Triple Cheeseburgers, Dancing Geisha and 8000 Buddhas: A Tour Of Kyoto

Ah, Kyoto. Japan’s capital for almost eleven centuries, one of the nation’s ten largest cities and essentially the only major city whose historic landmarks were spared during the Second World War. Or, as Matt put it, “Just another big Japanese city with a bunch of castles and stuff”.

It’s no wonder that Kyoto is often considered the cultural heart of Japan-its 1600 Buddhist temples and some 400 Shinto shrines (as well as countless other historic vistas) ensure that a good deal of Japanese history can be found within the city’s borders. But where to start? The prospect of touring Kyoto can be quite daunting, especially when limited to only a few days. On the one hand, there’s the feeling of obligation to see the city’s most well-known sites; the Kinkaku-ji (“Golden Pavilion”), the Kiyomizu-Dera, the Imperial Palace. But on the other hand, there’s that nagging desire to stray from the herd, to search out the sights less seen.

Further complicating matters for the members of team Gweek was the fact that Kyoto is a large city and by virtue of that fact, offers up any number of delights seldom seen by country bumpkins like us. For example, the curiously-named rock bar ING, run by the friendly and charismatic Hako, who has somehow managed to turn his lifelong obsession with the Rolling Stones into a career. The bar is decked out with Stones memorabilia, Hako’s entire wardrobe seems to consist of Stones tour shirts, the bathroom quite literally looks like the cover of Beggars Banquet and well, I’ll let you guess what kind of music Hako likes to play. Ask him what his favorite Stones record is and he’ll tell you exactly what song strikes his fancy based on his current state of mind (when I asked, it was “Sweet Virginia” from Exile). He’ll then ask you the very same question and will immediately run over to put on your favorite album without you even having to ask. Did I mention that tall bottles of Sapporo are ridiculously cheap and come with the added thrill of seeing Hako open them with whatever implements present themselves (ashtrays, chopsticks, other bottles)? If you’re ever in Kyoto, I highly recommend paying old Hako a visit…if you like the Stones, that is.

Kyoto is quite well known in Japan for its distinctive cuisine but it was a little difficult to keep that in mind when they also have a Wendy's right on the main drag. During our three-night stay in Kyoto, I ate Wendy's at least four times, including the “triple challenge” seen above. Aomori does strange things to men.

As the city of Kyoto was beloved by the late Kansai comic and cartoon artist Tezuka Osamu (and features prominently in many of his creations), it’s fitting that Kyoto station houses a museum in tribute to his life’s work. I was unfortunately too late to visit the museum but was able to pretend that I did by visiting the museum gift shop, seen above. While Osamu is well-known in Japan for his diverse body of work, he is best known internationally for his creation Tetsuwan Atomu (“Mighty Atom”), or Astroboy, as he is known in the English-speaking world.

So what about all those old temples you've heard so much about? Well, I’m getting to those.

Being fairly close to our hostel, Nijo-Jo (“Nijo Castle”) was one of the first sites we visited. Originally built in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of the first Tokugawa Shogun, the castle has long stood as a symbol of power in the ancient capital. Pass through the gate above to enter Ninomaru Palace, undoubtedly Nijo’s greatest treasure.

Built in 1603 and constructed almost entirely from Japanese cypress, the Palace certainly possesses a commanding appearance. Perhaps more impressive though, are the treasures contained inside. The minute you enter the palace, you’ll notice an eerie squeaking sound emanating throughout the building (if you’ve ever heard the song “Teach Me Sweetheart” by the Fiery Furnaces I would tell you that it sounds almost exactly like the backwards-looped notes in the intro to that song). This is the result of the so-called “Nightingale Floor,” a system of clamps and nails underneath every one of the palace’s floorboards from the entrance to the Grand Chambers-designed to alert palace guards to the presence of intruders.

Even more impressive is the vast collection of artwork contained on the walls and sliding doors of the palace-elaborate paintings in the style of the Kano school that date back to the palace’s construction in the 17^th century. Using vibrant colors and generous amounts of gold leaf, these paintings depict everything from scenery to tigers, as well as various types of birds, flowers and trees. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed inside the palace, ostensibly to protect these ancient works from being damaged by flashbulbs. There don’t seem to be any photos easily accessible elsewhere on the internet either, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.

A few rooms inside the palace featured dummies of various court officials, visiting dignitaries, ladies in waiting and the shogun himself-all in full court dress. While I’ll be the first to admit that this sort of thing is usually very corny, I found that in this case, the dummies really helped me imagine what the palace must have looked like when it was actually in use.

Afterwards, we headed to the Kinkaku-Ji, perhaps the best known temple in all of Japan. As you can see above, it’s quite a grandiose structure (not pictured: the thousands of camera toting tourists that mobbed the area-the Golden Pavilion is supposedly the most photographed object in all of Japan and I certainly believe it). The Pavilion itself is simply one building in the Rokuon-Ji temple complex, which was built in 1397 as Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu’s retirement estate. When his son inherited the complex in 1408, he converted it into a Zen Buddhist temple, which it remains to this day. The building you see here dates back to 1955 as the pavilion was burned to the ground in 1950 (this incident was famously fictionalized in Yukio Mishima’s 1956 novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion). And yes, that's real gold leaf, every inch of it.

After viewing the pavilion, why not try your hand at the Buddha coin toss?

Girls tying omikuji on the Rokuon-Ji grounds.

Here we see a man selling different types of incense for burning on the temple grounds. Descriptions of the incense were given in both Japanese and English. Among the varieties available were “love match accomplishment,” "traffic in safety," "proceed to a higher school" and “be very fine”.

Later in the day, we caught a geisha show. I was unaware that such a thing even existed but apparently, these shows have long been a part of the performing geisha’s repertoire. As you can tell, we were pretty pumped. Well, Matt was, anyway.

The show turned out to be surprisingly good. There were two separate narrative acts, both of which were told primarily through the use of dance and gesture. The sets were elaborate, the colors were vibrant and the show was truly a pleasure to watch, even though I didn’t understand a word of the antiquated, theatrical Japanese that they used.

On our last day in Kyoto, we traveled to Adashina, just northwest of the city. This area was crisscrossed by small rivers and many of the quiet streets were connected to each other by bridges. It was a surprisingly pastoral neighborhood for being so close to such a large city. After a long walk to the top of a hill, we arrived at our destination, the Nembutsu-Ji. If you’ve studied any Japanese Buddhism, you’ll probably recognize the word Nembutsu-a chant performed by Amidists-and as you might expect, the temple’s principle image is that of Amida Buddha.

However, the Nembutsu-Ji’s real claim to fame is the 8000 Buddha stones. Uncovered in a bamboo grove about 100 years ago, very little is known about these small statues, although they are suspected to have served as gravestones of sorts. While most of them have been worn down by the elements beyond the point of recognition (some date back as far as the 8^th century), a few still retain an outline of the Buddha that they once depicted.

The Nembutsu-Ji grounds also contain a well-maintained bamboo grove. I’m not sure what the significance of this grove is but it sure does look pretty.

There's still more Kyoto to come, so stay tuned for tomorrow's installment!