Today we have a full day dedicated to Kyoto, the old imperial city of Japan. However breakfast comes first, luckily it is included in the room price and we have a choice between a few food items. What we get is something similar to a lunch in Europe which will be really useful during the tiring day that we have planned in Kyoto.
The hotel is a bit outside of the main Kyoto area so we walk to the subway station and take the subway to the Kyoto Central Station. The Central Station is a modernistic building enlarged in the ’90s which is impressively large including underground shopping malls and a department store. From the station we walk towards the first attraction of the day, To-ji one of the many temples in Kyoto.
To-ji is a historic temple founded in 794 by Emperor Kammu which permitted only two temples within the interior city wall with the other temple being long since gone. We enter through the east gate and the first view is not that impressive with a large parking lot and a few scattered buildings.
The most attractive feature to us seems to be a nice lotus flower pond with a few turtles and ducks and is really scenic.
We are not yet sure if we want to enter the paid, enclosed part of the temple complex and instead decide to walk in the outside area first to see if there is anything worth seeing in the enclosed area.
As we leave the main area we are almost alone in exploring the outside area and we discover two large halls, Ko-do and Kon-do, that can be entered from the enclosed area. As we reach the south side a friendly Japanese volunteer(?) offers to tell us the history of the temple and convinces us that the statues in the halls and the pagoda are worth seeing.
And the pagoda is actually one of the main attractions of the temple complex as it is the tallest one in Japan and quite and old one being erected in 826. We catch a glimpse from the south side but it is mostly covered by trees so we decide to enter the enclosed area and see what can be seen from the inside.
From the paid area the view is better however the sun is not helping with the pictures that we try to take. Ko-do and Kon-do both have a large collection of statues especially of Buddha, all of them huge and impressive. They are also a good place to catch our breath as it is cool and shaded inside.
There is a nice ornamental pond near the pagoda with benches and paths and great views of the pagoda. It is a scenic place to take our breath in the shade before continuing to explore.
Similar to other maintained ponds we have seen it has ducks and turtlesand it is fun to watch them and wonder if they are domestic or wild or something in between. And then we are done, we exit To-ji and it is time to find and explore Nishi Hongwan-ji another temple in Kyoto.
