Sunday April 9th was day one of two that Brian and I had to use up the two remaining uses on our Seishun 18 tickets. After our speech and before our final we and I think everyone else at JCMU was just itching to get out of the dorm building. So, because the weather was going to be nice and it was the peak of sakura season in the Kansai region of Japan, we made a plan to hit up a couple of well-known places in Kyoto to see the cherry blossoms. Our first stop that day was Miidera, which is actually in Otsu (in Shiga prefecture), and a temple complex that we had already been to once before on a field trip for Dr. Johnson’s class. On that trip, Dr. Johnson’s friend Ian who were there to lecture us on the three Americans buried at the temple, told us that during sakura season the place would turn completely pink and would be relatively deserted (compared to other famous sakura viewing places which for that one peak week, are insane). Miidera being directly on the way to Kyoto, we hopped on the Biwako line and headed for Otsu.

Once we got to Otsu, we weren’t exactly sure how to get to Miidera. The first time we had visited, we had taken a bus directly from JCMU. We knew that it was up on a hill, and that from the hillside we could see Lake Biwa, a baseball stadium, and a dock where some paddle boats were berthed. When we got off the JR line, we asked a station attendant how to get there, and they told us it was either a 30 minute walk or we could make our way to the nearest streetcar station. We chose the latter. The streetcar, which I expected to be something you might see in San Francisco, turned out to be more like a subway that ran on the same streets as the cars. Going all of 3 stops with a transfer in-between, we got off at…Miidera station. The walk up the hill to the temple was beautiful in itself, with a long canal with cherry blossom trees on either side of it, hanging down near the water and also over the wrought iron fence that separated the street from the canal. There were a lot of people doing the same thing that we were doing, walking along the canal, taking pictures of all the trees. We continued walking uphill towards the entrance to the temple, and when we got there we found that they were now charging 500yen to get into the temple. Since we were planning on going back to Heian Jingu, which would cost us another 600yen to get into the garden area. So, we decided to just walk around the outside of the temple to see the trees we could there. The parking lot was especially nice, with some people setting up their tarps and things right there instead of going inside the temple grounds for hanami.

When we were done with Miidera, we walked back to the streetcar station, and made our way back to JR Otsu station. Back on the Biwako line, Kyoto station was our next stop. Getting out, we walked over to the not-as-nice side of Kyoto station where we stopped at my favorite revolving sushi bar. (First time I went to this place was when my mom and I came to Japan 2 years ago, since then I’ve come back maybe half a dozen times with many different people.) After a few plates of sushi, I made a quick stop at the bakery right next to the sushi bar, and then we walked through Porto on our way back to the main side of Kyoto station (sadly the Sirotan store was still closed….for good? L ) Coming out near the bus station, we found a huge amount of people centered around a van and a bunch of blow-up games, along with women all dressed in cowboy-like outfits (complete with hats) promoting an energy drink (the name was D-somethingorother). Walking towards the bus station to buy an all-day bus pass, we passed one of the several large advertisements on Kyoto station promoting Kyoto with artwork by Osamu Tezuka (Japan’s “God of Manga), and so I asked Brian if he had yet been to the Osamu Tezuka museum/store that is inside of Kyoto station, and since we hadn’t, we decided to make a quick detour from our hanami plans. When we got to the store/museum, we started browsing, and then got to these sets of really cool t-shirts that the last time I was at the store, I had been really tempted to buy. They had holograms of Osamu Tezuka’s most famous creation, Astro Boy, on them along with descriptions in English of what Astro Boy can day (leaps tall buildings in a single bound! types of things). This time, I figured it would be my last time coming, so Brian and I both bought one of these incredibly cool shirts (his has a hologram of Astro Boy on the front standing up, mine has Astro Boy on the back, looking like he’s flying). When we both went up to pay for our shirts, we were told to take our receipts over to a table for a “lucky chance” (or lucky chansu in Japanese) game to try to win things. This seems to be a common thing to do in Japan, usually it involves turning a wheel a certain amount of times based on how much money you’ve spent at a store, hoping that the colored balls that come one of the wheel will match a prize that you can win. Usually, you don’t win anything, so when we had to choose 4 folded pieces of paper each, and the woman opened them up for me to show 4 Astro Boy faces, I figured that meant I hadn’t won anything. But instead it meant…..I won 4 boxed figures. Four figures of a character with a big nose that I hadn’t seen before. At first I was shocked and happy. Then Brian won one of the same figures, and three pins. Moving to another area of the lobby to attempt to pack away our new figures in our bags, it kinda dawned on us that…what the heck were we gonna do with them? I unloaded one on Brian, but then I had 3 of them and he had two. I figured that I’d keep one of them for myself, take one back to JCMU to maybe give away, and then one to….do something with. Brian got lucky, and was able to pawn off his extra one immediately as some woman asked him to take her picture with one of the life-sized characters in the lobby of the store/museum, but that left me with one to give away. I wanted to just leave it somewhere strategically, but Brian wouldn’t have it. He wanted me to give it away to some kid, but yes I like avoiding confrontation and I’m shy around people I don’t know so I chickened out and after more wandering around Kyoto station I handed it over to Brian and he carried it around for hours and hours and hours…but more about that later.

Leaving “Osamu Tezuka World”, we walked back towards the bus station to buy an all-day buss pass since we planned on taking the bus to and from both Heian Jingu and Kiyomizu to see the sakura. However, getting in line for the bus that would take us to Heian Jingu proved to be a somewhat fruitless affair. The A2 bus was one of the “100 Raku Bus” line which basically went to all the main, famous sights in Kyoto. The line was at least 3 bus loads long, and wasn’t moving. We stood there for at least 20 minutes, and not a single bus pulled up during that time. Finally we decided that even though we had just bought a bus pass for 500 yen, we’d take the subway since it would be a lot faster. But, before we walked down to the subway station, we stepped into the line to get a free energy drink that the women in cowboy hats were advertising. When it was our turn in line, we were instructed to say “fight-o, ippai!” and put our fists into the air, and then we would receive our little bottles of the sure to taste horrible energy drink. And yep, it turned out to be sickly sweet tasting. And I don’t know if I actually got any energy from drinking it.

We took the subway to a station on the main line that I hadn’t visited before. It turned out to be closer to Heian Jingu than the usual Marutamachi-dori station that I’ve taken a few times before. When we got close to the shrine, it was a completely different story from last week. While last week it was completely deserted, this time we had to fight the crowds for space to walk on the sidewalk several blocks before we even passed the large torii gate for the shrine. (We ran into a large group of college-age looking gaijins as we walked into the main gate of the shrine, and I later walked along with a few of them and asked them where they came from, sadly they were a high school group on a trip, and they didn’t know a word of Japanese at all…sad.) This time, when paying our 600yen to get into the gardens, we were able to see before walking in that the trees were indeed in-bloom this time. Inside, the garden was a sea of white and pink. Every tree was in full bloom. We spent the next at least 1.5 hours walking through the entire garden, taking pictures, and taking in the beauty of it all. I couldn’t stop thinking that I really wished my mom and sister could see this sight with me. At the end we made it back to the one tree that had been in bloom on our previous trip, and this week it was the only tree with its petals starting to fall, into the pond below it. Walking out of the gardens, we made our way to the gate, bought a few charms on our way out, and then said goodbye to Heian Jingu for the last time before going back to the US. I think that Heian Jingu is probably my favorite Shinto shrine in Japan, mostly because of its history. It, and Todaiji, are two of my most-visited shrines/temples in Japan.

Walking back under the torii gate, we made our way to the closest bus stop, only to find ourselves stuck in yet another line. Buses would come but be so packed that only two or three people at a time could fit into it. After maybe 45 minutes of waiting, a bus FINALLY came that we were able to squeeze into, but once onto it, we were stuck in rush hour traffic in the middle of Kyoto. We stood on the bus making almost no progress towards Kiyomizu. When we passed a subway station, we decided to escape the bus at the next stop, hoping that our progress would be faster by subway. Well, once in the subway station, we found out that it was the closest station to Kiyomizu! Arg. But, on the way down to check out the map, Brian was FINALLY able to pawn off the random action figure that he had been carrying around for the past 3 hours on a couple of kids randomly playing by themselves in the station stairwell. Back on the street, we tried to find someplace to eat before we braved the buses again, but we weren’t able to find anything suitable. So instead we kinda power-walked our way in the direction of Kiyomizu, since it was getting to be around 6pm and was already starting to get dark. At one point the traffic seemed to thin out a bit, so we decided to try the bus again, but instead we got the same result. We stood on it for a while, going nowhere, and bailed while stuck in traffic (Brian asked the bus driver if it was ok to get out, and he opened the door without saying anything…clearly this was a highly unusual maneuver that only gaijins would dare to do). Walking the rest of the way to Kiyomizu, we had to walk uphill to make it to the main shrine, all the while starving to death and being incredulous that at 7pm all the shops were already closed. Buying out tickets for the temple (naturally it was free the last time I was there, and pouring rain), we discovered that we had walked up a hill that hadn’t been the main street up to the temple, so we walked down that in hopes of finding a place to eat. The only thing we managed to find was a café that sold cake and coffee, and since we didn’t have any other options and just wanted a place to sit for a good half our before going into the temple, we ordered some drinks and people watched from the second floor for a while.

When we felt re-energized enough to continue, we walked back up the hill and entered the shrine along with the masses. At this point it was dark as night and all the trees and temple buildings were lit up very nicely. Despite my best efforts, most of my pictures didn’t turn out very well because I had no tripod. We spent several more hours exploring the entire temple complex, which I hadn’t had the opportunity of doing the last time I had been there because the weather had been so lousy. I was able to get some really amazing pictures of the main temple of Kiyomizu that is featured in many pictures in almost any publication about Japan that I’ve ever seen. After we finished walking through the entire complex, we came upon a small noodle stand/tea house inside the temple grounds and since we were so hungry we stopped for some quick dinner. Exiting the temple we walked down the main drag and found to our frustration a restaurant 2 stores down from the café we had been at before. Too late now.

Figuring it would be third time the charm, we caught a bus back to Kyoto station. Even more standing and waiting proceeded. Finally getting back to Kyoto station, we got back on the Biwako line and headed back for Hikone, with Brian getting off at his stop in Omihachiman. We planned to meet back up in Kyoto station the next day to use up our last Seishun 18 ticket on a trip to Osaka.

The approach to Miidera in Otsu:

Some people enjoying hanami in a park near Heian Jingu, and the main pavillion of Heian Jingu (note the flowering tree and green shrub to the right and left of the main building in the center, exactly how it is at the Imperial Palace in Kyoto):

Inside the gardens at Heian Jingu:

Ignore the toothy smile….

Can you see the big torii in the background?

Kiyomizu: