July 21, 2016 (Kyoto, Japan)
On this morning, we woke up early and went hunting for breakfast. As there were 4 of us, we had to find some place we could all agree upon. We went under the train station and found a restaurant serving an American-style breakfast.
E discovered that she really likes Japanese milk tea.
At 9:00 we gathered at the train station for our tour. The tour group consisted of 20 people and was conducted in english. I had booked it through a JTB travel agency before leaving Hawai’i. We took the train southward to the first temple on the itinerary – Fushimi Inari Taisha.
Fushimi Inari is a Shinto shrine dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice, and is located at the base of Mt. Inari, south of Kyoto. It is the most important shrine for Inari out of thousands of others located throughout Japan. This shrine has been there for a long time and even predates the capital’s move to Kyoto in 794 . What characterizes this temple is the vermillion colored gates that line a number of trails leading up to and past mini-shrines along the mountain slope. These gates are called torii. The torii number in the tens of thousands and are a sight to behold while walking through them. As this is a shrine dedicated to business, many merchants through history, and now companies and individuals, have donated money in order to have there own torii placed there.
As a side note, foxes are believed to be Inari’s messengers. There are neat-looking fox statues placed throughout the shrine’s grounds.
I was super excited to visit this shrine since it was my first time, and I remember seeing it in a scene from the movie “Memoirs of a Geisha” and thinking, ‘Wow! Looks so cool!’
As soon as we walked to the first torii that leads up to the main temple, we were greeted by a large, almost deafening sound of cicadas grinding their wings together. This was a wall of sound of many different frequencies, from a low rumble of “just revving up” to full blown propeller mode. I can’t even imagine how many cicadas there were, but I think I was surrounded. The temple grounds looked very impressive with hundreds of hanging paper lanterns lining the walkway to the main gate. And to make it seem even more like sensory overload, the heat and humidity was awful. We got lucky with the lanterns. It turned out there was a festival scheduled for that evening, and these lanterns are a once-in-a-year occurrence.
After Fushimi Inari Taisha, we boarded a tour bus and were whisked off back to the city of Kyoto and the next temple on our itinerary, Kiyomizu-dera.
Kiyomizu-dera was established in the year 778. It is located near the city of Kyoto, halfway up Mt. Otowa in the Higashiyama mountain range. It is a Buddhist temple of the Kita-Hosso sect. It has a long history and according to the book, The Origin of Kiyomizu-dera Temple, a monk by the name of Kenshin had a dream in which he was told to go up north until he came across a clear mountain spring, and then establish a temple there. He did just that and discovered the water coming down from what is now known as Otowa Waterfall. Here he built the temple at the urging of an old priest who had built a hermitage in the area. The old priest practiced meditation here and this convinced the monk that the area was sacred.
Throughout its history, the temple has burned down and been rebuilt many times. Most of the buildings that now exist there were reconstructed in 1633. Kiyomizu-dera Temple received the distinction of being one of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto and was registered on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List in 1944.
This temple has enjoyed many visitors throughout the years. At one point, people attempted to jump off of the main stage (large porch), believing that their faith would help them to survive. Out of 233 people who have attempted this, 85% have survived. This practice is now forbidden.
Also, it is said that drinking the water from Otowa Waterfall will grant one a long life. It is considered a type of fountain of youth.
We waited in a very long line to drink from the water that is said to bestow long life to whoever drinks from it. We almost missed our bus. A lot of selfies (not by us) were taken in the line and I think that’s what contributed to the wait. As soon as we were done, we booked it down what seemed like a very long hill. We just barely made it. Was is worth it? I’ll let you know in 60 years.
In between this and the last temple on our schedule, we went and had lunch at a trendy restaurant . There was a long line of people waiting to eat lunch but as our tour guide had made reservations, we skipped the wait to the chagrin of other people waiting to be seated.
Food was great, and ranged from a tasty menu of Western food, pastas, pizzas, and bread and salads, to miso soup, Japanese noodles, sushi, and pickled vegetables.
Very delicious and didn’t disappoint.
Last but not least for the day was Kinkaku-ji, also a highlight.
Kinkaku-ji (literally “Golden Pavilion Temple”) is a 3-story wooden pavilion. What makes this temple so special is that the 2 upper stories are covered in 24-karat gold leaf. In 1397, it was bought by Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu from the Saionji family. It was first used as a villa, called Kitayama-dai, and belonged to a powerful official, Saionji Kintsune. After his death, the building was turned in to a temple by his son, as stated in his will.
In 1950, a young monk-in-training had a dream, where he envisioned his two most beloved things in the world combined, Kinkaku-ji and fire. Just past midnight on July 2, he set about creating his vision and set the temple on fire. He was taken into police custody and was sentenced to 7 years, but was later released due to being diagnosed mentally ill.
The pavilion was rebuilt in 1955 and major restoration was completed in 1987. It is thought to be restored to its original.
Our tour guide mentioned that many gold coins went into the restoration of the gold leaf. And this temple is quite a sight to behold.
This concluded our temple tour until the next day. We spent the evening exploring the inside of a department store near our hotel.
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