Historic Kyoto

Kyoto is said to be the most well-preserved city in Japan with numerous temples, shrines, and gardens.  Once the capital of Japan, it is the cultural and historical site in the country.  “With over 1,200 years of history, Kyoto is home to beautiful natural scenery interwoven with historical buildings and traditional architecture. At the same time, Kyoto is a city of learning and creation, with a high concentration of cutting-edge universities, research institutions, and companies. The result is a uniquely Kyoto harmony between preserving centuries of tradition and continually innovating for the future.”  Source:  https://meetkyoto.jp/en/kyoto/reason/

While the city has a vibrant modern city center, the city is noticeably less busy and less formal than Tokyo.  Like Tokyo, Kyoto has another great metro/subway system that thoroughly covers the city.  While it is easier to navigate, traveling from site to site illustrated to us this is no small city.  There are 1.5 million people here.

From our tiny apartment, we can see the Kyoto Tower.  It is only one-third the size of the Tokyo Tower but it is the tallest structure in the city. 

Our excursions took us to just a few of the 17 UNESCO World Heritage sites in the city. 

We are staying in an area of town very near the Kyoto Station and the Kyoto Imperial Palace – unlike the Tokyo Imperial Palace, this is one visitors can easily tour!  This royal site consists of great halls, gigantic wooden gates, study palaces, meeting halls, and the emperor’s residence, which dates from the year 1331 and served as the Imperial Palace of Japan for 500 years until 1869 when the capital moved to Tokyo.  Due to multiple fires, the wooden palace buildings have been rebuilt in the original style multiple times; the latest rebuild took place in 1854.  There are three Waiting Rooms named after the paintings that adorn the walls and sliding doors.  The Room of Tigers and Room of Cranes were for very important guests waiting to see the Emperor, and the Room of the Cherry Blossoms was for less important people seeking an audience with the ruler.  The floors in all rooms are made of tatami; there is no furniture.  Tatami is a style of flooring that is seen throughout Japan. Our apartment has this type of flooring and I love the comfort it provides to bare or socked feet. Some tatami is made of rush grass woven around a rice straw core to keep the tatami mat firm. Now, though the rice straw core is often replaced with more modern materials, such as wood chips or polystyrene foam. It is a lovely, welcoming, and durable flooring.

Although the Emperor’s residence is now in Tokyo, the Kyoto Imperial Palace is still used as a tourist attraction, for ceremonies and public events.  The elegant grounds surrounding the palace are park-like and feature several exquisite gardens with streams, stone and earthen bridges, and stone lanterns.

Next, the Higashi Honganji Temple is known as the mother temple of the Sinshu Otani branch of Shin Buddhism, one of the largest Buddhism denominations in Japan.  In the complex, Founder’s Hall is one of the world’s largest wooden structures but Amida Hall is the site of the central altar.  Buddhists people come here to meditate and to pray.  The massive altar is gold and brilliant.

Probably most impressive to us was the Nijo-Jo Castle.  The Nijo-jo Castle is perhaps the clearest representation of the power the shogun, or warlords, once held over the emperor during the Edo period (1603-1867). It was completed in 1603 on the orders of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder and first Shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate.  The castle served as the Kyoto residence of the Shogun when he visited the Imperial Capital.  History abounds here but I’m not a Japanese history scholar; I dare not venture into more detail, except to say that this is a magnificent place!  Its gardens are in typical Japanese style, manicured, artful, and simply hypnotic.  The tall wooden gates have been decorated with gold emblems and a tower overlooks the Castle grounds.  There on the tower, a group of Japanese youngsters, I guess middle-schoolers, asked if we would pose in a photo with them.  We were delighted to oblige.  A young woman tourist and her daughter volunteered to take the shot.  

We all cheesed and showed the peace sign!  The kids gave us origami cranes in return.  It made us all happy.  Afterward, we visited with the lady who took the photos; she and her college-age daughter are from Las Vegas but once lived in Atlanta, in fact, the daughter was born there.  It is a small world indeed!  I love to see Americans out and traveling.  The more we all can see other parts of the world, the more likely we are to understand each other and learn that while our culture and daily practices may differ, we people are very much alike.  Fear of each other is a worthless endeavor.

We could not leave Kyoto without a quick visit to the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove.  Walking through the sky-high grove of bamboo is like walking through a whispering forest of green rods where only a stripe of blue sky is visible above.  Except for the roaring train that cuts through the forest, it is a serene stroll through another world.

Just a few interesting and unique Japanese jewels . . . first, the Japanese are very fastidious, demure, and tidy people. Their toilets do everything! All toilets, not just fancy ones but even those in train stations and public venues are automatic. They spray a little, spray a lot, blow dry and flush . . . with just a touch of a button. Oh, and the seats are heated too! There’s even a noise button that creates a sound like running water to disguise any offending body sound that might occur.

In restaurants, diners are given a moist towelette in wrapper or a sealed damp wash cloth for freshening the hands before eating.  Paper table napkins are also available but they are about the size of a 6” long cash register receipt—you need a lot of them when eating ramen.

Japanese product packaging is very efficient.  A sick of butter comes marked with small dents by the tablespoon.  No guessing necessary when measuring.

Vending machines for food and drink are everywhere!  You can buy a variety of tea drinks, juice drinks, soda and water from them. You can buy soups and ramen.  And, beer is also sold in vending machines.  A cold beer is ready on the spot just when it’s needed!  Take it home because it is illegal to drink on the street.

They burn trash!  Shocking, I know.  The Japanese encompass the practice of treasuring and using all things as long as possible.  Still trash is inevitable. Because Japan’s landmass is limited and finding landfill disposal sites for non-recyclables is difficult, they have developed a system to collect and transport waste, process it through intermediary treatment by incineration and other methods, and then dispose it in landfills in a sanitary manner.  All rubbish except glass, plastic bottles and cans is burned in high- efficiency waste-to-energy incinerators.   Still, to me that is shocking!  Incineration might appear to remove the visible waste problem in the short term, but I feel sure it contributes to the environmental crisis in the long term. 

Their kids are the cutest!  In the afternoon when schools are dismissed, great long strings of kids in pristine uniforms make their way to the metro systems.  These friendly children are generally well-behaved, and they love to have their photo taken and love to wave!

The Japanese transportation systems are the best in the world!  We took the bullet train 285 miles from Tokyo to Kyoto.  It is fast!  Even with stops at two towns in between, we made the trip in 2 hours, 30 minutes.  The subway and metro system is one that makes me drool with envy.  No one needs a car here.  These in-city trains are fast, on time, clean and well-maintained and they cover the entire city!  Ever looked down on the tracks in the MARTA System or NYC subway system? The trash there is disgusting! The tracks here are clean; there is no debris lying in the track channels. Riding on the train is a quiet and civilized experience too.  No one talks on the train.  If a person must say something, it is done in a whisper.

Does Japan have it all figured out?  By all means and obviously, no!  While I intend to be honest, I like to lean on the positive side when talking about places we visit. While not perfect, Japan, thankfully like so many other countries, continues to seek better solutions to its challenges through innovation and technology.  In the meanwhile, they have created culture and a way of living that enables its enormous population to enjoy a high quality of life.