A Curious Day in Kyoto

Okay, so my previous statement that I would post 'tomorrow' should have read 'in many days'. Sorry.

Where were we? hmmm...So day 2 started bright and early (I didn't sleep too well at the hostel due to my cough...I think I kept half the dorm up too...heeheeheeooops!). After avoiding the strange girl who slapped on her moisturizer and noisily packed her bag (Steph, I was just waiting for her to do some exercises or pull out a huge bag of marshmallows) we grabbed a convenience store breakfast we jumped on a bus to Tofuku-ji, one of Kyoto's most famous autumn leaves-gazing spots. The weird thing was this was actually our second time visiting this temple...In August when we were with Becky, we stumbled upon Tofuku-ji after our Maiko experience. We got to see the zen garden after a woman gave us the code to the security gate and then I got yelled at by a monk and we were kicked out.






This time we arrived by way of a bridge that gave us an amazing view of a valley full of red maples and the temple itself. It was AMAZING!! I was just blown away! After taking lots of photos on this bridge we walked down the road and into the temple. It did not disappoint. The view from the temple was breath-taking and our walk through the gardens was fabulous. Even though only 8:30am it was already busy with Japanese tourists (we were once again the only foreigners)(I can't imagine what it was like later in the day) but it was great to see everyone so enthralled by the leaves.







[Laura's serious photo-taking face]


[I look a little crazed, don't I? Maybe it is all the pretty leaves..there was a picture before this in which Elspeth said I looked like I was on crack]

After exiting the maple forest area we walked around the temple grounds, checked out the largest Buddhist gate or something (darn, I can't remember) and then decided to head on over to our next stop, Eikando. We took a bus to Gion and then decided we could walk for a bit. We ended up stumbling upon a really beautiful park, where we saw an adorable tour group posing for pictures and where Elspeth fell in love with a tree.




We popped out of the park beside another temple and with one look at the front gate/stairs combo we both exclaimed that we weren't going there (I had flashbacks of inside the Werfen ice caves and its 1400 stairs). As we walked by the temple, Elspeth noticed something in the bush...who was hanging out in some temple greenery? It was none other than Curious George. And so started Curious' adventures in Kyoto.

[If you look closely, you can see ALL OF THE STAIRS]

[Why, hello there Curious George! Come on an adventure with us!]

[See, Curious likes the pretty leaves too!]



We checked out some shops, including a cute Japanese crafts store (mom, some decorations will be heading your way from this store) and then saw a frickin huge torii. After waiting for forever we finally squeezed ourselves on a bus (I was standing on one foot and Elspeth was pushed up against me hoping the door would close) and got ourselves to Eikando (another famous place for autumn leaves). Eikando claimed to have 3000 maples leaves, where Tofuku-ji only had a measly 2000. We had planned to visit Nanzen-ji as well but when we found Eikando charging 1000yen for their 'autumnal exhibit' (no joke) we decided to splurge on Eikando and spend more time there. This is the point where my stupid camera battery died. All the time/energy/power spent on taking blurry night photos of Kiyomizu-dera must have zapped the little dude's battery. I quickly bought an old school disposable camera. Thankfully, Elspeth was able to take some kick-ass photos.

[Yippeee!! I'll do a little dance!]



[So Dad, how do you think the little monks rake this garden? We sat there and wondered - a big cookie-cutter-mold thing? HOW?!?!]

This place was great, although rainy and cold. We got to see the "Backwards-Looking Amida Buddha" and go up to the pagoda on the hill that gave us a great view of rainy Kyoto.



[Elspeth: 'You're not smiling enough'. Laura then responds with this frightening smile]

[Curious enjoying the view of Kyoto from the pagoda]

It started to pour and we carefully climbed down, snapped a few last pictures and headed back to Kyoto eki to do some omiyage (gift) shopping. We met up with Jeannine, checked out the decorations at the station (Mom, they even played Kenny G's Christmas cd), ate the most scrumptious tonkatsu and ice cream sundaes and then got our shinkansen back to Nagoya.



So wonderful. What an experience.