We Made It! (It's a Trip Part 2 .0)

We arrived! After that close call in Sendai everything else went smoothly with our flight to Osaka (Kansai Int'l Airport) and our train to Kyoto! Details about our hotel and transportation are at the bottom of the post.

So why go all the way to Kyoto? To see temple after shrine after temple, eat some delicious food and hopefully get eyes on a real life geisha! And because it's on my list of "must-do's," we've been in Japan exactly 1 year as of today and that in itself is cause for a trip-celebration! But is it really a celebration? We've been here a year already?!? Yikes! It's going sooo fast, too fast!! We've gotta keep busy if we wanna see as much as possible in our time here, especially since we've got a deployment coming up for 2015! So getting back on track...Kyoto was the capital city of Japan from 794-1868. It is full of history, shrines and temples. It was spared air raids and an atomic bomb during WWII due to it's cultural and historical significance. 

After we got checked into the hotel we started exploring! I had somewhat of a plan for our days in Kyoto, some based on my own research and some based on suggestions from a knowledgeable Japanese friend.

Today we visited Toji Temple, Sanjusangendo and had an AMAZING dinner at HAFUU!

Yellow- Kyoto Station. Red- hotel (Sakura Terrace).
Blue- Toji Temple. Light Blue- Sanjusangendo.
Brown- HAFUU. Pink- Fishbowl.

First stop...Toji Temple "East Temple" was built when Kyoto became the capital city (around 794) and was one of two guardian temples of the Imperial Palace. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Additional history, location and admission information (price varies by season) can be found at: http://www.toji.or.jp/en/about/index.html

GPS coordinates: 34.981558, 135.747467

Pagoda at Toji Temple, rebuilt in 1644, at
57 meters it is the tallest pagoda in Japan.

Nandaimon Gate of Toji Temple.

Keenan at Nandaimon Gate.

Me and the Kondo (Main Hall) of Toji Temple.
Rebuilt most recently in 1603.

Lots of ducklings swimming around...

Stop 2...Rengeo-in "Hall of the Lotus King" or Sanjusangendo "hall with 33 spaces between the columns," houses 1,001 statues of Kannon (Buddhist goddess of mercy). In the center of the main building is one large statue, on each side there are 500 human sized statues, each of which was hand carved from cypress then coated in lacquer. The temple and statues were first constructed in 1164, but due to fire were rebuilt in 1266. Only 124 of the original 1,001 Kannon statues survived, the rest had to be replaced. The main hall is 120 meters long, the longest wooden structure in Japan.

Admission is ¥600 per person, location, hours and other info can be found here: http://www.sanjusangendo.jp/ 

GPS coordinates: 34.988152, 135.771702

Photos were not allowed inside the hall. I borrowed this image from
the official website (http://www.sanjusangendo.jp/)
to give a glimpse of the 1,001 statues.

Did I mention it's a long building? 120 meters!

Here's where I get confused...it's a
Buddhist temple, but there's a torii gate!
Ahh, torii gates are part of the Shinto religion!
Just shows how the religions merged in some
ways hundreds of years ago I guess?

We headed back to the hotel to rest a little and get ready before heading out to dinner.

Our hotel, Sakura Terrace.

Crazy big room compared to most Japanese rooms we've
had thus far!

Just a place across the street from the hotel.

A few brews we decided to check out...

Free happy hour drinks at the hotel!

Alien crossing?? Or the Jolly Green Giant crossing??

Our dinner deserved a post of it's own...you can view it at BEST STEAK EVER? Wagyu at HAFUU!

After dinner we stopped in at Fishbowl for a nightcap...unfortunately we stayed too late and the subway had stopped running for the night at 23:30 so we had to take a cab to the hotel. Oops!
GPS coordinates: 35.010378, 135.770708 (7F of The Empire Building)

Getting to Kyoto from Osaka: I used Google maps to find the soonest/fastest/cheapest train option. We used JR lines and had to make only one transfer in Osaka, it cost around ¥2,000 per person. There were several other options as well.

Orange- Kansai Int'l. Rest of markers- Kyoto.
See above for close up Kyoto map.

Where we stayed: Sakura Terrace, http://www.expedia.co.jp/en/Kyoto-Hotels-Sakura-Terrace. I booked our hotel using Expedia.com, it was a great location and reasonably priced (¥8,000/night). The room was over 200 sq ft which is almost twice the size of other Japanese hotel rooms we've stayed in and it was a queen sized bed versus the typical double (not quite full size). It was one stop away from Kyoto Station on the Karasuma subway line, the subway exit/entrance was directly outside of the hotel and it was right by bus stops on a couple of the main lines.

GPS coordinates: 34.980054, 135.759457

How we got around Kyoto: We did a TON of walking...miles upon miles. The buses and subway got us close to our destinations, but usually not quite all the way. We purchased bus/subway passes for ¥2,000 per person for 2 day passes at the Tourist Office at Kyoto Station. One day passes were also available for ¥1,200. Individually, subway rides are ¥210+ and bus rides are ¥230, we definitely got our money's worth with the passes.

Up next: 10,000+ Torii Gates?! Fushimi Inari Shrine (It's a Trip Part 3.0)