Kyoto – Day One… from Sad to Glad (Japan – Autumn 2018 Day 17)
Ahhhhh Kyoto. The quintessential picture of what people conjure up in their minds when they think of traditional Japan… they aren’t wrong to do so because Kyoto is just that… and much more as well.
Kyoto was first settled in the 7th Century… by the year 794, it became Heian-Kyō, the capital city to distance it from the clerical establishment in Nara… in those times the Buddhist clergy was very powerful and quite involved in the Imperial government, so the Emperor Kanmu wanted to relocate the capital there. Tokyo would not become the capital city of Japan until 1868, but that is a long story better served in a separate blog post.
Back to current times… all of us were up fairly early to get ready to go to Tokyo Station this morning to catch the Shinkansen. Everyone was pretty excited to go to Kyoto… except for me. I was feeling quite overwhelmed with the serious nature of a few things that I am dealing with in my life right now, things too personal to write here, at least at this time. I felt quite lonely and isolated and confused about decisions that I am facing in the near future. It was all too much, once I settled in and got still on the Shinkansen… tears flowed and I was concerned that someone would notice… thankfully no one did.
I dug deep to find some strength to move past the thoughts and feelings that were taking the forefront of my attention… by the time we arrived in Kyoto I was less emotional, but definitely subdued and not excited. The walk to the apartment that we rented was only a half hour, but the roads that we went over sent two of my luggage wheels over the edge – after 10 years of use and abuse, two of them had been threatening to half fall apart, and fall apart they did… about mid-way through this walk. (now I have to get a replacement set while I’m here)
Walking up the hill to our apartment – this is actually some of the easier terrain that we traversed – some of the streets were in rather poor repair.
The last 15 minutes were mostly uphill, and by the time we got there my back and arms were a little sore from dealing with faulty luggage wheels and a heavy backpack… but the apartment was REALLY nice – while the others went upstairs to claim their beds and take a nap, I claimed one of the sofa beds in the living room as my own and hooked up my Playstation 4 – priorities!
It was a nice apartment – AND it didn’t have a mold and mildew problem!
Since I hadn’t been online in 16 days, updates needed to happen… a system update and a game update took around an hour and then I was feeling energetic and refreshed so I set out to one of the nearby temples for some much needed recharging.
Imakumano Kannonji Temple was literally just up the road and a hill away from the apartment, so I set my path toward that destination. It was not terribly long before sunset and I wanted to make certain that I could go to a peaceful place before I went back to the apartment.
At the entrance stood a nice bridge to welcome me in:
Imakumano Kannonji Temple Bridge welcomed me in…
This temple is not one of the temples that is frequented by tourists, so I was fairly certain that it would not be crowded… I was correct, as there was only three other people who seemed to be locals there, who left shortly after I arrived.
This was a beautiful place. I did not take a photo of the main shrine out of respect, even though there were no signs prohibiting it, but here I have a photo of the base of a statue that stood just outside of the shrine:
I love the details of this statue base!
A path from that point lead to mini shrines to pray and reflect at, all in a small bamboo thicket
Small shrines in a small bamboo thicket.
I slowly walked up the path and I noticed there was a large beautiful building at the top – I wanted to hurry up and get to the top of the hill because I could see the light of the setting sun, but I did not hurry my steps… I decided to bask in the serenity of this place and let the pains and stress of the day melt away as I slowly ascended.
My patience rewarded me with peace, and a beautiful view:
From this point you could see across the valley floor and the mountains on the other side too. So perfect. So peaceful. So beautiful. Exactly the sort of thing that I deeply needed and had been seeking for weeks was right here… I savored every moment.
I was standing there and looking out over the the valley when I heard a friendly voice calling out… I couldn’t quite make out what he was saying because he was a little far away, but when he got closer I realized it was one of the monks asking my forgiveness for interrupting but could I please come with him because the shrine was closed!
I was so embarrassed and apologized profusely (in Japanese) and he responded that it was okay, and asked me to please have a good evening and come again. He had to unlock the gates to let me out – they allowed me to view the sun go fully down before they retrieved me – so kind. I’ll never forget both the embarrassment that I felt and the kindness that man expressed even in his humble apologies for interrupting me.
Exiting the shrine, I walked back down the path toward the bridge and paused, planning what I might do next because I was not ready to go home yet. I was a little hungry, but I decided to make my way to Fushimi Inari-Taisha, since it was only just over a mile away from the house, and some further distance from where I was exactly standing. I was hoping that perchance the food merchants would still be there since it was Sunday night but I also know that around sundown some of them close, so I wasn’t hopeful. I chose a wooded path that looked inviting and slightly scary, but I knew there was nothing to fear. Through the woods I happily walked, and at that point pulled up a map on my phone to plot a more sure course.
I went through a quiet neighborhood in the first of the twilight hour, then through another small wood, over a hill and back into a neighborhood. Around a tiny shrine, through another wood and another neighborhood, then over another hill – the moon was making an appearance, well on it’s way to being full in a few days.
Suddenly, I was on the approach to the shrine and HUZZAH! Food vendors! About half of them were still set up, and they were getting a lot of business from the throngs of tourists exiting the shrine. I was lured by a heavenly smell to one particular stall…. it was some sort of crepe-ish looking thing on a stick, covered with sauce and drizzled with mayo like Okonomiyaki, but clearly wasn’t Okonomiyaki… I still don’t know what this thing was called, but I DO know that it was made of… Yuba Yam flour, stuffed with a chunk of cheese – it was so delicious! Finding out what this was and finding a recipe for me is now going to be an obsession, because that was so very delicious!
Hunger satiated to an acceptable degree, I continued on up the mountain… there were still quite a few people there despite being dark, but I made my way up the first section of Torii Gates anyway in hopes that a zillion people would not be taking the full hike to the top of the mountain.
I got to the point where the path starts to get steeper, the section that leads to family shrines, but it was CLOSED. Oh, I was so very disappointed! Every time I have been at this shrine I have not had the time to go to the top of the mountain, and now that I had the time… no entry. Sadness! Perhaps I will try again tomorrow!
I consoled myself with a small photography session:
No matter what time of day or night, the Fushimi Inari Torii Gates are an impressive sight that I will never find boring.
This kitty ignored a guy wanting it’s attention, but he posed for me and then insisted that I give him and three other ladies ALL of the loves!
Night Doge
A regal dog watching over one of the shrines.
Peeking Boo is looking at YOU!
Exiting the shrine
Main Fushimi Inari-Taisha Torii Gate – if I were to magically make this photo pan down, you’d see the long approach to the gate… and at the end a Daily Yamazaki conbini!
I waked the 1.2 miles home, happy and peaceful, thankful and determined to continue my week in pursuing good things in my life.
Once I arrived home, then I spent time with some of my Destiny clanmates playing the new Festival of Lost Souls content for Halloween – I have missed you all so much! (we need to raid when I get back to the US!)
Snackventures With Paulina (Japan – Autumn 2018 Day 13)
The Boys wanted to have their own adventure today. Paulina wasn’t feeling great after yesterday and I did not want her to spend the day alone, so I stayed with her.
She expressed the desire to have Okonomiyaki so it was decided that we should go to Monja Street near Tsukiji – I liked that place that Chris took me to so much the other night, so we went there… but it was closed! Turns out that it was only open during dinner hours, and we were there shortly after lunchtime.
We roamed the street to try and find a restaurant that looked good – about half of them were closed, I’m assuming because it was after lunch and mid-week. This still left a good selection of places to eat monja or okonomiyaki… however, we got distracted by two melon pan bakeries so we stopped to purchase some… one was from a place that I had previously visited with Kyle in 2015 that I knew I loved, and one was called Tokyo Melon Pan, which I had not tried before.
I tried this back in 2015 and had to have another!
Tokyo Melon Pan – many varieties of melon pan there.
We saved our melon pans for later, in favor of finding our late lunch. Finally we settled on a place with an enthusiastic dude who asked us to come in – we chose to share a curry monja!
Curry Monja!
It was DELICIOUS and I’d definitely come back for food again! Part of the fun is cooking your own food but it was made even better by the guy who asked us to come in – he was very friendly and ended up talking with us about where we are from respectively and music – turns out that he really likes a Swedish band called Mando Diao! He was so enthusiastic and full of personality that we had to have our photo taken with him.
He reminded me quite a bit of Natsuki, Chris Broad’s friend and a frequent personality that appears in Chris Broad’s YouTube videos… awesome dude!
The monja was just enough to make us more hungry… but we saved our melon pan and opted to eat some cheap yakitori instead – again some food that I enjoyed with Kyle back in 2015 and wanted to try again.
Awesome Yakitori!
My memory of how good this yakitori is was spot on – very happy that we went here! Paulina seemed to enjoy it too.
We continued on our way… the ultimate destination being a place fairly nearby that serves takoyaki for a cheap price. On our way, we saw:
empty streets:
I felt the need for a selfie because my hair was sort of behaving. This is probably because the humidity was the lowest it’s been so far this trip:
The photo is blurry, and I am only just now noticing this as I’m writing this blog entry. Oops.
Police station was adorable – I’ve been meaning to snap a photo of this for the past three trips here:
Police station on Monja Street
On our way to takoyaki, we saw Tsukiji Hongwanji, a temple founded during the early Edo period in 1617. The original building burnt in the Great Fire of 1657. The current building was built by architect Chūta Itō – he was asked to build it in the style of Indian temple architecture and the results are stunning!
The temple was about to close for the day, so we only got to peek inside as they were shutting the doors to the shrine – perhaps I can fully explore the building another day.
Just up the block was the takoyaki place – Tsukiji Gindako – Gindako is actually a chain. I was hesitant to try them because I am not a fan of octopus, but Paulina talked me into trying hers… it was delicious!
Topped with a teriyaki type sauce, bonito flakes and a little mayo, it was great – the octopus was fresh, and was not chewy or super fishy tasting – it was just right! I’d eat it again.
Tummies full, we went home… I edited photos and a few hours later Paulina, Zack and I went for a walk and got CoCo Curry to go, ate at home and now I’m getting ready for bed. Paulina dubbed the day a “snackventure” and it was indeed!