Kyoto, Friday, April 6

Well, our luck had to run out on the weather.  Friday was a cold and drizzly day in Kyoto with intermittent periods of sunshine.  We started off with a walk through Maruyama Park, a site for good cherry blossom viewing.  It was somewhat like that, although the weather has been so cold the blossoms are not yet full.  The walk there really gave us a sense (which of course Andrea has almost natively) of what old Kyoto is like.  We walked by Chion-In Temple, a large temple with beautiful grounds - and it is only one of dozens of temple of similar size and stature.  

We walked down through Gion Corner, an entertainment district (but not of the type we walked through in Fukuoka for those readers with a good memory) for traditional Japanese performances.  Our principal destination for the day was Saihoji Temple, known as the Moss Temple, in the Western part of Kyoto.  You need to arrange in advance to get in, and they have a session in which you sit on the floor of the temple and copy Japanese characters from a sutra using a brush and ink that they provide you.  All of this while some of the monks burn incense and intone some chants. Kind of a unique experience.

But first we went out to Arashiyama, a little village nestled up against the Western mountains.   It was cold and the rain had started to come down a little harder.  It made sightseeing a bit of a challenge.  We walked around a bit, but were so cold that we got back on the train and headed for Saihoji.  

I'll include some pictures here, although we took a lot of them.  Will publish them to a Phanfare site at some point after I return.  The gardens will give you a sense of why the temple got its nickname the Moss Temple.

 After leaving the temple, rather than waling back to the train, we took a city bus that was close by.  Good call on the warmth, bad call on the mode of transportation.  It took us almost an hour to get back into the main part of Kyoto, although I guess we took in some sight along the way.  We headed up to the Kiyomizu area to see a lacquer museum, which had a beautiful collection of incense holders, exquisitely crafted out of different materials.  Then we took a leisurely walk back through this very pretty area to our hotel.

Along the way we say many young people dressed in kimono (we couldn't figure out why; maybe some cherry blossom viewing event) and even saw some maiko (apprentice geisha) who were all  decked out in their costumes. 

Saw a restaurant along the way that specializes in tofu.  So we decided to make a reservation and come back later for dinner.  It was really good.  Tofu cooked in a variety of ways, with various other tastes (sesame, crab, eggplant) to add flavor to it.  Probably 7 or 8 different courses.  Definitely not something you would get back home.