Saturday I visited Kyoto, the former capital of Japan for more than 1,000 years. Kyoto has hundreds of temples and shrines and former imperial residences to see, but I only had 8 hours to explore.

Kyoto is in the central part of Japan, about a 6 hour drive by car, but the high speed train traveling at 170+ miles per hour resulted in a two hour and twenty minute trip (approx $325.) The ride is typically a good way to see Mt. Fuji, but the morning weather was overcast so no views for me. I sat next to a gentleman who was traveling Osaka for a photo shoot. When he learned I was from Boston, he was very interested in talking about Daisuke Matsusaka and was so thrilled to hear I had been to the stadium to see him play. He was also very impressed with the fact that I could use chopsticks to eat alll of my breakfast.

Breakfast was a bento box purchased from the train station. Beautifully presented and only $13 – rice, vegetables, salmon, black beans, tofu…the only thing I disliked in the box was the pickled plumwhich was a very sour taste.

bento box

Navigating the Kyoto train station was a challenge. Imagine Grand Central plus Port Authority plus a hotel, department store and several taxi stands and a what looked like hundreds of shops and food stands all rolled into one. It took me an hour to get out of the station and purchase a bus pass for the day to navigate the city. I was very lost trying to understand the bus system and was very grateful to a Japanese woman who approached me to explain.

Sanjusangen-do includes a 400-foot-long hall that holds 1,000 5-foot tall golden statues of Kannon and in the center of the hall is a 6 foot tall version of the deity. No pics allowed so found one on Flickr to give you a sense.

Kiyomizu-dera temple was founded in 780 – the main veranda juts out over the valley and is supported by large wooden timbers. This was the most crowded of the temples with school children, women in kimonos, tourists. We drank water from the “Sound of Feathers” waterfall where we used long-handled silver cups to catch the water to supposedly help with health, longevity and academic success.

Ginkaku-ji — the temple of the Silver Pavillion — had carefully sculpted gardens.

A walk down the Philosopher’s Path was uneventful but nice to stroll by a small river in the shade.

After a long bus ride to south Kyoto we visited Fushimi-Inari Taisha, headquarters for 40,000 shrines nationally that do service to Inari, the god of rice, sake and prosperity. There are 10,000 red lacquered gates tracing a path up the mountainside.

Food in Kyoto: cherry blossom ice cream cone, and a sort of vanilla cream puff that had ice cream instead of soft cream.

Back in Tokyo, took the subway to the Ebisu region of Tokyo and had dinner with a group of co-workers and their partners. The tofu dish was delicious – made in house and then deep fried into 2″ x 2″ squares. There was a cabbage salad, baby chicken wings, a spicy broccoli and green bean dish, and plenty of beer. There was a wedding party wrapping up so the place was very festive, and the Japanese girlfriends of the coworkers I was with were very interested in me. For three hours I was grilled on American culture — my hair, my manicured nails (it costs $200 in Tokyo for a manicure with designs),  my use of chopsticks. And the fact that I have two children and still work is very rare in Japan; most women stop working when they get married. The subway stops working at midnight, and we got there at 11:55pm but that was not acceptable. If I understood the situation correctly, they have the last person board at 11:40pm so that it’s cleared out by the time it closes at midnight. So, it cost $53 for a taxi back to the hotel.

A long day — from the 7 AM train departure to the evening adventure with coworkers — but one I’ll never forget.