In Japan, one of the biggest holidays of the year is New Year's. People go out to visit temples and shrines to pray for luck and success in the New Year, and lots of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples had different ceremonies going on. Kyoto, being a capital city of Japan for a long time, was an amazing place to be for New Year's because there are so many old temples and shrines there. This meant a lot of walking around from temple to shrine to temple to check out all the New Year's goings-on, but it was an awesome experience.
We arrived in Kyoto two days before New Year's, to gigantic snowflakes falling.
Our room had a view of the snow dusted mountains. If you look close, you'll see a huge Japanese character (kanji, not anime) carved into the mountain.
After a 30 minute late night walk in search of food ,we spied
a few locals coming out of this place. It was an awesome sushi and tempura place
that served up a perfectly matched mini 6 course meal. The chef was a little surprised when I told him I was a vegetarian, but he managed to serve up an amazing meal that included all my favorite veggies. ^^
WORLD'S SMALLEST TRAIN! (To Arashiyama... more on that next post!)
OUR HUGE ROOM.
Then we went to see this bird...
who was on top of the Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji). Like almost everything in Kyoto, it's been burned down several times, so this latest incarnation was rebuilt after a schizophrenic monk heard voices telling him to burn it down in the 1950s. ^^'
Yeah. Everything is stupid.
Throw all your coins here. If you get one to land on a rock, you win.
One girl literally shrieked in triumph when she did it, and then entered a level of embarrassment that will probably haunt her for the rest of her days when everyone turned and stared at her.
Kyoto get super cold, so a lot of the roofs here look like this.
People lighting incense at Kinkakuji.
Very cool roof tiles...
and then this rambunctious munchkin showed up!
It was super cold, though. The ground was frozen,
but the snow covered moss looked awesome.
Come on in and sit down on your....
WAIT... Big Boy? NO. ...YES, REALLY.
Some local shrines, with places to purify your hands with water as you enter.
And now a little stroll through Kyoto's downtown...
KFC: Killer For Chicks. No, you fool! Wrong kind of chick!
The streets were usually pretty devoid of human life, especially on New Year's Eve, and especially in the Gion District, where rumor has it you can still spot some geisha if you're lucky.
Grilled rice gluten balls. Those cats do not approve.
Was worried for this guy smoking on an airplane landing strip,
but realized he would be fine once I noticed he was a Cyborg.
I'm just Her-on your window sill.
Ohhh, starting to get towards sunset!
It's my (Ben's) shrine of the boar! (His zodiac sign.)
They were pissed I never visit.
Hey, do you guys need any paper cranes? Oh, you're good.
Ok, maybe next time? ...No, pretty much good forever.
Obligatory Beatles homage.
Better than the obligatory Japanese Beatles homage when you die in a poison bag
in my mom's front yard in Virginia. (Can you tell Ben wrote this?)
Everything is just right.
This place is the cat's... mew?
Sunset over the ceramics smoke stacks.
Let us ride into that good night, usagi (bunny)!
Not as fragrant as we would've hoped.
Well, now we know where they got the idea for the flag... (except it's the land of the Rising Sun...)
Japanese grave yard
Less of a yard, more of a mountain range.
Kiyomizu-dera, the first temple we visited on our long trek. There were already couples and families coming to the temple, some of whom were in kimono!
Hey guys...
And now, the very traditional-feeling Higashiyama area at night. Beautiful.
Hokanji temple tower. As you can see, all of the bare wood and simplicity of design is so different from the Korean intricately painted temples!
This bike is awesome...
Wait, you sell meat pies here? Screw that dumb bike. (Australian meat pies, no less!)
Kimono!
I'm assuming that price no longer applies to Decapa-Geisha... (price conversion to dollars, by the way, would be moving the decimal over twice to the left).
TOTORO!
Bamboo forest on the way down from Kodaiji(?) Temple. So cool illuminated by the light.
What is this place doing here?! It's about as Japanese as a fork...
Now to the Yasaka-jinja Shrine, where the party at! So on New Year's, you can get a Luck Stick here. This will predict how your Year will go.
If you don't like it, not to worry. The monks can burn it for you.
In your face, luck.
This shrine is also where you can go to get some embers from setting fire to medicinal herbs to take home. If you cook your New Year's meal with this fire, it's supposed to bring you peace all year long. Method of transport for said embers? Light the end of a rope on fire, and then swing it around to keep it lit. Needless to say, you need to be careful in a crowd. ^^'
And Yasaka Shrine also meant STREET FOOOOOOOOD!
Dried fruit
Grilled Corn
Grilled Squid
Okonomiyaki
Fried Chicken
Tako Yaki (fried dough balls with octopus and veggies in them... an Osaka favorite.)
Umm... Sure.
Best public restroom ever.
Let's check out Chion-in temple! There's supposed to be a huge bell in here that it takes 17 monks to ring.
OK, let's go somewhere else instead. We can come back tomorrow and loot the
skeletons of the people in the back of that line.
Tori gates: I've seen bigger.
We walked all the way up to Nanzen-ji and Eikan-do temples, but needless to say, they weren't exactly bustling with people... or open at tall. This temple had an aqueduct.
This temple welcomed us with open arms.
Locals at the local shrine, chilling out around the bonfire.
Now up to Shinyodo Temple, a popular place for expats to ring in the New Year. We ended up finally finding this very quiet, isolated place with a fun Australian couple after wandering through the dark streets being terrified of by the sound of angry cats yowling. The monks here serve hot medicinal tea, and then... it's almost midnight! Time for the monks to start a fire, chant some sutras, and ring in the new year.
Traditionally, the bell is supposed to be rung 108 times to wish for good luck in the new year, and to symbolize the temptations that humans are subject to.
As the monks rang the bell, you could hear echoes of bells ringing at other temples throughout the nearby hills.
Ben ringing in the New Year with our new Australian friends, Madi and Samir!
When we turned around after ringing the bell, we saw this huge line of people to ring the bell that had silently appeared...
Monks serving tea in the courtyard of Shinyodo.
Now, back to Yasaka Shrine, which was packed with people after New Year's! This guy whipped us up some veggie Yaki Soba.
Noticing a contrast between our quiet, contemplative Buddhist bell-ringing and the crazy party-like atmosphere of the Shinto shrine at Yasaka? I think so... SO many food stands. This is heaven.
So this temple had either a bonfire or a Transformer landed here...
Hey Buddha, Happy New year! Time to go to our hotel after a long, amazing day. We finally got in about 3 am!
New Year, new hotel, same old loop. The traditional-style Aoiso Inn.
Tatami mats, low tables, screens, and all!
So, for New Year's Day, we decided... let's go to a shrine a bit farther out from the city where there are lots of torii gates and hiking trails. Surely that will be a nice, relaxing day...
Hmm, turns out that Fushimi-Inari-Taisha Shrine is one of the most popular ones to visit on New Year's... ^^
Crazy, crazy amounts of people.
This was less like a hike and more like a zombie-shuffle.
Fox spirits galore.
Hundreds and hundreds of torii gates
Ahh, and finally out of the crowds. Now out for a walk in the bamboo forest!
Bamboo and pine forest.
Hannah is so cool. AHHH Train! (Only because you made me walk on the tracks ;_;).
Some other local shrines and temples
Sooo, are you ok, lady?
This shrine had you crawl through Talisman rock as a New Year's tradition...
Back in downtown Kyoto at the river!
Now you don't have to drink your Metamucil?
To the crazy parfait place for dessert! See that crazy giant thing on the menu? That's $500.
Who needs cream when you have good old, all-natural coffee white?
Oooh, parfait!
Umm... parfait?
Also, the day after New Year's is a huge shopping day, equivalent to Black Friday from what we saw. Here's one of the subway ads advertising Bargs... I mean, Bargains.
So, here we are at the crack of dawn (literally) at Osaka airport after an exciting last day at RINKU-TOWN OUTLETS! Convenient to the Kansai airport and... as fun as it sounds...^^'
Farewell, Japan!
We have one last daytrip to show you that we took from Kyoto before New Year's to Arashiyama, so we'll be posting it soon!
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