You must be this tall to ride the Yasaka Shrine

Okay get ready! We got out the camera again last weekend! That was just one of the more entertaining shots from our trip to the Gion district of Kyoto, the historical stomping grounds of the those famous Japanese not-quite-prostitutes-but-what-else-can-you-call-them, the Geisha.

But before that, we spent a day at home talking on the phone and doing chores.

In the evening we decided we should really get some fresh air so we decided to go down to the lake again. On the way out the door we found something in the mailbox.


What’s this? It looks like the Giesbrechts took notice and decided to play the role of the faraway parents as well. Only it doesn’t look like they’ve heard of bubble envelopes


The contents – mostly from Grandma, actually. A little crumbly but still very edible.


Down by the lake it was a little chilly but luckily we’d bought some nice touques and as the sun set it made for a nice quiet walk.

After about half an hour of strolling, we strolled right up to the Otsu Prince Hotel. This place is like a giant half-cylinder and a giant landmark visible for miles on either side of the lake. We decided that, as foreigners, we probably wouldn’t get any trouble if we went in and explored a little, so we did! There were a lot of cute Christmas displays around in the lobby – in and amongst various water fountains and boutiques. We headed up the escalators to the conference floors and used the bathrooms. Then into the elevator, we headed for floor 38 (out of 40 – the top two of which are probably private suites...) to check out the view and the menu of the French Restaurant which is up there.


The view was pretty good.

And of course after that we were hungry so we walked back into town and to the Italian restaurant in the big department store – the same place where we went that day the money got stolen from our mailbox! I guess we were determined to prove to ourselves that we were over it. That, or the food is just really good.


Bellissimo!

Alright, and now to the good stuff. You’ve probably been skimming all this ever since I mentioned prostitutes, anyaway ;) But first things first.

It was a beautiful, sunny Kyoto day. Right out of the subway, we walked along a willow-lined canal with various little bridges and potted flowers alongside it.




Careful, ladies! Apparently there have been women here who’ve climbed Mt Fuji in high heels. It doesn’t surprise me one bit.


Chris loved this setup. “Umm – could I get you to move your car?”

Okay, we’ve reached the end of the canal. First stop – the Yasaka Shrine.


“Now, just ring the little bell while mommy and daddy pray, okay?


On one side, the peaceful shrine – on the other, Shijo Street. Such contrasts in this country.


Oh, and these are two really old ladies who were pulling weeds in the bushes. They kind of scared me.

Next stop – Maruyama park. This place was really cute. I’m sure it’s much better in the spring or summer, but the dead winter atmosphere made it kind of interesting as well.


We haven’t decided yet whether the crows here are giant, or they just look big in relation to everything else.


This one guy was feeding them on the bridge. They were jumping up like dogs to catch the breadcrumbs. Very creepy.


This one guy decided to feed the pidgeons and they basically attacked him. It was kind of funny – I’m sure Hitchcock would have loved this place.


Hitchcock or Tim Burton – take your pick.


Chris actually crossed this stream by jumping from one rock to another. All while he was holding our 900-dollar camera. I closed my eyes.


The back of the park led uphill, it was really nice

We climbed up those stairs and were led to a whole other series of hillside temple compounds. We visited whatever was free. I think this one was called Chorakuji. I wish I could have recorded the chanting monks you could hear inside.


I’m sorry, your feet must be this small to enter the temple.


Some funeral must have happened there in the afternoon because there were a lot of flowers in this outdoor chapel(?). If I could have somehow recorded the smell of the incense, I would have done it too.

How do I know it was a funeral, do you ask? We didn’t really know at first, but as we headed out the opposite gate, we came across this





In case you haven’t guessed, it’s a cemetery. The biggest one I’ve ever seen. There were maps and signs posted everywhere so you didn’t get lost. We started at the bottom, and, of course, climbed as high as we could go.


Can you find Jen?


Can you?

 
There she is!


Please don’t smite me... I was just sweeping!

That was really the coolest place of the day, but we had to move on. From there it was just a short walk to the touristyist of touristy places in Kyoto – Gion.

Of course touristy places are usually touristy for a reason, so they're usually also still pretty cool, and this was. Incredibly cute, of course. I’m pretty sure that “Memoirs of a Geisha” was filmed here. And we actually saw Geisha too – four of them, all together with bright red kimonos, white makeup, ridiculous platform sandals and everything. Of course they could have just been regular girls dressed up for shits and giggles and we’d never know the difference. I want to believe they were real Geisha so I will. I mean they were acting really proper and stuff so it was good enough for me. We didn’t take pictures, figured it would have been a little rude, but it was still really cool.

Other than that, the most fun we had was going in and out of the souvenir shops.


“Mi-ya-sa-ma mi-ya-sa-ma o-no-ma-no-may-a-nee”

There were people all over the place and the shops were handing out all kinds of samples. This was one of the more disgusting ones:


Yes, those are really tiny dried fish.



I still don’t know why I did it. Luckily they were handing out cinnamon sweets and black tea just around the corner so I recovered quickly from that.

And last but not least, at the end of tourist-road we arrived at the pride and joy of Kyoto, the Kiyomizu temple. We didn’t pay to go inside or anything and we were too tired by this point walk around the back side, but the sun was going down so we just sat and watched it from up on the hill. We’ll come back with the family and see the rest.







And that was last weekend in a (pretty big and photo-filled) nutshell. After one more rather grueling week of teaching, we’re off again and officially on holidays until January 4th! Today actually happens to be Christmas Day and by the time most of you read this it will be Christmas for you too. So Merry Christmas – and more about that next time.