Kyoto Day 1

We are finally posting photos from our trip to Kyoto. Kyoto was the Imperial Capital of Japan from 794-1868. With 2000 religious places, including 1600 Buddhist temples, 400 Shinto shrines, palaces, gardens and other architecture intact, it is one of the best preserved cities in Japan.

This is the thousand Tori site. I don't know what the historical significance of this place was, but it was sure cool. Tori's usually mark the front of a Shinto shrine, and symbolically represent the transition from sacred to profane. This place in Kyoto had at least a thousand Toris. The walk goes for at least 2-3 hours if you do the whole thing (we walked for about 30 minutes, and then turned around as it was getting late).

This was To-ji temple. The pagoda stands 55 m tall and is the tallest wooden building in Japan. The temple itself dates back to 796. This was one of the many places I wish we could read Japanese. The temples were filled with Buddhist statues that looked like they were over a thousand years old. When we walked inside the pagoda, it smelled "old" if you know what I mean. It was surrounded by beautiful gardens with ponds filled with koi and turtles. The rain was a little bit of a bummer on the first day, but otherwise it was really awe inspiring.

This was the food I envisioned before moving to Japan. We found a couple of places where no one spoke English where Bre would duck her head inside of some wood doors and ask if we could eat there. Everyone was so nice and they loved Chase. We are sitting on the ground here with our shoes off of course. Chase is playing with his belly button in photo one while I am trying some tofu (the only thing I didn't like). The tempura, Spanish Mackerel, udon noodles and ramen were all delicious!

Few things in this world make Chase happier than birds. A nice Japanese man gave Chase some seeds to feed the pigeons.

The Japanese have "dry landscaping". This practice began centuries ago and is used to symbolically represent the environment. Zen priests often rake the sand to help their concentration.

This was the love stone at Kiyomizu-dera, another Buddhist temple. As the story goes, if you can walk between the two stones (18 m apart) with your eyes closed and find the second stone without help, you will soon find love. Chase cheated!

Some of the sites from Kiyomizu-dera, a Buddhist temple in Kyoto. The temple was built in the 700s, but the current buildings were restored in the 1600s. Still sounds pretty old to me! This was a gorgeous temple tucked into the forest in the hillside.