetheless, as you can see on the satellite photograph, it is a truly impressive structure. More impressive if you go there by Bus and look out of the window having the feeling to drive over the sea.
At the airport I had to wait for a little bit, fearing the worst, when finally my parents advanced from the Gate for international arrivals. They were late, because though waiting at different package returns, they both were picked out by the airport police and had their luggage searched through. Since some of the interns asked me to ask my parents to bring shampoo and deodorant from Germany, they had to explain why they needed 5 shampoos and 7 deodorants for their personal usage. ;p Furthermore they were shown pictures of drugs and asked if they would carry stuff depicted on those pictures... ;) My mom had to laugh... ;p















Satellite picture from 関西国際空港

[大阪 Osaka]
Right and settled we left the airport, this time by train (using the same bridge), back to 大阪.

[大阪　Youth Hostel]
Their I booked a room for us in a Youth Hostel for one night. Since my parents had a lot of luggage, we first had to find this room. As it turned out the Youth Hostel was inside a huge stadium being originally devised for international sport players, yet being open to everyone, when their was no major sports event. It was really nice and comfortable. It also included a お風呂 (A Japanese bathroom), a dinning hall, a common room and a TV corner. The rooms are separated by gender, so dad and me had to split from mommy for the night. I can fully recommend this hostel to you, since apart from the nice interiors it is also quite cheap (2.500 Yen per person per night). http://www.nagaiyh.com/










The stadium the Youth Hostel is located in.

[大阪中心 Osaka Downtown]
First thing we did in Osaka, after deploying our luggage was of course the search for food. We were landed up in Osaka's downtown, which for now we had a first glance at and later would walk all the way through (several kilometers! takes more than an hour). The whole road is covered by a roof and is only for pedestrians. Apart from the main road, there are also countless side roads crossing it, being filled with stores just like the main road. It is impressive, given, but after walking it for the first kilometer you have seen everything and the stores and surroundings just keep repeating until the end. Since my parents were still a bit scared and exhausted from the flight, we went into an Italian restaurant and did not dare Japanese cuisine yet.















The long road of 大阪 Downtown.


[民家集落博物館 Open Air Museum Of Ancient Japanese Houses]
Although my parents arrived in the morning, due to the jet lag and the time it took us finding the Youth Hostel, we didn't really have time or energy to visit many places in Osaka. So we decided to go to an area in the north, which looked very quiet and easy. There's a big green spot, where you can find various gardens (including the Osaka botanical garden), some lakes with fishes and fountains. Apart from that there is an open air museum where you can see and enter ancient Japanese houses from all over the country. Of course they were pretty simple and plain, but nonetheless the trip to this spot is surely worth it. You can look at the pictures below.















































Pictures from the village


[京都 Kyoto]
The next day, after a refreshing night and an invigorating breakfast at the stadium, we moved on to Kyoto. There we ran through the same procedure in finding our youth hostel. For 京都 there is a nice applet, where you can find all the places, we visited: http://www.jref.com/practical/kyoto.shtml

[京都 Youth Hostel]
Well in Kyoto we ran into the opposite of what we had found in Osaka. The hostel only had tight sleeping dormitories and no place to place your luggage or anything. It was not very clean, and inconvenient for taking a shower. Well in accordance to what I said about the Osaka stadium one, I do not recommend you to stay there. The place is called Kyoto Cheapest Inn, and it probably is: http://web.travel.rakuten.co.jp/portal/my/info_page_e.Eng?f_no=29943












The Hotel from the outside















The common room on the first floor (= ground floor in Japan) of the Hotel.

[祇園 Gion]
After we left the Youth Hostel we went to see Kyoto's old 芸者 (Geisha) district. It is still very colorful and full of interesting stores, although most of them specialized on tourists and of course you can't find any more 芸者 or etablisements nowadays.

[Handcraft Center]
I have learned in Erlangen that 京都　is most famous for its traditional handcraft. Since we spotted a place called handcraft center, we decided to start there searching for it. The place turned out to be very well hidden and it took as a long time to find it. My opinion on the place is somewhat twofold. I start with giving a description. It's a large building with about 9 floors. Almost each floor is built in the same concept. You start at a tourist shop selling all those stupid souvenirs non Japanese tourists would buy (samurai mouse pads, fake katana, etc.), then the main part of the floor is specialized to one aspect of 京都　handcraft, e.g. jewelery, dolls, printing, wood and others. In those areas you can actually see people working and crafting the items displayed and sold there.
So on the one hand it is a great museum like place for seeing traditional handcraft, which is actually made by people, which you can watch working.
On the other hand it is all too specialized on tourists and the handcrafting people have to work in Zoo like conditions: "Boah honey look, a traditional Japanese handcrafts person. Make a picture of me next to him".
But best is you'll build your own opinion about it, since I am not the german Bild newspaper.

[ポント Ponto]
Since we spent to much time, it was already after 6 pm, which means everything in 京都 was closed already. Since we saw and ate already in 祇園, we checked my parents 京都 guide book for alternatives, which would still be open. It said there'd be a kind of modern version of 祇園 called after the Portuguese word for bridge ポント (Ponto). The name was chosen because there are nice bridges over かも川 (Kamo River) as well as nice terraces on wooden piles on the side of the river. Alas those terrace restaurants were a bit expensive, but we found another very cool restaurant, where they build towers of food on a grill plate, which is then grill cooked right on your table. It was very good!



The tower grill food, after the tower had already been made colapse

[京都御所　Kyoto Imperial Palace]
The first thing we did on our second day in Kyoto is go to the Imperial Palace, because we were told, that one had to register around 9 am showing their passport, to be allowed entrance. After you filled out some paperwork you are actually allowed to enter the palace for free and even get a free tour guide speaking in good and understandable English. Apparently this tour concept is especially made for foreigners as they outnumbered the Japanese ones by 20 to 1. Visiting the palace is pretty interesting, especially with a guided tour. You learn much about the crazy customs and rules of the courtiers and how the 天皇 (Tenno) lived. However strange those rules were, they can't compete with Versailles ;p.
What I like most were all the different places, courtiers and the 天皇 could directly access and park the ox carts at. I think there were more buildings for ox carts than for the 天皇.






Pictures from the palace.





The palace's wonderful gardens.



In this building is the Tenno's magical mirror, a symbol of his arcane power.


[二条城 Nijou Castle]
The original castle of the Tenno, which burned down several times. Each time the Tenno moved to some other courtiers, until he finally decided to stay out of the castle and build the Imperial Palace, where he used to move out to.
We were going to visit this castle at the second day in Kyoto after we had seen the Imperial Palace itself. But alas this day happened to be Tuesday, the day where the 二条城 is closed...

[三十三間堂 Sanjusangendo]
After not having seen 二条城 we went to see Kyoto's temples! We started with one close to the station called 三十三間堂 (Sanjusangendo). It hosts no less than 1001 statues of Buddha guarded by several arch demons and greater guardian spirits. 1001 statues are a lot and quite impressive to look at, but their guardians are very magnificent too. For each guardian their is a sign explaining their significance and origin in Japanese and English.

[清水寺 Kiyomizudera]
This temple lies north of 三十三間堂 and is known for its awesome platform and the magnificent view from it. We spent a great deal of our day there, because there is much to see and it covers a big areal inside the hill woods, therefore it is really nice for walking and enjoying nature, shrines and the view. Since there is so much to see and walk, I can recommend this one as well.










The water from those wells is said to be holy and very healthy

[銀閣寺 Ginkakuji]
The silver counterpart to the famous golden pavilion 金閣寺 (Kinkakuji) in the north west of 京都. After 清水寺 we convinced ourselves, that we had not enough yet and so we moved on northwards to the silver pavilion. We did not visit the golden one for two reasons, one being that it is just too far away and second that it is mostly a tourist trap, even though it does look magnificent.
Alas we arrived shortly after it closed. Japanese temple and shrine usually close at 5 pm, you should keep that in mind, when doing sight seeing!

[哲学の道 The Path Of Philosophy]
But we already anticipated that we won't be able to see 清水寺　and went there for another reason, namely the path of philosophy. Its a very nice path along a small river, where Japanese philosophers used to walk up and down when thinking about a problem. It is beautiful, quiet and not crowded. And naturally it can't close.





the path of philosophy

[出発　Departure]
When it started to rain we left the path of philosophy before finishing it (we covered about 2/3) and went for the nearest bus stop. There we waited for 30 min, cause my parents wouldn't enter the crowded buses, but honestly I don't know if we could have. So we took another line, that did not go directly to the station, but to 京都 downtown, which is just north of the station. Since the rain already became lighter and eventually ceased we took the chance and walked the downtown up and down and had a meal in a Japanese restaurant. Afterwards we took another bus to the station. 京都駅 (Kyoto Station) is also something so see. In spite of the traditional city it was built very futuristic and large in scale (see pic). There we searched for the place, where our night bus was supposed to leave from and waited for it. When it came we returned to my little room in Atsugi and made my parents settle in, while I walked to work.



京都 Station

[他の写真　Extra Pictures]















Me explaining my mother Japanese culture.





My mother loved to photograph Japanese people wearing 着物 (Kimono).



My lovely parents



We found dozen of statues like this, but I am not sure about their significance yet




these two straw figures figures from the ancient houses say good bye on my account, and hope that you tune in again