7 June 2016
June is the start of the rainy season in Kyoto and the hydrangea (or ajisai as it is known in Japan) is the flower of the season. There is no better place to view these flowers than the Mimuroto-ji Temple and that is one of the reasons why we made a visit to Uji from Kyoto on this trip. Mimuroto-ji Temple’s hydrangea garden is adorned with 10,000 hydrangea bushes and one of the best times to visit this temple is in June.
Uji is better known as the matcha tea capital of Japan and also known for the Byōdō-in Temple. Byōdō-in is the temple that was featured in the back of the 10 Yen coin. Many visitors come to Uji to sample and buy tea and also visit Byodo-in.
Uji is easily accessed from Kyoto by train and the train fare was included on our rail pass. About 20 minutes after we board the JR Rapid train bound for Nara, we alighted at the small Uji Station. Somehow, we had chosen a rainy day to see flowers that loves the rain. As we had our weather-proof hiking jackets on, we walked in the rain towards the Uji River where there is a main shopping street known as the Renge that has many tea shops. We were hoping to find a place for tea and get out of the rain.
We went into a small 2 storey cafe that has a sitting area on the second storey, hoping to get seats with nice views of the river. We found that this cafe offered no views of the Uji River. After taking our shoes off and making our way up the narrow staircase to the top floor, it was not nice to back out, so we settled down to order our food and drinks. We were the only customer at this time and the menu only offered matcha and limited choices of cold desserts. No hot food. Nevertheless, it was a good place to rest our feet and sample the famous Uji matcha and matcha snacks while waiting for the weather to improve.
It was still raining when we left the cafe. We stopped by a popular tea shop to browse and buy some matcha products.
We also stopped by another shop to buy a nice Japanese-themed tea container that would be used to store our Chinese tea at home.
Byōdō-in Temple was just round the corner but we decided that we had no time to visit this place.
We had lunch at a small cha-soba noodle restaurant near the entrance of the Byodo-in. The hot soupy noodles were perfect for the weather.
Energised after the lunch break, we walked to the Mimuroto-ji Temple which was situated on a mountain side above the Uji River. Google map came in handy as we navigate the 2.2 km route from outside the Byodo-in to the Mimuroto-ji, crossing the Uji River on a footbridge and then walking through a residential district. We could have taken a taxi but our travelling group loves a good walk. It took us less about 30 minutes of easy walking to get to the temple. The weather had improved slightly as we arrived at the temple.
The hydrangea garden in the temple is opened from June to mid-July and there were 10,000 hydrangea bushes planted inside this temple. We paid 500 yen to enter and very quickly, we saw splashes of pink, blue, white, red flowers in the garden on our right as we made our way up a slight uphill path that led to the temple itself.
The hydrangea or ajisai has a unique characteristic. The colours of the flowers depended on the acidity or PH level of the soil it was grown in. Made the soil acidic, the flowers would turn out blue.
Add some alkali to the soil and the same plant would produce red or pink flowers.
And the flowers would only bloom when it receives enough rain.
Besides ajisai, the garden also featured a beautiful landscaped pond with Koi and cherry and maple trees around it. Some maple trees had leaves that are purple and provided the accent in the otherwise green garden. A slight mist on the mountain side added a nice romantic touch to the views.
After walking round the pond, we made our way to the 10,000 hydrangeas. The rain actually added to the beauty of the garden with the flowers, leaves and moss on the ground glistening in the wetness.
The ladies in my group went sort of crazy as we walked through the hydrangea garden, posing and snapping photos and selfies. They were not alone as almost every visitor was doing likewise.
There was more to see at the top of a flight of stairs. This was where the actual temple building is located.
Right at the top of the stairs is a statue of Ukajin, a local deity with the head of an old man and the body of a snake.
There were lots of lotus plants in pots at the front garden of the temple. These had already many flower buds but the lotus flowers would only bloom in July.
Mimuroto is also known as the “flower” temple. Come to view the cherry blossoms in early April, azalea around early May, hydrangea in June, lotuses around July and August, and autumn colours around late November.
In front of the main hall are statues of an ox and a rabbit. These happened to be our Chinese zodiac signs. There was a stone ball it the ox’s mouth. I gave it a touch! It is believed that touching the stone ball in the ox's mouth would lead to success in our endeavours.
For the rabbit, your wish would come true if the egg-shaped object in the stone sphere can be placed to stand.
It was about 3.30 PM when we left the Mimuroto-ji Temple. Once again, we decided to walk back to the Uji Station.
We crossed over the Uji River, this time via the vehicular bridge. The Uji River is shallow but fast flowing. From the bridge, we can see the red pedestrian bridge upstream of the river where we crossed earlier to get to the Mimuroto-ji Temple.
This Uji Bridge features wooden railing with Giboshi (onion-shaped ornamental knobs) on the top. Giboshi originated as ornamental treasure jewels on top of pagodas. The bridge was built with high quality Japanese cypress, known for its unusual strength and the knobs were used as caps to protect the structural posts from rainwater.
The end of the bridge is near the start of the main shopping street with the tea shops where we were earlier. From there, it was a short walk back to the Uji JR train station.
Our next stop would be the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine which was located between Uji and Kyoto. It made a convenient stop along the JR Nara line which travelling from Uji (or Nara) to Kyoto Station.