entry nº 22d // 20180810

[part 4 of an ongoing series]

•so today is JANUARY 21. it’s our big bike around town and see what there is to see day. heather’s already been there for a couple days before i arrived, so she’s got some hot tips on what’s good. our pod hotel had rental bikes available, so we got set up at the front desk and got ready to go. basic dorky faux-cool single-speed flat-bar numbers. watch out, though, because the grips are super slippery if you’re wearing the wrong kind of gloves, which, i guess i was. almost fully slipped off the bars trying to pop a wheelie at one point. careful out there. 

•basically if you go to kyoto, you quickly realize that there are so many historic temples and shrines around, you just simply don’t know what to do with them all. thankfully i had some recommendations from shoko, and heather had her hot spots, so we were able to come up with a good route, though of course after like two spots we realized we were running out of time before stuff closed for the day. here’s where we made it:

•nishi-hongan-ji

the west side complex of a big temple [we didn’t go to the east side, across the way]. architecture popping off on this one. total omg vibe the entire time. it’s just, the details were just, it’s like…. that kind of feeling. awesome in the actual sense of the word. huge old rope on display made of human hair that they used back when to pull the timbers along used to build the thing. some very informative dioramas and displays about where the lumber came from, the crazy efforts involved in getting it to the actual site of the temple, etc. it’s something. 

•rengeōin sanjūsangendō

this place has a thousand and one life-sized statues of the goddess Kannon. not kidding. no photos allowed inside so you have to use your imagination. it’s such an interesting, specific feeling inside, standing before all these statues… you think about who made them, when, what they were like and what their lives were like, how long it took, the texture of the skin on their hands, what they felt like as they worked… white wintry light coming in through the windows above and behind us, the smell of incense floating up into the air, feeling the sheer age of the building, dust motes, cobwebs, hushed footsteps, murmurs, whisperings…

•kiyōmizu-dera

another temple famous for the open balcony of the main building, perched up above the grounds below. beautiful huge blazing orange gates on the approach up to the main building. unfortunately, that main building was in the midst of a restoration when we went, so the entire building was boxed in by scaffolding and netting. but fortunately, you could still get out to the balcony, which was cool, though it was winter so the foliage was pretty sparse. i guess everything’s a mix, huh? maybe the coolest detail was the scaffolding, which was all rough-hewn timbers strapped together with leather cording. it was, don’t know many stories high? all strapped together by hand like that. 

also, up near the temple itself, there was a trials dirtbike parked up there? wtf? whose, and why? mystery. 

anyway, note to self to come back here in the spring or fall (and, well, kyoto in general) because this place must be unbelievable. 

•yasaka shrine 

last spot for the day, and it was evening by the time we got here. warm glow of hundreds of lanterns in the night. 

to be continued