Shikoku 88 – Days 29 to 31
Okay, where to go now? Yoshino springs to mind, that’s close to Koyasan… a nice drive through the mountains, I went to see Kimpusen-ji, apparently a famous Buddhist temple, but for my taste it was a pure tourist attraction. A huge old main building, yes, but loads of tourists who were asked to pay 1600 Yen to walk a round inside it to see the treasures… what a change to my Shikoku experience… so I walked around the temple grounds and enjoyed the weather and the views.. The was a nice little Shinto shrine next to it, though, that I did visit, Yoshimizu Shrine, said to be beneficial for dogs, so many came with their little friends, a few brought these cuddle dogs that usually are driven around in strollers originally intended for human kids…
From there I went to Nara, to visit Kasuga-Taisha Shrine and Todai-ji Temple. Driving into this temple district of Nara I realized why there had been so many people on the Yoshino mountain, here were even more… it was a public holiday, the equivalent of Labour Day. I found it not annoying in any way, though, I had expected many people going to a place like Nara, and it was very interesting to see how Japanese spend their holiday… it seems all of them go to the big temples and shrines, as there also is usually beautiful landscaping and scenery, a little spirituality, can’t hurt, and lots and lots of indulgences for the culinary senses… which I enjoyed too..
The next day I went to Kyoto… Fushimi-Inari Shrine was one of my favorites last time I had been there, but this time we had 15 degrees and not 38, so I could walk the whole round under the many many Torii gates all the way to the top shrine on the mountain… It started at the main shrine at the bottom with loads and loads of people, but as I got further up, there were less and less people… so it was a quite enjoyable walk in this beautiful natural setting. From there I went to Toji-ji temple near Kyoto main train station, this was a definite on my list as this was Kobo Daishi’s (Kukai’s) home temple. Now it is still the headquarter of the Shingon Buddhist Sect, but the temple itself is like a museum for tourists. Koyasan is more the spiritual headquarters, I think, there is also the University for the education of new priests. But, at Toji-ji one could see Kukai’s old home, many important old statues, and in the museum also the two huge old mandala wall hangings of the Womb and Diamond realms, a core in Shingon teaching, as well as original text scrolls written by Kukai in the 9th century. Very interesting to see…
In the last afternoon I then spent 2 hours or so in a very nice Jazz Kissa „Train“ in southern Kyoto… Good music on a very old hifi system, a very nice owner – we chatted a lot, and very good coffee.. He also recommended a very nice Onsen, and he was right!
Today was my last full day… which I started off in Arashiyama, in the northwestern corner of Kyoto. The changeable weather made for good photo light, including a beautiful rainbow, and the Tenryu-ji temple was exceptionally beautiful with gorgeous fall colors.. The afternoon I spent at another Jazz Kissa, „Murra“, in eastern Kyoto. Very nice place, nice owner, nice music and hifi system (also very old), and a very tasty homemade curry with rice, plus fresh orange juice, plus, later, a gourmet coffee… In the evening I went to a Roadside station in the mountains near Kameoka, which also has a nice onsen… my last onsen for this year 🙁 but it was good 🙂
This is also my last blog post from this trip… tomorrow it is driving back to Osaka, handing back my rental car, and then off to the airport… the online check-in is already done…
It was a great, great trip! Which I will not forget for the rest of my life. So many great experiences, in so many ways… Thank you, dear readers, for your interest, if you have made it so far to read this… maybe, hopefully, I have inspired one or two of you in some way to do something similar, whatever it may be…
