Remarkable Kyoto
Kyoto is one of the ancient city in Japan. You can wander around to exquisite temples, shrines, gardens, parks, and cross paths with a geisha. Best if you stay a few days in this city, so you can explore a lot of remarkable places. In kyoto, most of the attraction places can be reach easily using bus. You can consider to buy One-Day Kyoto Bus Pass which is only 500 JPY and you can take buses as many times as you need. The pass can be bought from the bus information center just outside Kyoto Station. The staffs are nice and really helpful, they gave us some suggestions which route and bus that we should took.
One of the places that is so memorable for me is Kinkakuji. The first time I went there, all I think is, how magnificent is the view. Even the second time I visited this temple, I still said "Woww". I strongly recommend this temple, you must visit Kinkakuji whenever you are in Kyoto. This Japanese beautiful temple are covered with real gold. Can you believe it? Made of GOLD!!
Next destination is Ryoan-ji Temple, which is famous for its zen rock garden. I heard that many people come and sit for hours just to watch and try to understand the meaning of those rocks. But I didn’t do that of course coz I have a tight schedule to visit other places. While you are in there you also can visit the garden & lake nearby.
After my brief visit to Ryoan-ji, I have to go back to Kyoto Station and catch up the next bus to Sanjusangendo. This the longest wooden hall I've ever seen before, inside you can see the famous 1001 statues of Kannon. When I'm standing inside the hall and saw all those statues, I can only imagine how hard it is to build all of those. Too bad visitors are not allowed to take a picture inside the hall.
Kiyomizu-dera
Otowa-Spring
Gion District - Geisha
Arashiyama Monkey Park
Kyoto City Bus Pass
One of the places that is so memorable for me is Kinkakuji. The first time I went there, all I think is, how magnificent is the view. Even the second time I visited this temple, I still said "Woww". I strongly recommend this temple, you must visit Kinkakuji whenever you are in Kyoto. This Japanese beautiful temple are covered with real gold. Can you believe it? Made of GOLD!!
Kinkakuji - Golden Pavilion
Next destination is Ryoan-ji Temple, which is famous for its zen rock garden. I heard that many people come and sit for hours just to watch and try to understand the meaning of those rocks. But I didn’t do that of course coz I have a tight schedule to visit other places. While you are in there you also can visit the garden & lake nearby.
Ryoan-ji Temple - Zen Rock Garden
Inside Ryoan-ji
After my brief visit to Ryoan-ji, I have to go back to Kyoto Station and catch up the next bus to Sanjusangendo. This the longest wooden hall I've ever seen before, inside you can see the famous 1001 statues of Kannon. When I'm standing inside the hall and saw all those statues, I can only imagine how hard it is to build all of those. Too bad visitors are not allowed to take a picture inside the hall.
Sanjusangen-do
Next on my list is Higashiyama & Kiyumizudera temple. I start my journey by exploring the the shops along the way in Higashiyama District before going to Kiyumizudera temple. It's really crowded, the shops sell everything from clothes, dolls, snack, souvenir gift, etc. The first we went to Japan, my sister bought "yukata", kind of simpler type of kimonos. You could also rent the kimonos for several hours, which will cost you around 5,000 JPY or more (like those girls in my picture :D).
The streets of Higashiyama
Kiyomizu-dera known as "Pure Water Temple". The unique structure of this temple that there is not a single nail used in the entire structure.
The Otowa Spring is located inside Kiyomizu-dera's temple. Many visitor queuing just to drink from the spring. Each stream's water is said to have a different benefit:
- Longevity
- Success at school
- Fortunate love life.
However, drinking from all three streams is considered greedy.
Next, if you are interesting to see "geisha" or now they called "maiko", you should pay a visit to this district, Gion district or known as geisha district. You just have to walked around 15-20 minutes through the backstreets of Higashiyama. When you get there, you can recognize them easily with their white-painted faces, Japanese traditional hairstyles, and of course the beautiful kimonos. It reminds me about a movie called "memoirs of a geisha", I saw it a couple years ago. Anyway, if you like to meet them in person, maybe you can go to some restaurants or tea houses around there, where they serve the food/tea and perform some dancing or other perfoming arts.
The ultimate torii gate experience. Fushimi Inari is one of the most popular shrines in Japan. It's an amazing view, seeing thousand orange torii gates built in line. Inside you also can see many fox statue, many people said foxes are the messenger of Gods. In Japanese mythology, foxes are a scared animal which capable of changing shape and vanishing in an instant. I really recommended this place.
Fushumi Inari Shrine
Now time to explore another side of Kyoto which is Arashiyama District. The famous "Bamboo Groves" of Arashiyama is a one of of Kyoto's top sights. It's really nice just to walk or ride a bicycle in the walking paths. It just like entering different side of Japan, which is very enchanting (I wish there are some pandas too, it will be more cute :D).
Arashiyama Bamboo Groove
If you would like to try something different, you can try to visit monkey park which is located in the Arashiyama mountains. The entrance to the park nearby the Togetsukyo Bridge. I walked around 15-20 minutes from "Bamboo Groves" to the bridge. Then, after hiking uphill for about 30 minutes, you can see a family of monkeys playing around. But I should warn you not to do these things to the monkeys or they might get angry:
1. Don't stare at them
2. Don't touch them
3. Don't throw rocks on them
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