Kyoto

We decided to go to Kyoto for a second time this past Saturday since we hoped to see more of the leaves changing colour.  One of the things to do in Japan is to go look at the leaves changing colour in the Fall (it's called "koyo") and to go look at the cherry blossoms in the Spring.

We disembarked from the train in Kyoto and set off to find the subway, after following one wrong path to the end we headed back the way we came and walked through this underground mall in Kyoto station.  All the stores are decorated for Christmas here now.  We found the subway and tried unsuccessfully to purchase a ticket.  After struggling, we turned to a person waiting to use the machine and she informed us that we needed to buy a one day ticket from a person at the counter and not from the machine.  After which we were on our way.  We didn't end up using the one day subway tickets as much as we planned, but we did get a discount with them at the castle which made up for it.
We started off the day by going to Nijo-jo Castle.  Along with getting a discount, we also got a free poster.  I accidentally pointed to the bigger one in a slight communication lapse which resulted in Adam having to carry the rolled up poster around with great care the entire day.  Unfortunately it started to rip throughout the day, nonetheless when it started to rain, he tucked it into his coat to keep the rain off.  With what care did he carry that poster!  Anyways, we really should have opened it earlier to see what the poster was, we just assumed it would be a nice picture of the castle.  Well, it turned out to have a picture of the castle gate with very large anime type people occupying the majority of the space.  We were a little disappointed.

So back to the castle.  You can't take any pictures inside the castle and lots of it is under repair/restoration.  This castle was cool since all the walls and roofs were painted.  It also had these "nightingale" floors that creek when you walk on them.  So any guests of the Shogun would be heard moving around.  (The Shogun was a warlord who had unified Japan.  The Shogunate was then passed down through the sons of the family.) I was surprised how loud the floors were and also how the "creeking" wasn't an annoying sound, it was more of a singing sound.  I guess the Shogun didn't spend very much time at this fancy castle though.

The Castle had quite nice gardens that we explored.  One of the trees in the grounds was a type of tree that survived the atomic bomb on Hiroshima (as you can read from the sign).  At first we thought it was this other tree and thought that it really had looked like a survivor.  :)  We ate our picnic lunch of falafel in pitas on a bench in the gardens.

 

The tree we thought has survived the atomic bomb.

The tree that actually survived the atomic bomb.

 After lunch, we headed out with our metro passes to the Cathedral in downtown Kyoto.  Leave it to us to visit a cathedral in a city covered in Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines.  After some prayer time we headed back out into the elements (it was a little windy and chilly) to find a bus to take us to Kinkaku-ji Temple (AKA the Golden Pavillion).  After successfully (in my mind) having asked a lady about a bus to said temple, we crossed the street and lo and behold as we were looking at all the bus stops a bus drove up that was going to the temple.  We boarded the bus and were lucky enough to get to sit down.

When I was researching places in Kyoto, the writers talked about how crowded Kyoto is everywhere and to try to go on days where it won't be as crowded.  The castle wasn't crowded at all, but the Golden Pavillion sure was.  Unfortunately, we tried to take pictures without showing the crowds and so they don't really do the experience justice.  We walked around enjoying the fall foliage and looking around when suddenly we found ourselves outside the temple enclosure.  This tourist site is smartly designed to get people moving in and out while following a one track route.  Luckily, we still had our tickets, so we just went back through the main gate again.  (It would've been hard going back up against the movement of the crowd the other way.)

The Golden Pavillion

Sunday, we were having Father Rey from the parish over for lunch/supper which ended up being more like brunch.  English Mass was at 2pm, and afterwards Father came with us to our home.  We ended up eating at around 4pm.  We made hash browns, chicken breakfast sausages, and pancakes.  So it was more like brunch.  We had a really nice visit and we got our house blessed which was wonderful.

My last blog post, I talked about how I'm improving my cooking skills, here's a couple photos.

Homemade falafel with homemade pita bread.

My first attempt at sushi (with cooked fish).

We have an elderly gentleman as a neighbour.  He brought us these persimmons to dry by hanging them on our window railing.  We have to wait a month before they're ready to eat.  I guess if you don't dry this kind of persimmon they taste awful.  Earlier, he brought us persimmons that we can just eat right away too.