We then took a taxi to a train to Kyoto and then a bus to the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. Entering this area was very different from the part of Kyoto we'd been in previously as it was very green and the shop area reminded me more of a Colorado mountain town. This (free!) site was very cool visually, and fun because Natsuko had not been there before.
We then took a train and then a bus and then walked to our second Uncle Harry Ostrander location, Choin-in, in the Southern Higashiyama part of Kyoto. It was hard not to be impressed by the gate at the entrance to the headquarters of the largest sect of Buddhism in Japan (Jōdo) -- the San-mon is the largest template gate in Japan.
We saw some sort of service going on in the Dai Hōjō, which was connected to the main hall, under reconstruction, by another "nightingale" floor. It was an interesting mix of chanting and saws! The grounds were also beautiful here.
Also impressive was the largest bell in Japan, 70 metric tonnes or 154,323 pounds!
Natusko told us how the temple's monks ring the bell 108 times on New Year's Eve each year for the 108 evils you are casting out; given the size of what is used to ring the bell, it would be interesting to see this in action!
We also learned from the display inside the main hall that the coffins and wooden statues of Gomi Kin’uemon and his wife, who were ordered by the Tokugawa shogun to construct the San-mon, are at the top of the gate. The display said they committed suicide after the gate was completed because of cost overruns.
After lunch and ice cream, we walked to Kōdai-ji, which we all really enjoyed for its gardens.
This is the garden inside the temple. There was also a two-story tea house.
We also liked this one because it was founded by a woman - Kita-no-Mandokoro founded the temple in 1605 in memory of her late husband, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Also fascinating was a statue of a lady who we could see poking out what seemed like next door.
We were told that it went with a World War II memorial. This was the first place there were (Japanese-speaking) interpreters. Although some signs were in English, not all were, so we were very fortunate to have Natusko as our friend and guide!
At our next stop, Kiyomizu-dera, we found all of the tourists, although we still didn't see a lot of American or European tourists.
Here there were a lot of girls dressed in kimonos, taking selfies with their selfie sticks! (On the way there, we had to climb up what's called Chawan-zaka (Teapot Lane). As this was our only day where it rained (really more of a sprinkle), we had a hill of umbrellas to follow! There was a great view from the verandah outside the Hondō (Main Hall), and hydrangeas beyond that.
For our last stop in Kyoto, we took a taxi to Fushimi Inari Taisha in Southeast Kyoto.
We read there were 30,000 shrines here; the coolest things were the stone foxes throughout (considered messengers to Inari, the god of rice) ...
... and the thousands of torii gates (which indicate you are entering a shrine), many of which we got to walk through.
There were even these mini gates.
We stopped at the veering off point for Mount Inari, and picked up two big stone things for luck (if your guess of the weight before you picked it up was higher than it was, then you would be lucky - but there was no way to measure the exact weight, so not really sure how that works. :)) And it was free!
We then took a train back to Kyoto Station (an attraction in itself) and then the Shinkansen (bullet train) back to Yokohama Station. -- POSTED BY COLLEEN
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