Kyoto

We're finally finished with exploring Kyoto. The past three days have been filled with endless walking, sightseeing and of course, eating!

Kyoto is an old city that was founded in year 794 and was home to Japan's imperial families for almost 1,000 years. The city today is a quaint mixture of old and new, and contains approximately 2,000 shrines and temples. 2,000 shrines and temples!! With this many temples, you can only imagine how peaceful this city is.

We spent the first day walking around Gion, the old district. This is also where we caught a glimpse of two geishas walking around!

Uncle Vincent having a good time in Gion

One of the many Zen Buddhist temples in Kyoto. Unlike the Chinese Buddhist temples which are covered with many colors and decorative drawings, the Japanese ones are much simpler in design, reflecting a purer perspective. I like the Japanese ones better :)

A Zen garden

This temple had rows and rows of lanterns hanging to welcome the ancestors back to Kyoto

Jojakko-ji Temple, which means "everlasting pure land". The little stones are nameless gravestones of the thousands of people who died during the Adashino area from the Heian to the Edo periods.

Beautiful bamboo groves


We had a Zen vegetarian meal for lunch. There wasn't any meat in it, but lunch was really delicious and filling! Who knew you could make so many varieties of food with tofu?

Kinkakuji, or the Golden Pavilion, one of the most visited temples in Kyoto. The entire top part of the pavilion is covered in gold foil!

A kimono fashion show. The long sleeves mean she's single. Shorter sleeves are for married women.

We also went to a traditional tea ceremony. Our tea master kicked off the ceremony by first pouring hot boiling water into the bowl. She then mixed in two teaspoons of green tea powder.

Then she used a bamboo whisk to make the green tea frothy

Here's the green tea with a piece of a sweet rice cake. You have to first eat the rice cake before drinking the tea. Also, see the red part of the bowl? That's considered the prettiest part. During a tea ceremony, the Japanese will place the prettiest part of the bowl facing the drinker. You have to pick up the bowl with both hands, turn the red part clockwise and then drink the tea.

Here's a family photo with our tea master & her grand daughter!

These are just a preview of my many photos. You can click on the slideshow below to see more! I would post more photos of the temples we saw, but frankly, I'm pretty temple'd out! Tomorrow we're heading off to Hakone, where we'll stay in a ryokkan and enjoy the hot springs! Time for rest and relaxation!