We decided that today would be a day without leaving the city. A day to soak in the things around us without trying to cram in any day trips as well. And it's a good night we decided this, as Kyoto has so much to see! We planned a rough route starting from our hostel, and taking in various sights.
Before we even got to the first of our planned places of interest, we accidentally found another- a staircase of almost 500 steps running up to the memorial place of a famous samurai. As you can see by the photo, Tom got to the top before me! He was determined to get to the top before the man who appeared, jogging/striding up them two at a time. Tom made it first, though he did have a head start!
We had a look at the view, then went back down to find our tourist trail.
We suddenly found ourselves amongst throngs of people, and knew we were in the right place. There is a national holiday on Monday, and so it seems this weekend is the time to get dressed up in your finest kimono and pose in front of temples! I was delighted to finally see some colourful dress, as so far the every day fashions around us have been very understated and subtle.
Some of the men were also dressed up in a traditional outfit. It looked particularly sweet to see couples dressed up together!
Just below the temple we followed a packed network of beautiful old fashioned streets, full of gift shops and sweet shops. There were a few little two-person carriages, like rickshaws, but being pulled around by a man on foot. We even saw one man jogging down a significant hill with his carriage, and wondered how well he would do going the opposite direction.
For those of you who know Studio Ghibli, here is Totoro! Studio Ghibli is an animation studio in Japan (you could compare it to Disney, it does lots of animated family films). In the film, Totoro is a character that only children can see, in a story about imagination and play. We could see him too, we must be big children at heart!
And here is Hello Kitty!
Another Totoro!
And back into the realm of temples! We found a very large Buddha in is one, looking down upon a lake.
You could actually go inside the Buddha, which I wasn't expecting. There appeared to be stations that represented the years. For instance, there was a station for all the years that were 'the year of the rabbit', which includes 1987, our birth year. We weren't sure exactly what one is meant to do at said station though. There is a lot of variation in terms of how much English is written. Some temples offer clear invitations and instructions for those who wish to partake, and others have only Japanese instructions. In a way, I quite like the mystery of not knowing, it's nice to speculate, and just to observe.
On climbing the steps to the Buddha, we saw this sign. I'm pleased to say we had no surprise monkey encounters though! It would have been a bit frightening in there, as it was rather dark.
More temples! Phew! They are all beautiful and different, but after seeing so many today, I confess they are starting to blur a little in my head!
The final temple of the day, was this incredible entirely gold number, which was gleaming in the setting sun. It was a bit of a journey away from the previous ones, and we got there not long before closing time. As you can see just beside me in the picture, the kimono wearers were out here too, and this girl is holding the stylish entry tickets we got at the golden temple.
After all the traipsing, we checked the map, and were delighted to discover that a recommended onsen (public bath) was on our route back. Yes, we are becoming quite the onsen experts now! Well, nearly. There was a lady perched in the hot pool nearest the door, who seemed ready to instruct naive westerners who came in without collecting a wash bowl, and needed sending back to pick one up from the entry hall. I wasn't the only one who she spotted!
This particular onsen was a bit larger than the previous ones in hotels, and had multiple pools of different temperatures, including an outside one, a plunge pool, and a sauna. It was just what we needed after all that walking. Very much like going to a spa in the UK, except for about £4, and without clothes! It's quite liberating- everybody (almost) has saggy bits or fat bits where we are told we shouldn't- but nobody cares. Just a load of people having a bath. Hurray!
After this we got some tasty food, and headed back to the hostel. We decided to stay two more nights here, as it's cheap and comfy, and less hassle than moving to anywhere else!
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