JAPAN - KYOTO TO HIROSHIMA
KYOTO
“I lose my breath, find it again. I don’t want to break this spell. I’m completely besotted. In love with Kyoto, with Japan. We come to the end, to the palace gates as they open… It’s beautiful. Truly beautiful. A golden crown.” — Emiko Jean
Once again we boarded an early train from Kanazawa and headed for Japan’s ancient capital, Kyoto. Kyoto was Japan’s capital and the residence of the Emperor from 794 until 1868, it was also a center of Japanese culture for more than 1,000 years.
Kyoto is famous for its innumerable Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, imperial palaces, immaculate gardens, geisha culture, and festivals. We stayed in the heart of Gion, its major geisha district, in a beautiful Celestine Gion Hotel and could experience the mystique of its nearly empty streets both at night and in the early mornings before or after the tourist crowds, and see a Geisha and Maiko performance at the nearby famous Kaburenjo Theater. The show was part of the Kamogawa Odori traditional dance festival that was established in 1872 and is held by the Pontocho Kabukai Association every spring.
Another fantastic Japanese guide, 80-year-old Taj, met us at the station and spent two very long days with us. Again everything was scheduled in an exact manner including a beautiful Kaiseki dinner at Ganko Nijo En, which used to be the Villa of Yamagata Aritomo, General & Prime Minister during the Meiji Era. It also boasts a fantastic Japanese garden that you can see in the photos shown below.
We got soaked on our second day going to Arashiyama and Fushimi Inari, but Taj ensured we did not skip anything from our planned itinerary. Taj was a former teacher of social studies at Doshisha Junior High School. He is a mountain climber, photographer, and poet and has been awarded many prizes for his photography.
To illustrate the level of planning I am attaching the schedule he made for us below.
May 18(Thu) JR Kyoto Sta.9:00→Subway to Kitaouji Sta. /Bus to Kinkakuji Temple(Golden Pavilion 60min.)→taxi Ryoanji Temple (Rock Garden 40min)→Bus Doshisha University (Lunch) (Imperial Palace) →Sub.to Higashiyama Sta.→Bus Kiyomizu Temple (60min) →Sannen Slope(三年坂) →Yasaka Pagoda(八坂の塔)→Yasaka Shrine →Gion. →Ponto Cho→Japanese Cuisin ”Ganko Nijo EN” ～￥5,500 meal (High Quality Ohmi Beef).
→ Kyoto Sta (luggage) →Hotel（Celestine Kyoto Gion）
May 19(Fri) Hotel 8:50→Bus 9:02 to JR Kyoto Sta→JR .9:33 Sagano Arashiyama Sta.→9:49Arashiyama（Bamboo Forest etc）→JR11:27 Arashiyama →JR11:44 Kyoto Sta./12:00 →JR 12:05 Inari （Fushimi Inari Shrine）→JR 13:08 Inari →JR 13:13 Kyoto Sta.→Subway 14:00 Nijo Castle /15:00 →Subway 15:30 Nishiki Market.16:00→16:30 Hanamikoji-Dori, Entoku-in (500￥.near your hotel) 17:30,.→Hotel 18:00 (Celestine ,near Gion)
The photos below show some of the most famous Kyoto temples and gardens, and Gion and Pontocho districts during the morning and night hours.
Ryoanji’s famous rock garden consists of a rectangular plot of pebbles surrounded by low earthen walls, with 15 rocks laid out in small groups on patches of moss. An interesting feature of the garden’s design is that from any vantage point, at least one of the rocks is always hidden from the viewer. Originally an aristocrat’s villa, the site was converted into a Zen temple in 1450.
“You cannot call yourself a true geisha until you can stop a man in his tracks with a single look.” – Arthur Golden
“The neck is kind of what’s sexy in Japan, so you have to have the kimono a little bit back. It was just a whole different way of appealing to what was sexy.” – Lucy Liu
“It is not for Geisha to want. It is not for Geisha to feel. Geisha is an artist of the floating world. She dances. She sings. She entertains you. Whatever you want. The rest is shadows. The rest is secret.” — Arthur Golden
Food and gardens are two amazing art forms that never ceased to amaze in Japan. Nijoen is a restaurant housed in a beautiful villa from the Meiji era. With the Takase River meandering through the lovely garden, the location and food were simply superb.
Fushimi Inari Taisha below is one of the most famous shrines in Japan. Its than 10,000 closely-spaced orange torii gates represent the transition from daily life to the sacred.
For six centuries, Kyoto Imperial Palace served as the capital of Japan. It is located within the vast Kyoto Gyoen National Garden, a favorite place for picnics, jogging, leisurely strolls, and flower viewing. The palace itself is concealed by towering walls and locked gates, having remained unchanged since the emperor moved to Tokyo after the Meiji Restoration in the late 1800s.
Kyoto looks especially captivating at dusk and in the early morning. This is how it will forever always remain in our memory: shrouded in mystery, locked between modernity and tradition, between East and West, something that no Westerner will ever fully understand.
NARA
On our last day in and around Kyoto we went to Nara, the first capital of Japan between 710 and 794 AD. The grounds of Hōryūji (Hōryū Temple) house the world’s oldest surviving wooden structures, conveying to us images of Japan as it existed more than 1,300 years ago.
Another famous spot is Todaji Temple in Nara Park, home to the Great Buddha. The park is also famous for its free-roaming deer. Considered the messengers of the gods, Nara’s over 1000 deer have become a symbol of the city and have even been designated a natural treasure.
MIYAJIMA
We said farewell to Kyoto and again headed east towards the island of Miyajima and then back to Hiroshima for our two-night final stay with a side trip to the island of Kyushu.
Miyajima is a small, beautiful island less than an hour away from Hiroshima. It can be reached by a short local train and a ferry ride. The island is famous for its giant torii gate which seems to be floating on the water at high tide. Itsukushima shrine is truly a site to behold as is the view from Mount Misen, Miyajima’s highest peak. We stayed overnight at another beautiful Ryokan, Miyajima Seaside Hotel, and it was such a serene and beautiful place.
HIROSHIMA
Hiroshima, on the other hand, is a modern city that literally rose from the ashes. It was largely destroyed by the atomic bomb in 1945. Now only the Memorial Park and the ruins of the Genbaku Dome are left as a reminder of the horrors of the war. There are always Japanese volunteers at the site telling their stories of death and survival. An estimated 140,000 perished from the explosion and its consequences, most of whom were civilians.
The story of Sadako and the Hiroshima peace cranes is one of the most heartbreaking. Sadako got sick with leukemia in 1955 which was then called a “bomb disease”. There is a Japanese legend that the crane, a sacred bird in Japan, lives for a hundred years, and if a sick person folds 1,000 paper cranes, then that person would get well. After hearing the legend, Sadako decided to fold 1,000 cranes and pray that she would get well again. She folded well over 1,000 cranes even though she was suffering from the horrific pain and knew she was not going to survive. Sadako died in October 1955 when she only 12 years old.
KUMATOTO, DAY TRIP TO THE SUBTROPICAL ISLAND OF KYUSHU
Kyushu is the southernmost of Japan’s main islands and the third largest of its four main islands. Unfortunately, we only had a day to visit one of its beautiful cities, Kumamoto, on a side trip from Hiroshima. We enjoyed some of its iconic attractions: Kumamoto Castle, Suizen-ji Garden, and the residence/museum of Lafcadio Hearn. He was one of the first Westerners to write about Japan after its period of complete isolation from the West had ended.
About Lafcadio Hearn:
