On our third and last full day in Kyoto, we decided to catch up on some of the touristy things the city had to offer that hadn't been included in our
mammoth tour the first day.
Throughout our entire trip, Tom had observed locals drinking these squishy vitamin-filled drinks, and insisted on sampling one on our way. Apparently it was not good. Since he offered me some only after declaring his lack of appreciation for the taste, I (very intelligently, I think) declined to sample it.
According to our tourist map, our hotel was only a couple of blocks south of the Kyoto Imperial Castle complex, so we decided that we would walk there. It was easy to tell when we were approaching, since we were met with a wall of greenery at the end of the street!
And of course, the shop signs along the way kept me amused.
We found our way into the Kyoto Gyoen National Garden (which contains the Imperial Palace among other things) very easily, and stared at this very helpful map, trying to figure out which way we should go. In what turns out to be one of our worst decisions of the trip, we decided to make our way north up path that runs virtually dead centre down the garden, thinking that way we could see what was on either side of us relatively easily and still make our way to the castle complex, which is in the upper left quadrant. Sounds fairly intelligent, right?
Wrong. If we'd taken a closer look at the map we would have realised that the entrance to the castle complex was along the left side. Even if we had realised that though, it wouldn't have seemed particularly important, since we figured we could simply walk from one side of the garden to the other without much hassle. The problem was this:
That is... scale. That ridiculously large expanse of gravel is the width of one of those paths. And when we reached the corner of one of the walled areas (since there were several walled areas within the garden, one being the Imperial Castle), this was the view that greeted us. We couldn't even SEE the other corner of the wall!
And might I remind you, since it's a while since I complained about this, it's REALLY HOT in Japan in the middle of their summer, even at eight o'clock in the morning. And in those kilometre-wide and many-kilometres-long expanses of white, sun-reflecting gravel, there is no shade! So after just a few steps we were practically melting. We persisted, of course, since we didn't really have a choice once we'd committed. First, on our right, was the walled Omiya Palace, which was not accessible to the public. It has a little stone ditch running along the length of its wall, which was the only place in our vision that was a little bit shaded, from the roof on the wall. We therefore thought it was only reasonable to take refuge from the sun by walking along that little ditch rather than on the gravel path. But as it turns out, there's some kind of laser beam security system in operation along that ditch, because within ten seconds of walking along it, we set off an alarm!!
So no shade allowed for us. The funniest thing was that another pair of tourists a few hundred metres behind us had obviously spotted the same shade solution, and they too set off the alarm and then leaped out of the ditch in the same way we had.
So, we eventually reached the intersection of the gravel paths with the Imperial Palace on our left, with walls and walls as far as we could see in either direction again, and the only gates looked well and truly shut. So we had a choice to make. Should we keep trudging North, where we knew we could eventually meet a street to take us somewhere else shady? Or should we turn left, hoping that we might come across an entrance to the Imperial Palace?
We decided to keep trudging North, and trudged and trudged, wondering with each blisteringly hot step why on earth we'd decided to do this on our own instead of booking a tour that would have known where the gate was. And we eventually reached the top right corner of the Imperial Palace wall. And were met with this view. Walls walls walls, as far as the eye could see. And yes, this is the same photo as the one two above, because I was too hot and weary to take many photos. And there honestly seemed like very little point in doing so anyway, since all the walls looked identical.
So we gave up. Can you blame us? We made our way out the Northern end of the garden, thoroughly relieved to be able to take refuge from the sun in the shade of buildings again without setting off alarms, and attempted to find a subway station which, according to my tourist map, should have been located on the street running along the top of the garden. We searched for subway signs for a few blocks, and were beginning to get really really grumpy (or we would have been if we weren't so exhausted - and it was only about 9:30 in the morning). Then I realised, after consulting my map for the seventeenth time, that what we should be looking for was a bus stop, not a subway station!
That we did manage to find, so we figured out which bus we needed to take (thankfully very easily), and we were finally, FINALLY sitting in air-conditioned comfort on our way to the second tourist destination we'd planned to see for the day. I managed to raise my arms enough to take this one shot as we drove across the river, before collapsing in my seat to bask in the blessed air-conditioning.
Our next destination, which we fervently hoped would meet with more success than our Imperial Palace attempt, was Ginkakuji, known as the Silver Pavilion, essentially the baby sister to the Gold Pavilion. We were pleased to discover that this wall-like hedge on the way in was not fitted with a security system...
And we made our way in. This isn't the Pavilion, just another building on the grounds. It's pretty, though, right?
We quickly discovered that the attraction of the Silver Pavilion has less to do with the Pavilion itself, and more to do with its amazing gardens.
The intricate patterns in the raked gravel astounded me.
And we were very impressed by this man-made ant-hill - I think it was supposed to represent Mount Fuji.
It's hard to comprehend the amount of effort that has to go into these stone gardens. Or what happens when it rains!
We did manage to tear our eyes away from the gravel for long enough to admire the Silver Pavilion itself (which we quickly noted is not actually silver).
And then we went for a stroll around the rest of the gardens, which were lush and mossy and beautiful. Shame it was so hot, even in the shade!
This pond (and that rock in particular) was full of coins.
So I decided to take up the challenge, backwards no less. As
our time in Rome last year proved, I'm not very good at that game.
Perhaps that's where the Silver in Silver Pavilion comes from?
We kept wandering through the garden, which unfortunately for our already weary legs included a little climb up a hill. The view made up for it a bit, though.
And we kept taking advantage of the little views along the path down the hill again...
And once we'd made our way out of the garden again, we decided that we had absolutely earned some refreshment. We found a little cafe that looked air-conditioned (and not too unpleasantly smoky), and my eyes lit up when I spotted Orange Sorbet on the menu. Served in a frozen orange!
Tom decided to go for something with a little more sustenance. A pizza and chips. That's potato crisps, mind you! I must say, that's the first (and possibly the last) time I think we'll ever be served a pizza with a side of potato crisps and tabasco.
Dessert? Giant green tea ice-creams. Just kidding. This was just a display model that Tom took a shine to.
Not far away from the entrance to Ginkakuji (the Silver Pavilion) was the start of "The Philosophers Walk", which is a pathway along a canal that we had read was a good touristy thing to experience. So, we of course had to check it out.
It was quite lovely, and beautifully shady, which to be honest was pretty much all I was looking for in a tourist attraction by that stage. It wasn't particularly eventful, though. Just some of this...
And some of this...
Interspersed with moments of this.
I'd say we wandered along it for a couple of hours, stopping in at any little souvenir shops along the way and seeing whatever there was to be seen. Which wasn't all that much, really. Truthfully, it was very pleasant and calming, but the novelty (i.e. the novelty of walking along a path alongside a canal) wore off relatively quickly.
We eventually emerged, and started making our way back towards the more built-up and tourist-friendly areas of Kyoto. Tom thought this teeny tiny car was the funniest thing he'd seen all day (well, maybe the funniest thing since the other tourists set off the alarm). The poor driver looked slightly alarmed at the crazy guy in a Donald Duck hat standing next to her car at the traffic lights.
We passed this gold statue, but unfortunately couldn't get close enough to it to figure out what it was for...
And we marvelled at the sheer size of the Torii gate outside the Kyoto Modern Art Museum.
And then we found ourselves another canal to follow back towards the river.
It was quite pretty too, although as you can see, the weather was not looking very favourable. We wandered for a while, and then when it actually started to rain in earnest, our weariness got the better of us. In what was quite possibly our first stroke of luck for the day, across the street from us at that moment was a sign to a subway station. We needed about two seconds to make the decision, and then we were across that street and underground in moments.
I'm slightly ashamed to admit that we weren't out exploring and making the most of our time in one of the most beautiful cities in Japan, but can you blame us? I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say we walked at least 10kms that day. Perhaps not quite a marathon, but it felt like it! We stopped off at our favourite supermarket a couple of blocks away from the subway station near our hotel, and had ourselves another hotel picnic, making ourselves a promise that we would do something special for lunch the next day to make up for our non-fancy dinners of the past two nights.
