Japan 2019 Trip Report Part 3
Jun. 16th, 2019 05:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spacealien_vampThursday, March 14
In the morning, we headed for the nearby city of Nara, which was an ancient capital of Japan centuries ago. Most of the sakura trees were still bare, but some of the ume trees were blooming, and people clustered under them for selfies. Wherever people in Nara gather, the miniature deer follow, hoping for cookies. The deer in Nara wander everywhere, and they have been trained to bow to people in the hope of receiving food. Deer wafer vendors are scattered throughout the area, and most of the souvenir merchandise items in the city feature the deer.
This major shrine even has a deer statue at the purification basin, instead of the usual dragon. This picture also features one of our more unpleasant experiences of the trip. At this point, we were surrounded by dozens of Chinese tourists. The woman on the left told her husband to take a picture of her while she washed her hands at the fountain, but she was upset because other people were in the shot. She literally shoved my neighbor (the woman in the purple coat and knit hat) out of the way so that she could be in the picture by herself. Needless to say, we had a low opinion of the Chinese tourists after that encounter. At least the deer remained unruffled despite all the antics going on around them.
We arrived at the shrine (Kasuga Taisha) just as a traditional ceremony had begun. After walking around the grounds there, we continued on to the next attraction, Todaiji, home of the world's largest bronze Buddha statue. Interestingly, just as I was trying to log onto Facebook to share this photo, I found I was unable to connect. It turns out this was the middle of the Great Facebook Outage that lasted for several hours. A quick scan on Google turned up a bunch of posts moaning about people not knowing what to do with themselves without their social media fix. We all had a good chuckle at the ruckus and went about our sightseeing.
On our way back to the station, more shops were open (it had been too early when we started out), and we browsed at a few. We stopped at a pet supply store, where the owner had lots of costumes for dogs. I picked up an adorable Hello Kitty yukata that I plan to use for my working dog Brooke's Halloween costume this fall. (I left one of Brooke's business cards. The shop owner was quite tickled, and gave us a free packet of dog treats.) We also came across a small yarn shop, where I got several balls of yarn called Tree House Berries (color #204). What I liked about this shop was that it had organized cards with swatches of all the different yarns and info about approximately how many balls would be needed for various products (vest, sweater, hat, etc.). I wish I could have bought more, but I was still trying to minimize my shopping due to my minimal luggage. (At least yarn is squishable!)
Friday, March 15
Early the next morning, we checked out of our hotel and made our way to Kyoto--a trip that involved the Harry Potter train. We started out visiting Tenryuuji on the far western side of the city. It turns out there was one sakura tree blooming, so of course visitors were swarming around it taking pictures. I was looking forward to showing my neighbor the bamboo grove at the temple exit, because it had always been a lovely and serene place on my past trips. When we got there, however, we found that the entire grove road was packed with tourists taking selfies. We could barely squeeze through. It had completely lost the cathedral-like feeling of peace that it used to have. (Clearly it had made some kind of global list of "must see sights" in Kyoto, because the tourists were speaking all different languages.) It was a huge disappointment.
We started to wander the back roads, which were mostly empty of people after we left the grove behind, but before we had gotten to the area with all the quaint shops, we realized that the hour was getting late. We had arranged to meet up withgnine and xparrot at 2pm for an event on the complete opposite end of the city, and there was no direct route to get there, so we knew it would take a considerable amount of time. We followed the back roads to the train station (thank you again, GPS!) and took the line back to the central shopping area. We spent some time shopping in the Teramachi covered arcade before continuing on to our destination, Kiyomizudera. (As noted before, all the young ladies wearing yukata are Chinese and Korean tourists.)
Thanks to texting, we were able to meet up with our friends shortly before the event began. (We would never have found them in the crowd otherwise.) We had come to see the Seiryuue parade, in which a group of young men carried a dragon around the temple grounds. Seiryuu (the dragon) is the guardian of the east side of the city, based around this temple. After watching the dragon dance for a while, we headed out of the temple on our way to other sights. It had gotten quite sunny and warm, so we stopped for soft-serve ice cream, a popular treat. I picked the one with a mix of brown sugar syrup and kinako (soy powder), though the "Cutie Strawberry" was tempting.
We wandered several blocks to Yasaka Jinja in Gion. As it turns out, they were also having a celebration that day, involving a pair of shrine maidens performing a traditional dance (while in the front row another shrine maiden makes a not-so-traditional video recording on her cell phone). By the time we finished watching, it was getting late, and we were quite tired from all the walking. (Kiyomizudera is on the top of a tall hill, so it takes some effort to get there.) We caught a cramped bus back to Kyoto Station, where we found they had decorated the stairs with LEDs to create an image that can only be seen when viewed from below. We had supper at a restaurant in the station and then checked into our hotel for the night.
More amazing sights to come next time!
In the morning, we headed for the nearby city of Nara, which was an ancient capital of Japan centuries ago. Most of the sakura trees were still bare, but some of the ume trees were blooming, and people clustered under them for selfies. Wherever people in Nara gather, the miniature deer follow, hoping for cookies. The deer in Nara wander everywhere, and they have been trained to bow to people in the hope of receiving food. Deer wafer vendors are scattered throughout the area, and most of the souvenir merchandise items in the city feature the deer.
This major shrine even has a deer statue at the purification basin, instead of the usual dragon. This picture also features one of our more unpleasant experiences of the trip. At this point, we were surrounded by dozens of Chinese tourists. The woman on the left told her husband to take a picture of her while she washed her hands at the fountain, but she was upset because other people were in the shot. She literally shoved my neighbor (the woman in the purple coat and knit hat) out of the way so that she could be in the picture by herself. Needless to say, we had a low opinion of the Chinese tourists after that encounter. At least the deer remained unruffled despite all the antics going on around them.
We arrived at the shrine (Kasuga Taisha) just as a traditional ceremony had begun. After walking around the grounds there, we continued on to the next attraction, Todaiji, home of the world's largest bronze Buddha statue. Interestingly, just as I was trying to log onto Facebook to share this photo, I found I was unable to connect. It turns out this was the middle of the Great Facebook Outage that lasted for several hours. A quick scan on Google turned up a bunch of posts moaning about people not knowing what to do with themselves without their social media fix. We all had a good chuckle at the ruckus and went about our sightseeing.
On our way back to the station, more shops were open (it had been too early when we started out), and we browsed at a few. We stopped at a pet supply store, where the owner had lots of costumes for dogs. I picked up an adorable Hello Kitty yukata that I plan to use for my working dog Brooke's Halloween costume this fall. (I left one of Brooke's business cards. The shop owner was quite tickled, and gave us a free packet of dog treats.) We also came across a small yarn shop, where I got several balls of yarn called Tree House Berries (color #204). What I liked about this shop was that it had organized cards with swatches of all the different yarns and info about approximately how many balls would be needed for various products (vest, sweater, hat, etc.). I wish I could have bought more, but I was still trying to minimize my shopping due to my minimal luggage. (At least yarn is squishable!)
Friday, March 15
Early the next morning, we checked out of our hotel and made our way to Kyoto--a trip that involved the Harry Potter train. We started out visiting Tenryuuji on the far western side of the city. It turns out there was one sakura tree blooming, so of course visitors were swarming around it taking pictures. I was looking forward to showing my neighbor the bamboo grove at the temple exit, because it had always been a lovely and serene place on my past trips. When we got there, however, we found that the entire grove road was packed with tourists taking selfies. We could barely squeeze through. It had completely lost the cathedral-like feeling of peace that it used to have. (Clearly it had made some kind of global list of "must see sights" in Kyoto, because the tourists were speaking all different languages.) It was a huge disappointment.
We started to wander the back roads, which were mostly empty of people after we left the grove behind, but before we had gotten to the area with all the quaint shops, we realized that the hour was getting late. We had arranged to meet up with
gnine and xparrot at 2pm for an event on the complete opposite end of the city, and there was no direct route to get there, so we knew it would take a considerable amount of time. We followed the back roads to the train station (thank you again, GPS!) and took the line back to the central shopping area. We spent some time shopping in the Teramachi covered arcade before continuing on to our destination, Kiyomizudera. (As noted before, all the young ladies wearing yukata are Chinese and Korean tourists.)Thanks to texting, we were able to meet up with our friends shortly before the event began. (We would never have found them in the crowd otherwise.) We had come to see the Seiryuue parade, in which a group of young men carried a dragon around the temple grounds. Seiryuu (the dragon) is the guardian of the east side of the city, based around this temple. After watching the dragon dance for a while, we headed out of the temple on our way to other sights. It had gotten quite sunny and warm, so we stopped for soft-serve ice cream, a popular treat. I picked the one with a mix of brown sugar syrup and kinako (soy powder), though the "Cutie Strawberry" was tempting.
We wandered several blocks to Yasaka Jinja in Gion. As it turns out, they were also having a celebration that day, involving a pair of shrine maidens performing a traditional dance (while in the front row another shrine maiden makes a not-so-traditional video recording on her cell phone). By the time we finished watching, it was getting late, and we were quite tired from all the walking. (Kiyomizudera is on the top of a tall hill, so it takes some effort to get there.) We caught a cramped bus back to Kyoto Station, where we found they had decorated the stairs with LEDs to create an image that can only be seen when viewed from below. We had supper at a restaurant in the station and then checked into our hotel for the night.
More amazing sights to come next time!
