{"id":1954,"date":"2024-12-28T14:31:02","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T14:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/?p=1954"},"modified":"2025-01-04T22:27:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-04T22:27:54","slug":"last-day-in-kyoto-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/?p=1954","title":{"rendered":"Last day in Kyoto Part 2."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We left the boys and Kerrie to have their own adventure and went to meet up with my Japanese sister Norie and her husband Hiroshi. We met them in the Kyoto Station (more about that magnificent building later…). After an amazing reunion hug from Norie, and meeting Hiroshi for the first time, we headed to Toji – a public temple located in the middle of the city. Notably it hosts a flea market once a month and an antique market once a month on a different weekend. It is a well used compound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Visitor’s guide:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Toji Temple (\u6771\u5bfa, T\u014dji), literally ‘East Temple’, was founded at the beginning of the\u00a0Heian Period<\/a>\u00a0just after the capital was moved to\u00a0Kyoto<\/a>\u00a0in the late 700s. The large\u00a0temple<\/a>, together with its now defunct sister temple Saiji (‘West Temple’), flanked the south entrance to the city and served as the capital’s guardian temples. Toji Temple is one of\u00a0Kyoto<\/a>‘s many\u00a0UNESCO world heritage sites<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kondo Hall<\/strong>, one of Toji’s original structures, is the temple’s main hall and largest building. Destroyed by a large fire in 1486, the building was reconstructed in the early Edo Period<\/a> in a contemporary architecture style and houses Toji’s main object of worship, a wooden statue of the Yakushi Buddha, flanked by his two attendants, the Nikko and Gakko Bodhisattvas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just next door stands the Kodo Hall<\/strong>, which was added in 825 by Kobo Daishi and served as the temple’s lecture hall. It too burned down in the 1486 fire, and was subsequently rebuilt in its original architectural style. The Kodo Hall houses 19 statues imported by Kobo Daishi from China, which are arranged according to a mandala with Dainichi Buddha (Vairocana) at the center, surrounded by Buddhas, bodhisattvas and the fearful guardian kings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across from the Kondo and Kodo stands Toji’s\u00a0five storied pagoda<\/strong>, which was originally erected by Kobo Daishi in 826. It stands 57 meters tall, making it the tallest wooden pagoda in Japan, and has become a symbol of both the temple and\u00a0Kyoto<\/a>\u00a0as it can be seen from many places across the city. The ground floor of the pagoda is occasionally opened to the public and houses four smaller Buddha statues.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on this fascinating site, click here: https:\/\/www.japan-guide.com\/e\/e3919.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Me and Norie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Aubrey and Hiroshi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This statue had a sign that said: this creature is a cross between a turtle and dragon and contains the power to cure all illnesses. For the low price of 500 yen, you can buy a “heals all” cloth to rub on the affected area on your body for healing. When it works, you can bring the cloth back as an offering to the temple as gratitude (along with a donation I am sure).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We tried to hit another temple, but they had already started closing the giant ornate doors. I have forgotten the name of it now – will update when I figure it out…It had a huge moat filled with Koi fish around it. We managed to sneak a couple of photos before they close the doors. We did read that it was originally commissioned by the daughter of the founder of one of the Buddhist sects. She built it to house a portrait of her father in order for people to pay their respects and continue to study his teachings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The huge doors just before they closed for the day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Koi in the moat around the temple.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We were still early for our dinner reservation so we went to Starbucks to sit down and chat. Otherwise there is no permitted place to just sit down and talk! Dinner was at a restaurant in Kyoto Station. This statement does not do this experience justice. Kyoto station is a magnificent building. The front part is 11 stories high and the multitude of restaurants are on the 11th floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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the light up stairs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
A video of one of the many loops played and projected onto the light up stairs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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View from the middle of the light up staircase<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We went to a Yuba restaurant. “Yuba is tofu skin that forms on top of soy milk when it\u2019s boiling in a shallow pan. It has wrinkles throughout its pale yellow and delicate exterior with a nice chew to it when you bite in, enveloping your mouth with a slightly sweet yet savory flavor.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norie ordered us a multi-course set meal which was full of new things we had never seen or tasted before (all either vegetarian, or fish)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
the white stuff is Yuba<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The floating white stuff is Yuba<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Norie and Hiroshi – our fabulous tour guides and gracious hosts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We got home around 9, and checked in with our offspring to see what they decided to do for dinner. They chose to go to McDonalds and order everything on the menu that was unique to Japan, and then shared it all, sampling and scoring each item.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then tried to go to bed early so we would be ready for our early morning departure and check out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomorrow Nagano prefecture…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We left the boys and Kerrie to have their own adventure and went to meet up with my Japanese sister Norie and her husband Hiroshi. We met them in the Kyoto Station (more about that magnificent building later…). After an … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1954"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1997,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954\/revisions\/1997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}