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Kyoto, part I
Apr. 13th, 2009 04:00 pmOur time in kyoto was full of late starts and much relaxing. Our first day there, Esther helped us out by helping us make reservations for a place to stay in (er, ended up being near) Naoshima. What's naoshima you ask? (hush you, in the corner there, you've been there already!). Well, that's for a future post to fill in the details on!
We then went over to this delightful little cafe near her house where I had a great little curry/rice dish. Afterwards, Esther went on to teach her class, leaving Yulia and I alone for a few hours to wander around. We were pointed at this massive outdoor, but covered, shopping area. It was very very shiny there. Alas, there are no pictures.
From there, we wandered through the Gion district until we came upon Yasaka Shrine at night which had, amongst other things, a couple of random art/sculpture displays inside that were very pretty and, once again, no pictures to provide the proof :) Finally, we met up with esther for dinner, great food in a back alley restaurant, and then back to her place for sleep.
The following day we got up, had breakfast, and made our way down to a tour of an old house, probably 400ish years old. The tour was nifty, with Esther providing us a rough translation of the guide. This was made easier by the guide's tendency to drift off into anecdote.
From there we went to the old imperial palace. Some absolutely gorgeous woodwork there. Some beautiful gardens around the palace and grounds as well. After a quick tour around the castle and the grounds, we made our way back to Yasaka shrine.
The shrine grounds were nearly as gorgeous during the day as they were at night, though some details on the structure were easier to see. We made our way around the shrine grounds, and then up and around a temple that was behind the shrine.
I loved how close shrines and temples tended to be to each other, sometimes right on top of each other. The one downside to this is it could make it confusing to track when you went from one site to the other. We made our way through another complex or two, finally ending up in a parking lot, looking out over kyoto as the sun set.
This, however, was neither the end of our evening, nor the end of our templing adventures. There was one last temple to visit that night, a massive wooden structure built on the side of one of the hills in kyoto. It was kind of hard to miss it, as it had this massive beam of light shooting out from behind it.
Afterwards was more good food and then, predictably, back to Esther's for that little thing called sleep. Next up, rivers and gardens and monkeys!
Full set of photos from in and around Kyoto.
We then went over to this delightful little cafe near her house where I had a great little curry/rice dish. Afterwards, Esther went on to teach her class, leaving Yulia and I alone for a few hours to wander around. We were pointed at this massive outdoor, but covered, shopping area. It was very very shiny there. Alas, there are no pictures.
From there, we wandered through the Gion district until we came upon Yasaka Shrine at night which had, amongst other things, a couple of random art/sculpture displays inside that were very pretty and, once again, no pictures to provide the proof :) Finally, we met up with esther for dinner, great food in a back alley restaurant, and then back to her place for sleep.
The following day we got up, had breakfast, and made our way down to a tour of an old house, probably 400ish years old. The tour was nifty, with Esther providing us a rough translation of the guide. This was made easier by the guide's tendency to drift off into anecdote.
From there we went to the old imperial palace. Some absolutely gorgeous woodwork there. Some beautiful gardens around the palace and grounds as well. After a quick tour around the castle and the grounds, we made our way back to Yasaka shrine.
The shrine grounds were nearly as gorgeous during the day as they were at night, though some details on the structure were easier to see. We made our way around the shrine grounds, and then up and around a temple that was behind the shrine.
I loved how close shrines and temples tended to be to each other, sometimes right on top of each other. The one downside to this is it could make it confusing to track when you went from one site to the other. We made our way through another complex or two, finally ending up in a parking lot, looking out over kyoto as the sun set.
This, however, was neither the end of our evening, nor the end of our templing adventures. There was one last temple to visit that night, a massive wooden structure built on the side of one of the hills in kyoto. It was kind of hard to miss it, as it had this massive beam of light shooting out from behind it.
Afterwards was more good food and then, predictably, back to Esther's for that little thing called sleep. Next up, rivers and gardens and monkeys!
Full set of photos from in and around Kyoto.
