This is the second part of a three part series about a trip to Kyoto from Tokyo. This is a full day of sightseeing as opposed to allowing for travel time, so if you're interested in seeing what you could do in Japan's original capital, you're in the right place. If you haven't read the first part where I talk about an itinerary that includes the travel time to Kyoto from Tokyo, click here.
Day two of our Kyoto trip saw us waking up as early as we could. Our first place to go to was Arashiyama's bamboo forest. From Nijo Castle, the bus ride to Arashiyama was about a half hour. We had to transfer buses at a terminal stop, and we were herded to the other bus like we were being drilled in the military. The second bus was the one that let us off by Togetsu-kyou: a wooden bridge that has been a landmark for hundreds of years. The bridge and the river it spanned over was a pretty nice sight, although I did feel it was a bit tarnished by the congested intersection at one end of it.
Our destination here was the bamboo forest. From the bridge, the bamboo grove was a few minutes' walk along a road leading basically right up to it. Now, I don't have much of an attention span, and there were a couple of character cafe's along the way. What this meant was that we did something decidedly uncharacteristic for Kyoto: eat food in the shape of pop culture characters. When we finished consuming the rice effigies of the popular cute bear, Rilakkuma, we continued onward, stopping one other time to pick up some Snoopy chocolates at another shop.
The bamboo forest was, in all honestly, underwhelming. The area was crowded with tourists (curiously, a lot of them Filipino) and the trail was actually quite short. We walked through the entirety of the trail within a half hour, and that includes the time we took to stop and take photos. Finishing unexpectedly early, we decided to go to Tenryuu-ji, which was right at the beginning of the bamboo forest trail.
Tenryuu-ji probably had the most impressive gardens I saw during this trip. The area was multi-tiered with lots of different plants and ponds. For an additional fee you could go on inside the building and walk around on the wooden floors of the temple. Many opted to sit in the sunlight and gaze at the rock garden that was adjacent to the biggest pond. The inside of the building was well worth the three hundred yen entrance fee. It was crowded on the walkways of the building, but the interior was very traditional and quite fascinating.
There was another point of interest at this temple: the cloud dragon painting. The temple actually has dragon in its written name, so it was an appropriate thing to want to go to. Unfortunately, it was closed for maintenance during our visit.
Kinkaku-ji (the Golden Pavilion) was right after Tenryuu-ji. We made our way to the closest bus stop and took about a half hour on the packed bus to the Golden Pavilion. It was another half hour trip or so. The next temple's grounds weren't that different. There were dozens of tour groups running about the whole place, with most of them being loud and obnoxious. Tons of others were staked out at the photo spot across the pond from the golden building, and there were enough people for a guard to be necessary.
Like Ginkaku-ji, this temple also had a guided route. There were a couple of places along the route that had pots placed at various points, many of which groups of tourists were trying to throw coins into. They were cordoned off, so the pots must have been placed there for the purpose of collecting loose change from visitors. Apart from the other tourists, the gilded building was really the only interesting part of the area.
Again, we wanted to make the most out of our time in Kyoto, so we headed off for Kiyomizu Temple. We stopped by the hotel room to drop off some of our souvenirs, then boarded the most packed bus we got on for the whole trip. We had to struggle to get out of the bus due to the sheer number of people inside. The bus driver almost drove off before we could get off, but thankfully some of the other passengers stopped him.
Kiyomizu Temple wasn't as interesting as Heian Shrine in the dying light. It didn't help that the temple itself is was under renovations, so the night view of the cityscape was kind of obstructed by scaffolding. The temple was also scarcely lit, so when the sun went down completely, it was a bit spooky to be around. The temple itself was eerie thanks to those praying in the darkness of the halls, and the grounds had shadows that cast in all directions that made you feel like you stepped into the void when no one else was around.
We quickly ran out of things to do at the temple, which was fine as they were closing. How the operators of the grounds could ensure everyone got out at closing was beyond me. We left the temple and went into the city, where we found a humble establishment that had obanzai.
Obanzai is a fairly traditional Kyoto meal, but the restaurant was relatively new. Traditionally, obanzai is supposed to be sort of a buffet in an izakaya (like a Japanese beer house) where the patrons would get assorted vegetables from large bowls from the master of the establishment. The one we found was more of the standard point-and-order and a lady from behind a counter served us our food of six assorted vegetable dishes. As a result of this not-so-traditional serving, our bill seemed to be much cheaper compared to the other places.
We were satisfied, but obanzai is a fairly healthy meal. To feed a craving for not-so-healthy food, we stopped by a convenience store to pick up some snacks before settling in at the hotel to end our second day of the trip.
Thanks for reading!
Missed part one? Read it here. I also write about my opinions on mobile games. Read one by clicking here.