Well, it's been another amazing few weeks. It's scary to think that we're already halfway through our adventure here. I've been meaning to write a blog entry earlier this week, but work has become increasingly hectic as we inch toward our final report. Because it's been a while since I last wrote, I'll be splitting this one up into multiple posts. This is the second oldest post. The newest will be at the top.
Before I continue, let me say that my camera ran out of juice that day, so most of these pictures are courtesy of Marshall and Robert, but mostly Robert. He took some beautiful shots! You can see more under this tag in my photo gallery. I'm trying out a different layout this time, with larger pictures and smaller paragraphs. Let me know what you think.
We spent the Sunday after Cathy's party in Kyoto. There, we met Daisaku and his girlfriend Junko, who we met through Marshall. We had met Daisaku once before towards the beginning of our stay in Osaka, when he accompanied us to our first Izakaya.
Our first stop was the famous Fushimi Shrine in Kyoto. I had stumbled upon a few shrines before in Osaka, but this one was something else. First of all, it was huge: a giant complex of at least two dozen structures, with paths leading through the forest to the top of a mountain. In the two hours we spent there, we only saw a third of it, at most.
The architecture and sculptures were amazing. The Fushimi Shrine is dedicated to Inari, the shinto god of rice, and foxes are it's messengers, or so says the internet. Anyway, exquisite fox statues abounded, as did fox-shaped wooden wish-blocks.
Shinto generally involves a lot of wishing. We saw millions of folded paper cranes, each string of which supposedly represent a wish, and candles which represent wishes. And a stone, which if is felt to be light, grants your wish.
Perhaps the most striking feature of the shrine are its countless thousands of shinto archways, or Torii. When Junko first told me there were supposed to be over 10,000 of them, I balked, but after walking through hundreds, one after another, like a tunnel through the forest, I believe her. Each was supposedly donated individually by and individual or company, and accumulated over the years. It's pretty surreal to walk through them all the way up the mountain.
The next stop after the shrine was the Gekkeikan Sake Museum. It was built in a traditional sake brewing house, and had lots of old equipment, barrels, labels, and paraphenalia. It was a lot more interesting than you'd think, actually.
The best thing about the museum was of course the sake tasting. Needless to say, it was quite delicious. Afterwards, some of the employees introduced us, chatted us up, and tried out their English: "My name is James Bond... my mission is impossible. Thank you very much."
We finished off the trip with a visit to a very fancy restaurant at the top of a very tall shopping center, from which we could see all of Kyoto, including the Kyoto Tower. The food was exquisite, also. Back in Osaka that night, we topped it off by celebrating Cathy's 21st in the proper American fashion... All in all, it was a pretty marvelous day.
Before I continue, let me say that my camera ran out of juice that day, so most of these pictures are courtesy of Marshall and Robert, but mostly Robert. He took some beautiful shots! You can see more under this tag in my photo gallery. I'm trying out a different layout this time, with larger pictures and smaller paragraphs. Let me know what you think.
We spent the Sunday after Cathy's party in Kyoto. There, we met Daisaku and his girlfriend Junko, who we met through Marshall. We had met Daisaku once before towards the beginning of our stay in Osaka, when he accompanied us to our first Izakaya.
Our first stop was the famous Fushimi Shrine in Kyoto. I had stumbled upon a few shrines before in Osaka, but this one was something else. First of all, it was huge: a giant complex of at least two dozen structures, with paths leading through the forest to the top of a mountain. In the two hours we spent there, we only saw a third of it, at most.
The architecture and sculptures were amazing. The Fushimi Shrine is dedicated to Inari, the shinto god of rice, and foxes are it's messengers, or so says the internet. Anyway, exquisite fox statues abounded, as did fox-shaped wooden wish-blocks.
Shinto generally involves a lot of wishing. We saw millions of folded paper cranes, each string of which supposedly represent a wish, and candles which represent wishes. And a stone, which if is felt to be light, grants your wish.
Perhaps the most striking feature of the shrine are its countless thousands of shinto archways, or Torii. When Junko first told me there were supposed to be over 10,000 of them, I balked, but after walking through hundreds, one after another, like a tunnel through the forest, I believe her. Each was supposedly donated individually by and individual or company, and accumulated over the years. It's pretty surreal to walk through them all the way up the mountain.
The next stop after the shrine was the Gekkeikan Sake Museum. It was built in a traditional sake brewing house, and had lots of old equipment, barrels, labels, and paraphenalia. It was a lot more interesting than you'd think, actually.
The best thing about the museum was of course the sake tasting. Needless to say, it was quite delicious. Afterwards, some of the employees introduced us, chatted us up, and tried out their English: "My name is James Bond... my mission is impossible. Thank you very much."
We finished off the trip with a visit to a very fancy restaurant at the top of a very tall shopping center, from which we could see all of Kyoto, including the Kyoto Tower. The food was exquisite, also. Back in Osaka that night, we topped it off by celebrating Cathy's 21st in the proper American fashion... All in all, it was a pretty marvelous day.
Thank you so much for blogging about your trip. I pulled you up under Sunday in Kyoto. Here's why and here's a question.
We are traveling to Thailand for a few weeks and on the way home we will have a long layover in Kyoto. We are hoping to catch the train from Kansai Airport to Kyoto and walk around for about 3-4 hours then head back for our flight. If you had on 3-4 hours between 10a - 2p on a Sunday in Kyoto, what would recommed we do? We really appreciate any feedback and tips.
Thanks
Judith Wilson and Eiji Hirai