Kyoto:temples, temples, party, temples, temples, temples 1/2

This posting is going to be pretty similar to the last one. A lot of pictures and some impressions about Japan. This time however, it are impressions of Kyoto, instead of Tokyo. First of all the list of all the pictures on Picasa, and once again I will post a selection of those also here.
Day 0: Shinkansen Tokyo - Kyoto
Day 1: Kyoto - Gijon area
Day 2: Kyoto - Kiyomizu and Nijo
Day 3: Kyoto - Arashiyama and Golden Pavillion

I left of in Tokyo in the last post, so that's also where I'll start here. My last day in Tokyo consisted of getting my bags packed again, and then walking to the train station to get a Shinkansen ticket to Kyoto. For those that don't know: The Shinkansen is a bullet train, connecting a lot of the major cities in Japan. It has been there since 1975, is working great, and is cheaper and faster than flying for most destination. I don't understand why getting the Fyra in the Netherlands proved to be so difficult! The trip was a joy: the Shinkansen is fast, rides very smooth, there is a power socket near each seat, free wifi, vending machines and railcatering: perfectly organized!

Shinkansen reflection 

(I didn't walk the complete length on the station due to heavy backpacks and tight schedule :-))

Mt Fuji from the train

High priority when in arriving in Kyoto: drop off my luggage at the Hostel. This was a 15min walk from the station, but that was quite a challenge: I took a small break to avoid getting completely soaked and to give my knees a rest. The hostel staff were very friendly and spoke near-perfect English, so dropping the luggage was not a problem at all. Afterwards I headed for the city center, to have a look around, get a map and some coffee. With the map in hand I explored the modern station building a little: it's high and open and combined with a shopping center. Afterwards I decided to check out the pagoda south of the station, as the rest were all nearer to my hostel. 

Trying to find the way back to the hostel the abundance of temples in Kyoto became apparent immediately. Almost every street has a temple, some large, some just small shrines, but they're everywhere. There was one problem however: about 60% of the temples are being restored: I saw lots of halls and scaffolding covering structures that were supposed to be beautiful temples!
Kyoto's street plan is based on squares, so a lot of time you can view large distances through the city: very nice! Together with the stonework this reminded me of Pompeii. From later discussions with the hostel staff, that comparison can also be made with the Roman religion: in Kyoto there are gods and shrines for everything.

The second day in Kyoto started with sleeping for quite some time, and doing the travel chores (updating finances and looking for accommodation). As it was a rainy day I asked Hiro (one of the guys working at the hostel) where I could best go. He pointed to a roofed shopping area, which proved to be a good tip: browsing around, having a look at the stores, resting regularly for food and coffee (my legs were still sore) and ofcourse for people-watching: a favorite pastime in Japan.

Nearby to the market is the Gijon area: a neigbourhood with old-style Japanese buildings, a lot of temples (surprise! surprise!), and also many Maiko-san's: apprentice Geisha's. Well, it's the guidebooks that say it's apprentice Geisha's, but I later learned that Japanese teenage girls can pay 4000 yen to rent the costume for the day, so you see lots of teenage groups of girls walking around dressed up (and taking selfies each 10m's). 

Fake or not: is does look nice and makes for some nice interactions as well. Japanese people are so shy that they are even afraid to ask you to take your picture. So it happens quite a lot that you can see them discussing with their friends if they should ask, and who should then ask, etc. This normally goes on for some 3minutes or so, and then in about 90% of the time no-one is brave enough and they will just walk by. So now I will just offer it immediately and it'll be smiles all around.

The area itself was quite nice, and I was there near sunset, so I got some great shots of temples, gardens and street life.

A garden next to a cemetary, an incredibly peaceful and beautiful place

A pagoda in downtown Gijon

Geisha's, blossom and a nice stair: could be a movie set.

I came home early to look for a place for dinner, but I was lucky to find a lot of people having a small party in the hostel. Hiro invited me over and we ate 'vispoffertjes'. Little doughballs filled with shrimp, octopus and eaten with special sauce and mayonaise. It was a nice dinner and a very pleasant evening as well. Also the two foreigners (an Italian and a Finnish girl) spoke Japanese, and the Japanese people not much English, so sometimes it was a little difficult, but it worked out fine. We had such great fun that we ended up going to sleep at around 03:00am.

The next day I went into the city with one of the people of the hostel party: Lizzy, a 20 year old Chinese girl. She had her last day in Kyoto and a list of things she wanted to see, so we were on a busy schedule. Especially since we both slept for a long time due to the party the night before. The schedule:  Nr 1: The Kiyomizu temple, Nr 22 Nijo castle, and Nr 3 Gijon (which I had already seen). On arrival at Kiyomizu we asked a couple of highschool kids to take our picture near the entrance and we immediately took this opportunity to do some of their homework (a short interview in English). It only took a minute, made a nice picture and it was fun to see the guys and girls struggle with their shyness.

We had a lot of fun exploring the temple grounds together. Lizzy is quite a superstitious Chinese girl, so she bought a lot of fortune telling stuff, made offerings etc. The weather was kind of against us though: we had some snow and it was really cold. However, this made for some beautiful pictures, and we made sure to stop and refuel once we got too cold.

Next on the list was the Nijo castle, a castle of emperor Tokugawa in 1625. It has beautiful gardens, great walls and gives a great impression of the life in the time of the Samurai. By the time we had seen it the weather was also clearing up again so we ended up with some sun in between the snow. The sundown was rapidly approaching so we got some Japanese fastfood (Ramen) and split up: Lizzy went to Gijon and I went back to the hostel to arrange some more travel chores for my trip to the USA.

Day four in Kyoto consisted of looking at more of the Unesco world heritage: temples near Arashiyama and the Golden Pavillion. This time I rented a bike, due to the large distances involved, and due to the good weather forecast (Japanese weather forecasts are not so good).

Selfie while riding the bike, however I forgot that it was not the GoPro, so you can see only me

Rock garden near temple

Foreboding weather near Arashiyama

Bamboo grove in Arashiyama

In between these pictures I was in snow and cold, and on the way to the golden pavilion it became even worse. I underestimated the time and distances involved in this trip. The bike had to be back at 18:30 (however, I thought it was 16:30), so I made quite a hurry from Arashiyama to the golden pavillion. It started raining quite hard during this trip, so I had to change into a poncho, it was quite a good feeling, bicycling through Kyoto in the cold and rain, looking like a complete idiot. When I arrived at the golden pavillion the sun broke through (and it was nearly sunset) so the views were incredibly rewarding.

After taking some shots of the pavilion and garden I rushed back to Kyoto (it was already 16:20), driving on the sidewalk, on the street, against or with traffic (the Japanese are quite flexible with the place where bicycles should go). A nice and rewarding ride, totally about 35km in total :-).

I will end this post here, as the night after this trip was quite a long one, and also today has been another eventful day in Kyoto. To be continued.