Well on to Kyoto. After the bullet train we arrived in Kyoto. The first day of Kyoto was my favorite day of the trip. Tokyo has only been the capital of Japan for 100 or so years, while Kyoto was the capital for almost 1000 years before that. Therefore, the historical sights were more impressive here.
After we arrived and ate lunch, we were on a bus to Nara, a city right outside of Kyoto. There we visited the Deer Park, Todaiji Temple, and Kasuga Shrine. Deer are sacred animals and a long time ago, people were tortured for killing a deer, even accidentally. There is no penalty now for accidentally killing a deer, but it's still a protected species, and they are EVERYWHERE. These deer are not afraid to come up to people and beg for food.
Here is a video Matt took of me feeding crackers to a deer:
The Todaiji Temple is located in the Deer Park and houses the world's largest bronze Buddha. It was quite impressive.
At the Kasuga Shrine (a Shinto Shrine), we were able to pray to the Gods the Japanese way. The way to do this is to bow 3 times, clap three times, pray, and then bow again. I prayed for something so I hope the Japanese Gods were listening and it comes true! My favorite hotel on the trip was the Hotel Monterey in Kyoto. To sum it up, it was a classy, gothic, boutique hotel. Very unique.
The next day we had a full day of sightseeing. We saw the Golden Pavilion, Nijo Castle, Heian Shrine, Kiyomizu Temple and Sanjusangendo Hall. The Golden Pavilion was THE picture spot on the tour. It is a beautiful building, and the gardens are very picturesque.
Nijo Castle was pretty neat as well. It used to house shoguns, who were pretty high up in rank. The floors are called "nightingale floors" because they were built in such a way to provide an alarm system. When we stepped on the floors they squeaked like birds. Plotting a coup was very common to overthrow a shogun so this was their way of making sure they were ready if an attack occurred!
No comments:
Post a Comment