The complex of Kyoto's traditional Imperial Palace looks like a right-angled fortress and is open to visitors only five days a week and by prior registration. For this guided visit, you can register on site with usually three timetables available per day, or send your online application like for the Imperial Palace in Tokyo (book in advance and with time to spare). Just on the other side of the street, on the west side of the palace, I found the most cute Shinto shrine ever - the Goo Shrine - which is dedicated to boars and features various statues of the animal. After the palace tour, I walked all the way down through the Karasuma Dori until the Higashi Honganji Temple, a peaceful Buddhist temple complex with statues, shrines and unique fountains, located almost directly in front of the Kyoto Tower and the main station. There I was able to join in for the first time in a Buddhist ceremony and was profoundly touched.
After a 30min train ride and a short walk from the station, the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove suddenly appears before your eyes. The pedestrian trail through this bamboo forest is something magical and quite difficult to imagine without having been there. The whole area also has some temples and burial grounds to explore, and several arts and craft shops for tourists.
Back in town, the Yasaka Shrine is home to one of the most famous summer festivals in Japan - the Gion Matsuri - celebrated every July, and its red facade and decor bring every tourist's attention. This Shinto shrine is located inside the Maruyama Park in the Gion disctrict and includes many buildings, gates, a main hall and a stage. Walk around and explore intensively the Gion Corner and if you wish the hundred sanctuaries close by. Make a quick stop at the Yasui Konpiragu Shrine, famed for having a peculiar wish stone named “Enkiri/Enmusubi Stone”. Roughly translated is a stone that bind good relationships tighter and sever the bad ones. You just buy a special piece of paper and write you name and wish on it. Then if you want to bind a good relationship tighter, you clutch the paper and crawl through the tunnel in the stone from front to back. If you want to end a relationship, you make the opposite and crawl through from back to front. Then you glue your wish paper to the ever growing mountain of wishes in the stone. As for me, I didn't have any wish to participate but a few dozens were waiting in line.
After a 30min train ride and a short walk from the station, the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove suddenly appears before your eyes. The pedestrian trail through this bamboo forest is something magical and quite difficult to imagine without having been there. The whole area also has some temples and burial grounds to explore, and several arts and craft shops for tourists.
Back in town, the Yasaka Shrine is home to one of the most famous summer festivals in Japan - the Gion Matsuri - celebrated every July, and its red facade and decor bring every tourist's attention. This Shinto shrine is located inside the Maruyama Park in the Gion disctrict and includes many buildings, gates, a main hall and a stage. Walk around and explore intensively the Gion Corner and if you wish the hundred sanctuaries close by. Make a quick stop at the Yasui Konpiragu Shrine, famed for having a peculiar wish stone named “Enkiri/Enmusubi Stone”. Roughly translated is a stone that bind good relationships tighter and sever the bad ones. You just buy a special piece of paper and write you name and wish on it. Then if you want to bind a good relationship tighter, you clutch the paper and crawl through the tunnel in the stone from front to back. If you want to end a relationship, you make the opposite and crawl through from back to front. Then you glue your wish paper to the ever growing mountain of wishes in the stone. As for me, I didn't have any wish to participate but a few dozens were waiting in line.
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