9-14 Kyoto

Kyoto really is an amazing city. It is probably the second biggest tourism spot in Japan next to Tokyo, and there are many reasons why this is so. There are thousands of shrines spread throughout the city, 10-16 of which have been dubbed treasures to the nation, and even though the city pulses with history much like Rome it is still growing, very much young and alive. I love Kyoto, and I know I will go back again besides this one visit, because it is a city that is absolutely enriched in beauty and culture.
When we first got to Kyoto, we first admired the awesome train station that we had so recently pulled into. Kyoto is about an hour's train ride from Hikone, and comparatively to Kyoto's train station, Hikone's is put to shame. The structure around the station has been built as a high class 15 level mall, with a gigantic glass dome ceiling. The top of the mall gives visitors also a world class view of the city also, so that was our number one stop of the day.
When we had taken pictures of that we bought an all day bus pass, jumped on the 206 and rode to our first shrine. Shrines were top priority for the day, because they tended to close around 3-6pmish, and it was already around 11am when had arrived in the city. Our first Shrine was Sanjusangendo, which houses the famed 1,000 Kannons or Deity of Mercy. It was really a spectacular sight (so many arms, each statue had 40 arms which represented 4 worlds so in the Buddhist ideal that's technically 100 arms on each statue.) and there were also many other old statues representing gods of worship. There were still offerings put before the gods, and this place was definitely still obviously a place of worship for many people. The building and gardens all in the fenced in area were rebuilt in the 1200's, so everything was extremely well taken care of and old as well.

After this temple we decided to take the bus to Gion to stroll around. We saw a temple here as well (Choraku-ji), but skipped out on paying to see the museum, and went and looked around Maruyama park. This took quite a deal of walking, and we rested periodically just to take in all the beauty of our surroundings, which was basically every other step we took.

Our last temple of the day was Kiyomizu temple, which we took the bus out of Edo to see. The thing was huge, and there was a crap ton of people on the way to the overcrowded place of worship and tourism. We did alot of shopping along the way, and after the temple we went back to the train station to do the mall bit for a couple hours. It was a long day, and we did much in between, but it's far to much to really write all down. I did get a sweet animal cracker from Jennifer that was shaped like a hippo but said Raccoon. It amused me.

Here's another video (yay!) Of a parade we caught on our way to Kiyomizu! I hope you enjoy.