Saturday - a day of gardens and temples

We are just back from a huge day - it just turned out that way...we had a reservation for entering the Sento Palace and the Omiya Palace in the Imperial Palace compound. We booked on Thursday and had to provide passports and it was all very formal. We had imagined it was a tour of the buildings, but on reading just before we went we learnt that the Sento palace had burned down in the 1800s and hadn’t been rebuilt because there weren’t any retired emperors any more, and the Omiya palace isn’t open to the public (it was built for dowager empresses)...so we realised that it was in fact a tour of the beautiful gardens that we had signed up for. And they are of course, a perfect example of the beautifully designed and carefully maintained gardens that the Japanese create...but this lot was emperor worthy - lakes, bridges, trellises...serene and perfect. The tours are all in Japanese (you have to go with a group, and a guard keeps following at the rear to make sure no one strays off the path or gets lost from the pack!), but they provided an audio guide in English fortunately. So many gorgeous photos.

Then, while we were there in these huge grounds, we went to the Kyoto State Guest House nearby...also a lot of security and formality to enter, but you could go round a tour route individually with an audio guide which was excellent. This house is modern - that is built with modern hi tech means, but in the beautiful, tasteful, understated Japanese style. It is where they entertain visiting dignitaries etc and there are amazing banquet rooms, conference rooms and superb tapestries. So that was a treat too. Malcolm would just love to attend a banquet there!

So now we decided to find the Blue Bottle coffee shop which is in the more main part of Kyoto, at least not near the main railway station. So on our handy hotel smartphone we found what subway station was closest, and found it...very happy, as I had not yet had my caffeine hit of the day. But to our surprise it was not as we had imagined in a busy shopping area, but near many temples and shrines, and was obviously very well placed and doing a roaring trade! So again, as we were there we decided to visit these temples, as the Book said they were great ones! And they were. Again, a main Zen Buddhism centre - a main temple - Nanzenji Temple - and many other minor ones surrounding, all with gorgeous gardens, and this is right beside a mountain, so very picturesque. So we entered the main temple complex (much taking shoes off and on today) which was stunning, with courtyards and gardens, impressive even after the imperial ones! And we plowed on to more gardens, gradually climbing uphill, then found our way walking along an aqueduct and an ex railway line somehow back to the subway and Blue Bottle part...had a break there!!

Then got the subway to look at some of the shopping arcades, but after a bit headed back, and now having a wine and an unwind, before we go out to dinner. I forgot to mention that last night we did go to the yakitori restaurant we had seen and it was perfect! A little maybe family run place, shoes off, and all cooked as you ordered it. Our favourite was chicken livers, we had a second serve of that, but chicken, eggplant, peppers were all delicious. Now off for another foray!En savoir plus