Shinkansen to Kyoto

Today, I discovered Kyoto.  It is a beautiful city with so much visual stimulation in terms of architecture and gardens that it would take a month or more of non-stop exploring before knowing every place here.

I was up at 6 am today, which was surprising considering I had been out really late last night with friends.  I got on the shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto and it took me less than 2.5 hours to gets there.  That's pretty impressive.

The first ward of Kyoto I checked out was a suburban area called Arashiyama, which I read was a great place to walk around.  It blew my expectations away, as I walked around for hours.  First, I wandered the streets looking at the shops and trying to find a restaurant with suitable plastic food displayed outside.  After eating an udon soup based meal, I walked over the famous Togrtsukyo bridge which was right outside the restaurant.  The I walked to the main temple in the area, Tenryo-Ji.  Though the temple was not the most extravagant, the gardens around it were very pristine.  There were little Japanese men were working on each tree and meticulously trimming the branches and sweeping the rubbish out from underneath.  I imagine that they rerake the rock gardens every day.  Near this temple, there is a bamboo forest, and you can sit on benches and contemplate your existence while staring into the trees.  When the wind rustles over the top of the bamboo, it sounds like a thunderstorm is approaching.

I ended up getting lost walking around to the north of the temple meandering through the various shrines and small streets, but I ended up at Daikaku-Ji Temple and checked that out.  It looked very similar to the other temple on the inside, but the grounds were quite a bit different.  It bordered a large and tranquil pond which I decided to walk around.

On my way to my Ryokan for the evening, Gion was my dinner destination.  It's really cool to walk around this part of town in the evening and see all the restaurants lit up and all the streets dimly but elegantly lit.  I think I spotted a geisha or two, but I probably didn't since I read there were only about 100 of them in Kyoto.  This is their hang out though, as they entertain their clients.

My Ryokan was quite simple and basic, but it gave me the taste of a traditional Japanese bed and breakfast.  I don't think I got the best night of sleep though.