Japan Pilgrimage II Day 2 - Guest Blogged by 浪迹天涯小狗

WARNING: Image Intensive! (As usual..)


Mistress really needs to improve on her photography skills...

Onwards into the 2nd day of the trip and already 1 casualty down! The Bird's persistent cough that she brought from SG worsen and she requests to sleep in after not getting much sleep the night before playing NDS at the stairway..(-_-;)

Satte, its the exploration of RR x Mistress x ME!

That's only for 3 hrs?


Itinerary for today is pretty much similar to Day 11 of the previous trip. (Mistress,"DUH! The same festivals are always held on 22nd Oct what!")

Oppsy

Ok, our trip today shall be Kiyomizu-dera temple - Hostel to check on the Bird - Jidai Matsuri @ Kyoto Imperial Palace - Kurama Fire Festival @ Mt Kurama..

Bus-ing around Kyoto has been a norm to us, as opposed to the previous trip, thou the 220 yen per trip is kind of ouch seeing that our JR Pass had been activated on the very first day for the 新幹線. Bus map here.

Alighted at Kiyomizu-michi stop, with Kiyomizu-dera nowhere in sight and most of the shops not opened at that kind of hour (10+ am), we "stalked" other bus takers who also alighted at the stop and "followed" in their general direction. Well, if most people are walking in the same direction, couldnt be that far wrong anyway!~

Finally we saw a signboard that says Kiyomizu-dera temple, with an arrow pointing to a small street lined with houses on both sides..


Cute little kids on excursion perhaps. Love their hats & bags!

... and climbed.. and climbed.. and climbed..

After seemingly ages (as per Mistress's scale of time when she doesn't like the activity), we reached the rows of omiage shops obviously targetted at vistors of Kiyomizu-dera.


Loads and loads of little merchandises marketed as omiages.


Otowa-san Kiyomizu-dera (音羽山清水寺)
Same spot, same shot

Niomon on the left (the bright red gate), Saimon (West gate) on the right.


3 Storey Pagoda of Kiyomizu-dera


Temizuya


轟門

This is where we pay 300 yen per person to enter into the main structure. Not expensive at all, seeing the ground that the 300 yen admission fee covers, and definitely there's things to see.


Corridor leading to the main hall
We saw troops and troops of school kids around.


Engravings on the veranda barricade, most probably donors.


Inside the main hall, where they display the temple's treasures and artefacts.




One of the various items they use for their prayers.


Deep in prayers. Bless you.


Locals dousing themselves with the incense smoke. For blessing.


Veranda crowded with visitors


Incense


View of Kyoto




Tea house for relaxation or entertaining guests, like those businessmen.


Otowa-no-taki, the branching out of the Otowa waterfall, where visitors drink for health, longevity, and wisdom. Its a long queue..



A short distance away from the main hall is Jishu-jinja, dedicated to Ōkuninushi and is popular for love blessings.


Drawing lines.. Separating boundaries..


Landmark of Jishu-jinja, the small torii gate entrance.


Ōkuninushi & rabbit


栗光稲荷


However fierce it may look, this is actually a temizuya for romance blessings.

Nope, Mistress din ask for blessings. She was too busy swapping her lens at this point..


Schoolgirls


Write your troubles down on the paper dolls and let it dissolve in the water..

Hmm... a variation of the SG doll cloggerings?


Dissolving dolls


She reminds me of a miko waving her wisp


Love Stone 恋占いの石

Like.. where the hell is the other stone? RR and Mistress were hunting for it amidst the crowd of people..

Its straight in front. You 2 probably passed it without knowing..




All the various talisman




Recording down Mistress's conquests of stairs.. That's a lot of walking/climbing for 3 hours!~


Exterior wall


Chanced upon this monk with a lady giving some alms


Also lucky to chance upon a group of kids taking their class photo.
That's a huge class there!

After the hasty walkaround of Kiyomizu-dera with the brochure stuffed inside our bags (there's like 3000 things on the web that we din see!~), we proceeded back to the bus stop to head back to the hostel, hoping to catch a glimpse of Jidai Matsuri that's happening over at Kyoto Imperial Palace.


Squeezing our way through the crowded street, drawn into the shops ever so often by the cute omiages.


Cream puff that we tried.
The cream was pretty nice, but Mistress prefers Beard Papa..


Ryomaden.. still

Popped into a pharmacy that was near the end of the shopping street and tried to ask for some medications for cough/cold symptoms. RR had to use her friendly japanese phase book that she borrowed to point to the pharmist. Was recommended a bottle of tablets which doesnt seem to be very effective.

And we realised that Japan doesnt sell the all-powerful Vicks Vaporub!


Durarara!~ HAHA

After a good morning sleep, the bird was feeling well enuff to join us for the rest of the day, that is, not before we forced her to take a concoction of medications and wear a mask!


Mistress's fav junction again


Kyoto Station

We boarded yet another bus bound for Kyoto Imperial Palace where the procession is already underway, but alas!, we got stuck in the slow moving jam at Shijo street for close to 45 min due to road closure for the festival. Scrapped our Jidai Matsuri plans as by the time we reach, the parade would have been a done deal, and got off at the next bus stop to head for Nishiki Food Market.


Kyoto street.. somewhere


Noticed this "art work" at one of the streets in the middle of a canal.

Ermm.. weird.


Another "art work"

Only realised that we were at the wrong side of the street after walking around randomly and not seeing any big markets in sight. So we walked back to Shijo street to explore the other side.


Frog Barriers. Very outstanding amidst the shopping stretch of Shijo-Dori.
And they're really capable of bringing a smile to people's faces!


Spotted! UFO machine full of OP!

Mistress has most of those Strong Worlds, and the quality here isnt good.
Anyway, she'll rather buy full set then play the game of chance. Wahahha~


Crisscross crisscross..


Teramachi Shopping Street
Full of little shops selling what nots. Clothes and accessories seem to dominate, with a couple of eateries.


Yums! And spotted Chopperman in the background~


Yet another UFO machine filled with OP.
Have no use for these..

Walked to Nishiki Food Market at the next street, which RR has been wanting to visit.

As per the name, it resembles a wet market of Singapore (some parts of the floors are wet), just neater and without the stink.

A lot a lot of food stuff.


Preserving veggies. Those stuff looks like miso.


Preserved fishies


Went into this shop selling all the meow stuff.






The bunch of us were both astonished and grossed out by this.
Egg in tako? how? squeeze in? Eeewwwwww!






Veggies for sale.


Random obasan in traditional wear buying egg rolls.


Wasn't to Mistress's expectations..


Mistress took a while to order these.
And she only wanted a normal original one! Out came a cheese takoyaki..


Kimchi?

Bus-ed again to Demachi-Yanagi Station (I believe. Cant remember), and alighted again into a quiet street. Have totally NO IDEA where the station is and had to walk and ask. The sky already looks like 8pm in SG and Mistress is seriously dreading the crowd..

Surprisingly the ride up was pretty ok. Crowded but we managed to get into the next train that arrives and stand for the climb up the mountain with a bunch of exchange students in front of us. Probably bcos we were damn late!

Wasn't that bad for the walk from Mt Kurama as well, until we reached the road where the Kurama Fire Festival procession was held.


Cute cosplay dog that was distracting attention away from the parade, thou I'm still cuter...
Ahemm..



The queue of humans along the side of the road was very long and the police had to become temporary traffic lights to control the crowd.


Festival of the Recording Devices

We were actually blinded at this place since the animals are all below 161cm.. So all they were doing were to 1) lift camera up, 2) aim general direction, 3) press shutter.. HAHA. A monopod + shutter release cable would be good..








The guys are to carry the huge taimatsu along the streets and to the shrine..



We were more adventurous this time round and we managed to follow most of the procession trail, or rather, be squeezed and shoved from one portion of the town to the other portion of the town. But we still see no jinja..








Saireiya, Sairyo!
Note the firemen standing by..






An accidental panning shot




Taking a break

The crush back was horrendous. The 3 animals were shoved and squashed and pushed all the way back to the queue for the train. People mountain people sea would be a minute description compared to this..


Mistress was annoyed that she got pushed from the 1m ledge, almost tripping her over but definitely bruising her ankle against the concrete that.. well.. she on her DSLR flash and flashed at the people behind.. "innocently".. WAHAHHA~


It does looks like the village is on fire~


The long long LONG queue for the train..


Having a nose to nose talk with Tengu

Finally got our feet into the train after maybe 1 hour of jostling and queuing and we were squished in the train with only others for support.


Spotted this train conductor who was doing his flag dance and actually patiently waiting for passengers to board.


Conan poster!

Japan has a knack for putting manga characters as ambassadors, like K-On is endorsing Lawson, etc.




Kyoto Station at night

A very tiring day indeed. Especially after the Battle on Mt Kurama. Never again, says the Mistress. Twice is definitely more than enuff. The festival is fun but the crowd part is definitely not!