Kyoto: Day 2- morning tour

I decided to pick up some breakfast at the train station- they have little cafes and are always open.  Sure enough, for $6.50 I got a coffee and chicken basil sandwich on a roll and engaged in my favorite pastime- people watching!

I waited in the lobby of some ritzy hotel, which was the pick-up spot of the Kyoto day tour.  Right on time, I love the Japanese for their promptness! I was whisked away with a bus load of foreign tourists.  Seriously, I had never seen so many foreigners together before! Italians, Australians, Singaporeans, Egyptians, British, Turkish, Irish...the list goes on.  From 9am to 1pm we visited three different sites, had a lunch stop, then our afternoon tour continued with another 3 major sites.

1. Nishi Hongwanji- huge buddhist temple:

In front of the temple were two massive trees that were more than 300 years old!
We learned that Japan has two major religions- Buddhism and Shintoism.  In Kyoto, everywhere you turn there are Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines- both large and small.  The joke, although with much truth to it, is that the Japanese people are 99% Buddhist and 99% Shinto! Buddhism is the religion for death, and afterlife whereas Shintoism is the religion for births, weddings, daily life.  Kind of the best of both worlds :)


2. Nijo Castle: (a world heritage site)

The official residence of the first Tokugawa Shogun- the rise of military power in Japan in 1626.  We got to visit the rooms inside the castle as well as the expansive gardens and grounds outside.  After removing our shoes, we walked along the "nightingale floors." Lex knows all about these- the floors are built so that when you walk on them, they squeak- a lot! An old-fashioned alarm system, so to speak.  We began by seeing the outer most rooms.  All had tatami mat floors and hand painted scenes on the sliding walls.  Each room had a different scene painted on it, depending on the use of the room.  Visiting feudal lords of different ranks were only allowed into certain rooms.  The inner most room was for the Shogun himself and only his serving girls.  There was no permanent furniture in any of the rooms- furniture was brought in, thus changing the function of the room as necessary.  The paintings in the inner Shogun's private rooms showed calm and serene scenes of mountains and nature.  The outer rooms where the feudal lords met with the Shogun showed tigers and cypress trees.  The armory room had paintings of hawks.
Even the gardens were built with meaning- the lake represented the ocean, and the stones the mountains.


3. Kinkaku/Rokuon-ji Temple (the Temple of the Golden Pavilion), where Buddha's remains are kept.  Check out the beauty of the scenery!