Caught the train from Takayama to Kyoto, via Nagoya. Settled in to our townhouse (called a machiya) conveniently located just south of the main station. It was great to have some space to spread out and be in Japanese style accommodation. Learning to respect the tatami mats, wear toilet shoes, fold up the futon every day.
First evening we had dinner in Pontocho on the west bank of the Kama-gawa river. It was resplendent in blossom, beautifully lit.
Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan from 794 until 1868. It has a bewildering array of World Heritage monuments. There are 13 temples, three shrines, and one castle. These 17 sites have a total 198 buildings and 12 gardens. So there’s plenty to see.
If you’re prepared to take the time, Kyoto is best approached in five districts. We spent our first and last days in the Central district, north then south of the central station. We spent an amazing day in the Eastern district of Higashiyama, a day visiting the Western district of Arashiyama, and a day visiting the famous temples of the Northern district. Even though we spent a week in Kyoto we didn’t have enough time to visit the Southern district.
If you have the chance to visit Kyoto, go for as long as you can. It will be worth it.
The first day was very wet so we explored areas close to our townhouse.
Higashi Honganji is headquarters of the Jodo-Shinshu (True Pure Land) sect of Buddhism. Originally built in 1602 it’s a massive complex. It was rebuilt in 1859 after a series of fires. The main hall (Goeido) is Kyoto’s largest wooden structure and the adjacent Amidado Hall is almost as large.
Next stop was Sanjusengeu-do, a long narrow building which houses 1,001 human-sized statues of Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of mercy. The effect is pretty amazing. In typical Japanese fashion, the site also has a Shinto shrine. We enjoyed sheltering from the rain under covered walkways painted in vermillion, looking out over the shrine and gardens.
From there it was a short walk north to the geisha district of Gion, and the beautiful blossom-lined street of Shimbashi. It was fun to watch young Japanese people dressing up for hanami.
The main sites of the Higashiyama district in eastern Kyoto sit within a fairly narrow strip between the east bank of the Kama-gawa river and the surrounding hills. We took a metro then taxi to the northern end of Higashiyama and spent the day walking south, back towards our townhouse.
First stop was Ginkaku-ji Temple, the ‘Silver Pavillion’. In 1482, shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa built his retirement villa here, modeling it on his grandfather’s retirement villa in northern Kyoto called Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion. Unlike the golden-gilded Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji was never gilded in silver. It was converted into a Zen temple after Yoshimasa’s death and has a beautiful moss garden and a unique dry sand garden.
A charming feature of Higashiyama is the Philosopher’s Walk, a 2-km-long path named after the philosophy professor Kitarō Nishida. It provides a pleasant link between sites. During hanami it is lined in blossom and punctuated by photo shoots and food stalls.
Honen-in is a small, peaceful temple with beautiful gardens.
Nanzen-ji is an important Zen temple of the Rinzai sect. It has a massive Sanmon (main gate) and you can climb up to the balcony providing excellent views across the temple complex. The Hojo (main hall) has lovely interiors and surrounding gardens.
Chion-in is head temple of the Jodo sect of Japanese Buddhism, with spacious grounds and large buildings. The Sanmon Gate is the largest wooden gate in Japan and dates back to the early 1600s.
Walking via the peaceful park of Marugana-Koen, our next stop was Kodai-ji Temple built in 1606 in memory of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a famous politician of the 16th C. It now belongs to the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism. There are gorgeous rock and gravel gardens and a bamboo grove.
From here you can see the 24-metre concrete image of Kannon (Goddess of Mercy) at the adjacent Ryozen Kannon Temple, a war memorial built in 1955 to honour both Japanese and Allied soldiers killed in World War II.
Yasaka Pagoda is a visible landmark in this area. It’s all that is left of Hokanji Temple which was founded in the 6th C.
Last stop for the day was Kiyomizu-dera, the ‘Pure Water Temple’. It has a colourful main gate and pagoda, and is famous for the wooden stage that juts out from the main hall affording fabulous views of the wooded hills east of Kyoto.
What a day.
Next day we caught the train to the Arashiyama district in western Kyoto. Took it quite a bit slower after a big day yesterday.
Tenryu-ji is the most important temple in this district. It’s ranked first amongst Kyoto’s five great Zen temples and was founded in 1339 by the ruling shogun Ashikaga Takauji. Fires and wars destroyed the original buildings and those you see today were built in the 19th C. The original gardens survived however, and are sublime. They were created by the famous garden designer Muso Soseki. We had an excellent Zen buddhist lunch in the temple restaurant.
Another highlight in Arashiyama is the Bamboo Grove. It’s one of the most photographed sights in the Kyoto but the images can’t really convey the otherworldly feeling of being in a forest that sways with the wind.
We decided to head back into central Kyoto and visit Nijo Castle. It was built in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo Period. It’s surrounded by stone walls and moats. Inside it’s divided into the Honmaru (main circle of defense), the Ninomaru (secondary circle of defense) and the gardens. The palace buildings are arguably the best surviving examples of castle palace architecture from Japan’s feudal era, and the beautiful gardens were designed by Kobori Enshu.
The northern district of Kyoto is very rich in temples. We decided to select a couple of sites to visit rather than running ourselves ragged trying to see them all. It worked well for us.
The ‘Golden Pavillion’ of Kinkaku-ji is one of the top sites in Kyoto. The crowded #205 bus from the main station was a sign of things to come. It was packed as we entered the site and people jostled for position to get their ‘shot’. We took our time wandering through the beautiful gardens and as the crowds spread out it became very enjoyable. Kinkau-ji was originally built in 1397 as the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and became a Zen temple of the Rinzai sect after his death in 1408. Only the Golden Pavillion survived numerous fires and wars. Then in 1950 a young monk named Hayashi Yoken burnt it to the ground. The author Yukio Mishima wrote a novel called The Temple of the Golden Pavillion which is loosely based on this story. The Golden Pavillion you see today was built in 1955.
We then visited Daitoku-ji, a large, walled complex dedicated to Zen buddhism. There are 24 sub-temples of which eight are open to the public. We managed to see five of these.
Oubai-in dates back to 1562 when a small temple was built by the feudal warlord Oda Nobunaga in honour of his father. It has beautiful moss gardens and maple trees.
Ryogen-in was constructed in 1502 and the temple’s main building is said to be the oldest standing in Daitokuji. It features five different dry landscape gardens. The largest has a field of raked white gravel representing the universe, and islands of rocks and moss representing a crane and a turtle, symbols of longevity and health. The temple also displays sliding doors (fusuma) painted with images of dragons and hermits.
Daitoku-ji is a working temple and it was interesting to watch it going about its business. Monks bustled along the pathways and main structures like the Butsuden (main hall) could be admired from a distance.
Kohrin-in was built as a family temple in 1520. It has a lovely dry garden which was being tended when we visited.
Daisen-in is the most celebrated sub-temple of Daitoku-ji, founded in 1509. It preserves important architecture and has beautiful gardens. Photography is forbidden.
Our last stop was Koto-in, built in 1601. It is famous for its bamboo-lined approach and its maple trees.
On our last day we explored the southern part of central Kyoto, south of the train station.
To-ji means “East Temple” and it was founded in the late 700s just after the capital moved to Kyoto. Along with the now defunct Sai-ji (“West Temple”) it guarded the south entrance to the city. It grew to prominence under Kobo Daishi, founder of the Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism, who we learnt about at our next stop in Koya-san. The five-tiered wooden pagoda is the tallest in Japan (at 57 metres) and the spacious site has some beautiful halls. Most of the buildings seen today were rebuilt in the 17th C after many fires and wars. To-ji was a great place for a morning wander.
We caught the train a little further south to Inari, to vist the Fushima Inari Taisha (shrine). It’s one of the top sights in Kyoto, famous for its thousands of vermillion coloured torii that straddle paths through the woodlands around Mount Inari (233 metres). Inari is the Shinto god of rice and Fushima is the most important of all Inari shrines. Once we got through the initial crush of people wanting their ‘shot’ of the torii we found it to be a lovely shrine. The crowds thinned out as we walked further along the paths and there were many interesting buildings beautifully painted, and heaps of fox Komainu. Normally the shrines are guarded by statues of dogs or lions but Inari shrines are guarded by foxes as they are thought to be the god’s messengers. Shrines often have food stalls (at least at this time of year) and we feasted on octopus balls (takoyaki) and omelette (okonomiyaki). It was a great end to our stay in Kyoto.
It was established as Japan’s first permanent capital in 710. Over the next 75 years, the influence and ambitions of the Nara’s powerful Buddhist monasteries became a threat to the government, and it was decided to move the capital first to Nagaoka-kyo (in 784) then Kyoto (in 794).
Although brief, Nara’s time as the capital left a rich legacy. Losing that mantle meant it was spared much of the war damage subsequently wrought on Kyoto. As a result it has an impressive set of World Heritage monuments with eight sites encompassing 78 buildings.
It was crowded as we walked from the station towards Nara-koen, the park that houses the main sites, with Nara’s ‘wild’ deer adding further excitement. The grand temple of Todai-ji was our first stop. Its Daibutsu-den (Great Buddha Hall) is the largest wooden building in the world and the Buddha it houses is one of the largest bronze cast statues ever made. Once inside the hall the tourist hubbub died down and we could start to take in what we were seeing. It was a remarkable experience.
Walking east from the Great Buddha Hall towards Mount Wakakusa, a lovely covered staircase led us to Nigatsu-do Hall. It’s a sub-temple of Todai-ji and has a broad terrace with lots of interesting detail. Sangatsu-do Hall is next door.
From here we contoured around the foothills of Mount Wakakusa looking down on Nara-koen. Next stop was Tamukeyama Hachiman, a small Shinto shrine established in 749.
The path led us on to Kasuga Taisha which is Nara’s most celebrated Shinto shrine. It was buzzing with life. Priests and attendents bustled to and fro, and there was a wedding underway. There were lanterns everywhere and gorgeous colours. Kasuga Taisha was the highlight of our day.
The path skirted the edge of the Kasugayama primeval forest where logging and hunting have been prohibited since 841. It led to Wakamiya-jinja, a small subsidiary shrine of Kasuga Taisha. From there we descended down a path to the centre of town.
Kofu-ji is a temple transferred from Kyoto in 710. It has two pagodas, one five-tiered (second tallest in Japan) and one three-tiered.
We left Nara tired and happy, and keen to come back for a longer visit if we ever have the opportunity.
We booked two nights in Koya-san, staying at the Yochi-in Buddhist monastery. It takes four trains and a cable car to get from Kyoto to Koya-san, so we used a baggage service to transfer our big bags on to Kinosaki (next stop) and travelled light for a couple of days. It was a good decision.
We really enjoyed the experience of staying in the monastery for a couple of nights, eating amazing vegetarian food, attending morning ceremonies of incense burning and chanting, and generally being quiet and contemplative.
Koya-san is most famous for the Oku-No-In cemetery-temple which includes the mausoleum of Kobo Daishi (also known as Kukai), founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism. The cemetery is about two kilometres long and has over 200,000 tombstones.
We spent the morning with a local guide who walked us through Oku-No-In and the main temples of Danjo-Garan and Kongobu-ji. It was great to have access to her knowledge and understanding as we tried to make sense of all we were seeing.
She explained various legends as to why Kukai chose Koya-san. In one he threw an implement from China and this is where it landed. In another he met a hunter with one white and one black dog on the mountain slopes. The hunter was son of the Shinto spirit of Mt. Koya and gave Kukai permission to build his Buddhist temple there, highlighting coexistence between the two religions in ancient Japan. She explained that Shingon Buddhists believe Kukai is not dead but rather in meditation, and the monks take him food every day. That once you cross the small Tamagawa River at Minyo-no-hashi, the area becomes a most scared place and photographs are not allowed. And much, much more.
We headed back to the Danjo-Garan Temple complex which has an impressive pagoda (Dai-to), just in time for the bell ringing service.
Next stop was Kongobu-ji Temple which is headquarters of the Shingon sect and has a lovely raked gravel and rock garden, the largest in Japan.
After lunch we went back to Oku-No-In, wandering slowly, and thinking about all we’d been told.
One thing that stood out was the painted, wooden memorial hall dedicated to Uesugi Kenshin, a famous warlord from the Sengoku Period. The hillside hall faces the stone memorials of his great rival Takeda Shingen and son Takeda Katsuoi. Locked in eternal combat. So many stories.
Late in the day we headed up to Daimon Gate, the old western entrance of the monastery complex.
Koya-san is a very special place and we felt privileged to visit.
After an early ceremony and breakfast at the Buddhist monastery in Koya-san, it took most of the day to transit to Kinosaki.
We wanted to visit a proper onsen town and Kinosaki looked like a good choice in the region we’d chosen to travel. The fact that it’s on the Sea of Japan and famous for its crab was a bonus.
We had a lot of fun at the onsen, dressing in yakuta, bathing, and eating very fine food sat (sort of) cross-legged on tatami mats in our room. We also visited other bathhouses in the town.
Kinosaki has a lovely, willow-lined canal running through its centre. It is also famous for art made from barley staw, called mugiwara zaiku. Sounds naff, but some of it is actually quite beautiful. We saw a few very desirable pieces but they turned out to be beyond our price range. Kinosaki is the place we first experienced black sesame sweets. Yum.
We used the baggage service to send our big bags from Kinosaki to Okayama, freeing us to make best use of the transit day by visiting the World HeritageHimeji Castle.
So many buildings in Japan have been destroyed by fire, earthquake and war. Himeji-jo is the finest surviving example of early 17th C Japanese castle architecture. It comprises 83 buildings and is a masterpiece of construction in wood, white plastered earthen walls, and multiple roof layers.
We had four nights in Okayama and it was an excellent base to explore an interesting region. It does however have one major attraction of its own in Koraku-en, one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan.
We visited Koraku-en on a glorious spring morning, spending several hours exploring it to the full. Numerous wedding parties were taking photos, providing additional splashes of colour.
Kurashiki is picturesque town with historic warehouses lining an old canal, just 15 minutes southwest by train from Okayama. We went there twice in the afternoon / evening. It is quite touristy but we found the quality to be high.
This area is known for a type of pottery called Bizen. It is very hard, reddish-brown color, and doesn’t have a glaze, though it does have distinctive markings resulting from firing in a wood-burning kiln. Kurashiki has a number of very nice Bizen pottery galleries and we bought four pieces that have subsequently been used and admired on a daily basis.
One day we visited the ‘art island’ of Naoshima. Up to the 1980s this was a fishing community struggling with declining catches from the Seto Inland Sea. Around 1990 the Benesse Corporation, which is in the language schools business, decided to build a series of museums on Naoshima to house its growing collection of modern art. It chose the star architect Tadao Ando to design the major buildings. Naoshima is now a world renowned art travel destination.
We caught the train from Okayama to the port town of Uno then hopped on a ferry to Miyanoura on Naoshima. Yayoi Kusama is one of the artists featured on the island and her red pumpkin greeted us (then her yellow pumpkin farewelled us – see below).
We walked on to the Lee Ufan Museum, housing paintings and sculptures by the South Korean artist Lee Ufan in another sensational Tadao Ando building. ‘Sublime’ is overused as an adjective, but I can think of no better word to describe Ufan’s minimalist brushstroke paintings.
We walked on to the Benesse House Museum, admiring Tsuyoshi Ozawa’s ‘Slag Buddha 88’ installation and checking out the beach and views across to Shikoku along the way. The Benesse Museum has a diverse collection. We particularly liked the works by David Hockney, Yukinori Yanagi, and Richard Long. And Tadao Ando’s building.
Below the museum a number of amazing outdoor works dot the coastline. ‘Seen / Unseen, Known / Unknown’ by Walter de Maria, Shinro Ohtake’s ‘Shipyard Works’ sculptures, Dan Graham’s ‘Cylinder dissected by plane’, Karel Appel’s ‘Frog and Cat’, and Yayoi Kusama’s now iconic yellow pumpkin to name a few.
We were out of time at this point so caught the bus back to Miyanoura to pick up a ferry and head back to Okayama. We had a fantastic day on Naoshima and would liked to have stayed for longer. We hope to go back again and if we get the chance we’ll spend a night or two on the island.
Footnote – As Tasmanians, Naoshima had a lot of resonance for us. It clearly influenced David Walsh in building his Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, which opened in 2011. It was interesting to feel such a stong connection through the common languages of art and architecture.
Another day we did the Kibi Plain Bicycle Route. Caught the train to Bizen Ichinomiya, picked up some bikes and spent the day following a signposted route to Soja where we dropped off the bikes and caught the train back to Okayama. It was a fun day out.
After checking out the nearby Kibitsuhiko-jinja (wedding in progress), we cycled on to Fukudenkai Temple which we found very interesting. There is a big ship anchor in the main temple area, a lovely open-sided wooden hall, and a bizarre mound of seven million cattle nose rings paying homage to the animals that have died to feed to the Japanese people. Next stop was Kibitsu-jinja which dates from 1425. It has long, covered arcades radiating from the central complex, and a lake area with tree branches supported on poles so that they grow out over the water. We stopped here for lunch.
Having only covered about 20% of the journey by lunch time we had to pick up the pace in the afternoon. The 5th C burial mound called Tsukuriyama-kofun is impressively large, standing out as a small hill in the flat fields. Surprisingly it had no protection, singage, or intepretation, and was absorbed into the agricultural landscape. Last stop was Bitchu Kokobun-ji which has a beautiful five-storey pagoda.
One day we visited the ‘art island’ of Naoshima. Up to the 1980s this was a fishing community struggling with declining catches from the Seto Inland Sea. Around 1990 the Benesse Corporation which is in the language schools business decided to build a series of museums on Naoshima to house its growing collection of modern art. It chose the star architect Tadao Ando to design the major buildings. Naoshima is now a world renowned art travel destination.
We caught the train from Okayama to the port town of Uno then hopped on a ferry to Miyanoura on Naoshima. Yayoi Kusama is one of the artists featured on the island and her red pumpkin greeted us (then her yellow pumpkin farewelled us – see below).
We walked on to the Lee Ufan Museum, housing paintings and sculptures by the South Korean artist Lee Ufan in another sensational Tadao Ando building. ‘Sublime’ is overused as an adjective, but I can think of no better word to describe Ufan’s minimalist brushstroke paintings.
We walked on to the Benesse House Museum, admiring Tsuyoshi Ozawa’s ‘Slag Buddha 88’ installation and checking out the beach and views across to Shikoku along the way. The Benesse Museum has a diverse collection. We particularly liked the works by David Hockney, Yukinori Yanagi, and Richard Long. And Tadao Ando’s building.
Below the museum a number of amazing outdoor works dot the coastline. ‘Seen / Unseen, Known / Unknown’ by Walter de Maria, Shinro Ohtake’s ‘Shipyard Works’ sculptures, Dan Graham’s ‘Cylinder dissected by plane’, Karel Appel’s ‘Frog and Cat’, and Yayoi Kusama’s now iconic yellow pumpkin to name a few.
We were out of time at this point so caught the bus back to Miyanoura to pick up a ferry and head back to Okayama. We had a fantastic day on Naoshima and would liked to have stayed for longer. We hope to go back again and if we get the chance we’ll spend a night or two on the island.
Footnote – As Tasmanians, Naoshima had a lot of resonance for us. It clearly influenced David Walsh in building his Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, which opened in 2011. It was interesting to feel such a stong connection through the common languages of art and architecture.
We all know why Hiroshima is famous. It’s for a terrible reason. Seeing the A-Bomb Dome for the first time is undeniably striking. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, planned and designed by Kenzo Tange, is visited by more than a million people each year. The memorials are sombre, and the museums are comprehensive in conveying historical complexeties surrounding the city’s devestation.
Yet modern Hiroshima is just like many other Japanese cities. It has its monuments to past wars and conflagrations, and the locals just go about their business, dealing with tourists and school groups who come to experience the past. Having been there it’s obvious, but the ordinariness of Hiroshima was the biggest surprise on first impression. The things we most enjoyed about Hiroshima had nothing to do with the A-bomb.
The World Heritage Itsukushima Shrine on the island of Miyajima is a fantastic day trip. We caught a ferry across the bay, visited the shrine which dates from 1168 and is very extensive, then wandered through the grounds and buildings of nearby temples. Caught a ferry back to Hiroshima at the end of a most rewarding day.
The savoury pancake called okonomiyaki is a speciality of Hiroshima, and we had a lot of fun seeking out good pancake grills, with some drinks on the counter, and baseball on the TV. Preferably featuring the beloved Toyo Carp baseball team.
On the last morning of the trip, we checked out from our hotel in Hiroshima, caught the train to Narita airport near Tokyo, and flew home to Hobart.
Islands in the Venice lagoon were initially occupied by Veneti, a Celtic tribe living in the Po valley region and allied to the Roman Empire. They had to flee waves of Barbarian invasion as the Roman Empire fell and lagoon islands provided places of refuge. Invading Visigoths then Ostrogoths settled in nearby Ravenna and the lagoon island communities became permanent as the invaders weren’t going away.
Initially they occupied the island of Torcello, spred out to surrounding islands, then occupied the ‘high bank’ (rivoalto) which is the Rialto of modern Venice. These island communities eventually formed a federation and Venice the republic is said to have been founded around 421.
The eastern Emperor Justinian the Great made Ravenna (140 kms south of Venice) his base for reconquering Italy and reuniting the eastern and western empires. His efforts did not however succeed. The Lombards began a next wave of northern invasion, and island communities in the Venice lagoon grew larger and more established in response to this latest pressure. In 726 the first Doge of Venice was elected and a 1,000 year history began. The Franks followed the Lombards as invaders though their attempts to invade the Venetian islands were unsuccessful. By 810 the Venetian lagoon was the only part of northern Italy still in the Byzantine sphere of influence, and the Venetians were using their seafaring skills to establish a powerful trading base in the Adriatic and beyond. In 828, informed by an earlier prophesy, the body of Saint Mark the Evangelist was smuggled from Alexandria to Venice and the Basilica of San Marco was established. Saint Mark was symbolised in Saint John’s Book of Revelation as a winged lion and this symbol became synonomous with the Republic of Venice.
By the 10th C Ravenna’s port (Classe) had silted up and the city was in decline to the advantage of Venice with its access to the Adriatic. Up to the First Crusade in 1095 Venetian Doges used their diplomatic skills to trade with both the Byzantine Empire in the east and the Holy Roman Empire in the west. Venetian involvement in the First Crusade, although minor, soured relations with the Byzantines and things didn’t get better from there. Venice was a major player in the Fourth Crusade of 1203 under Doge Enrico Dandolo, and part of his price for involvement of the Venetian fleet was a detour to Constantinople where the Crusaders sacked the city and Venice took three eights of the spoils.
Standing in St Mark’s Square and looking at the Basilica of San Marco, Venice feels like the closest thing we have to a living Byzantine city. That iconic view is much more interesting when you understand how it was influenced, what it imitates, and the fact that some of what you see was literally looted from Constantinople.
The island of Torcello is another great place to evoke Byzantine Venice. The Byzantine Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta was built in the 7th C and is the oldest in the region. Climbing its bell tower and looking out over the lagoon you get some sense of what the fleeing Veneti had to deal with in establishing a safe home in the lagoon. Somehow they managed to turn this precarious existence into an empire.
(N.B. Photos not allowed inside the Basilica of San Marco or the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta.)
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