4. Exploring Southern Kyoto

When I'm left in my own company, I feel like I should be constantly productive - learning Japanese, sending emails, sorting through the many many complications that come with living abroad. If I don't do these, then I get so angry with myself for wasting time and not making the most of the year; it gets pretty exhausting when you forget how to enjoy being alone. After a couple of weeks of this building up, I decided to have a day free from studying and other duties to explore Kyoto by myself. It may not have ended up the relaxing experience I intended, but it was a really great adventure anyway ^_^

I decided to head to a temple in Higashiyama-ku called Tōfuku-ji - one of the Five Great Zen Temples in Kyoto (the Kyoto Gozan). As with all the big temples in Kyoto, whole days could be spent taking in all the different sections and details. Unfortunately, most temples close around 4.30pm and I was coming after class so the whole day was not an option for me. I only had time to see the Northern area of the temple grounds, which included Tsutenkyo Bridge and Kaizando Hall. Since I was so late in the day it was fairly quiet, and I spend a nice hour or so wandering round pretending I was in a Studio Ghibli film:

 

I really loved the layout of Kaizando Hall, which you can see in the photos. They split the garden into two distinctive halves - one side is covered with lush green shrubs and the other side is that very simple dry landscape garden (white gravel raked to symbolise ripples in water). It creates a sense of harmony, or at least that's the vibe I was getting. Tsutenkyo bridge, which you can see in the last photo, is a very famous viewing point for the maple leaves in Autumn. They were only just starting to turn when I visited but it was still quite amazing.

Once Tōfuku-ji had closed, I headed about 5 minutes south to a very small and inconspicuous sub-temple called Kōmyō-in which I would never have found without the recommendation of a friend. Unfortunately this had also closed by the time I arrived, but they had left the side door open... it's nice that they don't need to bother locking doors since trespassing in Japan is so unlikely, but since I'd gone all that way I thought I'd take a *peek* into the garden. I hope I didn't offend the Gods there and I made a little offering so they would forgive my curiosity <3

This was the lovely view. Next time, when I'm less afraid of being shouted at in angry Japanese, I will get a much better look at the zen garden and see inside the building. Since it's so hidden away I think it'd be much more peaceful than some of the famous ones like Ryōan-ji.

So after that I was about ready to head home, but Fushimi-Inari was only about 15 minutes walk away and the taiyaki (fish-shaped filled pancakes) stand there was calling my name so I thought I'd made a quick visit...

Fushimi-Inari Taisha, a shrine consisting of thousands of Torii gates, is one of the most iconic places in Japan. I'll probably do a whole post about it at some point, but because of it's popularity it is quite unbearably busy even late in the day. To escape the mass of people walking through the gates, I took a mysterious side route through a bamboo forest. After about 30 minutes it started getting dark, but I had gone so far that I wanted to see what was at the end of the path. I found out far too late that actually I had chosen an alternative route to the top of Mountain Inari, which took me about 2 hours to reach the peak of. About 3/4 of the way up, in total darkness and with a bag full of school-stuff and heeled boots on, I had a serious think about my existence and a little cry. Not quite the quick detour I had planned for.

The peak of the mountain is actually quite underwhelming - the view is completely obscured by trees and it's just another shrine, which by that point you've seen thousands of. Feeling accomplished but a little bit pissed off I began my descent on the normal route and was finally met with the most beautiful view of Kyoto city by night. It was so late that only me and a few other stragglers were there, and because it was so unexpected it was a really magical thing to see. As usual, my poor camera skills haven't done it ANY justice but here's an idea:

After another long climb back down I was seriously ready for a good sleep. This has probably been one of my favourite days in Kyoto so far, and it was so great to be reminded that my own company is enough sometimes. Hopefully there will be many more adventures like this to come :))

3. Heian Shrine

This day started in a pretty bad way. First, there was the language test that the university insisted I attended despite knowing that I didn't speak any Japanese... which they then sent anyone who didn't know any Japanese straight out of. That was followed by a welcome orientation conducted almost entirely in... Japanese. I'm really wishing that I had worked harder to learn the language before I came out here - everyone else seems to be miles ahead of me and I do feel quite out of my depth at the moment - but on the plus side I'm super motivated to work as hard as I can now.

We then spent a while in Kyoto trying to sort out my friends student Visa. This should have been a fairly straight forward process, but as we were quickly learning, there doesn't seem to be such thing as a straight forward process here. I was feeling quite dejected by this point, but my friends (who are luckily 1000x more knowledgeable about Kyoto than me) knew of a great shrine nearby and we headed there to end the day on a much happier note.

This is Heian Shrine (平安神宮). It was build in 1895 - very recent for Japanese history. Less than 30 years earlier, the capital had moved from Kyoto to Tokyo, and the people of Kyoto were very anxious about the city losing its importance in Japan. Projects like this were part of the 'Kyoto Revival' to help reinforce its status and signify a new, equally prosperous era for the city. Temples like Heian Shrine aren't just single buildings, they are entire... complexes. So much thought clearly goes into the placement of all the structures/gardens and you could easily spend a whole day wandering round finding new things. That photo of the water with leaning cups is a temizuya, they have them at every shrine and you use the cups to wash your hands/mouth to purify yourself before approaching. Aside from being a religious ritual, it's also super refreshing in Japanese humidity. Anyway, after looking at the buildings we paid 600yen to enter the gardens. This was my favourite part BY FAR:

These gardens really were amazing. I would walk through one section with a particular style (for example the first area was very dense, green and mossy), think I had finished the whole thing then come across a huge new section with a completely different aesthetic. It was like walking through a maze. At the end, we sat on the bridge which you can see in one of the photos overlooking a huge lake and spent a long time watching the koi fish and turtles swimming around. I'm really glad that I was with friends who seemed as happy as me to go round at a slow pace rather than getting bored and rushing through it. By the time we were out it was closing time, and I was feeling much more chilled than I had been a few hours earlier :p I'd like to visit again in Autumn when all the leaves are turning, and apparently Heian Shrine is also one of the best places in Kyoto for cherry blossom viewing in Spring. Although having said that, what I loved about visiting on this day was the quietness and stillness of it - something I don't think I'll experience again in the peak seasons.

I'm 3 weeks into life in Japan and there still seems to be no end to the problems we are having to deal with to get settled here. But despite everything that Japan is lacking, places like this make it so worth all the hassle!