So here, despite Kirin's Chu-Hi's best efforts, is the second part of the tome known as Joanne and Dave's Awesome Trip to Kyoto.
If you're just joining us, it is imperative that you read Part 1. Imperative for my ego, mainly. It's not like you couldn't guess what's going on.
Anyhoo, despite popular demand, I give you ....
Part 2.
So we woke up the next day, surprisingly eager to see even more temples and so headed out for a yummy tasty breakfast of random Japanese pastries (they need to be tasted to be believed!)
Our first stop was Kinkagu-ji, not to be confused with Ginkagu-ji, and when I say not to be confused with, I actually mean is be eternally confused with (at least in my head!).
So Kinkagu-ji is the Golden Temple and is actually gold.
Ginkagu-ji is the Silver Temple and isn't actually silver.
You'd think that would clear it up but its amazing how much confusion that one letter can lead to.
Anyhoo, confusion aside, when you walk into the grounds of Kinkagu-ji, within seconds you're faced with it.
The golden pavillion,
Reflected in the waters,
Backed by a tall forest of ever greens.
A postcard picture, that no matter how many you take, none live up to the way it glistened or caught your breath. And yet you keep trying to capture it.
It was Japan, in the way I'd imagined it.
In the way India was the Taj Mahal.
Canada was Niagara Falls
Mexico was Teotihuacan (ok so Mexico is a tequila blurred taco shop in Cholula but that's just me) .
Its all the things that represent a country before you get there that eventually get replaced by personal stuff but, for some reason, still linger.
It was Japan, and it was so Japanese.
And then it was over.
We'd seen it and we were leaving.
Anticlimax isn't the word.
It's not like it didn't live up to expectations.
It wowed and destroyed them.
It was truly more beautiful than even the postcards could portray.
But now I struggle to remember it's beauty while I clearly remember the feeling of strolling through the much less awesome Kiyomizu.
Maybe, it was just too beautiful ...
After the glitter and glow of Kinkagu-ji we headed for the more low-key sight of Ryoan-ji, a temple with vast grounds and a real true life not-pretend Zen garden.
It's a set of 15 rocks set in a rectangle of gravel.
I must not have had my Zen head on though...
Cos it kinda just looked like ...
A set of 15 rocks set in a rectangle of gravel.
However it was so very peaceful and the rest of the grounds really were beautiful.
There were huge areas of the plushest softest cultured moss, rows of hot pink flowering plants and a pond with ducks, turtles and lots of crazy big fish.
Could definitely have just hung out there watching the world and his wife go by. But rumour had it that there were more temples to see.
I had warned Dave that I was getting close to my Temple quota, but that I'd have 'one more for the road' so we headed (via the 'scenic route') for Ginkagu-ji.
This was another one, where the temple itself was completely overshadowed by the amazing grounds.
It was surrounded by ...
Flower filled, bridge crossed ponds...
Japanese schoolgirls...
Random gravel structures...
A vast evergreen forest stretching up the mountain...
Japanese schoolgirls...
Trickling waterfalls...
Moss the interrupter...
Japanese schoolgirls...
Narrow paths winding up the mountain...
Japanese schoolgirls...
But despite the many short skirted uniforms, it still kept a peaceful, calm air.
It was the perfect end to ...
Well ...
A pretty damn good weekend.
A wise man once told me to think of posting to a blog like eating.
Little and often.
But of course life doesn't really work like that I guess.
So nothing for a month and now ...
But to keep that wise man from moaning that he's far too busy and important in his job (in a high profile international search engine company located conveniently in Dublin 2) to read my blog, I thought I'd pointlessly break it up into different bits but post it all at the same time!!!
I guess this is the test of how much y'all like me! If you can read em all, I'll send ya a pressie!!!
If you're a more visual person, can just check out my photos ... there's only a handful below ...
..Edit..
One small concession.
I'll split it in two, one today, and one at the weekend!
Ok so its 1am and I'm too tired to write the rest!
It felt like all I was doing was working
Working during the week
Recovering at the weekend
I coulda been in any country in the world a lot of the time.
And then we went to Kyoto for the weekend
And now, well....
It feels like all I do is work
And that I could be in any country in the world
But it feels like I went to Japan for the weekend!
Felt like we weren't prepared at all
Didn't have a hotel, or ticket or any real clue of where we were going to go
But that turned out to be half the fun
Dave showed his crazy reckless side and skipped japanese class to come with me on the early bullet train, shinkansen.
And yes, it's super fast...
And yes, it's super cool....
And yes, I just called something super cool!
But if there's anything to call super cool, this might be it.
I was such a tourist! Taking photos, giggling! It cut the trip from 2 and a half hours down to 40 minutes and to be honest, it wasn't even the time or the speed. It just seemed so ... japanese ... so decadent. Really made the weekend something special.
Think Dublin
Think pubs
Now replace them with temples
Thats Kyoto
Where do you start?
Lonely Planet of course!
Headed for Sanjusangen Temple, the temple of 1001 golden Buddhas.
And there are!
Well I stopped counting after 4 but I'm taking the guide books word for it.
We couldn't take photos in here which means y'all are going to have to come visit me now to understand how cool it is!
It was literally awesome, humbling, all those stupid words people use and don't mean, but I think this time they belong here.
Then we headed to Kiyomizu-Dera Temple, and while it had a pretty cool gate, we were kinda disappointed by it, especially considering it was Lonely Planet'ed as one of the most famous temples in Kyoto.
Then we realised that Joanne's famous sense of direction had struck again and we were in the wrong place!
So we took the road less travelled to Kiyomizu-Dera, through a graveyard of sometype, a vast expanse of graves, for as far as you could see, dotted across the steep hill with a strong resemblances to Arlington. Quiet and creepy and vast and all those stupid words again.
Kiyomizu itself was considerable less serene, crazy filled with tourist, Japanese and Gaijin alike. The area has a number of temples, some older than others, some more striking than others, but the grounds were beautiful, tree shaded, a real relief in the humid sunny heat. There were some beautiful flowers, a natural waterfall that you could drink from and the 'Love Temple!'.
So if you don't already know, I get pretty nightmarish when I haven't eaten. So after all the temple hopping, we headed for a recommended Tempura restaurant. After a couple of scenic and not so scenic detours, a couple of snatched guide books, a couple of snappy 'Let me have a look's, we finally made it.
We sat at the counter, snappy words (ok ok MY snappy words) forgotten over a beer, watching our food be cooked, and I've never been so excited to see my food deep fried. We had asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, fish, corn, shrimp, and what I'd swear was soap wrapped in a leaf. But I left with a warm feeling in my tummy and a wagging tail.
After the meal we had the obligatory drink in the obligatory Irish bar, staffed by an obligatory obnoxious American watching the obligatory replays of World Cup matches.
After that, all we were good for was bed ... There was another day of templing ahead of us!
