Day 2 – Temple Hunting
Well, I slept like a log, which meant I got up today full of energy and excitement! We headed back to Kyoto station, firstly to try and get our American friend Lobada a bloody train ticket (so much harder than it would seem apparently) and also to find some grub. We went to a place in the station where everyone (bar me) ordered the same thing. They all tried the Omelette rice (which was yummy when I stole some from Drew) and I got a cheese burger – so Japanese I know.
We then went on to try and find a bus that went to Kiyomizu Temple, and after walking around like the lost and confused tourists that we are, we found a small box with two women sitting inside who managed to point us in the right direction. Kiyomizu Temple is gorgeous. And the views are incredible! Definitely made the stairs getting up to it worth it. After exploring for awhile we found the waterfalls that are split into 3 streams. You get your little silver cup on a pole and walk behind the streams and select one of the three to drink from. You can choose between Vitality, successful love life and to be successful in school. We didn’t manage to get a photo of this (although a few of the locals did – white people are still different and unusual in Japan, so we are noticed a lot), I wish we had though. While at the temple we also got to ring the big bell and pray. I’m really enjoying witnessing and sometimes being a part of these traditional rituals here.
Next we found ourselves exploring the streets a bit and came across what we thought was another temple. Turns out it was a cemetery. The amount of respect and how much they honour their dead really shows when you look at it. The place was absolutely gorgeous. So when we found out if was a cemetery, we pretty much picked up our stuff and left.
We headed next to Sanjusangendo Hall, which houses a monumental 1001, meter and a half tall Buddha statues, as well as 28 statues of deities, and a massive 3 meter tall Buddha sitting in a lotus. Absolutely breathtaking walking along the hall seeing these statues as far as the eye could see. I’m sad that they didn’t allow us to take photos while inside of the hall – although the photos wouldn’t have done the sight justice anyway. The hall itself was beautiful, and the surrounding grounds were awesome! It was a lot of fun exploring them.
When we left we had a look at the vending machine corner. It’s amazing what is normal here in Japan! I was able to buy hot corn soup, in a can, from a vending machine! I love this place!
We’re just relaxing for a bit now before heading out to get dinner. There’s a Tepenyaki place that Drew’s pretty excited about, so it might be that we’re having tonight. But tomorrow we’re heading to see the Bamboo forest, which I’m super excited about, and a few other things local to that. Should be grand!
