Jennifer's Vacations: Day 10 – Last Day in Kyoto

Yesterday was so hectic and hot and long, that today we needed a leisurely “sleep-in” morning. We didn’t really get going until long after 8am, and so our first stop was the café where we had purchased coffee two days before. It was a lovely little café. Pete had the breakfast sandwiches (egg, mayo, ham, tomato), Em had the pancakes and Steve and I got traditional Japanese toast (their bread is so good!), eggs and salad. I find it so interesting that salad is a breakfast item here.

Once we had our fill, we were on our way to the first temple: KinKakuji! If Trump had built a Temple back in the day, it would look like this….completely covered in gold. Em told us the story of two Shogun: a grandfather and his grandson. The grandfather wanted to build the most gorgeous temple ever, so he built a temple covered in gold next to his retirement home. It’s also known as The Gold Temple. He lived right next door to his temple.

The grounds were lovely to walk around, but the place was so crowded. It is definitely a top tourist attraction. The rest of this story is for the end of our day…

After walking around in the heat (thank goodness for partial cloud cover!), we decided to also tour Ryoanji…the temple where the first rock garden was created. The grounds were peaceful and gorgeous. We went into the Temple (shoes off!) and were able to see the very first rock garden created within the temple grounds, complete with the raked sand around them. It is said that if you can see all 15 rocks at once, you will achieve enlightenment. Steve took a panoramic shot. He has achieved enlightenment. :-P

The entrance to lunch

After walking around those grounds, including a beautiful pond, boat house, small tori gate and bridge, we were back on the road walking towards the bus. IT WAS SO HOT. We made it down the hill to the bus stop and headed into the heart of Kyoto for Soba. Emily took us to a Soba restaurant that has been around since the 1400’s! I told Peter that when Columbus was discovering America, they were already making Soba noodles at this place.

Since 1465!

Emily ordered one of their specialties, which came in a 5 tier set of bowls, with smaller portions of mushrooms, rice balls, radish, etc. It was quite the dish. Pete and I had hot soba noodles (yes, on a hot day…but I did think I was getting cold noodles!) and mine was with Tempura shrimp. Steve had a cold soba noodle dish. It was very good…and very salty.

Emily's meal. Wow!

Along the Philsopher's Path

After that, we wandered down the street towards the busses. We made it onto a bus headed back to our area, but instead of going to the house, we headed up the hillside towards Ginkakuji! But first, we stopped for more ice cream. This time Pete got a blue soda one that he absolutely loved. I went for white peach, and Emily got cookes & cream and Steve got chocolate/vanilla swirl again (boring!)

Once up the hillside and through the gates, we found ourselves on the grounds of Ginkakuji. This is the Temple that the grandson built in response to his grandfather’s lavish Temple. It’s also known as the Silver Temple even though it has no silver on it. It’s just a lovely wooden temple on the mountainside, facing up the mountain. The feel was just so different from the Gold Temple…much more our style…more natural. The mossy green forest floor was beautiful as were the trees and waterfalls. I would definitely choose this place over the other one!

The lush green forest floor

Along the path back down

The view from the top!

After we headed back down the mountain, we walked along the Philosopher’s Path and back towards the apartment. If it had been less hot, we could have taken the Path further to see yet another temple…there are many along the path…but we were done.

Back at the apartment, we showered and regrouped before heading out for dinner. We were tired, and we knew tomorrow would be an early morning, so we wanted to stay close. I found a pizzeria (yes, pizza) close. The owner had studied in Naples, Italy and his wood-fired pizza was delicious…very authentic ITALIAN pizza. We liked it so much, we ate 3! We also stopped by a bakery next door and grabbed some pastries for tomorrow’s early morning.

Once back home, Pete REALLY wanted to try the bikes that were available for the house guests to use. He and I set up the front lights (since by this time it was pretty dark) and we went on a 3 mile bike ride basically around a huge block…on the sidewalk (which is how many do it) in the dark! Fortunately we had the front light to mostly warn people we were coming (and a bell on the handlebars). We went past Kyoto University and a high school whose marching band was outside playing. It was still very warm, and I was definitely sweating, but I’m so glad we did it!

Once back, we had to organize and prepare to leave tomorrow early. Another travel day. Oh joy.

I did take a moment to photograph our awesome Japanese home tonight. The main kitchen and a bedroom are upstairs, with a loft where Peter slept. Downstairs was the bathroom, the toilet, the main entry and our bedroom. The toilet has all the buttons for all the things you can do (bidet anyone?). It was a very lovely home and we greatly enjoyed our time there.