Kyoto- Happy 11th Anniversary!

Our Wedding Anniversary is September 23, and this year, we celebrated 11 married years (16 years together) by taking a kid-free weekend trip to Kyoto. Kyoto is about 2.5 hours away, by Shinkansen (bullet train- my first time on the bullet train!). The girls stayed with our family friend, and Hanna's former Preschool teacher, Kana Otsu. They love her and had such a fun weekend. Kyoto is a very historical city, with a TON of shrines and temples, and a place everyone says is a "must see" while you are here in Tokyo.

Kyoto (京都, Kyōto) served as Japan's capital and the emperor's residence from 794 until 1868. It is now the country's seventh largest city with a population of 1.4 million people and a modern face. Over the centuries, Kyoto was destroyed by many wars and fires, but due to its historic value, the city was dropped from the list of target cities for the atomic bomb and spared from air raids during World War II. Countless temples, shrines and other historically priceless structures survive in the city today.

We trained out early Saturday morning, arriving in Kyoto around 10:30am. We stayed at the Hyatt, where we were allowed to check in right away (how many times does that happen?). Saturday, we visited one Shrine, one Temple and went down to the Gion (old city) district that night, in hopes of seeing an actual Geisha (which we didn't)!

The first shrine we went to was the Fushimi Inari Shrine. This was the Shrine I most wanted to see and was not disappointed. I was very glad that the girls didn't come, because we walked gradually uphill for over an hour to get to the top of the Torii Gates!

Torii Gates at Fushimi Inari Shrine

Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社, Fushimi Inari Taisha) is an important Shinto shrine in southern Kyoto. It is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, which straddle a network of trails behind its main buildings. The trails lead into the wooded forest of the sacred Mount Inari, which stands at 233 meters and belongs to the shrine grounds.Fushimi Inari is the most important of several thousands of shrines dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. Foxes are thought to be Inari's messengers, resulting in many fox statues across the shrine grounds. Fushimi Inari Shrine has ancient origins, predating the capital's move to Kyoto in 794.

Scott and I

From there we ended up going to an Irish Pub, called the Gael, that I had read about on Lonely Planet, and it did not disappoint. The food was delicious, and we had the chance to drink a few beers and watch some rugby- Scott actually said if that and the shrine were all we did, it would still be an awesome day. From here, we continued on to the Kiyomizu-dera temple. This temple was VERY old and had a lot of really neat things to look at and many places to place your prayers (including a Love Stone- if you were able to walk straight from one love stone to the other, your love would last forever!).



Kiyomizudera (清水寺, literally "Pure Water Temple") is one of the most celebrated temples of Japan. It was founded in 780 on the site of the Otowa Waterfall in the wooded hills east of Kyoto, and derives its name from the fall's pure waters. The temple was originally associated with the Hosso sect, one of the oldest schools within Japanese Buddhism, but formed its own Kita Hosso sect in 1965. In 1994, the temple was added to the list of UNESCO world heritage sites.

Kiyomizu Temple

That night, we went down to the Gion District of Kyoto hoping to see an actual Geisha. Unfortunately, we did not. :( But the area was old and beautiful and definitely nice to walk around at night. We also toured around that general area, walking down by the river, through small, extremely crowded streets packed with restaurants and back home for dinner of Sashimi, Sushi rolls, donburi bowls and beer!

Gion (祇園) is Kyoto's most famous geisha district, located around Shijo Avenue between Yasaka Shrine in the east and the Kamo River in the west. It is filled with shops, restaurants and ochaya (teahouses), where geiko (Kyoto dialect for geisha) and maiko (geiko apprentices) entertain. Gion attracts tourists with its high concentration of traditional wooden machiya merchant houses. Due to the fact that property taxes were formerly based upon street frontage, the houses were built with narrow facades only five to six meters wide, but extend up to twenty meters in from the street.

On Sunday, we started the day visiting the Nijo Castle. The castle was very old and squeaky - the floors were made to squeak whenever walked on to detect enemies if they were somehow able to get into the castle- very cool. The grounds were beautiful, and gardens gorgeous.

Gardens at Nijo Castle

Nijo Castle (二条城, Nijōjō) was built in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo Period (1603-1867). His grandson Iemitsu completed the castle's palace buildings 23 years later and further expanded the castle by adding a five story castle keep. After the Tokugawa Shogunate fell in 1867, Nijo Castle was used as an imperial palace for a while before being donated to the city and opened up to the public as a historic site. Its palace buildings are arguably the best surviving examples of castle palace architecture of Japan's feudal era, and the castle was designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1994. Nijo Castle can be divided into three areas: the Honmaru (main circle of defense), the Ninomaru (secondary circle of defense) and some gardens that encircle the Honmaru and Ninomaru. The entire castle grounds and the Honmaru are surrounded by stone walls and moats.

After the Nijo Castle, we ended our Kyoto weekend by visiting the Kinkakuji Temple, otherwise known as the Golden Pavillion. The temple was beautiful and definitely a great picture!

Kinkakuji (金閣寺, Golden Pavilion) is a Zen temple in northern Kyoto whose top two floors are completely covered in gold leaf. Formally known as Rokuonji, the temple was the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and according to his will it became a Zen temple of the Rinzai sect after his death in 1408. Kinkakuji was the inspiration for the similarly named Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion), built by Yoshimitsu's grandson, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, on the other side of the city a few decades later.

Golden Pavillion

We arrived home on Sunday night to wonderfully taken care of kiddos, happy as can be to see us. They decorated the entire apartment with welcome home signs, homemade crafts and fantastically warm hugs! Then, about 10 minutes after Ms. Kana left, they asked us if we could go somewhere else! Ahhh....Home Sweet Home!

Best way to come home!