As the morning began, one of our new Ichi En Sou guesthouse friends, Jake Ehrlich, joined our crew. “And so my wolf pack, it grew by one.” Haha, Jake would be a great addition to any group and we were glad to have him with us that day.
We did another walking tour of the city and May 15th turned out to be a great day to be visiting the ancient capital. The Aoimatsuri Festival and once-monthly craft fair were both being held in Kyoto that day, so we made a fun loop up to the festival held near the imperial palace, over to the craft fair along the river, and down to the Kiyomizudera Temple complex.
So during that morning we watched a parade of ancient garbs and regalia, went out to a delicious tonkatsu pork cutlet lunch, and walked up the banks of the Kamogawa River. Taking time to enjoy the crowds, we slowly found our way through the city, stopping at random temples or parks whenever we happened along one. The streets were busy and the market we visited was an interesting conglomeration of cheerful crafts, foods, and people. I think we each bought a good selection of fun souvenirs while walking through the grounds of this old temple, turned for just one afternoon into a busy city market.
After the market we made our way south, reaching the second most famous temple in Kyoto, the Kiyomizudera. It is known for its sprawling complex of temples, pagodas, statues, and so forth. Yet the place that makes it perhaps the most well known is the tall balcony overlooking the city of Kyoto far below. In Japanese, when in English we would say to “to take the plunge” the Japanese people would say “to jump off the ledge at Kiyomizudera.” It’s supposed to be that idea of going all out. As we walked the complex we even visited a famous love stone and a really interesting fountain of luck where three streams of water come flowing out of the mountain above. Apparently if you can catch the water from all three streams, when you drink of it your wishes will all come true; “So we’ve got that going for us, which is nice”
After the temple, we walked back to the guesthouse one last time in order to go out to dinner with Yashi, Sunam, and the other guests. A group of about twelve of us walked along the well-lit banks of the river, eating food from a nearby restaurant, and watching an awesome fire dancing street performance. It was a great last memory of the city, but before long we had to grab our bags back at Ichi En Sou and hop on the night bus bound for Tokyo.
And so ended our last day in Kyoto, my new favorite city in Japan, and a place Andrew and I (and also Jake, I’m guessing) will always look back on with great memories.
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