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.   

  

Side trips - Okayama and Naoshima

I stayed the night at Okayama Plaza Hotel.  Very friendly and helpful but not as much English spoken.  (Who am I complain.  If I come back, I'll take Japanese lessons first!)  It was right beside Korakuen, a famous Japanese garden, so I went for a wander.  It was very orderly which rather took from the atmosphere.  Had some beautiful specimens and interesting places but Shin Sien remains my firm favourite.

 


I did discover a delightful  public walkway by the river and had an ice-cream in one of the cafés.

View from cafe - Okayama castle in background.

At the hotel that night I was presented with a menu in Japanese (with no pictures)  but the kind waitress took me outside to look at plastic replicas and I chose something that looked innocuous and did the trick nicely.

Naoshima Art Island

Up early to head for Naoshima, which had been highly recommended.  First a taxi to the station, then local train to Uno and ferry to the island. Had found a direct train on hyperdia.com so that was easy. A market was just getting started on the dock and there were tall ships in the harbout so it was a pleasant wait.

We meandered through the islands for about 20 minutes before landing at Miyanoura Port, where we were herded onto the local bus.  It was fun going off on an adventure with a load of other tourists from all countries (not least Japan).  The local bus connected with a shuttle bus around the various galleries at that end of the island.  You can't take pictures but there are pictures on the web. I must admit I found Tadao Ando's buildings rather stark and the Chichu museum positively claustrophobic but some of the galleries were stunning and the use of natural lighting was extraordinarily clever.

A Monet garden on the walk to Chichu is designed to get you in the mood for the Monet room, where you can see Monet waterlily paintings, one of which is ginormous. 

I walked to the next museum (the Lee Ufan gallery).  I really liked his work .  

Then it was back on the bus to go to the Art house project at Honmura.  This was like a treasure hunt through a really lovely village. Some of the houses were interesting but I don't know if it was tiredness, but I didn't find any of the ones I saw particularly impressive.  I did love walking through the village though.  I think it would have been much more memorable if I'd stayed a night in a b-and-b at Honmura and taken it all at a more leisurely pace.    

The local bus, ferry, train, taxi ride back to Okayama was quite straightforward and the ferry was a gem.

I sat here and watched the world go by.

Shin-Sien Temple garden

Feeling somewhat groggy from a bad night's sleep, I went to find Higashi Hongashi Temple's garden ( once part of the temple (the mausoleum of Shinran Shonin that I'd come across the other day) but now separate by highways and byways. I loved it!  It was full of wildlife and little stone paths across ponds and other balancing challenges. It was virtually empty but then suddenly you'd come across someone who'd just crossed stepping stones before getting back into a wheelchair!

There were little nooks that reminded me of home.

Wildlife....

It was glorious...

Flowers

 

Historic tree stumps 

 

What more could a girl want?  Well around the corner, she began to feel like she'd entered a Samurai movie...

The sign reads: Beware of the bee!

Side view of the beehive

Stable for samurai horses? 

Oh and rock walls to die for...

And the icing on the cake was finding Cafe Bon again and having tea and croissant.  It rapidly filled with young monks eating things like omelette with curry. I don't really think the interior matched up to the exterior but I now have my pin on the map as the visitor from Auckland. 

Interior Cafe Bon

I keep wondering how all the cutesy kitsch you see around tallies with these glorious, understated, subtly balanced gardens.