Golden Week, Day 2 - Kyoto

Here's Ian and Addy in our hotel room. It was pretty narrow by American standards.

On Monday morning, we threw out all notations of seeing what was popular or famous and went with our guts. We weren't disappointed. Ian choose our first destination, Toji Temple. I wasn't especially interested in this temple, but I found myself amazed at it. It doesn't have any of the flashy colors like Tosho-gu Shrine in Nikko, but it has it's own subdued beauty. The five-storied pagoda here is the tallest in all of Japan measuring 187 feet. The current pagoda dates from 1644. The first pagoda on this sight was built in 826, but burned down. What made this pagoda most unique to us was the ability to go inside. We were able to see the ground floor and it was beautiful. Of course, no photography was allowed inside. Toji Temple also has numerous Buddhist statues in other halls on the property.

Our next stop was Fushimi Inari Shrine. I'm unable to give you an exact number of torii for this location (I lost my brochure!), but it could be as many as 10,000! More than anywhere else. The torii, which generally mark the entrance to the sacred areas of a shrine, are placed so close together here that they make their own tunnels. It's beautiful! The torii are donated by business men and companies as a way of asking for prosperity. Each of the torii is marked with the date on one side and the company name and location on the other.






The Haggerty Kazoku at the start of the avenue of torii.










The final sight of the day was Nijo-jo, or Nijo Castle. This castle was built in 1603 as the official Kyoto residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu (remember him? He's going to keep coming up for a while). The Ninomaru Palace, one of the buildings on the property, is famous for its Nightingale floors. The corridors were constructed to squeak when walked upon. Perhaps it was a security measure to alert guards of intruders at night. Not sure, but the floors are squeaky. The Palace walls are covered with 3,000 paintings. Each painting motif is different and was chosen based on the function of the room. There are also intricate wood carvings, metal fixtures, and ceiling paintings. Just an amazing place. Of course, no photographs inside. The grounds of Nijo-jo were beautiful also.








To finish our day we took a bus to the Gion area and walked around. It was already evening time and the sun was fading fast. It was a beautiful area, where we picked some sights to go back to the next day.

Taking a rest in front of a temple.

Addison makes some new friends.
The forecast for Day 3 was rain. As we turned in for the night, we crossed our fingers and hoped we wouldn't be rained out on our last day in Kyoto.