Well, if Monday’s veritable route march around Kyoto city was motivated by a rabid and insatiable cherry blossom frenzy on my part, today’s 35k epic was by contrast very much weather-driven. It’s due to rain in Kyoto over the next couple of days, and for that reason I wanted to see the city’s top-most attractions to their best advantage, before the weather turns. Fret ye not, however! The sun’s due to appear again before I move on, and in the meantime I have lots of fun indoor things on the cards to do over the next couple of days (also laundry, but I doubt that will make the blog somehow… 😉).

With the above in mind, today’s theme was very much temples temples (too many?) temples. Apparently Kyoto has a whole host of 1,600 of the things, of which between yesterday and today I’ve seen just the seven – all of 0.43% of the actual total, which puts things into perspective a little bit here!

Anyway, before I get into that though, my inner grumpy old woman (who is increasingly becoming more outer than inner these days…) once again needs to vent her spleen a little bit first. What has boiled my piss this time, you may ask….? Well, I’ll tell you – it’s this: since when the feck did it become a fecking thing for tourists to try to pull off choreographed tik tok dances in front of major sites of historical and/or natural significance…? Or to spend practically half the frigging day carefully curating that ‘just-so’ insta pose in front of a famous landmark / monument / view…? I wouldn’t care, but for the fact that the above invariably ends up being transacted at the expense of everyone else patiently (or in my case, not so patiently…) waiting their turn for a pic, who are de facto forced to sit through the whole bloody juvenile, narcissistic palaver in the process. Anyway, I’m not quite enough of a cowbag that I’ve (yet) deliberately sabotaged anyone’s desperate devoted quest for social media virality, but I am enough of a one to find it an entirely appealing prospect all the same… It’s just so bloody selfish: stop monopolising the view, take your fucking photo and move, bitch. Kids these days, honestly…   

Anyhoo, best not go any further down that particular rabbit hole, or we’ll end up here all day… Kyoto itself was (as you’d expect) duly stunning, and more than lived up to its reputation as one of the most beautiful cities of the East. I won’t wax lyrical, as that’s not really my style – suffice to say the place was pretty amazeballs, and I’ll otherwise let the pics do the talking here. (You’ll also note I was a bit premature in my last post in consigning this year’s cherry blossom to oblivion yesterday – still clearly a fair bit hanging in there today! One of those rare occasions where I’m happy to be proven wrong…!)

So, in order of uniqueness / interest, rather than chronology of visitation, we have:

1. The Golden Temple

It’s a temple and it’s golden. Does what it says on the tin!

2. Fushimi Inari Shrine

Fushimi Inari is known for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, which stretch 4km into the forest of Mount Inari (I didn’t walk the whole route, but a fair old chunk of it). There’s a bit of fox theme going on here too – as they are thought to be messengers from the god Inari, the Shinto god of rice and sake (who sounds very much like my kind of guy… 😉 ).

3. Imperial Palace Kyoto

No longer off limits to the general public, this huge palace gardens and grounds (former residence of the Imperial Family before the capital moved to Tokyo) is a popular spot for picnics in the city. I too followed suit with a katsu sandwich, iced matcha latte and a much needed sit-down (when in Rome, etc…).

4. Nijo Castle

This residence of both the shogun and later the Imperial family still had cherry blossom out in force on my visit. More notably, I had a matcha ice-cream (seriously needed the calories at that point) here, which suffice to say absolutely blew my tiny mind.

5. Tofukuji Temple

To the south of the city, Tofukuji is known for its garden bridge (the Tsutenkyo Bridge) and manicured rock and sand gardens.

6. Gion

Gion is Kyoto’s geisha district, full of traditional wooden buildings, emblematic red lanterns and upmarket bars / restaurants that are booked out for weeks if not months in advance. I did spot one geisha on my wanderings, but that was my lot for the evening here.

While, the city is undeniably beautiful, as a whole it is quite different from how I’d imagined. I’d kind of pictured the place as one of those higgledy-piggledy labyrinthine, olde worlde type places, chockful of teeny tiny windy narrow streets and confusing street numbering conventions. Quite the opposite though – beyond the temples and certain well preserved old districts, Kyoto is actually based on a grid system and as such feels really light, airy and surprisingly modern – think broad boulevards and tree-lined streets all round, with lots of futuristic architecture dotted about too. Just by way of example, here’s Kyoto central train station:

So anyway, that about wraps it up for another manic day – I’m pretty much beat at this point, and am finding myself almost relieved at the prospect of a slightly rainy day tomorrow, if it means I can actually allow myself a lie-in!

That’s it for now then – stay tuned for another exciting episode in a day or two’s time…