There are over 2000 temples in Kyoto. Seventeen of them are UNESCO World Heritage sites. You are somewhat spoiled for choice. I love going to the temples that are not over-run with tourists. The places where you can actually feel the gravity of the history. These enchanting places that are part of local people’s everyday … Continue reading Kyoto’s Tangible History
I have not been able to find a lot of information about this in English, and my Japanese is not good enough to decipher technical writing, however I thought this was very interesting, and I have tried to fill in the blanks with some research. Daigo-Ji Temple in Fushimi, in Kyoto, is a very, very … Continue reading Zen in Space…
On the 1st June our Taste with the Toji Session 5, hosted by the lovely Sake Mistress, Simone, took us to the idyllic seaside town of Ine, in the north of Kyoto Prefecture, to a wonderful quirky brewery as unique and as lovely as the Toji who makes the sake there. Mukai Shuzo has been … Continue reading Sake By The Sea
My first time travelling in Japan was just over five years ago. We travelled for a month and I tried to see as much as I could. We stayed in Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kamakura and had booked to stay in Hakuba. We also stayed in Kyoto. For only four short days. We had loved Tokyo, … Continue reading Guesthouse Soi- My Home Away From Home
Monday morning we were booked to take three shinkansen from Kyoto to Nagasaki. I woke up feeling very less than average and had been coughing and spluttering all night. I always feel sad about leaving Kyoto, but this time I was feeling so unwell, it was overpowering my impending dread. I got up early and … Continue reading Headed for Kyushu
You can watch a very short video of the amazing garden at Sanzen-in here. On Sunday, Super Sake Boy and I had arranged to meet up with the very lovely Fujimoris, the couple we met at Shu Kura sake bar in Ponto-cho. Our conversation on the evening was very broken English/Japanese and somewhat sake fuelled, … Continue reading An Unexpected Cultural Adventure
Saturday morning we decided to have a bit of a lazy and slow start to the day, as we had arranged to go to Uji with Maki and Senki and Sen-chan had track and field club in the morning. It was a good reason to have some down time. We did a bunch of washing … Continue reading Matcha, Sushi, Fairy Floss and Echoes of Murasaki
On Friday morning we headed out early after a reasonably early night. We had decided on a temple on the other side of town. Daitoku-Ji is a large temple complex, a branch of the Rinzai school of Japanese Zen Buddhism. There are around six buildings of the main temple and then around 22 sub-temples. Established … Continue reading A Day of Excellent Temples and Even More Excellent Sake
On Thursday morning we had decided to go back into Tokyo with Mum and Ted and make sure they got to the right place at the right time. They were flying out early Friday morning and had decided staying at a hotel near the airport would be easier than staying in Tokyo overnight. We also … Continue reading Tokyo Parental Drop…
Wednesday we decided to have a quiet and local day. Mum and Ted were leaving the next day and wanted to see a few things around Kyoto Station and just hang out. So we all, except Finn, jumped on a bus to go explore the station. Finn would join us later for lunch. I have … Continue reading A Kyoto Local Day
