Summer Tour - Japan - Kyoto Part 2

 Kyoto is famed for its markets, well preserved temples and palaces and it did not disappoint. One of our more memorable trips was to the Temple of 10,000 Torii gates -  the Torii gate being a feature of the Shinto religion and here in Kyoto this was a very famous temple complex built on a mountain on the outskirts of the city.

We visited in late afternoon, falling a trip to the main food and clothing market in Kyoto (with its matcha tea rooms and art nouveau architecture) and after exploring the main temple complex started up the paths winding up the mountain where the torii gates had been installed. - it is possible to fund the construction of a gate - as a family memorial or for simple philanthropic reasons. The gates symbolises the transition from the ordinary everyday world to the sacred and the passage through the gates to the top of the mountain are seen as equivalent to a pilgrimage from a Christian perspective with various temples and shrines acting as way-markers on the way up. 

It is quite a climb up and we did not go to the top but the views back a cross the City and the surrounding landscape were very impressive as was the quiet otherworldly atmosphere as we made our way under the tori gates and the surround trees and bamboo forests.

We also visited the Nijo Palace complex with its ornate buildings and immaculately landscaped gardens and lakes.Again whilst the heat and humidity were a challenge it did mean that the crowds stayed away so while we did not have the place entirely to ourselves it was relatively peaceful.

All the hotels we stayed at were lovely but the Tomasu residences in Kyoto were particularly good. Whilst the rooms were not massive (ours was long and thin with a bathroom and store room at the entrance, a narrow lounge area with sofa and a TV where we ate breakfast and watched Japanese baseball and the beds next to the window at then) but the hotel management was excellent. Polite and helpful, they delivered their services with a kind of austere formality that was at once both incredibly efficient but also very friendly. I am not sure I have ever seen anything like it.

I have previously commented on the hotel’s proximity to what seemed to be unlimited interesting and quirky restaurants and bars and I have posted some pictures Elon of our visit to a tapas bar around 2 minutes walk up the road (in fact the Japanese chef had learned his trade in England apparently!). We made out way home via a microbrewery that specialised in fruit beers and Indian Pale Ale - we had past it on the way to the restaurant and the place was buzzing so popped in for a quick beer on the way back.