Day 10 (Friday 15th Oct, 2010)

Today's agenda: more temples, more shrines, more sightseeing.

Before setting off, I stopped briefly at Kyoto Tower to have a look at the apparently very good book shop on it's third floor. It wasn't that great; however due to the popularity of the NHK drama "Ryomaden," about Sakamoto Ryoma, there was a display of a selection of manga series based on Ryoma, Shinsengumi, and the Bakumatsu in general. I need to go back and note down the names of them all, they looked pretty sweet.

After that brief detour, I headed out to To-ji, "Eastern Temple", which is a little way south of Kyoto Station and is well known for having the tallest pagoda in Japan.
As always, I got lost, but I found my way there eventually.
I found somewhere to park my bike, then wandered around the temple grounds for a bit. In one of the halls, there was a free exhibition of an artist who's name I've forgotten; it was really awesome stuff though. They were woodblock prints, but they kind of had a contemporary sumi-e feel to them (I love sumi-e art).

After being amazed by these works of art, I went to the ticket counter to get into the good part of the temple. When I got there I got very confused.
There were three different sections of the temple, and each one was ￥500 each; or you could go to all three for ￥1000. Unfortunately, the sign detailing what each section was was all in Japanese, so...
Fortunately when I got to the ticket counter, they had a map to show where you could go and for how much. I decided to only pay ￥500 and go into the main, southern part of the temple grounds where the pagoda is, as that's really what I came here to see.
Inside this section, as well as the very impressive pagoda (54.8m high), there was a very nice garden, with a pond with fish and turtles and the like in it, and two other large wooden halls which house many buddhist statues. Unfortunately, I couldn't take photos inside (as usual), because the statues were really impressive.
I was also hoping the pagoda might be open to go inside, but it's apparently only open a few days a year.

When I was done there, I went to get my bike so I could head out to the next stop of the day, but... I couldn't remember where I parked it! All I knew was that I had parked it next to some other bikes. So I wondered about aimlessly for a while, until eventually I found where I had left it.

With my ass back on my bicycle seat, I set off to the next stop: a large white cube shaped building, with lots of windows, in the industrial area of southern Kyoto, with "NINTENDO" at the top of it in big letters. Yes, the Nintendo building! Unfortunately you couldn't go inside (its just a regular workplace, after all), there are no tours or anything. But just to stand outside, and look up in awe, and wonder what wonderful new creations are being concocted inside was great enough. It's like the Wonka Chocolate Factory of the digital age.

I managed to avoid getting hit by cars/buses/trucks etc as I rode through the narrow sideroads to what would be my final stop of the day: Fushimi Inari Tasisha (shrine).
I've been looking forward to this because (a) it's apparently very impressive and (b) it's free. When I got there, I finally managed to figure how to ask "Where is a bicycle parking area?" in Japanese (this one has had me stumped for days); and found the place. I ate some REALLY nice read-made tuna/mayo sandwiches that I got from a nearby Fresco for only ￥68 each; less than it would cost for the ingredients back in Australia. Whoever said Japan is expensive wasn't trying his best to be thrifty. Four of these sandwiches and my belly was full, for less than ￥300. Good lunch.

Fushimi Inari was certainly impressive. It's known for its many vermillion "torii" gates (google it, I can't explain); but I was first struck by the many beautiful fox statues. Foxes (kitsune) are believed to be messengers of the Shinto god "Inari", god of rice, agriculture and industry. As such, the kitsune statues are often seen with a key in their mouth, which is the key to the granary.
I studied the statues at the entrance for a spell (I'm fascinated by foxes and wolves and the like), then set off for the main draw of this shrine: the many torii gates.

Nobody told me I was getting myself into a 4km hike, a lot of which is uphill. These gates line almost the entire pathway; there are something like 10,000 in total, all of which were donated by companies (or individuals) who want good luck with their business. I think the biggest gates cost something in the region of ￥1,000,000.
Also, along the track there are a lot of little complexes of "mini-shrines" (they have a proper name, I'm not sure what it is though) and graveyards, all decorated beautifully, and with lots of fox statues. There were also a lot of spider webs, home to some very cool looking black and yellow spiders.
The entire track took me about 2 hours, I guess (I didn't time it), and needless to say I was VERY grateful for the vending machine at the top of the hill.

I had planned to visit one more temple, Sanjusangendo, which is home to 1001 buddha statues in 33 bays along the corridor (hence the name, San-ju-san is 33 in Japanese); but by the time I was finished at Fushimi Inari it was too late.
I navigated my way through more narrow streets (I've grown much more confidant in cycling on the road with cars now, though I have a couple of "cycling roads" that I prefer to use when I can), and settled in to the hostel for some much needed rest.