Kyoto is littered with temples (in 2000), each more grandiose than each other, but not only. There are also castles, parks and a multitude of small very quiet, intimate, lined with ancient houses flanked by their meticulous Japanese garden. That's really the antithesis of Tokyo, this point of agitation or excessive buildings. A common point anyway, the most famous sites are swamped by tourists Remember all want their picture under the cherry tree in bloom at this time of hanami. Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan from the 9th to the 19th century.
Arriving around noon, I quickly dropped my bag to my new guest house before heading out to explore Kyoto. I started with the eastern zone, bounded by a small river on one side and the mountain on the other. Besides low mountains surround the city on all sides. This
area called Higashiyama, is certainly the most visited spot in Kyoto. To get there from Central Station, I went to side of the temple Higashi Hongan-Ji. This is a Buddhist temple. This temple was established in 1607 by Shogun Ieyasu, Japan's reunification at the beginning of the Edo era. It is gigantic, all wood, very impressive. It asked the decor. arrived in the Higashiyama district, I headed to Kiyomizu-dera, another much older Buddhist temple, built in 798. It is divided into several buildings including a beautiful 3-story pagoda, and has a small garden with a fountain supposed therapeutic properties. Dozens of people lined up to drink its water. A little later, I went through a network of small shopping streets fully paved, armored souvenir shops but still charming. In the crossing, we find ourselves in a park with a venerable and venerated cherry. It started to rain, which did not prevent some groups of young people to drink their sake irreducible under trees and under umbrellas.
from temple to temple, I came up with the one-Gi nightfall. This is the geisha district, there are still a hundred to a thousand in Tokyo on all Japan. Gi-on is crossed by a small river where willows and cherry trees bend beautifully lit, it's really beautiful. I did not see geisha, but I ate to comfort me a kind of Japanese pancake salt alongside a geisha plastic. The next day I attacked the northwestern part of Kyoto, including the famous Kinkaku-ji or Golden Pavilion. This 3-storey pagoda which two are covered with gold leaf borders a small pond in the middle of a park. It dates from 1397 and served as a retreat to the Shogun Yoshimistu (the shoguns, what are the great military generals who have ruled Japan during its feudal period, from the 12th to the 19th century. There was at that time - and there still has - an emperor, but without real power). The surrounding areas are widely available in temples and gardens, but I'm too lazy to describe them all. I rented a bike for the day. It allowed me to see many of these landmarks, but mostly outside the box to venture a little chance and discover magical places full of small and deserted. I ended my day with a visit to Nijo Castle and imperial gardens. This is where the third snowstorm hit the day and convinced me to go warm.
Today I visited Nara. In short, it is an ancient capital of Japan in the 8th century. There is - also - an area of temples, but those were the good taste to be almost all clustered in a garden, still quite wide. Among them, the Todai-ji is particularly impressive. It is the largest wooden building in the world, housing a bronze Buddha 15 meters tall (one ear = 2.54 m). 2.6 million people (yes, a lot) have worked to
construction of the temple and the Buddha, under the leadership of Emperor Shomu in 743. The project would even seriously threatened the financial reserves of Japan. The Emperor hoped by this effort to end a great epidemic of smallpox. Before I went to Nara, I made a halt of two hours at the Shinto shrine Fushimi-Inari. Originally, Inari is the goddess of grain (abundance, fertility ...). It is symbolized by a fox to look mean a statue that sits around the sanctuary. Fushimi-Inari is installed on the side of a mountain outside Kyoto. It consists of several small shrines scattered throughout the mountains and connected by a path of orange and black frames, carrying prayers written in Japanese characters. There are thousands, the path is 4 km. It made me think of the Yellow Brick Road Wizard of Oz, even if it has nothing to do. It is an exceptional hiking, strange, mystical and very kind to both, the path through the middle of the forest. It was beautiful for once, and snow the day before dripping trees into a fine rain. I was almost alone at the top of the road, had realized early on the scene, it allowed me to fully enjoy the place.
is difficult to summarize Kyoto and Nara, given the richness of what is there. In any case it is a radical change of scenery after Tokyo, I have a feeling that my surprises in Japan are not finished.
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