our last day in kyoto! leon’s last day in japan 🙁
lots of stuff planned for today! sanjusangendo, the torii gate path at fushimi inari shrine, and himeji castle, which is one of the only castles that still consists of it’s original wooden structure. then dinner with estarmir, a friend from high-school.
sanjusangendo was surprisingly very close to our hostel. got there pretty fast by walking, led by leon, of course. lol… plastered everywhere is ‘no photographs of the statues’ no. no. no. sucks 🙁 its so damn tempting. there are about 1000 kannon statues, built by 70 different sculptors as well as 3 additional groups of sculptors later on, they are similar yet there are differences in the face, robe, hands, fingers, it was incredible. in front of the display of the 1000 kannons, 28 deities, all national treasures, are displayed and briefly explained, relating to sanskrit names, and other cultures. the two famous are fujin and raijin who are commonly placed on either side of gates to ward off evil and stuff… michelle wrote it down, i forget :(…
an interesting tidbit was the way the hall was built. it was created in such a way that earthquakes would not affect the statues and the wooden panels of the hall would prevent any major destruction that might happen.
after slowly going through the hall, we went outside and walked around a little bit. at some doors, you can look inside and sorta see the kannons… i hid a little from the monks and took a blurry pic that i ended up deleting but when michelle tried to, a monk looked up and saw and was like…. X with his arms and michelle didn’t notice – -;… i had to warn her. he looked like he was gonna come outside and attack us or something :S runaway~
somehow leon left his JR pass back at the hostel, so since we had to go back in that direction anyways, and he really needed the pass, he went back while i grabbed some food (buns and onigiri)…
the onigiri is packed in a way that u gotta pull one middle piece of plastic all the way around, the pull the two outside ones out, releasing the rice in the middle to meet the seaweed wrapping. its very ingenious but confused the hell out of me and caused a mess 😛
we left the inari station and wasn’t exactly sure where the temple was… until we walked outside and saw the torii gate. lol. maybe its in that direction 0.o… hmmmm lol. in the entrance of the shrine, several kitsune (fox) statues were placed, instead of the usual lions everywhere else. although i believe they represent similar things as fujin and raijin. to the right of the entrance, a couple of miko and priests (i guess… 0.o) were performing small ceremonies? maybe… which consisted of a couple of instruments, sounded pretty nice.
and on to the path! the whole path was laid out on a map and estimated 2 hours as completion. insane. we were going to do only a little bit of it since we had to move on to the next destination. the number of gates was amazing, and they are placed so closely together, it’s a beautiful sight. as u look back, the reverse side of the gates have things written on either side on the poles, different on every one. some of the gates are faded, others a bright or darker but bright orange. i noticed one old guy who was actually repainting a gate, and on the sides had fallen gates with ladders preparing to repair them. several other gate bases were broken, and other gates breaking. it seems to take a lot of maintenance, but even then it is still magnificent. it wasn’t all gates though, there were breaks in which several small shrines were placed, featuring the kitsune, and even some frog statues. and of course, small places to eat run by old women living in the mountainous areas… anyways, we cut out somehow and ended up within a residential area that somehow leaded back into the shrine…
and off we went to himeji castle. which is one of japans ‘three famous castles’ along with matsumoto and kumamoto. and of course, we find out the train schedule we’ve been carrying around is a year old and the shinkansen runs 20 minutes later then the booklet said and we missed one while we read the schedule at the station. (they didn’t know that we did until i told them… :P) and the next train would be an hour later, which would get us to the castle around… 345ish) an hour away! and to add to that… the book said the castle would close at 4. but we’ll go anyways, at least see it from outside.
when we got there leon headed straight to the tourist info centre and… it actually closes at 5! lucky! and the castle is a straight line, 1km away from the station. easy walk. rushing, to get there in time, there are other people just getting there too. it’s all good. :D…
like many other places in japan, we had to remove our shoes and wear slippers inside. since this castle still has its own original structure, this step was very important in maintaining the castle. the steps up were extremely steep, i felt that if i didnt lean forward a bit, i’d EASILY fall backwards when going up to the next floor. the castle consisted of 6 floors and a couple had some ‘historical’ information and stuff shown in glass cases, but the main attraction was the architecture and the… actual castle. the sun was out and behind some clouds which provided a very nice view as well as lighting inside the castle. the 6th floor offered an amazing view of the city, and the heavenly…. heavens. 😛
and then we started heading out, and back to the station. but we stopped for ice cream! leon didnt want any at first… until he said apple mango flavour. lol… there was also miso, black sesame, melon, cherry blossom, etc… crazy. and i had black sesame 😛 melon is really good too! michelle wanted a ‘taste’ of the black sesame and the old guy at the counter grabbed a cup and gave her some, which was actually a lot for a ‘taste’… had to convince her to actually go back and buy something or she’d feel bad, as if she tricked the old man… lol
and so… gave estarmir a call and arranged to meet at 7 at kyoto station, central exit. which was exactly where we found him. i’ve been wanting to try okonomiyaki for a long time and this was the perfect chance, and leon’s last night too. haha.
when est first arrived in japan in late march?, he stayed in kyoto, close to an okonomiyaki shop and we walked for about half an hour from the station and arrived at the small shop. the four of us had the manten mix, which consists of…. stuff, iuno. – -;… but it was pretty good! and only 900¥. while est told us about his month so far in japan, (he’s… crazy. lol) the chef cooked the mix at the grill in front and later brought it ready to eat to our own table grill. covering it in some dressings and mayo. yumm….
it was extremely filling, and good… extremely filling. and we headed back out, est to the station (it would be a 30min ride back to his area) and us to the hostel where we still needed to pack.
for some reason, the three of us stayed up to at least 1 or 2am altho we planned to get up at 6 the next morning… leon had some milk and snacks to finish, so we helped him with that 😛 and… yea. we probably bugged the shit out of our roommates tho 😀 hahaha…
i’d say we learnt a bit about leon, not that much, since when we first left for the trip, we didnt know much at all…. o.o the three of us reflected on the trip as if it was actually ending, since leon was leaving… it’s almost over! and we’ve actually missed out on a bunch of things, even though we spent so much time. might have been the late-ish mornings and the early closing times…
but it’s been pretty great so far, still a bit surreal, and off to sleep. zzz.
leon and michelle walking through the torii gates
himeji castle
zzz….
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