Kodai-ji Temple– special autumn evening light up

22 November 2016

Kyoto has many famous autumn-leaf viewing spots and one “must-do” activity when visiting Kyoto in autumn is to visit at least one of these places that featured special night time illumination.  Some of the best places to visit in the Higashiyama District includes the Kodai-ji Temple, known for its particularly breath-taking lit up maple leaves, reflecting on the surface of the temple's pond. Near to the Kodai-ji Temple is the Shoren-in temple, known for its evening illuminations which include a dry garden decorated with hundreds of blue LED lights. 

As this was our first day in Kyoto, we decided to go see the special autumn light up in the Kodai-ji Temple first. During November, the sky turned dark at about 5 PM and the temple would be opened for the night visitors from sun set till about 9.30 PM.

We had earlier checked into the APA Hotel Kyoto Gion Excellent, our hotel for our 3 days stay in Kyoto. This hotel is conveniently located in Gion and ideal for visits to the best autumn leaves viewing places in the Higashiyama District. To get to the Kodai-ji Temple, it took us only about 15 minutes of leisurely walking from our hotel.

We arrived at about 6.30 PM. There was already a long queue formed and ushers were present to guide visitors to join the queue.  While waiting to buy our entrance tickets, we had a sneak preview of the beautiful light up from the outside.

Kodai-ji is a Zen Buddhist temple and has a large bell outside the temple grounds.

Queue waiting to buy the entrance tickets outside the temple.

Although the queue was long, it moved pretty fast and we were soon entering the temple grounds. Like our visit to the Tofuku-ji Temple in the morning, visitors to Kodai-ji followed a roped pathway that led visitors along a course through the temple grounds in an orderly manner.

The autumn leaves at the temple would be impressive by day and even more impressive when lighted up at night.

One of the tea houses within the temple ground. It was not open at night.

The path guided visitors around the temple’s ground, passing by tea houses and a rock garden with artistically raked gravel. There was a light show at the temple’s rock garden but that was not the highlight.

 

The reflection of the lighted autumn leaves from the temple’s pond was some of the best and most magical views. The photographs cannot do justice to the actual sights and feelings you get when seeing something so awesome and unique. Visitors, including us, were going oohs and aahs, snapping photos every few seconds as they  made their way round the pond.

Seeing the lighted leaves reflecting off the temple’s pond was the highlight of the visit to Kodai-ji Temple.

Hard to tell which was the real thing and which was the reflection.

After seeing the pond, the path led us through a bamboo grove, very much like the one at Arashiyama but smaller in size. The light up of the Arashiyama’s bamboo grove only happens from December 9 onwards in 2016 as part of Kyoto’s Hanatoro event and we would be missing it. Kodai-ji Temple’s bamboo grove was lighted up and they were quite impressive and beautiful.

Visitors to the Kodai-ji Temple enjoying a walk through the bamboo grove at night.

A row of lanterns along the path as we leave the temple.

Our visit to the Kodai-ji Temple took slightly over an hour and we came out of the temple at about 8 PM. We could still slot in a visit to the nearby Shoren-in Temple but we decided to go have dinner around Gion district instead.

Kyoto’s Higashiyama District at night as seen from outside the Kodai-ji Temple.

Ishibei-Koji at night.

We walked through a narrow alley called the Ishibei-koji. The entire scenery of this lane and the houses are preserved as important historical buildings. This lane has residential houses, traditional restaurants and ryokans. Most were well preserved with exquisite stone, wooden and bamboo facades making the alley seemed like something out from the ancient samurai era.

There were many high end restaurants in and around Gion district but we were looking for something simple, hot and soupy. We found a nice restaurant along Shijo Dori, just a few hundred meters away from our hotel called the Mimiu Kyoto Gion Restaurant that served noodles. We ordered the noodle dinner sets that included rice mixed with various vegetables, pickles and dessert.

Kamo-Nan Gohen Set. Udon noodles and wild duck in savoury broth with thinly sliced Japanese leeks.

Momiji Set of noodles with prawn tempura.

A perfect way to end a long day of autumn leaves viewing – a nice bowl of hot delicious noodles!

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Exploring Kyoto’s Northern Higashiyama district in autumn– Ginkaku-ji, Honen-in, Eikando and Nanzenji

23 November 2016

Kyoto’s Northern Higashiyama District is filled with temples and shrines, some of which are highly recommended sites for autumn leaves viewing. Our plan was to spend the morning visiting this area, starting from the Ginkaku-ji Temple and making our down the 2 km Philosopher Path southwards and visiting a few temples like Honen-in, Eikando and Nanjen-ji Temple along the way. This should bring us to close to the Keage Station along the Tozai subway line. From there, we would take the subway to the Kyoto Shiyakushomae Station where we could spend the afternoon exploring and shopping in the area around Teramachi-dori, Nishiki market and Shijo-dori.

As we were staying at the APA Hotel Kyoto Gion Excellent Hotel, we took the Raku 100 direct bus from the bus stop outside the Yasaka Shrine to the Ginkakujimae bus stop. The ride was about 20 minutes and the Ginkaku-ji is about 450 metres from the bus stop.

Note: The Raku Buses in Kyoto city are loop buses operated specifically for tourists. These are the Raku 100, Raku 101 and Raku 102. Raku Buses are brightly painted in seasonal colours, have on-board announcements in English and other languages, and stop only at the major sightseeing places in Kyoto. So it was convenient and easy to use these buses to get around the places of interest within Kyoto. The Raku Bus fare is a flat 230 yen per ride for adults (120 yen for children). More information on the Raku Buses can be found here.

Ginkaku-ji is a Zen temple that was built in 1482 as a retirement villa for a shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa. It is also known as Jisho-ji Temple and that was the name as shown in Google Map. However, Ginkaku-ji Temple is translated to mean “The Silver Pavilion”, in contrast to another temple known as the Kinkaku-ji (The Golden Pavilion). See a post on our visit to the Kinkaku-ji here.

Ginkaku-ji Temple‘s opening hours is from 8:30 AM to 17:00 PM and we went early in the morning to avoid crowds. Entrance fee was 500 yen per person. We followed a marked course around the temple ground. Immediately upon entry, we saw the Silver Pavilion. Unlike Kinkaku-ji Temple whose pavilion is golden in colour, the Silver Pavilion was never plated with silver, and the building remains an unpainted brown. The two stories of the Silver Pavilion were constructed in two different architectural styles, just like the Kinkaku-ji.

We next saw an impressive sand garden, known as the “Sea of Silver Sand”.

The “Sea of Silver Sand” with the Silver Pavilion in the back.

The sand garden blends nicely into a moss garden with ponds, maple trees and pins tress. This is one of Kyoto’s most beautiful gardens.

The path then led us up a hill, where we could get a nice view of temple grounds and Kyoto city.

Overall, I enjoyed my visit to the Ginkaku-ji more than the Kinkaku-ji. Silver beats the gold! 

Leaving Ginkaku-ji, we walked down the Philosopher’s Path or Philosopher’s Walk (Tetsugaku no michi) heading south. The 2 km path follows a canal which was lined wth hundreds of cherry trees. This would be really impressive during spring’s cherry blossom season but in autumn, these trees were bare.

Philosopher’s Path or Philosopher’s Walk (Tetsugaku no michi).

In addition to temples, the Philosopher’s Path also had restaurants, cafes, and boutiques along the way.

Honen-in Temple was worthy of a brief stopover along the Philosopher’s Path although it was not highly rated. There is no entrance fee.

Entrance at Honen-in Temple.

Colourful autumn leaves of green, yellow, orange and red formed a nice curtain above the thatched roof of the main gate to the Honen-in Temple.

The entrance path is flanked on two sides by mounds of white sand that are called Byakusadan. These symbolize water that cleans your body and mind. A small hall to the right of the main gate was showcasing some local potteries. The garden is small in comparison to the other gardens we had seen in Japan but it was magical. More so in autumn. It gave me a sense of calm and peace as I strolled through it.

The small garden featured a stone bridge over a pond. The surface of the pond was covered with fallen leaves.

A stone bridge over a pond in the Honen-in Temple. 

 

Continuing down the Philosopher’s Path, we arrived at the Eikando Temple and also formerly known as Zenrinji Temple. Eikando Temple is very famous for its autumn foliage and the night illuminations that take place during autumn.  By the time we arrived at Eikando Temple, it was past noon and there was a crowd queuing to pay the entrance fee to enter.

Outside the Eikando Temple.

 

Preview of the colours we would be seeing once we were inside the Eikando. These leaves were seen over the boundary wall of the temple while we were queuing to enter.

While queuing for our tickets, we could see the magnificent colours of the leaves inside the temple. The entrance fee was 1000 Yen per person! Quite expensive compared to the other temples we had been to but this temple was reputed to be one of the best place for autumn leaves viewing. We shall see.

Entrance of the Eikando Temple.

The autumn leaves were at its peak and did not disappoint.  All over the temple ground, maple trees in peak autumn colours were seen.

The reddest tree I saw so far.

The crowd inside the Eikando temple.

Eikando Temple’s Hojo Pond with fiery red autumn colours.

Japanese Carp (Koi) in the pond.

Eikando's main buildings are built alongside the base of the hillside and are connected by wooden corridors. We took time to walk along the corridors and see the insides of the various buildings. We had to remove our shoes while walking on the wooden corridors. I was glad I had socks on as the wooden floor was cold!

Rock Garden at the Eikando Temple.

We found time to sit down and rest our feet while admiring the sand and rock garden while touring the buildings.

Sand Garden at the Eikando Temple.

After completing the tour of the buildings, we put on our shoes again and continue down this flight of steps to explore the grounds once more.

The Tahoto Pagoda on the hillside of Eikando.

Taking a break from shooting the autumn leaves to shoot some pictures of flowers and other subjects instead.

Green maple leaves are attractive too.

We spent about one and a half hour in Eikando. By then we had enough of autumn foliage and was looking for a place to have lunch. There were not many eating places outside the Eikando Temple and the narrow streets were chock full of people, tour buses and cars.

We continued down south a short distance to the Nanzen-ji temple. Nanzenji's central temple grounds are open to the public free of charge while entrance to the Hojo building and Sanmon Gate is chargeable.

Nanzen-ji temple’s Sanmon Gate.

After a quick tour of the free area of the Nanzenji Temple, we found a restaurant still serving lunch at 2.30 PM. Yatsuhashi-an Syanari is a small store selling sweets, ice cream and dessert on the ground floor and hot meals on the second storey. There was not many options in the menu, so we ordered the curry rice sets.

 

Curry rice set at the Yatsuhashi-an Syanari.

Once lunch is done, we took the subway from the nearby Keage Station to the Kyoto Shiyakushomae Station.  We would spend the rest of the day exploring and shopping in the area around Teramachi-dori, Nishiki market and Shijo-dori.

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Shopping at Teramachi and Shinkyogoku shopping arcades, Nishiki market and tonkatsu dinner at the Katsukura Shijo Higashinotoin

23 November 2016

After a late lunch following a morning of autumn leaves viewing at the temples along the Philosopher’s Path in Kyoto’s Northern Higashiyama area, we took a short subway ride from the Keage Station and alighted at the Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae Station at about 3.40 PM. Our PASMO prepaid smart card that we bought a few years ago in Tokyo could be used on the Kyoto subway.

Underground mall at Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae Station.

The station is linked to an underground mall. Walking westwards, we left the mall at the start of Teramachi-Dori. Teramachi and Shinkyogoku shopping arcades are two parallel running, covered pedestrian streets, packed with shops and restaurants that sell day-to-day clothes and goods.

Walking southwards along Teramachi, we came to a junction where there was the famous restaurant called Kani Doraku. This restaurant originated from Osaka’s Dotonburi Street and there is no mistaking what this restaurant is good at. A giant mechanised red crab with waving claws and legs were beckoning visitors outside. We would be visiting Osaka later in our itinerary so we gave it a miss for now.

Some of the things to buy in Japan are the local beauty and medicinal products. We have previously visited the Matsumoto Kiyoshi store and this is a good store to get these items. The store offers tax free shopping for foreigners if the total purchases are above 5000 Yen and the goods are to be used outside of the country.

We just need to show our passports to the check-out counter staff and the value-added tax of 8% will be deducted at the shop. The receipts and forms were stapled to the passports and we were to hand this to the customs officer at the airport when we leave. The staff will packed and sealed the items in transparent plastic bags that we were supposed to show to the custom officers but there was no inspections done at the airport.

We actually packed all this items in our checked in luggage when we leave Japan. The customer officers were just collecting the receipts and forms. No need to see the goods, based on a trust and honour system that the products would be taken out of the country. I think this is a good system that eliminated the “penny-wise pound-foolish” process used in many other countries. What could be simpler than that? No need to go through complicated processes and long queues at the airport to claim back the money.

Nishiki Market, a busy, crowded and narrow food market street runs off in a perpendicular direction off the Teramachi-dori right where the Tenman-gū Shrine is located.  This was our second time at the Nishiki Market and it was crowded as ever.

We took our time to browse through the stores. Many local and fresh produce were being sold and would greatly interest those who likes to cook.  Many of the dried seafood products like dried scallops, cuttlefishes, fish and laver looked interesting.

There were also a few good restaurants in the vicinity. For ramen, there was the Ippudo, Ichiran (we tried this previously – see here), Kyoto Gogyo and Ramen Sen No Kaze. There was also a Tonkatsu (Fried Breaded Pork Cutlet) restaurant at the western end of Nishiki Market called the Katsukura Shijo Higashinotoin, This restaurant is a branch of the same restaurant located at the Kyoto Station. See post of our visit to the Katsukura located at the Kyoto Station here. Since Katsukura serves one of the best tonkatsu in Japan, it was a simple decision to try this restaurant again.

We were early for dinner and the restaurant was not crowded.

We had to make our own dipping sauce for the pork cutlets. Clear instructions were provided at the table. First grind the roasted sesame seeds into a powder. Then add the sauce of our choice – Katsukura Original or Spicy.

Tonkatsu (Fried Breaded Pork Cutlet) dinner at the Katsukura Shijo Higashinotoin. The meal came with miso soup and free flow of steamed rice.

Once again, Katsukura lived up to its reputation and did not disappoint.

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