Visit to Kyoto! - Nov. 1

Today I went to Kyoto with Okaasan! It was my first visit to Kyoto, which is such a famous city known for its wealth of temples and shrines. The weather started out sunny and warm as we walked to the train station in Kobe, but after we finished our visit at the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, it began to rain.

So first, let me back up. I did go to the Golden Pavilion, and I was so excited about this! The Golden Pavilion is an extremely beautiful, gold-colored, three floor building within a temple complex called Rokuon-ji Temple. It was erected centuries ago; however, the building tourists visit today is not the original, I think that it was rebuilt a few centuries ago. Nobility or feudal lords lived in the area surrounding the Golden Pavilion, both of which are World Heritage sites.

Next we went to a shrine about fifteen minutes away from the Golden Pavilion. It was not a World Heritage site, but Okaasan has visited this shrine before so she thought it would be nice to show me. When we got there, she spotted a miko-san, or a woman who assists brides during wedding ceremonies. We then saw a bride and groom come out of a side building near the shrine. They formed a procession and walked toward the shrine, finally entering the shrine structure which is off-limits for regular visitors. It turned out that this was the bride and groom's wedding ceremony, so Okaasan and I were able to watch it from twenty-five feet away. It is rare to see a wedding ceremony because normally only close relatives are invited to keep the cost low. It is, however, more normal to have expensive wedding parties after the ceremony. But the normal marriage ceremony is usually reserved for family. Indeed, there were about twelve or so relatives in attendance at this ceremony.

After we watched part of the wedding ceremony, Okaasan and I ate lunch at a tofu restaurant. It served all different types of tofu dishes. We had fried, crispy tofu (not fried in oil but browned and slightly flaky), warm tofu on a stick covered in a salty miso sauce, and cold tofu in a bowl covered with fish flakes. Apparently this is food typical of Kyoto, so I was pleased to indulge.

Okaasan wished to take me to a shrine after eating lunch, but she took a wrong turn and we ended up at a temple complex. Normally we would have enjoyed walking around and viewing the various buildings, but the rain was coming down pretty hard at this point, so we decided to head home. Despite the rain I thoroughly enjoyed my first visit to Kyoto.