Kyoto and onto Kanazawa

Greg was ready to continue on to Kanazawa this morning, but I didn't feel like we were finished seeing Kyoto.  Because of the poor weather on our Kyoto day yesterday and the early closing of the Nijo castle, we weren't able to see as much as I had wanted to.

Entering Nijo Castle complex.

The weather was much better today.  The sun was out, and it it wasn't raining. We took advantage of the weather and spent the morning and early afternoon sightseeing in Kyoto before we got on the Thunderbird Limited Express to Kanazawa.

So today, we bought another day pass for the bus and hopped on the bus that said "Nijo-jo." The castle was open during normal hours today for the first time since the New Year.  Unlike the Imperial Palace, we were actually allowed to go inside one of the palaces, Ninomaru.

Ninomaru Palace.

As we entered, the shoe/slipper attendant directed us to remove our shoes. She asked if we wanted slippers.  We did and she brought us each a pair of blue slippers.  Apparently, the palace provides two sizes of slippers: normal (brown) and big (blue).  Almost everyone (men included) wore brown slippers.  I felt very self-conscious wearing the big slippers.

Anyway, after we took off our shoes and put on the provided slippers, we began the self-guided tour of the palace.  Mannequins in traditional dress were set up in several of the chambers, so we were able to better envision how the rooms would have been used.  We were especially impressed with the paintings on the screen walls and doors.

Ninomaru Palace was an elaborately decorated structure intended to impress visitors with the power and riches of the shoguns.  There were even two or three visitor waiting rooms, all with exquisitely painted wall and door panels.

We finished our tour of Ninomaru Palace, put on our shoes, and left to explore the Castle grounds and to find Honmaru Palace.

Greg and I on castle grounds.

Honmaru Palace. We were unable to enter this building.

Unfortunately, we were unable to enter Honmaru Palace.  Originally, Honmaru was similar to Ninomaru.  The building used to be a part of a palace called Katsura Palace before it was relocated to its current location.

We decided that the sign probably meant, "No climbing."

While exploring castle grounds, we twice ran into this "No scribbling" sign.  We could only guess that the sign referred to climbing, "No climbing here," or possibly trespassing, "No trespassing."  Graffiti doesn't seem to be an issue here in Japan; we've only seen graffiti once on this trip.

We exited castle grounds and took the bus to our final Kyoto destination: the golden Kinkaku-ji Temple.

Kinkaku-ji Temple

Kinkaku-ji Temple, or Temple of the Golden Pavilion is a zen Buddhist temple  in northwestern Kyoto. The Golden Palace's history began in 1397 when a shogun purchased a villa and transformed it into Kinkaku Palace.  The palace is "golden" because the structure is coated with gold-leaf.  The golden building was converted into a Zen Buddhist temple after the shogun died as he wished.

Like much of Japan's early period architecture, Kikaku-ju was destroyed and rebuilt.  The Golden Palace survived several centuries and World War II, but was burned down in 1950 by a novice monk.  Five years later, the pavilion was rebuilt as close as possible to original specifications.

Kinkaku-ji Temple

Garden at Kinkaku-ji Temple

Kinkaku-ji Temple

Good luck coin toss at Kinkaku-ji Temple

Greg spent some time and yen trying to throw a coin into the bowl for good luck. He didn't make it, but another girl did a couple minutes after Greg ran out of small change.

After visiting Kinkaku-ji Temple, we decided it was time to travel to Kanazawa.  The sun sets so early in Japan!  We left Kyoto in the early afternoon, but by the time we arrived at the ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) in Kanazawa, it was already dark.  Although it was still early, we weren't able to visit anything.

Our ryokan room in Kanazawa.

We had decided to stay at a traditional Japanese inn, or ryokan, at least once during our trip.   So for our two nights in Kanazawa, we booked a six tatami mat room.  Greg was really excited to arrive and get settled in.  As excited as we were to be staying at a traditional inn, the room was freezing, and therefore miserable.  There were controls on the wall for the machine we suspected was the heater (but could have been an air conditioner), so Greg went down to reception to ask how the heater (if it was one) worked.


The ryokan owners did not speak English, but somehow Greg was able to communicate that we were freezing and needed heat.  Greg had a strange experience.  He followed the husband downstairs to the basement and into a storage area.  After some time and creepiness, Greg was finally provided with a small, old  space heater.  Greg brought the heater upstairs to our room.  I had been waiting in the room, freezing.  We plugged in the space heater and I sat in front of it while Greg recounted the story of acquiring the heater and played with the controls on the wall.

After mashing some buttons with kanji symbols on them, Greg finally figured out how to turn on the heater in the room.  The owner must not have understood Greg when he was asking about the heater controls.  He must have thought we were asking for an additional heater.  If only there had been directions in English in the first place!

 

Our ryokan room in Kanazawa.

Finally warm enough to move, we unfolded our beds and got ready to go to sleep.