Kyoto in the Rain

Yesterday I arrived at Kyoto around noon, still exhausted from spending the day before exploring Osaka. Although I really wanted to just rest, I decided I needed to make the best of my afternoon and get started on seeing the sights of Kyoto.

First, I decided to walk over to Nishiki Food Market with the goals of seeing some interesting food items and finding some lunch. The market didn’t disappoint on either of those fronts. I saw vegetables for sale that I didn’t know existed. I saw tiny octopuses on sticks, like lollipops. I saw fish, spices, grains, blue pickles, tofu donuts (which I quickly purchased and ate--- yumm!)… all kinds of amazing foods. Nishiki is definitely a place to check out if you ever find yourself in Kyoto. For lunch I ended up eating Kakiage, which is basically a tempura cake that is fried and served on a stick. Mine had sweet potato, pumpkin, and carrot in it, and it was delish. And as I mentioned before, I also had some amazing tofu donuts.

But on to the real reason that Kyoto is such a high-ranking place on any tourist’s list. Kyoto is a very spread-out city that is very famous for all of its beautiful temples and gardens. So I hopped on a bus and began the trek to Kinkuji temple, one of Kyoto’s more famous temples. Of course, it started raining halfway through my bus ride… well, I reasoned, Kinkuji is supposed to be really stunning… so I decided to suffer through the rain for a chance to check this place out. And let me just say, it was totally worth it. Kinkuji is often called the “golden pavilion,” and you can see why from the photos. The temple is just gorgeous, and even though it looks beautiful in the photos, please believe me when I say that the photos don’t even begin to do it justice. What is really amazing is how the water surrounding the temple reflects the temple’s image, so it looks like a double-whammy of beautiful amazingness. My photos don’t demonstrate that because the rain was messing up the reflection, so CLICK HERE to take a look at someone else's photo to see what I’m talking about.

Because it was raining out, I figured I would at least be able to do my sightseeing without being approached by groups of students constantly wanting to take photos and talk in English. Not so. The rain didn’t deter them one bit; I’m beginning to think that I’m more of a cultural attraction than all of these temples I’ve been going to visit. Maybe I should start charging a fee to pose for photos, perhaps payable in rice dumplings, kakiage, and tofu donuts. Hah!

After doing my speed-walk through Kinkuji, I quickly made the trek to Ryōan-ji
temple on foot. Ryōan-ji is most famous for its stone garden, and people crowded around to sit and stare at the wondrous sight of some big ass rocks sitting in a field of carefully-raked gravel. I personally did not see the big appeal there, but some other parts of Ryōan-ji were really beautiful.
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After the long bus ride back to my hostel in more central Kyoto, I cleaned up, grabbed some dinner, and made my way over to Gion, which is the most famous and highest-ranking Geisha district in Japan. More on that experience in my next post—stay tuned!!