Japan in Autumn - Kyoto Pt 1

 We travelled from Takayama to Kyoto taking the southbound journey to Nagoya on the scenic Hida train in the rain. It was still pretty with the mist.  From Nagoya, it was a swift 30 minute journey on the shinkansen to Kyoto.  After we left our luggage at the hotel, a 5 minute walk from the Shinkansen, we thought we would venture out to have lunch inside the station.  It turns out Kyoto Station is not only monstrous in size and crowds but also in confusing accessibility.  It seems that you can only get from the west entrance to the east entrance on a certain level and if you missed the elusive signs and logic, it meant a long walk outside the station which spans several blocks.  Only on our last day did we figure out the route!

My last visit to Kyoto was chaotic, marred by traffic jams and huge crowds during the cherry blossom season.  This time around I tried to dodge the crowds by doing things differently.  We visited the Fushimi Inari shrine at night - it was a short ride on the local train after the rush hour.  The shrine was beautiful at night and actually felt like a shrine.  What a contrast to my last day time visit.

The Arashiyama bamboo forest was a terrible crowd experience on my last visit because we were stuck two hours in traffic and arrived midday.  This time, we tried to get to the bamboo forest early via public transit, although not early enough, but it was still better than the last visit.  The very enjoyable vegetarian lunch at Shigetsu together with  the fall colours inside the Tenryuji garden gave us a nice reprieve.  

We moved on to the Otagi Nebutsuji Temple which is unusual with its unique collection of statues, with different expressions on their faces, some of them whimsical and quirky.  It was a thoughtful ending to the day.

From the train ride to Nagoya

The descent into the depths of Kyoto station

This mural is so evocative of the station

Fushimi Inari Shrine

Some of the ten thousand torii gates at the shrine

Fox guardians at the shrine

When we left the shrine, the neighbourhood has almost shut down except for this food court that was still open.  It was a nice surprise to find a stall serving grilled unagi, one of my favourites.

The Arashiyama bamboo forest

The Hozugawa river flows beside the bamboo forest 

Fall colours peaking in the Tenryu-ji Garden

Inside the Tenryuji - this is an image of Bodhidharma,, founder of Zen Buddhism, emphasizing meditation and direct experience versus ritual. 

Vast meditation room inside the temple

Followers sit inside the meditation room looking out onto the zen garden (far from tranquil in this image)

What a pleasure to walk through this beautiful walkway connecting the buildings, with the garden on both sides 

Zen Garden inside temple

Main pond inside the garden

Shigetsu the vegetarian restaurant inside the garden. Glad I made the reservation for the vegetarian lunch months ago - place is fully booked and I could see many disappointed people turned back at the door.

Tenryuji has its own bamboo forest without the crowds

The Otagi Nebutsuji Temple with its thousand sculptures

The Otagi Temple grounds are not pretty like the Zen Garden but it took us to a different human level with its depiction of the different emotions on these faces, almost a reality check - a great way to balance out the day.