2nd kanji: "too"=capital
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| Kyoto, day 3 | 1st kanji: "kyoo"=capital 2nd kanji: "too"=capital |
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| say: Kyo-toe (not Key-yo-toe) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jeremy and I arrived in Kyoto on the night of December 28th, and headed straight for our ryokan. (say: rio-khan) A ryokan is a Japanese-style inn, so we slept on futons on a tatami-mat floor. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| We let ourselves sleep in a bit this morning. (: After that, we headed out for an area of Kyoto called "Arashiyama." There is a monkey park there I visited last summer that Jeremy really wanted to see. (: It was kinda rainy that day, so we had to pick up an umbrella when we got off the bus in Arashiyama. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Here's Jeremy feeding one of the monkeys. (: The monkey park is at the top of a small mountain, which we had to hike to get there. The top is pretty much cleared off, and there's a small building there. You can buy fruit or nuts to feed to the monkeys there, but you are only allowed to feed them from inside (this way, they don't attack people out on the grounds for food). It was kinda chilly that day, as well as rainy, so all the monkeys were huddled together. (: They were really cute. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Byodo-in in Uji | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Next we visited Byodo-in in Uji, not far from Kyoto. Byodo-in is one of my favorite temples. It's really beautiful. It was built in 1053, and is original. Inside sits a gorgeous gilded, wooden statue of Buddha, which was carved about the same time by one of the most famous sculptors of the time. When the light is just right, the Buddha's face shines through a small hole in the front gate, at the center of the temple there. The shape of the building is supposed to represent a phoenix with it's wings spread wide. There are two iron phoenix at either end of the roof of Byodo-in. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No pictures yet of Todai-ji, the largest wooden building in Japan, which houses the largest bronze sculpture of Buddha in Japan.... I'll try to get some soon! I'm so sorry!! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| After that, we headed a bit farther south to Nara, a really old city full of really old stuff. (: Most famous there is the Todai-ji temple. It boasts that it is the largest wooden building in the world, at 187.03 ft wide, 165.61 ft deep and 159.89 ft heigh. The current building was built in 1567, but was originally built around 750 and was 33% bigger than the building we see today. Inside, the statue of Vairocana Buddha is 48.91 feet tall, with each eye measuring 3.34 feet long. He is really something. I'll try to find pictures soon.... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yasaka Shrine in Gion, Kyoto | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jeremy and I wanted to hang out at Todai-ji until the New Year arrived, but it seemed like they were closing, so we had to go. We headed back to Kyoto and decided to check out the city. Our ryokan owner told us that at Yasaka-jinja, home of the Gion Festival in the summer, there should be some big celebrations. So, after checking out some of the New Years specials on TV, we made our way out there. I got a little mixed up with the subways, and we ended up walking pretty far... Through TONS of people, too. I can't believe how many people were out walking around! You can see some of them in my photo. And they do this every year...? CRAZY. We swam though the crowds as best we could, though, and had a good time. (: We got some tasty food, but soon had had enough... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| We made our way back to our ryokan, and the New Year struck at some time as we were going home... So I'm really not certain where we were when it hit midnight. ): We were so worn out when we got back... We both took long showers, and I had a nice soak in the tub to help relieve my poor muscles.... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Kyoto, day 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kyoto, day 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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