The unexpected delights of Kyoto

No longer two firsts but a great way to start the day - waking up on our ryokan and enjoying our personal Japanese buffet breakfast. 

We headed for Arashiyama, on the outskirts of Kyoto. 

The famous bamboo grove lived up to expectations with its photographic potential. 

What I hadn't expected was the tranquility and beauty of Okochi-sancho Villa and garden, built by a famous Japanese movie star of the 1930s. 

As the English translation of the sign said, the entrance fee of 100 yen ($10) is 'hefty', but the gardens were beautiful and it included a matcha and sweet biscuit at the tea house.

The unexpected beauty of the garden was matched by the view of the gorge from the lookout of Arashiyama Park.

...and the walk along the river

(Can you spot anything unexpected about this picture?)

...and the view of the bridge

and the view from the bridge

and the view of Kyoto from the mountain on the other side. 

Having read that the wild  monkeys at the Arashiyama Monkey Park would be mostly gone by late morning, we had the unexpected delight of seeing lots of them and feeding a few from inside out cage.

 

And there were a number of babies at this time of year. 

The town of Arashiyama was unexpectedly large, and we had a delicious lunch of tempura and udon. 

After lunch we looked around the Tenryu-ki temple which used to include this whole area. Belonging to a sect of zen (meditation) Buddhism, the temple was very minimalist and bare, and thus unexpectedly uninteresting to a visitor. The garden was lovely but not spectacular. 

What was unexpectedly spectacular? Nijo-castle.

Somehow in all my planning I had simply slotted this in the itinerary without taking note of its historical significance or what we would see. When Tokugawa Ieyosu emerged victorious after 150 years of civil wars, he built this castle as his Kyoto residence. Here he gathered the daimyo and declared his rule as shogun, beginning 250 years of Tokugawa stability and peace. Fifteen generations later his descendants gathered the daimyos and declared his abdication, signalling the beginning of modern Japan. And we were (almost) in the room where it happened, beautifully restored to its former glory (unfortunately no pictures were allowed). 

What was striking? 

1. This extraordinary building was built for the Shogun to express his power, but he was only here occasionally, and after 30 years no Shogun stayed here at all until just a few years before their rule came to an end. What a waste!

2. The series of waiting rooms and the design of the reception hall was all designed to reinforce the levels of power between the daimyo and to express the Shogun's rule over them, right down to the shape of the ceiling above the guy's head. Even they could barely approach him. What a privilege we have to approach our Heavenly father in his throne room. 

Nijo castle was an unexpected delight for a history and theology buff.

Finally, we'd run out of clean clothes and our new (cheap but very nice) hotel didn't have facilities, so we headed across the road and unexpectedly managed to decipher the instructions on the washing and drier machine at the laundromat. Plus at dinner we managed to order our food on a tablet in Japanese. 

Could there be one more unexpected delight? We found what must be the world's biggest 'toy capsule shop'. 

Hamish chose his first 'Jinmy' car. 

Kyoto - full of unexpected delights.