After probably 10 hours straight studying on Thursday for weekly test on Friday morning, it was nice to yet again get out from JCMU for a day trip. Returned again to Kyoto, this time with the intent on visiting the Fushimi Inari shrine, and also to go back to the Kyoto Handicraft Center. Originally going in a group of 5, Cassidy and I split off at the first shrine and did a little bit of climbing through the tori gates. There are supposedly 40,000 gates in the entire shrine, and most of them (that we saw) had dates and names of companies inscribed on them, in order to bring them good luck. We spent about an hour climbing up parts of the mountain and buying ema (wooden plaques you buy and inscribe wishes on them then leave at the shrine (I just brought mine home though)). We witnessed many Japanese people praying before certain tori gates and shrines, mostly by clapping their hands a few times and bowing. Not really knowing how to pray correctly, we just decided to play the stupid gaijin role and wander around like tourists. We made it to about halfway through the maze of tori gates before we decided to go back down the hill and head off to the Kyoto Handicraft Center.

Writing down directions from the internet, I knew that the KHC was near Marutamachi station, but what we didn’t know was that there are two Marutamachi stations in Kyoto, and naturally the one that we chose to go to was the incorrect one. The map I had viewed when planning our trip showed the station right on the edge of the river, and with the KHC on the side heading away from the river. Exiting the station, I told Cassidy that we just had to find the river and walk away from it, and a block away would be our destination. Well, there was no river. Luckily, right across the street was a ‘koban’ or police box, and we asked them for directions. Luckily we were on the correct street, and just had to walk about a half mile to get to our destination. We walked in front of the Kyoto Imperial Palace on our way to the KHC, but didn’t go in today. Once we got to the KHC, we walked through every floor to look at very cool traditional crafts for sale, such as woodblock prints, lacquer-wear, kimonos, and damascene. I ended up getting a few woodblock prints to hang on my very bare walls back at JCMU, and Cassidy bought a yukata.

With no plan on what to do after we left the KHC, we headed over to Heian shrine, which was right across the street. The Heian Period of Japan is my favorite historical period, and so I was really excited to see this shrine. There is a very large tori gate (larger than anything at Fushimi Inari) at the end of a street leading into the shrine, and once you get in it looks very similar to the Kyoto Imperial Palace. There is a very large open space, with the main temple in the center, and adjunct buildings to all sides. They are surrounded by gardens and ponds to the rear of the buildings. We wandered around the main buildings and bought a few charms, and I bought a guidebook to the shrine, where I learned about a festival coming up at the end of October that I will definitely be going to (Jidai Matsuri, literally “Festival of the Eras” is a huge parade going down the road from the large tori to the shrine, with groups representing modern day, and gradually going back in time to the Heian period and before). I would have visited the gardens while I was there, but there was a 600yen charge to get in, so I plan to go back and see them on the day of the festival.

After leaving the shrine, we wandered our way back to the nearest subway station and headed over to Shijo-Teramachi, a popular and trendy shopping district of Kyoto. First thing we saw was a Wendy’s, and decided to go have some fries and a Frosty there. First Wendy’s I’ve seen in Japan…. After that very un-Japanese meal, we wandered around the very very very long outdoor covered mall, which had tons of clothing stores, all with very bizarre names like Octopus Army and Hunky Dory. Eventually I came across an Animate (chain of anime and manga stores in Japan), so I wandered in to look at stuff. Found a 2006 Studio Ghibli calendar that supposedly isn’t coming out until November for sale, one that I was going to be ordering online anyway, so I bought it. The rest of the day was mostly spent walking around an area in Kyoto that could only be compared to New York. Lots and lots of young people, every one holding onto numerous bags from stores they had just purchased whoknowswhat from. Eventually we wandered into a food market, where everyone was closing up shop. The place reeked of fish, so we got out of there as fast as possible. At this point it was getting near 7pm, and we both had sore feet and backs, and so we decided to head back to Kyoto station to get onto the train for Hikone.

Getting back to Kyoto station once again (the second largest train station in Japan), it was really quite neat to see it lit up at night. The main concourse is open to the outside, and you can go up quite far on each side and look down over the city and the station. I had also read after my last visit to the station, about a statue of a Phoenix done by an animation studio (based on the works of the ‘God of Manga’, Osamu Tezuka’), so we asked someone about it. Turned out to be a clock, and we happened to get there about 5 minutes before 7pm, and were able to watch it do a little light/music show. After that we bought our tickets (we were lucky to get on a Super-Limited Express (basically, a faster train), and headed back to JCMU.

At Fushimi Inari Shrine:

Heian Shrine:

The Phoenix Water Clock: