Nishiki Market

Today was our last full day in Kyoto. We ventured onto a different bus line and visited the Nishiki Market in downtown Kyoto. This market has been here for centuries. It started as a fish wholesale district but now sells all kinds of foodstuffs, some of which I would not be game to try. For example, one trader had skewers with a sign saying "eel inside", which from their appearance I assumed means the guts of eels. 

In the main shopping area a department store window had these pictures of cat and dog characters. I could not figure what they were meant to convey but I liked them anyway. 

Kyoto Outing

After our first day experience travelling to Gion on a hot overcrowded #100 bus, we decided to catch the #206 which also goes to Gion - trouble was the #100 only took 10 minutes to get to Gion while our #206 bus took one hour and 20 minutes to get to the same place! At least we had seats and got to see areas of Kyoto that tourists would not normally visit.

At the entrance to the Yasaka Shrine we were approached by a group of young male and female scouts who asked us to write down our nationality and where we live. They were all very happy we were willing to help them with their "research" and took a group photo with us in it. They gave each of us a little present of a few sweets in a small box which they had made out of paper. 

Being Sunday there were many more Japanese visitors at the Shrine than on other days. We walked through the historic area of Higashiyama up to the Kiyomizudera Temple together with thousands of other people. There is a three tiered pagoda painted bright orange but the star attraction is the 

Kiyomizudera (literally "Pure Water Temple") which is one of the most celebrated temples of Japan. It was founded in 780 on the site of the Otowa Waterfall in the wooded hills to the east of Kyoto.

Kiyomizudera is famous for its wooden stage that juts out from the main hall 13 metres above the hillside. When standing on the stage I didn't really appreciate how high I was from the ground, but after going down the hill I could see the timber framework supporting the stage. Both the main hall and the stage were built without the use of nails. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the Gion shopping area. I was sustained by a fabulous salted caramel crepe, while Anita settled for caffeine. After we recouped at our hotel we went to a local Vietnamese restaurant, but won't bother going back as it was not very good.  

Nara

As we were on the Nara JR train line we decided to continue to Nara which was the capital of Japan from 710 to 784 when the framework of national government was consolidated. At the station we bought an all travel day pass for only 500 JPY (about $7) to use the terrific system of buses which efficiently takes thousands of visitors around the various sites. There are numerous historic monuments including Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and the excavated remains of the Imperial Palace. 

Our first stop was the Kohfukuji Buddhist Temple in Nara Park. We immediately saw the deer that roam the park in their hundreds. They are tame and are fed "deer biscuits" by visitors (at a cost of 150 JPY) but apparently they can be aggressive, which probably explains why their horns had been removed. Some deer have learned to bow to visitors to ask to be fed. One unsuccessfully tried to have a taste of Anita's coffee. They have been in the park for centuries and are protected as they are considered in Shinto to be messengers of the gods. 

There is a five story wooden pagoda that is 50 metres tall. It was first built in 730, and was rebuilt in 1426. The timbers are fastened together with hardly any nails by inserting carved thinner and narrower ends of beams into slots. There are about a thousand large mortise joints in a five-story pagoda - that's a lot of carpentry!

The most outstanding place we saw today was the Buddhist Todaiji Temple. The Great Buddha Hall houses the world's largest gilded bronze statue of the Buddha at an impressive height of 15 metres. The temple is also the Japanese headquarters of the Kegon school of Buddhism.

Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine

We caught a local train to Inari to see the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine which was just across the road from the station. This Shinto shrine is unique in having thousands of torii or gateways which are usually made of wood and painted black and orange (or vermillion). There are literally thousands of torii at the Fushimi Inari Shrine, most of which are over the paths up to a shrine at the top of Mount Inari. Each is donated by a Japanese business or individual at great expense.

We did not walk all the way up to the top as that would have taken about 2 hours. Fushimi Inari is the most important of several thousands of shrines dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. There are many pairs of statues of foxes who are thought to be Inari's messengers so many have things like a scroll in their mouths.

There were thousands of other tourists at the shrine, mostly Japanese. I finally managed to take one picture without there being dozens of other people in the frame.

Kyoto

The trip from our hotel to Kyoto was fairly straight forward as by now we are familiar with that section of the Osaka transport system. We changed our reserved seats for an earlier bullet train and 15 minutes later we were in Kyoto. Getting out of Kyoto Station was another matter – some of the stations in Japan are incredibly big, with all sorts of shops and restaurants, including high end dining.

Our hotel is only a 2 minute walk from the station so we parked our bags there and ventured on a very crowded bus to Gion which is one of the historic areas of Kyoto. The Yasaka Shrine was immediately opposite the bus stop so that was the first place we visited. Several of Kyoto's historic shrines and temples have been granted World Heritage status. We won't be here long enough to see all of them but some are very special. Initial construction of the Yasaka Shrine started in 656.

We had tempura for lunch and suffered another very crowded bus ride back to our hotel. Our room is small in comparison to hotels in Australia and other western countries, but it is serviceable. One of the hotel attractions is the hot spring communal bath, which fortunately is divided into male only and female only. 

Shrines and Shops (2)

Shinsaibashi Suji is a covered shopping arcade in Namba that has hundreds of shops. We managed not to part with any of our money but loved looking at the food hall in Diamaru. The sweets look spectacular.

Osaka has a particular pork bun called Butaman which derives from the Chinese version. We watched them being made in Diamaru and saw the wooden boxes used to steam them. The steam room has a glass front so that customers can see the process. 

Shrines and Shops (1)

This morning I dragged Anita around shrines and in the afternoon I suffered shops. We discovered Osaka is not as easy to get around as Tokyo because there is so little English used on the transport systems. At many stations the names of the train lines and the stations were only in Japanese. On top of that there are multiple transport systems in Osaka - the JR network, more than a dozen private rail networks, a municipal subway and a tram system.

Our first trek was to the Ikutama Shinto Shrine then we happened to pass a Buddhist Shrine nearby. One of the most significant Shinto shrines in Osaka is the Sumiyoshi Taisha where there were several young children dressed in traditional clothing having their photos taken with their parents and grandparents. The Taiko Bashi bridge is at the entrance to the shrine.

Osaka

After catching the mariner line from Takamatsu back to Okayama, we caught a bullet train to Osaka. The train station here is huge and we had to find our way to a subway to get to the Monterey Gracemere Hotel in Namba. The hotel reception is on the 22nd floor where there is an art museum focused on European furniture and art. Our room is on the 28th floor and we can see the red Minato bridge which apparently is the third longest cantilevered bride in the world.

We walked to an area called Dotombori along a canal which is the centre for local night life with dozens of neon billboards and thousands of young people. Dinner was again Italian, this time the restaurant had an Italian proprietor.