Golden Week is a HUGE holiday here in Japan and for us it couldn't come fast enough! We all love teaching and we love our students, but we were struggling to keep up our pace. We also promised Julie we would take her to Kyoto when she came back to Japan last Oct. So, time to make good on our word!
Kyoto is one of my favorite places here in Japan! As the capital of Japan for more than 1,000 years it is full of beautiful temples, gardens, traditional houses and stone-paved streets. Since Zack put me in charge of the itinerary, we started off at my favorite Buddhist temple Kiyomizu-dera.
Here are Julie, Hos, Zack, & Holden in front of the main gate (on the left) and the 3-storey Pagoda (on the right). This temple is set up on a hill with mountains behind it and it overlooks the whole city.
This photo was taken looking in to the main hall. You can see some of the huge logs they used to make the building. This priest was ringing this huge "bowl-bell" as people would go up to pray. Hos has gotten over his fear of drums and bells that sound like "the Huns" (from Mulan) but Holden still has a fear of priests dressed in black robes with drums or bells. I think it comes from the Japanese kids show he watches in the morning with a Japanese poem reading. 3 priests come out and read a poem, granted it freaks me out too, but now he thinks any black robed person making loud noise is scary!
This is me (Andrea), Hos & Julie squishing in for our photo op. This photo is taken from the second terrace looking back at the main hall. It's kind of like a giant tree house up on stilts. It's a little freaky looking over the edge because you're so far up.
There's been a temple here since 778 when a priest came across this spring. A sip of this water is said to cure any illness, bring you wealth, or improve your love life, but the monks here say that any prayers said at this temple will come true. So Julie, Hos, and I decided to play it safe and drink the water along with saying our prayer!
Here's another photo of Julie, me, and Hos at the Otowa waterfall after our drink : )
After our little jaunt through nature we headed back down the hill via Sannen-zaka, an old cobbled lane with traditional houses/shops, some as old as the 1800's. Some of the coolest traditional craft shops are along here.
Here is Julie in front of some of our favorite shops right at the bottom of the stairs. And yes, cars do drive up and down this road, just not past the stairs of course!
After some great shopping and a delicious lunch in Gion, we jumped back on the city bus headed for Sanjusangen-do. Zack enjoying the ride with Holden, Julie, and Hos!
The pond and garden area here was beautiful! I told Zack when we first talked about moving to Japan that I would if 1. I could have a Mr. Miyagi house, 2. with a beautiful Japanese garden and 3. drive a Vespa with a sidecar. So I took this photo as inspiration for our yard, Ha! Ha!
This is the end of the main hall at Sanjusangen-do. The main hall is 118 meters long and is full of 1001 gilded statues of Kannon, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. They wouldn't let us take any photos inside because they are sacred to Buddhists, so you only get the outside.
This is a photo of the side of the hall. In the early 17th century this veranda was a popular place for the samurai practice their archery. It evolved into an archery competition called Toshiya, where the archers had to fire arrows from a squatting position along the length of the building, without hitting a pillar, to the target at the end for 24 hours. The record holder was an 18 year old boy around 1680's who shot over 13,000 arrows, over 8,000 hit the target! That breaks down to 544/hr, or 9/min. for 24 hours!
The last stop on the list for our first day was Fushimi Inari Shrine. Julie and Hos are standing in front of the main gate. This shrine has fox statues all over because they are the messengers of the god Inari, who is now associated with the grain crops ie. RICE!
The photo below is a map of the shrines covering the surrounding hills. The paths are lined with Red Torii. There are thousands of them. A Torii usually signifies an entrance to a scared area and at this shrine each one represents a family that donated a large sum of money! These foxes aren't going hungry!
This is the beginning of the first Torii "tunnel". Hos & Julie stopped for a photo. (I'm still not sure why these foxes are wearing capes, but when I find the answer I'll let you know :) )
We took the stroller as far as we could, but there are areas with quite a few stairs and wooded areas that aren't paved, so Zack & Holden didn't go the whole loop.
Zack & Holden were bringing up the rear, so when I turned around to take this photo I noticed the names written on the backs of the Torii.
This concludes Day 1 in Kyoto...Day 2 to come soon!
Kyoto is one of my favorite places here in Japan! As the capital of Japan for more than 1,000 years it is full of beautiful temples, gardens, traditional houses and stone-paved streets. Since Zack put me in charge of the itinerary, we started off at my favorite Buddhist temple Kiyomizu-dera.
Here are Julie, Hos, Zack, & Holden in front of the main gate (on the left) and the 3-storey Pagoda (on the right). This temple is set up on a hill with mountains behind it and it overlooks the whole city.
This photo was taken looking in to the main hall. You can see some of the huge logs they used to make the building. This priest was ringing this huge "bowl-bell" as people would go up to pray. Hos has gotten over his fear of drums and bells that sound like "the Huns" (from Mulan) but Holden still has a fear of priests dressed in black robes with drums or bells. I think it comes from the Japanese kids show he watches in the morning with a Japanese poem reading. 3 priests come out and read a poem, granted it freaks me out too, but now he thinks any black robed person making loud noise is scary!
This is me (Andrea), Hos & Julie squishing in for our photo op. This photo is taken from the second terrace looking back at the main hall. It's kind of like a giant tree house up on stilts. It's a little freaky looking over the edge because you're so far up.
There's been a temple here since 778 when a priest came across this spring. A sip of this water is said to cure any illness, bring you wealth, or improve your love life, but the monks here say that any prayers said at this temple will come true. So Julie, Hos, and I decided to play it safe and drink the water along with saying our prayer!
Here's another photo of Julie, me, and Hos at the Otowa waterfall after our drink : )
After our little jaunt through nature we headed back down the hill via Sannen-zaka, an old cobbled lane with traditional houses/shops, some as old as the 1800's. Some of the coolest traditional craft shops are along here.
Here is Julie in front of some of our favorite shops right at the bottom of the stairs. And yes, cars do drive up and down this road, just not past the stairs of course!
After some great shopping and a delicious lunch in Gion, we jumped back on the city bus headed for Sanjusangen-do. Zack enjoying the ride with Holden, Julie, and Hos!
The pond and garden area here was beautiful! I told Zack when we first talked about moving to Japan that I would if 1. I could have a Mr. Miyagi house, 2. with a beautiful Japanese garden and 3. drive a Vespa with a sidecar. So I took this photo as inspiration for our yard, Ha! Ha!
This is the end of the main hall at Sanjusangen-do. The main hall is 118 meters long and is full of 1001 gilded statues of Kannon, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. They wouldn't let us take any photos inside because they are sacred to Buddhists, so you only get the outside.
This is a photo of the side of the hall. In the early 17th century this veranda was a popular place for the samurai practice their archery. It evolved into an archery competition called Toshiya, where the archers had to fire arrows from a squatting position along the length of the building, without hitting a pillar, to the target at the end for 24 hours. The record holder was an 18 year old boy around 1680's who shot over 13,000 arrows, over 8,000 hit the target! That breaks down to 544/hr, or 9/min. for 24 hours!
The last stop on the list for our first day was Fushimi Inari Shrine. Julie and Hos are standing in front of the main gate. This shrine has fox statues all over because they are the messengers of the god Inari, who is now associated with the grain crops ie. RICE!
The photo below is a map of the shrines covering the surrounding hills. The paths are lined with Red Torii. There are thousands of them. A Torii usually signifies an entrance to a scared area and at this shrine each one represents a family that donated a large sum of money! These foxes aren't going hungry!
This is the beginning of the first Torii "tunnel". Hos & Julie stopped for a photo. (I'm still not sure why these foxes are wearing capes, but when I find the answer I'll let you know :) )
We took the stroller as far as we could, but there are areas with quite a few stairs and wooded areas that aren't paved, so Zack & Holden didn't go the whole loop.
Zack & Holden were bringing up the rear, so when I turned around to take this photo I noticed the names written on the backs of the Torii.
This concludes Day 1 in Kyoto...Day 2 to come soon!
3 comments:
Gorgeous. You all look so well. I am amazed at just how quickly the boys are growing. I miss you all terribly. Please e-mail me your address: mattjesiccakade@netzero.com
XOXO~Jay
Hi Andrea! It's Shandra (Clawson) Hastings. You and your family live in Japan? What a fun experience for you. My husband Christian served his mission in Japan and he has been wanting to go back and visit since. It looks like you guys are having a wonderful time out there. Hope we can catch up more soon~
Shandra
I wish you would post everyday! I love seeing what you are up to! You look awesome!
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