October 25, 2007
Days 18 and 19: Kyoto: A sightseeing interlude
We enjoyed a three night break in Kyoto, which felt like the minimum amount to spend on a city so rich in cultural heritage. There are a seemingly endless number of major shrines, temples and monuments in Kyoto to be visited, as well as a vibrant cultural and commercial atmosphere. We stayed here at a guest house that caters a bit to westerners - we slept on the floor, of course, but most of the guests were English-speakers (though none were Americans, of which we met very few in Japan), so we got a bit of a language respite. Also, we did not book meals with our room, having planned to take advantage of the wide ranging cuisine we hoped to find here.
To cut to the most important topic (food) first - we ate well in Kyoto, enjoying two Italian, an Indian, and a French/Japanese fusion restaurant; and, of all things, finding a Starbucks. Feeling not at all sheepish after a few weeks of mostly Japanese breakfasts, we enjoyed three straight days of croissants, bagels, scones, and an English paper. It made a very nice hiatus at the mid-point of the tour.
One thing about Kyoto that surprised me was its size - It felt like quite a large city on the scale of Portland, but I'm sure our perspective was influenced by two weeks in the mountains and minor towns. One other thing that surprised us was the density of the bicycle traffic, around the university in particular. In Kyoto, and as we were to find frequently in the larger cities, cyclists often ride on the sidewalks with the pedestrians. It's more than a bit unnerving at first (especially on foot) to be walking or cycling through the crowd and experience bikes whizzing past you from in front and behind. I won't try to describe the temples and shrines of Kyoto, which are amazing, beautiful and intriguing. Two days and an evening were not enough, but we scratched well under the surface and were glad for what we had time for. There were a few things we tried to get to - the silver palace, in particular, which we failed to find when we got a bit lost late in the day - but we saw a lot. The golden pavilion, the Heian Shrine, Yasaka-ji, and Sanjusangen-do were all wonderful, but Kiyomizu was perhaps the most memorable. In addition, the street life in east Kyoto is very colorful and lively.
Most of our sightseeing occurred on the first day, when we set out on foot to tour as much as we could take in of East Kyoto where the greatest concentration of noteworthy sites occurs. On the second day we used our bicycles to access some of the farther out highlights, including the magnificent golden pavilion. However, our day was cut short by a downpour/thunderstorm that broke out at midday just as we left the golden pavilion. After sitting it out over lunch at a café for awhile, we resigned ourselves to a very wet four mile ride back to our inn. The best thing about this soggy ride was that we were able to constantly remind ourselves that we were enduring a mere four miles of this, and not sixty. We've been remarkably lucky in our timing so far.
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