The rhythm of our days (or lack thereof)

Several of you have asked what a typical day is like for us, and my initial reaction has been: There isn’t one! We’ve been trying to cram in all of our visits to Kyoto’s most iconic spots before the sakura (cherry-blossom) madness begins, so we’ve been out and about a lot. 

Kyoto’s tourism – both domestic and international - peaks with the flowering of the plum and cherry blossoms in March and April. And while we likely won’t notice a big change in our neck of the woods (we’re quite a ways from the main tourist path, up here in the northern part of the city), we’ve heard from others that come spring, train stations, subways, buses, museums, temples, shrines, and shopping districts will all be jam-packed. Given that things already feel pretty busy to us country mice, thank you very much, we are wary of what’s in store. 

So - we’ve been busy navigating and learning our way around the city – figuring out bus schedules and subway ticket purchasing, bike parking lot protocol and what kind of food is available at different times of day to feed our ravenous children. (Side note: they are ALWAYS hungry. Less than an hour after eating a huge bowl of ramen, we will pass by a shop selling something fried on a skewer or an elaborately decorated sweet treat and they will beg for it like deprived Dickensian orphans. The answer to the questions "what/when/where are we going to eat today?" often dictates our daily plans.)

That said, we have managed to squeeze in plenty of sightseeing amidst all the food foraging. Some of the highlights on the Kyoto tourist circuit include: 

Fushimi Inari Shrine – founded to bring success to rice growers (and now merchants and businesses in general) and known for its guardian fox statues and (literally) thousands of bright vermillion gates winding up a steep mountain path dotted with mini-shrine, Buddhist altars, and all manner of vending machine (for green tea, amulets, and soft serve ice cream) along the way. 

Billboard map of the Fushimi-inari trail.
Maps everywhere here are beautifully rendered works of art in and of themselves! 

Kon'ichiwa!

One of the many fox statues (messengers of the Kami Inari - god of rice)

Altars along the path

Arashiyama - The western region of the city is known for its collection of temples along the beautiful Oi river, an internet famous bamboo grove, and mountaintop of monkeys you can feed. The overly-hyped bamboo grove was a little too crowded with sightseeing rickshaws and tourists getting their insta-shots to really enjoy its serene beauty, but the temple gardens were amazing and the monkeys very cute. My favorite spot was Rakushishu ("Hut of the Fallen Persimmons"), the small hermitage and garden of poet Mukai Kyori, Basho's best known student.

Persimmon Hut kitchen

Persimmon Hut porch -- the perfect place to pen a haiku

Don't mess with monkey-biggie! Or any biggie for that matter!

Cute little monkeys! 

Social media'd to death...but still quite beautiful.

Arashiyama is also the place with the hair dresser shrine that Zadi mentioned in her earlier post. 

Like others before him, Iago dropped a lot of coins at the hair shrine

Philospher’s Path – a plum tree lined stone path along a winding canal in the Eastern side of the city, with shrines and temples all along the way – a magical spot! 

 

Kyoto Imperial Palace and grounds – it’s massive! Like Central Park but with several compounds of historic walls and buildings and gardens, big boulevards of white gravel that criss-cross the space, streams, towering pines trimmed branch by branch like bonsais, and frisking, romping long-haired dachsunds (I have a soft spot for these long-snouted cuties and lucky for me, they are Japan’s favorite dog so they are everywhere - often sporting frilly dresses and visors – I kid you not. This is also something we should write an entire post about: Japanese doggy-fashion. It’s a thing.)

A 300+yo tree outside the high palace walls. So many older trees both big and small are lovingly supported by wooden crutches like these.


Spectacular trees


The Kyoto National Garden is also here...
and they have an acorn map

An example of one of the many impressive gates leading to the main palace compound - each gate was reserved for people of a specific rank. 

Garden outside the emperor's living quarters 

Eikando Temple and pagoda– everyone’s favorite temple so far! Beautiful artwork, woodwork, gardens, moss – the whole shebang. 

Moss – Moss really deserves its own post and perhaps one day one of us will write a deserving “ode to moss”. But for today just know that it has been the highlight of all our winter garden visits. With the trees and bushes bare of leaves and blossoms (save camelias, which seem to bloom year-round here) and the grass still brown, the moss is the star of its own emerald green show. The moss doesn’t just grow on its own here – it is lovingly tended by gardeners whose sole job is brushing and weeding it. Using a specially designed bamboo handbroom (taboki), they gently sweep away pine needles and other debris so the moss “can breathe” and weed out certain types of moss that encroach on other types (some gardens have over 30 varieties!) – all while wearing black neoprene booties for walking on the delicate carpet. 

Mossy stone lantern at Eikando Temple

Lovingly sweeping the moss at Ginkaku-ji Temple

Hiking – Not necessarily on the regular tourist circuit, we’ve done our best to combine sightseeing with walks in the mountains circling the city: Mt. Diamonji, Kibune shrine to Kurama-dera temple (and a soak in the outdoor hot spring bath), the mini-88 temple pilgrimmage (for those who can’t make it to the real 1200 km circuit on the island of Shikoku), Mt. Arashiyama, and more that I'm probably forgetting here. 

Many handed buddha, snowballs, and views along the mini-88 temple pilgrimmage trail 

Will write again soon about more mundane adventures – soccer practice, Japanese lessons with Yumiko, cooking at home with our 2 pans, one toaster, one rice cooker, an induction cooktop (of which I’m a huge fan), and about 2 inches of counterspace, and trying to learn Japanese… we had one of our most satisfying interactions in Japanese yet today with 4 year old Haruto at his dad’s pasta café, Sun and Luna.

Making the magic happen in our tiny frozen galley kitchen 

Off to Tokyo for a few days next week where Bo will hopefully get his fill of sushi for a while. Thanks for reading, loved ones!