Japan Anniversary Trip - Kyoto 2

Our second day of sightseeing got off to a slightly rocky start.  Our plan was to visit Nijo Castle, but the first hitch in the plan was finding a bus.  We waited and waited and every imaginable number came except for the one we wanted.  When the bus finally did come, we got off at the wrong stop (my fault).  We then had a series of misadventures which caused us to give up on Nijo Castle and end up going directly to Kinkakuji, also known as the Golden Pavilion.  Luckily, there was no line for tickets, and we could easily get in and get back to sightseeing.  The tickets we got at both pavilions were so cool, that this time I asked Jeff to take a picture.  Of course, being Jeff, he made it an artistic picture.

Like the Silver Pavilion, the Gold Pavilion had a path around the grounds for visitors to follow.  It was also fairly crowded and incredibly beautiful.

The pond was especially cool.

We've been watching a new show called The Good Place, where, in the afterlife, everyone gets their ideal house.  There's a couple living in their own version of the Gold Pavilion.  After seeing it and the lovely grounds surrounding it, I fully understand the choice.  I loved how peaceful it all felt.

While Jeff isn't quite as enamored with Japanese gardens as I am, he's a good husband, and was happy to come with me to Daitokuji temple which was just down the road from the Gold Pavilion.  It's actually a large series of temples, monastic dwellings, and gardens.

There were also lots of cool rock gardens.  The one complex that had a bunch of them didn't allow pictures, but we got pictures of a couple other ones at a different complex that allowed photography.

The second picture is about how everything that enters the world causes ripples.  I can't explain why, but I find it so cool.  Jeff has agreed to having a rock garden in our perfect retirement home :-)

There were some areas of the compound that we were not welcome to explore.

After about an hour on the compound, we found a nearby bus stop and headed back to our part of the city.  We decided that the western side of Kyoto was not as interesting as the eastern side.  The western part was mostly modern residential districts, which is fine, but nothing special.

For our afternoon/evening adventure we headed back across the river to the older part of Kyoto.  Our goal was to explore the Higashiyama District, especially the part with pedestrian streets lined with wooden, old style buildings.  To find the walking streets, we went back to wandering mode and took a turn when we saw people walking in the street.

As we kept walking and following the crowds, the road started getting narrower and sloping up.  Plus there were cool temples around.

That's when I knew we had found what we were looking for.  The shops and restaurants were really neat to look at, and there were people in beautiful kimonos all over the place.  The historical Higashiyama area pretty much shuts down around 6:00pm.  It's not a night spot, but I did want to see it lit up, so we looked for a place that was open for an early dinner.  The best place we could find for us was an Italian restaurant that had pizza.  While the food was not Japanese, the view was.  The dining area opened onto a lovely garden, so I was perfectly happy.

By the time we were done with dinner, it was getting dark, and Jeff took some lovely pictures for me.

I also found the perfect present for the girls, little stuffed dolls of Japanese girls in kimonos.  I found them in a store where everything was made by hand, and it took me quite a while to find the ones I thought the girls would like the best.  The next day we took the bullet train back to Tokyo, then the Narita Express to the airport, then a plane back to Bangkok, and a taxi home.  The dolls were a hit.

We missed the girls, but we had such a wonderful time just wandering and exploring.  In a few years the girls will be up for that kind of trip, but for now, it's nice to do it just the two of us knowing that the girls are in good hands at home.