Part 1: Kyoto

Last weekend, Temple University hosted a trip to Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka that we've been looking forward to since the beginning of our trip. It was the perfect time to go, as well, because the day we were in Kyoto was the Gion Matsuri (festival). It was really neat to watch the parade in the afternoon -- entirely different experience from American parades, but I'll touch on the parade a bit further down.

Day 1 - Kyoto:

We took the shinkansen to Kyoto and checked our bags in our hotel before heading to Nijō Castle, which was constructed for the Tokugawa Shoguns. Some of us had hardly gotten any sleep because of the Harry Potter midnight premiere, which had us up two days straight (doing homework the night before + the night of the movie), so day one was a little miserable coupled with how hot and humid Kyoto was. Everything was so beautiful, though, so despite the fact that we were all melting from the heat, it was enjoyable.

Ninomaru Palace in Nijō Castle

After Nijō Castle, we headed to Sanjūsangendō, a Buddhist temple and the longest wooden building in Japan, home to 1001 Buddhist statues. I was dying at that point, so there aren't any pictures. You unfortunately couldn't take any pictures inside the building anyways.

Next was Kiyomizu-dera, an amazing temple located halfway up Otowa Mountain, nestled into the mountainside and trees. There was not a nail used in the entire building construction! The view of Kyoto below was breathtaking. 

The Deva gate leading up to the temple.

View from the main temple building.

Another view from the main buidling.

Kiyomizu-dera takes its name from the waterfall within the complex, which runs off the nearby hills. Kiyomizu means clear water, or pure water. Three channels of water fall into a pond on the mountainside, and visitors can catch and drink the water, which is believed to have wish-granting powers. Tyler and I definitely joined in on the tradition!

The three channels of water.

From there, we headed to the Gion district, famous for geisha. I was pretty much dead, so a friend and I decided to call it a night, while Tyler went to the hotel to shower and head back out for the festivities. We did see real geisha and maiko (geisha in training), in the taxi behind us on the way back!

I think this is at Yasaka Shrine? Tyler
getting ready for Yoiyama, the eve of the grand parade.

We stayed at a capsule hotel that night. Tyler actually fit in his! We were worried that they wouldn't be long enough. They were surprisingly comfortable!

Day 2 - Kyoto:

After getting a good night's rest in our capsules, we headed out much refreshed to Fushimi Inari-taisha, a shrine with the long rows of torii, red gates, leading up to it that were made famous by Memoirs of a Geisha. They were beautiful, despite the red/white striped construction bars running down one side of them. There weren't very many people there because the parades had started for the Gion Matsuri!

Before heading to the parade, we decided we wanted to go the Nintendo "store" that  one of our friends had heard existed, so we hopped into a taxi and pointed to it on our map. When we got there, we knew something was wrong, but apparently the taxi driver didn't. He pulled us right through the gates of the main headquarters for Nintendo. We tried to get out and walk back out, but the guards wouldn't even let us get out of the taxi, even though the gates were literally five feet behind us. We had to convince our taxi driver to back out of the gates, but he wanted money and refused to do so at first. It was so complicated, but hilarious. A security officer even came out and almost talked to us.

Nintendo headquarters

Embarrassed, we found another taxi and headed to the parade. It was so much fun! There were so many people, and the floats were so intricate and beautiful. No drums or loud instruments like in America though, all they played were these flute-like instruments. It was all super Japanese. The floats were all rolled by people and had to be manually turned!

Finally, we made our way to Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion, one of the most famous sights in Kyoto before heading to Nara.

Day 4 - Kyoto:

Tyler and the rest of the group headed back to Tokyo after day 3 in Osaka, but I headed back down to Kyoto to buy a kimono and go to the bamboo forest. I stayed in the capsule hotel again (I loved them) on the night I left Osaka, and finished up in Kyoto before heading to Nagoya for the July Grand Sumo tournaments. Unfortunately, the typhoon was heading through, but it wasn't too rainy when I went to the bamboo forest.