Day 18: Friday, April 25th:
Our morning was a little chaotic! Luke and I were up super early, so we could catch the JR to Tokyo Station. We said goodbye to Ryan (he's heading home today) and made our way to the lobby of the Disneyland Hotel. Due to a recent change in policy, the Disneyland Hotel was NOT able to help us ship our bags to our hotel in Kyoto. Kind of a bummer, but if left us with no choice but to haul our bags to the train station.
*Side note: It's usually very easy to ship your luggage around Japan. There are companies that are set up specifically to do this. It is so helpful, since it's a pain to haul your large bags through the train stations. And the large bags take up too much room on the crowded trains.
Luke and I planned out our route: leave the Disneyland Hotel via the side door, walk to the large ramp, and walk up that up to the Maihama JR Station. Easy, right? Not really. We attempted to exit the hotel but the side door was locked and a Cast Member said it wouldn't open until 7:00 AM. UGH. We carried our luggage up to the main lobby, exited the hotel, and had to walk all the way around the hotel to the ramp which would take us to the train station. It took so much longer than it was supposed to AND we had a 5:57 AM train to catch!
[Luke was sad to leave Disney]
But we made it! We took the JR train to Tokyo Station. We arrived well before our Shinkansen was scheduled to depart for Kyoto. We bought some snacks and found our platform.
[Google Maps is the BEST!]
I tried to learn as much as I could about Japan before we went on this trip and one thing that really stuck out to me was how punctual the public transportation is. Not just the Shinkansen, but the JR trains, buses, and the metro too. Those trains are leaving on time no matter what! When our Shinkansen arrived we quickly boarded, found our seats, and stored our luggage. Luckily, our large bags fit nicely in the overhead area and our smaller bags could be by our feet. We paid a little extra to be on the right side of the train so we could see Mt Fuji if she decided to grace us with her presence!
[All ready to go!]
We headed out and in no time we were able to see her!
The train was VERY nice, the seats were large, soft, and reclined.
The ride was just over two hours, so we were able to get in a quick nap.
At 9:01 AM on the dot we arrived at the Kyoto train station. Our hotel, the Rihga Riyal, was just a 10 minute walk from the train station. We arrived, dropped off our bags, and then met our tour guide, Yuka in the hotel lobby.
I made sure that we had two days in Kyoto, since there were so many things I wanted to see. I booked two private tours for Luke and I. On the first day we would be going to the west side and seeing everything in the red boxes and on the second day we will be going to see everything on the east side in the yellow boxes. The nice thing about private tours is you can modify them to your liking!
Yuka took us to the metro station where we hitched a ride from our hotel (in the purple circle) to the west side of Kyoto. During the train ride we chatted and Yuka told us that she also went to Star Wars Celebration! Over the three day Celebration there were 100,000 people there, so we probably didn't see her, BUT still that's pretty cool!
She then told us the plan for today. The first stop on our tour will be the Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple. We will then walk down a nice country road, passing more beautiful temples, bamboo forest, and shops, and then we will end at the Arashiyama Monkey Park. After visiting the Monkey Park we will catch a cab to the Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion). After that we will take a bus back to the hotel. Sounds perfect!
We then arrived at the Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple. This temple is unique for the 1200 moss-covered Rakan statues and it's location deep in the forest. The temple wasn't always here. It was originally built in 770 on the east side of Kyoto close to the Kamogawa River. Unfortunately, the river flooded and destroyed many of the buildings, so it was relocated to it's current spot during the Heian period (794-1192). After that the temple fell into disrepair and most of the buildings fell apart. In 1922 they attempted to revitalize the temple and it was looking better until a Typhoon hit in 1950.
In 1955 a new Priest, Kocho Nishimura, was appointed and he took it into his own hands to fix up the temple. Kocho Nishimura was a talented artists and specialized in sculptures. He had the local people come and, under his guidance, they made their own statues to place around the temple grounds. Each of the 1200 statues are unique and it was fun to spot cats, tennis rackets, people drinking sake, and even a portable cassette player!
[Our tour guide, Yuka]
We explored the temple grounds and found a lot of fun statues!
[Happily drinking sake!]
[So silly!]
We then left the Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple and walked south along a beautiful county road.
I really wanted to go to Kayabuki No Sato to see the famous village of thatched houses. It is located up the the mountains north of Kyoto and is a designated cultural site. Thatched roofs have been a staple in Japanese architecture for 5000 years and the roofs are so beautiful! However, with modern technology, the roofs have been replaced and you don't see as many houses with them today. So you can imagine my surprise when we came across multiple houses during our walk that had these thatched roofs!
[Atago-Jinja Shrine Ichi-no-Torii Gate]
[Aren't they beautiful?!]
After a short walk through this quiet neighborhood we came across the Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple.
Before the temple was established this was where people who died without family were left to the elements. This kind of inhumane treatment happened for hundreds of years until in the 800s the temple was established to pray for those that were not properly buried. There are now over 8000 stones in the temple that represent those poor souls.
[Stone statue that represents the five elements]
We walked through the temple and through a beautiful bamboo forest to a larger modern cemetery.
In the corner of the cemetery is this statue. If you pray and pour water on each of the six statues then your sins of the year will be washed away.
We then walked back to the main temple and found these Tanuki statues:
If you look closely you'll see one for Shohei Ohtani, his wife, new daughter, and their dog 😁
These statues are seen all over Japan especially outside of places of business. They are supposed to bring good luck!
We then walked through the Sai no Kawara where 8000 statues and a 13 story stone pagoda are located.
We continued our walk south passing by beautiful paths,
homes,
temples,
[Nison-in Temple]
groves,
and shops.
[Pottery Tanuki - I bought a small frog statue]
[Jojakkoji Temple]
Our next stop was the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. This forest is beautiful and very popular! Even with all the people there it was very peaceful.
Our final stop before lunch was the Tenryu-ji. This is a Zen Buddhist temple that was first built in the 14th Century. The grounds were beautiful!
[Large ponds and gardens are very common at Zen temples]
[Entrance reserved just for the Emperor]
After exploring the temple we went and had lunch at a local restaurant. I had this delicious shrimp and rice dish and it was just what I needed before our long hike up the mountain to the Arashiyama Monkey Park.
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