Beautiful Kyoto

Kyoto is to Tokyo, what Melbourne is to Sydney – a little quieter, a little more refined, more culturally aware, wider streets and boulevards and a little less rushed.  There is also a height limit on buildings in the city, which seems to be around 12 or 15 floors, so the city seems less crowded.  There are over 800 shrines and temples in Kyoto, or so we’re told and we saw quite a few of them.  Day one saw us coping with a City tour to get a perspective, in pouring rain due to a passing typhoon, with visits to the Golden Pavilion and gardens.  The tour also included the Imperial Palace, Ni-Jo Castle and later, a visit to Nara, on the outskirts of the city where the world’s largest wooden building (equivalent to 10 stories) houses the world’s largest wooden Buddha covered in some (originally) 40 kilos of gold leaf.  In the gardens surrounding the temple are hundreds of deer, wandering around looking for rice cakes visitors feed to them.

Our hotel was only 200 metres from Kyoto station and the station building is very impressive, with 12 stories of department stores and restaurants above and around the main station area.  In the basement there are again, two levels of restaurants and cafes so we didn’t need to go far to experience the culinary delights Kyoto has to offer.  Our initial room at the hotel, booked from Melbourne of course, was so small we couldn’t get the cat in, let alone swing it, so we opted for an up-grade to a deluxe room – hang the expense.  Much more comfortable!   

Again, the train and bus system is amazingly efficient and we had no trouble getting around the city and finding our way to scenes of great beauty, or places to save lots of money!  The Nishiki Market, near the central city area, is a very busy, very noisy, very large version of the Queen Vic and the hundreds of stores are fascinating in their variety.  Fresh food – vegetables, fish & meat, tofu, teas and bakery goods and some we couldn’t describe nor were game to taste, vie with fashion items, handbags, hair accessories of all kinds, electronic goods and thousands of other items.  In the market we were headed for the Master knife maker, Aritsugu, who’ve been making knives and swords since 1560.  We wanted an exceptional quality kitchen knife as we’d read about these knives and they don’t seem to be available outside Japan.   We finished up with 2 knives, both multi-purpose, double edged, blue steel with Japanese handles which are lighter and more comfortable than western handles.  The range of knives is astounding – some with single-side edges, both right and left hand, vegetable only knives, fish or meat only knives, sashimi knives in many sizes.  The store also makes and sells kitchen pots in beaten copper and many other items.

During our few days in Kyoto, we also managed to spend a day with a private guide – university student Senna, who we booked through The Good Samaritan Club.  Senna took us to more out of the way places which are listed in the guide books, but are a little more difficult to find.  The Bamboo grove at Arashiyama was a particular highlight and the scenic train up the mountain out of that town was amazing as well.  She also took us to the zen garden – Garden of the Fifteen Stones, at Ryoan-ji and an amazing shrine where donors can have their own torii gate installed and there are currently some 8000 of them leading up a steep climb to the top shrine.

Much shopping has been done along the way and we will have cases expanded by the time we reach home.  Prices in Japan, for most things, are similar to at home, but the range and quality is amazing and there are stores and brands from all over the world which are here because the Japanese are very brand-conscious and acquisitive, particularly the young people.