Kyoto

Over the weekend I went to Kyoto. Kyoto was magnificent. Saturday wasn't though, it rained all day. The weekend started off well. I went to Kasamatsu on Friday which is always a great elementry school to go to. I helped them clean and wax the floors a bit. The schools I go to are too small to have normal janitors so they just have all the kids clean and fix things.
Anyways, I have been hooked on West Wing lately. I've been watching the DVDs of season 3. Season 3 is not bad at all, I think that series tanks in the fourth season. Well, whenever it is when Sam leaves and Aaron stops writing for the show.
Kyoto was a blast. It felt like Flornce in a way. Mediveal and warm in a way. A complete opposite from Osaka which is hectect and crazy. Plus there is nothing to really see in Osaka, it is just a business and shopping place. Osaka does have a huge Ferris wheel though.
Kyoto is full of shrines and temples. Temples are for Buddhism, and you can typically walk into a temple, and shrines are Shintoism and you can typically not walk in them. Shrines are also usually marked with at least one Torii gate.
Pheonix Hall I thought was the best place I visited. It is just south of Kyoto in Uji. It is a Jodo Buddhist hall built in the 12th century I think. It is famous for the reincarnating bird, the phoenix. Two large bronze pheonixes watch over the hall from both ends of the roof. The hall is on the back of the 5 yen coin, and the image of the pheonix can be found on the 10000 yen bill.
Other places that I went to include Nanzen-ji. Nanzen-ji is famous for its huge gate. On the gate's second floor you can get a great view of Kyoto. Another place I visited was Heian-jingu just to the East of Kyoto's downtown area. It has a wide open courtyard and huge Torii. I also the Silver Pavillion which has beautiful gardens. Another amazing shrine was built in honor of the fox spirit, kitsune. The Fukushima Inari shrine is devoted to kintsune and has hundreds of torii's that line the walkways to the many shrines at the site. Inari was amazing.
Shrines and temples make up only half of the awe that is Kyoto. The rest can be found by visiting old tea chops and walking down many old streets line with tons of stores. I passed up maybe 10 tea shops before we sat down had macha at what seemed to be a classic and old tea chop. Later in the day we looked in a guide book of Kyoto and saw the tea chop that we were at. The shop was about 150 years old. Everything in Kyoto is old. However in the business district there are many modern conviences like the typical Lawson ore Family Mart.
One modern restaurant I visited didn't have waiters that served you the food, but instead had their food on small conveyer belts that ran throughout the restaurant. So all you have to do is sit down and look at the food pass by. Once you see what you want, you just grab the plate and eat. The downfall to this unique endeavour, that I noticed, is that some sick people might cough on the food as it passes by in front of them.
I am defintaly going back to Kyoto. What made this visit even better was that Fall leaves were in effect and all of Kyoto was highlighted by this great natural effect.
I'll post pictures soon.