We arrived in Kyoto on the night bus early Sunday morning and ate breakfast in the station (soup, which is a totally normal thing to eat at 7 in the morning here), waiting until we could drop off our luggage at our hostel. After we could do that, we wandered around for a long while, checking out the Ryozen Kannon (a World War II memorial) and a lot of shops (and eating a lot of free samples of sweets). We also maybe saw maiko - you can, like, rent a costume and wander around looking like a maiko, and we definitely saw some of those, but there were a couple who seemed more genuine. Our ultimate destination was Kiyomizu-dera temple. It was crazy crowded, but I really liked it. Really beautiful area - lots of trees and a nice view of the city. We waited in a very long line to drink the spring water that the place is famous for - if you pray while drinking it, your wish will come true. And also you will have a healthy and long life. So hopefully that works out for me.
We wanted to go to this famous green tea dessert place nearby, but when we got there, the line was an hour and a half long, so we just got sushi instead.
Afterwards, we checked into our hostel and crashed for a while on the super exciting mattresses. Then we checked out a nearby public bath. It was super cheap, and we could enjoy different kinds of spas and a sauna, and it was very relaxing.
Then we went back and crashed for the night. It had been a really long day!
Enjoy pictures of a random river, me and some lovely ladies, the backs of some lovely ladies, the Ryozen Kannon, a random street view on our way up to Kiyomizu, a dragon thing at Kiyomizu, a view looking down at the crowd of people waiting to drink from the spring, the view of Kiyomizu that is on every postcard, a closer view of the spring, and another random street view.
Awesomeness!!! I would LOVE to visit those places! The temple looked beautiful...would love to drink from the fountain! Where is the spring water sourced from - a natural spring? Lava tubes?
ReplyDeleteI had to look up what maiko were, and after being educated, figured the maiko you have a picture with are fake ones, and not real? But maybe I'm wrong? Their kimonos were amazingly gorgeous, in any case. I loved the yellow one!
Can't wait to see more pics and blog postings!!!
I loved all the pictures - my favorites were of the "lovely ladies", and the "looking down at the crowd of people". That is very interesting how you had to get the water - but, you then had to drink from a communal cup?! Or, did you each get a fresh one? You maybe need to explain about maiko for people - my definition would be apprentice geisha. Again, you have some amazing pics!! :-)
ReplyDeleteThe kimonos are lovely, yeah? We told the older woman how beautiful hers was; she was like, "Thank you. But it's a challenge!"
ReplyDeleteThe water at Kiyomizu is a natural spring that has three streams. Some people say they each have a different meaning or that you can only choose two of the three to drink, but at the temple they are like, "We have no opinion on these ideas. You can drink from one or all three and any wish will be granted!"
And the cups go into this cleaning thing after each use, so they are sterilized. And I didn't actually drink out of the cup anyway - I poured it into my hand and drank from there.
Oh, and yeah, maiko are apprentice geisha, but you don't say geisha in Kyoto, you say geiko. Maiko are a Kyoto exclusive thing.
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