Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Kyoto: the city with a lot to offer

Kyoto: the city with a lot to offer, but I am running out of ideas on what to do since I am "alone"... traveling alone that is!

I am man enough to admit I made one mistake with my JR-tickets, it was not buying a third one. I would have loved to visit Mt. Koya and stay there for one night as an side trip from Kyoto, but since My next JR-pass activates only on the 27, when I leave Kyoto, it does not seem possible.

So Today instead of waking up for regular breakfast, I woke a bit later to do my check out, take a shower and to make a brunch.

I met a German traveler in the kitchen and we had a long chat about our school systems and other idle matters. We noticed that we were actually going to go to the same place today. That would be the amazing San-Ju-Sangendo temple located near the JR-Kyoto station. About a 15-20 minute walk.

So we set of together to the temple, but man oh man was it hot! It had rained in the morning and the air was super humid and as if that was not enough, a while in to our walk, the sun started shining really bright and hot on the sky.
I'm getting tired of your shit sun! No but just kidding, it was hot tho.

The temple is big and very long and the entrance is at one of the corners.
The ticket in costs 600 yen and let me tell you, IT IS WORTH IT! Definitely a place to see even though it is not a UNESCO sight or anything. There's a lot of places like that in Kyoto and you should still see them.
The Sanjusangendo is a temple known for its thousand and one (1001) Buddha statues sculpted by hand.
The first thousand is roughly human size and made of wood, painted with gold paint or gold leafs I'm not sure, truly a sight to see. The last one of the 1001 is a big "hundred armed" Buddha which sits in the middle of all the other Buddhas in the room.  
There is a smell of incense in the room since it is offered to the main Buddha at the middle of the hall. It smells good and makes a mystic atmosphere.

After looking the place through and the garden outside as well, we walked across the street to the Kyoto National museum.
It was still under renovation partially, so we could only see the special exhibition about ancient games and plays in Japan and their history. It was kind of interesting even though quite short.
It appears that the games and plays were originally intended for the enjoyment of the gods and later on passed to the public and became a mix of both in a sense. "From the gods to the people" or something like that.

When we late I was worrying about the time since today I am changing my location from my hostel to my host who lives a bit further from the center and we had made a promise to meet at a station near her apartment.

So me and my friend got back to our hostel where I took my luggage and we were of. She was also headed to the station conveniently so we went there together and said our goodbyes.

I came a little late but my host was cool with it. We took my luggage to her place and I soon left out to the supermarket to get something to eat. I was so hungry that I could not make any big plans on what to make so I just trashed the idea of making food myself and just bought some cup noodles and some bread etc.

After eating I took my well deserved shower since it had been seriously hot again today!
So not a very long day in that sense but still I enjoyed today!

Cheers
Robert



2 comments:

  1. "Ronery, I'm so ronery..."
    Decided to comment :D
    Wish I could be there!!!!


    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks ecca ;)
    haha See you back in Finland

    ReplyDelete