Nov. 20 – Kyoto

This morning we headed for the train station to go to Kyoto and to the shogun palace.  A 50 minute train ride took a little over an 1 ½ hours due to some problems on the tracks.  Usually trains are very punctual in Japan.

Nijo Castle

We visited the Nijo Castle that was home to the Shogun in 1623.  The whole fortification houses several building and gardens covering over 275,000 sq. meters.  One of the most striking features of the Palace was the "nightingale floors" in the hallways. To protect the occupants from sneak attacks and assassins, the builders constructed the floors of the hallways in such a way as to squeak like birds when anyone walks on them.  The surrounding gardens were showing off their autumn colors and they were gorgeous.

Gardens of Nijo Castle

Gardens of Nijo Castle

After our self-tour of the castle, we boarded a city bus and headed for the Gion section of town and the home of a couple of the temples that were recommended as must sees. 

The first adventure was riding a Kyoto city bus.  It is not the ride as much as it is the crowd on the bus.  The buses are packed literally and you enter in the rear door and have to make you way to the front of the bus when you exit.  The Japanese are very good at moving a little closer together when the bus stops to let people from the back squeeze through to get to the front door, pay their fee, and exit.

Keyomizu Temple

We made our way to the Keyomizu Temple sitting on the side of a mountain on the eastern side of Kyoto.  It is also called the pink temple.  Again the gardens were very beautiful as was the temple buildings and the view of the city especially with the fall colors in full display.

We were unable to visit another site because we had to get back to Kobe and the ship.  We sail tonight for Yokohama.







 

Gardens of Keyomizu Temple




Gardens of Keyomizu Temple