Kyoto was Japan’s capital for over 1,000 years and has 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The first shrine was established in Kyoto in the 6th century. Now there are over 1,600 Buddhist temples and over 400 Shinto shrines. The city was number one on the atomic bomb target list and was only removed due to the personal intervention of Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, who apparently had visited Kyoto many times. It is unimaginable that this amazing city, with all its cultural assets and historical buildings, could have been destroyed in a single moment!
One could spend weeks in Kyoto and not see everything. We prioritised and visited what we were most interested in, along with thousands of other international tourists. Many visitors rent a traditional kimono to visit the sights.
First stop Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion, a Zen Buddhist temple - it is really coated in gold!
The Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine is impressive but we were especially blown away by the 32,000+ torii gates. The shrine was founded in AD 711 and is dedicated to the goddess of rice-growing. Merchants and tradesmen still frequent the shrine and one can still dedicate a torii (approx. AUD$ 100,000). To walk through them all takes over 2 hours, leading up to Mount Inari and back through a beautiful forest.
I was especially looking forward to visiting Kiyomizu-dera, a magnificent wooden temple on pillars on the slope of a mountain. Unfortunately, the entire temple is currently covered in scaffolding while the roof is being renovated.
The details and colours of the surrounding temples were fabulous!
Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion, is not actually silver and the surrounding garden is more impressive than the building itself.
We also visited the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, of which we didn’t expect much, since we cycled through many bamboo forests. We were positively surprised and enjoyed walking through it. Bamboo forests produce a very unique sound in the wind.
Sajusangen-do is a 120m long temple, housing 1,001 statues of the Buddhist deity Kannon and 28 statues of different guardian deities. Absolutely amazing! One had to walk through in complete silence, no shoes and no photographs. The image below is from a poster at the entrance.
Other sites we passed through were the Nishi Honganji Temple, ......
... Hokan-ji, a 46m pagoda, ...
... the Ryoan-ji rock garden, ...
... the bustling Nishiki market ....
... and the Pontocho area along the Kamogawa River with many outdoor and indoor dining options - some restaurants are very cozy. Note the handbag rack.
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