Kyoto Day 2

We tried very hard to get the girls to choose activities and places to visit on this trip to Kyoto. Given that it was 8 years ago that we last visited, both girls have some memories of that trip but they wanted to return to some of those places again. On today's itinerary - resize Ella's ring (the shop was too busy yesterday afternoon); a micro pig cafe; Niskihi market and Teramachi arcade; Kinkaku - ji Temple and possibly Nijo Castle.

The micro pig cafe was booked for 10.30am allowing for a slower start to the morning. We arrived upstairs to the cafe and found another Australian family already enjoying the pigs. Funnily most of the pigs were piled upon each other on one of the boys laps! As their time wound up, the littlest pigs made their way over to Katy and soon Katy had 6 pigs snuggled in her lap! The big dad pig plonked himself in Andy's lap and consequently fell fast asleep and didn't move! Ella and I had various littler pigs come and go as they pleased. The pigs all had names not that we could remember any of them. Surprisingly they were toilet trained - going to the toilet in a plastic tray in the corner! Certainly an experience to remember.

From the micro pigs, Ella got her ring resized while Katy did more shopping! After finding each other again and then loosing Ella, we made our way along the very crowded Nishiki Markets. This covered food market displays an abundance of weird and wonderful seafood plus endless restaurants to sample these goodies.

We exited out the other side deciding to find somewhere quieter for lunch. We found a good udon fast food type cafeteria which was great. Over lunch, we decided to visit Nijo Castle prior to taking a long bus trip to Kinkaku-ji.

Nijo Castle was built in 1603 by the Tokugawa leyasu, the first shogun of the Edo Period. After the Tokugawa Shogunate fell in 1867, the Nijo Castle was used as an Imperial Palace. Entering via the Higashi One-mon Gate (the east gate), we circumnavigated the Castle grounds. The impressive Kara-mon Gate stands at the entrance to the Ninomaru-goten Palace.

The Ninomaru-goten Palace consisted of 6 connected buildings arranged in a diagonal line from the southeast to the northwest. It has 33 rooms with the potential for 800+ tatami mats. The seniority or nobility of a visitor would permit which building / room they would be allowed access to.

The tour of this palace was a one way route, passing by each building admiring the large (replica) paintings on the walls, sliding doors (fusuma) and ceilings. Images which stress authority were painted and included animals - tigers, leopards, hawk, geese, egrets, and flora - pine trees, cypress, flowering cherry trees, plum trees, willows and maples.

Through the Ninomaru Gardens, we crossed the inner moat to the Honmaru-goten Palace. This Palace was built and destroyed a few times. The current Palace was completed in 1894 and was used by various Emperors. Skirting around this building and making our way through the Honmaru Gardens we climbed remnants of the Keep Tower for panoramic views of the Castle. It was cold up on the tower so we didn't stay long. The route out was over the inner moat via the west bridge before continuing our circumnavigation on the north side of the Castle back to the east gate.

Keen to get warm and catch the next scheduled bus, we walked briskly to the bus stop. Japanese bus etiquette involved entering the bus via the back door and paying as you depart via the front door. We successfully neogaitated this process and were glad to be in the warmth for the 25 minute bus ride.

Kinkaku- ji was only a short walk from the bus stop. As we arrived late in the afternoon, it seemed that the  tourists were thinning out. Last time we were here, is had snowed which apparently is very lucky and all the local plus the tourists were out making it very busy! The Kinkaku-ji is a Zen temple that began as a vacation home by the reigning 14th century shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. Over time, the Golden Pavilion was built with each of the three stories displaying unique architectural styles and this current one was reconstructed 1955 (after previous one had burnt down on numerous occasions). The Golden Pavilion overlooks the Kyoko-chi Pond, or the mirror pond, which reflects the building beautifully. Within the mirror pond are 10 islands with rock, plant and bridge composition reflecting famous places in Chinese and Japanese literature. Anyway the Golden Temple and gardens were looking splendid today. It didn't take long to walk through and find our way back to the bus stop for the ride home. Another great day done.