Last post

Before heading off to the airport, I managed to catch the monthly fleamarket at Toji Temple and bought Jim the happi coat I'd been looking for.

Nijo Castle and Fushimi Inari Temple

Thought I'd try a castle for a change.  It was hard to get a real feel for the place when doing the circuit with millions of schoolchildren and other tour parties.  But those bold warriors who tried to sneak into the castle certainly had their work cut out for them with "nightingale" floors squeaking if they did manage to breach the defences.

Impressive entrance

Samurai challenges? 

Fushimi Inari Temple

Fushimi Inari Temple really was just five minutes away by local JR Nara line train.  Didn't ride many local trains but this was definitely the most efficient way to get there. It looked just like the pictures I'd seen and I even manage to eat dinner from the street stalls outside.

There are statues of foxes everywhere!

Note the offering.  It's a shrine giving thanks for rice, hence sake.

I WOZ ERE

A route to Kyoto Station through lanes near my first Kyoto hotel

Lovely to get back to the welcoming bows from reception... and the breakfast of Japanese (and European) treats. Almond pudding ... yum!  Definitely a  recipe to find and attempt.

From the train, you see acre upon boring acre of tile-rooved stone houses and apartment blocks - though the laundry-filled verandas with futons hanging by massive plastic hooks provide some interest. You rush past solar panel farms, manicured unidentified vegetable crops and stylish bridges spanning  rivers where fishermen stand mid-stream.  It is surprisingly green but  it all seems crowded and impersonal.  On foot, the narrow lanes of wooden latticed houses - with lovingly tended pots and trees coaxed to fit tiny spaces beside doorways - have a cosy, intimate feeling.  It was wonderful having the confidence to explore. I found an excellent wool-shop but the wool was very fine and the phrase book and google translate didn't help, so I bought neither wool nor buttons.

Back to Kyoto - Gion Shijo

Note:  If you just want to look at the photos, I think you can just click one and then keep clicking to see all the photos on the post.



When you're travelling it is lovely to return somewhere that you are now more familiar with. I had booked a hotel in a different part of Kyoto for my return. Gion-Shijo is particularly popular with tourists and is consequently more expensive and harder to get accommodation.My hotel was right next door to Yasaka shrine and Maruyama Park. The location was brilliant though I missed the greeting ritual of deep bows in my previous Kyoto hotel. I arrived 3 hours before check-in so was sent off to explore and sight-see.

A Sunday in Gion-Shijo

The main drag was just around the corner

A lane off the main drag

eventually led to Venice-on-Kyoto

and an excellent spot for smokers

Back on the main drag, past the movie theatre

Over the bridge

To a dinner prospect?  Oldest Chinese restaurant in town.

The Kyoto dining strip (lots of Japanese pasta etc restaurants with decks  overlooking the river).

At the end of the dining strip, I found a wee playground and the path by the river.

Peace concert

LATER THAT EVENING 

Being short in Japan is a plus.  Soaking in the wonderfully deep and short baths eases aches and pains and revitalises you for more exploring or hunting and gathering.

I had dinner outside at the Chinese restaurant (having been told the inside had been modernised).  I had a leisurely beer and sweet and sour pork, looking out over the river as dusk gathered.

It was getting dark by the time I wandered back to the hotel.  The shrine next door tempted me in.

Wonderful to wander around the shrine, and I was not alone.  A few other solitary Japanese women  and Japanese couples combined respect and obeisance with photography.

Shopping

Up bright and early the next morning to try to do some shopping (FAILED).  It was fun, if circuitous, finding the Nishiki Market which is renowned for the raw ingredients of kitchens across Kyoto.

Teramachi Street before it opened. I couldn't find the market until I noticed that the overhead girders bore directions. 

A typical combination of age, subtlety and kitsch.

Nishiki Market

Fish galore

So are  these hoary old chestnuts? 

Veges

Much taken with this, I bought a couple of small  bottles.  FOOL!  Heavy and breakable. After tasting, I thought it best to use it gargling, cleaning rings etc.  

2 child bicycle.

That's enough of that.  Back to the hotel for a rest before trying to reach an antique kimono shop via the temple and park.

A walk in the park

The beautiful Maruyama Park was big enough to get lost in easily so I abandoned the idea of the antique kimono shop and just wandered... climbed stairs... rested and listened to birdsong, watched the girls dressed up in kimonos and climbed back down, got lost, and finally found  may way home for a rest. 

I had a dinner in a little place in the very first lane I'd ventured down. A very pleasant teriyaki and yakitori and salad set. I've never liked miso soup but here it was divine!  A totally different beast to anything I've ever tasted in New Zealand.  

And in the morning, before heading back to my old hotel near the railway station, I went to an uplifting exhibition at Kahitsukan, Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art.