Return to the Kyoto part 1/2

Sunday marked day I had been waiting for as I would be returning to Kyoto. Unfortunately plans were bit tight so had to make it bit shorter than I had planned. Sunday in, Tuesday out was the plan. Well about the same with last year.

Was well ahead of time when I got to station but alas no shinkansen that would leave earlier than I had been planning anyway so doing morning preparations earlier than anticipiated didn't pay off.

For breakfast I had some spaghetti+chicken thing + sushi. Didn't wait to eat it in shinkansen due to it cooling down in the rainy and cool weather.

Trip itself was fairly uneventful. Change of shinkansen at the Shin-kobe and I was in Kyoto. I had meeting arranged. After succesfull rendezvouz we went to deposit my huge bag to the stations bag holding(420 yen for one day hold. Not too bad). That bag would be royal pain in the ass to carry around so better this way.

For the first place to go she had recommended Fushimi inari taisha. Temple famous for the n+1 vermillion coloured torii gates. This shrine is for god of wealth or something to that effect. All those torii gates are built by contributions(in money) and supposedly bring good fortune(in money sense) to contributor. Nice one. Anyway cheapest ones are about 2000 euros(small ones) while really big ones are more like 200,000 euros or so.

On our way we ran into food stall area and among there she pointed out one she particularly likes.

That's...Bamboo! Yes. TREE! I was actually eating tree out of all things! As I was explained this is root of bambo when it's young. When they grow it becomes too hard to eat but as young it's(through somewhat arduous process) actually edible. And to my surprise actually good!

Never imagined I would be eating a tree though...

 Those famous gates temple is most known for.

 It seems both routes actually lead to same place. We went to right as it had less people.

 Names of donators.

This being temple area obviously lots of temples and accompanying things like prayer cards. Fox features heavily in the folk lore of this temple so cards were shaped more like fox heads. With visitors drawing various images to one side.

After going through the most popular route(not full one though) we climbed back and stopped for a lunch. I opted for oyakodon set meal(with warm noodles) while she after some poundering and hearing oyakodon is also restaurants recommendation opted for same with cold noodles. This food is basically mix of chicken and egg on rice. Very, very good.

Next point of stop was ”toufukuji” area which has multiple temples including one of the most famous for autumn leaves. Bit too early still but at least it wasn't ridiculously crowded making photo taking easier as people were few. And by ”few” I mean ”only little less than main street in Hanko during midsummer”. I'm always laughing at the scale difference between Japan and Finland :D

 Something I hadn't been paying much attention before but to what the Japanese person showed up was touch of the wood here. Extremely smooth. Hand glides nicely along it. Will be touching the wood in future as well to feel how it feels in each place.

Well still bit early but there was still some red and yellow on trees but imagining all those green being red and yellow...DAMMIT! I wonder if I had time on 18^th day to go from Koyasan to there and Tokyo? Sure would like to see it all in red.

Anyway with this we headed for Ryougin-an and got lucky as it was open. Guide lives in Kyoto(or close enough) and said she hadn't seen the Hojo(abbot's hall) either as it's not often open. Hojo is national treasure from muromachi period(late 14th-early 15^th century). It's been unchanged since that. Not even natural disasters seem to have affected it. Wow. Generally there's need of some maintanance here and there for which Japanese keep growing trees to be used to say replace damaged pillar as needed but this one has survived all this time...Wow.

It's also only building in Japan that has certain architechtural features like mixing Heian period building style to then new style in Edo period. And some other interesting details which I can't really explain with words.

Alas photographing interiors was forbidden :( At least took photos of one zen garden(3 in there).

With this it was becoming quickly very dark and rain was starting to pick up so we headed back to Kyoto. Before going to pick up my luggage we took quick tour of station going top of it for some nice views. Christmas decorations(including big christmas tree) are already visible here. Early here too...

I was given suggestion to come see view when it becomes properly dark.

After this we parted our ways and I headed to Ryokan. Not too hard to find but...Let's just say ”interesting” ryokan. Get the sense it's the old lady doing this on her home(though unusually big apartment for home). It's definitely not a modern and there's no KEYS for locks? Wtf? You have to actually use knife to force the lock open...Urgh. Wifi doesn't reach my room either(explains why I didn't post before). Old lady itself is friendly enough but...Well with tuesday plans changed I wouldn't have much of time for tourism especially without breakneck speed so instead I decided change of plans. Tuesday morning not going to see much of Kyoto anyway and on Monday night not much visible either so might just as well pack things up and leave Kyoto on late monday night. 19.33 shinkansen leave for Tokyo. That way I have all the monday tourism time that I had planned + some spare. Sun sets around 5.00 so not much tourism possible after that except for indoor ones but didn't have that planned.

I have lived in worse conditions but have lived in better. But if I had had properly time for touring in Tuesday I would have stayed here for full length. It was not THAT bad at least.

Well I left my bag to room and headed back to the station for some dinner and the night view. Well I like Kyoto but nightview lost to Nagasaki's one. Sorry Kyoto!

Approaching station I heard loud shouting so went to see what that was. There was some sort of school kid performance where schools from around the Japan(heard Hokkaido for sure for one group) performed some sort of dances. Interesting performance.

After this I ran into bunch of school boys from Hokkaido who had school job of interviewing foreigner in English :D Hahaha that was funny. Also threw unintentionally spanner to their plan when I responded in Japanese to their initial greeting which threw them off a bit. Among interview questions was would I be willing to be in photograph together which gave me idea of asking same for me. Got nice little photo out of that(though not putting that in public).

I had planned to go to eat at the ramen restaurant collection I had seen on quick tour of station but long lines everywhere so said ”nevermind”. Don't have knowledge enough to make it worthwhile to wait here. I can find ramen elsewhere as well and non-tried ones as well.

Rest of the night was spent reading. On to day #2(and final as it turned out) in Kyoto. Also happened to meet another finnish person living on very next room out of all things. I came out of room and she said "you look like another finn" at which point I stopped dead in tracks. Well she needed to do packing as she was leaving next day so we didn't have much time to chat but did chat a little bit.