Tiny clams in the miso soup this morning!
After our breakfast (the first one that repeated), we took cabs to the station rather than trying to navigate the bus with our bags for an 0903 train. The express train only made one stop between Kanazawa and Kyōto at Fukui.
The landscape between Kanazawa and Fukai was the usual mix of homes, industry and rice paddies, but after Fukui, the tracks went through a series of hills to reach Kyōto. We went looking for lunch at Kyōto station and located the restaurants on the eleventh floor as described in Mike’s Kyōto guidebook. I chose the restaurant based on wanting what Mike had for dinner the night before, a breaded, fried pork cutlet. The menu included pork, pork, and more pork – and some other stuff (like chicken and seafood) – and it hit the spot.
Returning down eleven stories worth of escalators, we schlepped our bags to our lodgings, another ryokan, and dropped our bags in our rooms (which weren’t quite ready).
We walked the short distance to the Hongan-ji temple and walked around the grounds and looked into the temple. A couple of buildings were undergoing renovation and were enclosed by even larger corrugated steel structures while the work was being completed. From the shrine we walked a couple blocks to the temple gardens – the Shōsei-en Garden. While not as extensive or elaborate as the one in Kanazawa, it was pleasant and had a whole congregation of herons in residence. Most of them were settled in the top of a tree, but a few were spread around the garden.
We closed the garden (1600) and returned to the ryokan to run some laundry while we finished off the bottle of sake Mason had bought at the sake brewery in Takayama. Then we had a beer from the vending machine while the clothes were in the dryer.
Afterwards we did an evening walk through Gion, the district of the geishas. Starting at a temple painted a striking vermillion, we walked down streets lined with houses of classic Japanese architecture. A number of alleys were narrow and car-free. We looked for the pancake house listed in Mike’s guidebook but the establishment seemed to be gone. So we crossed the river and walked up another narrow street lined with restaurants looking for a likely candidate for dinner. The only absolute was to pick one on the river side of the street in hopes of getting a river view. Alas the one we chose seated us (Japanese style on the floor) over the street, but the food was tasty. We split a bottle of red wine which helped anaesthetize my hips and knees.
Tiny clams in the miso soup this morning!
Looking down a street in Kyōto.
Jonathan checking into the ryokan.
The Hongun-ji temple was rather large, and no sight lines allowed me to show the entire building.
A dragon supplying water for the ritual bathing on ones' hands before entering the temple.
These superstructures protected the building undergoing renovation.
Juxtaposing old with new.
I found these chandeliers interesting constructs.
Mike, Cindy, and Mason wandering down the veranda of the temple.
Gold decorations on the doors.
The Shōsei-en Garden.
One of several bridges in the garden.
Jonathan seeking a good sight line.
This path led to the edge of the pond teeming with water lilies.
A grey heron perched in the tree - I don't even remember taking this photo, but there it was.
A pair of water lily blooms.
A tea house.
Mason and Mike crossing another bridge.
Jonathan follows.
Another heron at pond side.
The alley in the Gion district was lined with restaurants.
Another view - after we had eaten dinner.