Day 4 - Kyoto

Day 4 - Tuesday 1st October 2019

Happy national China day!!!

Today was a very busy one for us. We headed off to Kyoto, Japans ancient capital for over 1000 years, before it changed to Tokyo. When we booked our train tickets, the only one we could get reserved seats on was the 6.13 am, which meant we had to get up at 5am!!! It was still dark as we wheeled our cases to the station! It was worth it though, knowing we had lovely, roomy first class seats and didn't have to stand for 3 hours.

It meant that we arrived in Kyoto at 9am, nice and early. We booked our train back to the airport while we waited for Tony, Margaret and Luke to arrive from Osaka half an hour later.

Our hotel is very close to the main station, so it was only a short walk to drop off our bags and head back out again to explore.

In Kyoto there are more than 100 temples and shrines, and one is directly over the road from our hotel. It's called the Higashi Hanganji Temple and is absolutely huge. There are only a couple of buildings, but they are absolutely enormous. The roof of each building on the inside is an interesting checked black and white design that made Matt think of chess and me think of chocolate. The temple has burned down 4 times in its history (the roof made of bark that looks like thatching probably didn't help). There is a huge rope made of human hair on display. The hair was donated by women who helped to rebuild the temple one of these times.

Just behind our hotel was the Shosei-en gardens, which were a bit scruffy at first, but eventually the trail led us round to a nice formal pond, with herons fishing and covered in lily pads, which was quite pretty. By this point it was swelteringly hot at 34 degrees and very humid!

We then headed to Kyoto main station, a modern steel and glass structure that has a 'skygarden' on the 11th floor (just a viewing platform with grass) and a 'skywalk' across the ceiling of the station. It's a tunnel that gives good views over the city and surrounding mountains. You can see the UFO looking Kyoto tower opposite too. Unfortunately, it didn't give you a view out into the station though.

We stopped for lunch in a restaurant in the station for a katsu curry and then headed on the underground train to the Imperial Palace, which was where rulers lived for 500 years. It's inside an enormous park, which also houses the tiny Nashinoki-jinja Shrine. The palace is free to get in and includes a guided tour. We learnt that the manhole covers in Kyoto have a wheel type design on them because of the oxen drawn carts that noble folk used to arrive at the palace in. The horse and oxen stables were interesting structures and the palace living quarters were huge with paper walls. There was a beautiful Japanese garden, wonderfully maintained and with a gorgeous bridge, pebble beach and lovely maple trees. A very interesting place to visit.

We went back to the hotel for a rest after the palace, then met up just as a thunder and lightening storm started. We dashed into a wagu beef restaurant for the cheap beer, but ended up staying for dinner. Margaret and I both had a 'full' glass of prosecco, where the glass comes in a little box and the glass is filled with bubbly until it is overflowing. You have to slurp from the top and every time you lift your drink up it drips everywhere!  We finished up with a trip to Mr Donut and then the boys went for a beer while the girls had an early night! Margaret and Tony are off to Tokyo tomorrow, so Matt, Luke and I are here for another day exploring the temples and shrines.