The greatest week of my life part two: The rest of Kyoto

At last at long last I continue my post on my fantastic and eye opening trip to Japan. Yes I know it has been almost 7 weeks, and you have longs since lost interest, I don't care. I feel the need to finish this extended post before I lose all drive to do anything. Plus I haven't seen any clamors for more posts or any competing blogs so I still think I am the most successful of anyone that I know so there.

Anyways onto the 2nd 3rd and 4th fantastic magical days in Japan. It started off with a bit of a whimper as I overslept by a fair margin and awoke at 11 AM instead of my planned 7. I was thus forced to rush and see as much of the lovely city as I could wrangle in the the remaining 10 hours of daylight. I will say that I managed to do a fair amount and that I regret nothing! I began my day walking north through Higayashima in the grand idea of finding the Path of Philosophy. I did indeed find it but not before finding places that might have changed my entire view of the world...go figure. My personal favorites of the day were Eikan-do which made me want to be a monk and Honen-in which made me realize that I couldn't hack it. All in all it was a fantastic way to spend a day and that doesn't even include the nightcap!

This was taken from Nanzen-ji, I found it to be rather unremarkable but nonetheless had pretty gardens. Climbing the old Gate for the view was fantastic though!

One of my 2 pictures of Eikan-do, I thought I had taken more but apparently I was mistaken. A truly beautiful place with a tremendous feel to it. One of the most fantastic things about visiting temples and shrines is that you must remove your shoes, which enables you to add a whole different sense to your experience. Eikan-do was one of the better "touch" sights.

A delicious and nutritious lunch at a place called Omen. You will notice the beverage. I believe that while on holiday two rights must be observed, lax drinking policies and a heavy indulgence in ice cream. Luckily for me I love green tea soft serve.

Makes me hungry....

Ginka-kuji. The famed Silver pavilion. was quite the sight even if it was under renovation...

Perhaps the most interesting feature were the ramrod straight trees. I was completely enthralled. Then again the gift shop was also special...

Honen-in. A fantastically beautiful temple complex nestled next to the mountains covered in moss. I love moss now. It might be my favorite green thing. Well aside from Gumby.

It was next to this hillside graveyard. Just too many beautiful things to see in Kyoto.

To this day I am uncertain if it is sacrilegious to take a picture of the Buddha. It certainly was a spiritual place that Honen-in.

That night I traveled from my hostel to Gion, the geisha district and found the Yasaka-jinja. Another tremendously beautiful and special place in a city filled with them. p.s. I am moving to Kyoto. Who wants to join me? Anyone?

I just loved how the lights hung.

The make-out spot of Kyoto. I guess I am intruding. It really was pretty though...

This here is Daisuke. He was eating at the same restaurant as I was and he never spoke a word to me. It wasn't until a few hours later that when I was sitting on the river bank that he felt that he should talk to me. His reasoning being that we both owned Moleskines, the same notebook of Hemingway and Picasso, and thus had fantastic lives to catalogue. I will agree with Daisuke as he taught me several important life lessons the most important of which is Tamasii. Look it up.

The next morning I went on quite the adventure with a Philly boy named Frank. 6 temples. 1 Castle. 10 hours. 1 gigantic bike trip. All in all a fantastic way to spend an evening, not even counting the evening excursion.

Two things Japan is known for Baseball and Temples

A graveyard at Kodai-ji temple

Kodai-ji was a lovely temple that had a really pretty pond that was known for its reflections.

Japanese breakfast sandwich.

Chion-in Temple had a terribly large mon or gate and rocky-styled stairway to match.

Underneath one of the eaves was an umbrella that was to welcome rain and keep away fire. I must spent 15 minutes looking in the eaves before finding it. Its the golden knobby thing. After a trio of temples Frank and I headed west to do our other trio. Time was against us and I still hadn't found ice cream, but morale was high. We made a detour to Nijo-jo and the Shogun's castle. It was pretty but had nicer gardens than anything else.

Following Nijo-jo the magical mystery tour continued west under cover of sunset, and the race for time truly began. The mission was to finish 3 temples in 2 hours, a tall order when each compound was massive and had so many beautiful things to see. Here are the highlights.

Me in my kabuki pose at Ninna-ji temple. Absolutely lovely with everything you would want in a Japanese temple ground, from big houses to pagodas to gardens. Good catchall place.

I am just a sucker for the Japanese architecture, and pagodas. I don't think I will ever grow tired of them. Lets hope not anyways.

Five of arguably the most famous Zen rocks in the world at Ryoan-ji temple.

Wouldnt be a trip to Japan without a golden building would it?

This is the lovely Kinkaku-ji temple, or "The Golden Pavillion"

We just managed to scrape together enough time to complete all the temple exploits I had planned I couldn't have been happier. Another beautiful day with rich history and eye candy galore. I will admit jealousy and the burning desire to never leave all the pretty set in here.

Chassu-Ramen, melt in your mouth delicious. Its the gold standard of Ramen, and makes me sad that the ramen we know has the same name. As far as noodles go it is way tastier than Mi-goreng. Which is saying a lot.

I ordered this by saying I'll have what he's having, while gesticulating wildly to the Japanese man next to me. I still dont know what it was. Eel maybe? Definitely delectable.

After dinner Frank and I went back to the hostel to see if we could find others that wanted to roam through Kyoto. We stopped and watched a Kung-fu movie first, it had every single cliche you might think of in a Kung-fu film. From dudes with scary monkeys, to lasers, to fighting Lions. It might have been the greatest movie of all time, but I shall never know its name, (Bruce Lee was in the beginning but then died 10 minutes into it... Only to reutrn for the last 5.) I have no idea why he was hired. Anyways after the movie we managed to convince an Aussie (Johnny) and a Swiss (Adrian) and we set out about the town. In our travels we met rogue Washingtonians, rich white rappers, go-go dancers, and even had fireworks. Truly a great way to send of Kyoto in style. Here are some of the more tasteful shots of the night.

Fireworks on the river!

We convinced some workers at a Karaoke house to join us for Karaoke after their shift ended and these were the lovely souls that dropped by. Oh by the way it might only be a North American thing to sing Queen at a Karaoke, because other than Frank and I it was dead silent when Bohemian Rhapsody came blissfully to life.

Here's the gang: Will, Frank, Adrien, and Johnny. Oh Kyoto I miss thee.

You know it was a good night when the sun comes up and an Aussie is flipping you off for taking his photo. It's only 6 am Johnny!

So that was my Kyoto portion of the trip and I know what youre thinking. Dude you went to Japan 2 months ago I am so past caring. Well I will trudge along and give you the rest of my awesome story because I told you I would, and I am no liar. Only terribly terribly lazy. Until next time (I swear I'll be better)

Will Out