After breakfast we went to reception and met up with our guide for the day and discussed what we wanted to do, unfortunately trying to get round all the sites we want to see will be difficult as Kyoto is a bit bigger than the map makes it look! So we agreed with the guide which key sites we would try and see then it was off to the metro, the first of many forms of transport we will use today. Our first stop was the Golden Pavilion or Kinkaku. This is actually a temple complex called Rokuon-ji Temple of which one building is the Golden Pavilion. The area was originally a villa but a retired Shogun decided he really liked the area so built his own villa , after he died the area was converted into a temple by his priest who became its first abbot. After spending some time going round the temple we got on the bus to The Imperial Palace, this is a collection of buildings that were used by the emperor and his family until the capital was moved to Tokyo in 1869. Until the current emperor all Japanese emperors have been enthroned at the palace, but the most recent one chose to be enthroned in Tokyo which seems to have upset the Kyoto people! There are seven gates into the compound, one for the emperor, one for the empresses, one for the crown prince, one for the emperors children, one for politicians and I can’t remember who could use the other two. As you enter the first building you see a carriage porch which was used by senior nobility and high ranking courtiers when they attended court rituals or had an audience with the Emperor. This led to the waiting rooms and the room you were left to wait in depended on your rank. Next was the hall for state ceremonies, the emperors throne and empress throne room as well as a number of rooms used for ceremonies and imperial audiences, after we had finished walking round the complex we went out to the gardens which contain a large pond with a number of bridges we also saw a heron sitting on the island. It was then time to jump back on the metro to go round to Nino-jo castle which is another world heritage site it was built 400 years ago for the Shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate who unified Japan after a long period of civil war and the start of 260 years of peace and prosperity. This was the Kyoto residence of the Shogun and the Nijo Zaiban samurai guards. This is where the last Shogun summoned the senior representatives from the 40 domains and announced that he would be returning political power to the emperor and therefore ending Shogun rule which created the environment where Japan could move towards democracy. By the time we had finished looking round it was gone 1pm so we headed off to the restaurant for lunch. The reason we had gone to this restaurant was for the fried chicken skewers but unfortunately they had run out so we had to have the broiled chicken instead, as it turned out this was a good thing as the fried ones are actually deep fried and the ones we had were actually cooked on the grill which is what we had hoped for! Our final stop of the day was the To-ji temple for five story pagoda which is another complex that contains a main hall, a lecture hall and the five storied pagoda, we were able to go in both halls which contain Buddha statues representing different Buddhist teachings, unfortunately we weren’t allowed into the pagoda as this is used to house relics of the historical Buddha. It is said that this is the highest pagoda in Japan as it is 55m (187 feet), it was actually one of two one in the east and one in the west, but unfortunately at different times both were struck by lightning and burnt down, the one in the east is the only one that was rebuilt. We got on the bus to head to the Gion district (geisha) but as we were sitting on the bus our guide said that we would have time to go and see the Kiyomizu-dera temple, I was not sure that we would see this as the main hall is currently being renovated and is covered in scaffolding, but I am glad that we had time to go and see it as it is at the top of the hill and once we had climbed up we had fantastic views over Kyoto. Finally it was time to head to the Gion district which is where the geisha live, Kyoto is one of the only places in Japan where geisha training still takes place, we walked around the area and could hear some instruction going on behind the closed doors, we were really lucky to see a real trainee geisha walking around the area, you can’t ask them for their photo but you can take one as long as it doesn’t interrupt them so Chris managed to get a great shot of her. It was then time to say goodbye to our guide and we walked round the area a little more before finding a bar and having a couple of drinks before heading back to the hotel to update the website and plan tomorrow.
