It was interesting learning about the Kabuki and the importance of Okuni to the classic Japanese dance/drama performance which eventually led to women being banned (even to this day!!!) in performing it in official theatres.
The walk led us through the Higashiyama area of the city which famous for its Geisha district, here we got to learn a little more about the Geisha and Maiko, their education and strict lifestyle.
We saw the theatre where the Maiko normally perform and their school, Kyoto itself has around 300 Geisha and it was staggering to learn how much money they can make for a an evening in a tea house. It's not for everyone though as it's a very tough profession taking 5 years of true dedication to pay back all debts owed for costumes, hair, board and lodging. Seems like way too much effort if you ask me.... The cost to see them perform privately in a teahouse for 2-3 hours would cost over the £1000 mark.
Next was a quick stop in the grounds of Kennin-ji where Dominic explained about the tea ceremony (which we were lucky enough to experience earlier in Kanazawa). The walking tour continued to a little temple, Yasaka Koshindo Temple (full name is Daikoku-san Kongo-ji Koshin-do). It is now famous for its fabric monkeys that are hung around, giving it a colourful, intragram-esc, appeal. Apparently if you give up one of your bad habits, tie it up in the monkey your wish will come true... I don't think they have enough monkeys for me!
On our approach to the monkey temple we saw Hōkanji Temple (Yasaka-no-Tou) which is a 46 metre high pagoda (tower) which looks overlooks the Higashiyama District and is so close to all the traditional houses.
Our final stop on the walking tour took us to Yasaka-jinja Shrine when the gods must have been angry at us as the heavens opened so we temporarily found shelter before rejoining the group to see how the Buddhists perform a purification ritual.
NEED FOOD!! After consulting Dominic we walked a few hundred metres from the Shrine to one of his favourite Ramen restaurants. It was our first taste of Ramen and certainly wouldn't be our last as it was delicious and relatively inexpensive.
Having recharged our batteries we planned to visit a few temples which we'd researched as Kyoto has over 1600 temples so you got to be a little picky with limited time.
- Shōren-in Monzeki Temple
This temple is a rarely visited retreat on the main Southern Higashiyama tourist route and has a superb garden giving very picturesque shots from the temple itself.
- Heian Shrine
This temple was a little walk away from Shōren-in. It is a colourful shrine with vast gardens (although we didn't go in the gardens as you have to pay and we didn't have time)
- Nanzenji Temple
We now had to walk back on ourselves a little to reach this temple but it has it all: expansive grounds, a fine kare-sansui (dry landscape) garden, intimate subtemples and soaring halls. Its also the start/end of the Philosophers Walk.
- Jisho-ji (commonly known as Ginkaku-ji - Temple of the Silver Pavillion)
We took the Philosophers Walk from Nanzenji on this trail of about 2km following a small stream and stopped of at a couple of smaller temples on route, Reisen-dori and Hōnen-in Temple. Unfortunately though we didn't make the Ginkaku-ji (Temple of the silver pavilion) as it closed at 5pm like most temples. Again... To ambitious to get to every temple and do a walking tour in one day! Our feet were a little tired so we caught the bus back to our apartment it would have been another 6km and we didn't fancy it!
In the evening we tried a restaurant that served okonomiyaki a popular dish in there area which is a type of Japanese pancake / omelette which was heated on the hot plate on our table. It was definitely different and topped with Worcestershire sauce (but I'm not the biggest fan of eggs).
After eating like a local we decided to drink like one and proceeded to a sake bar(JAM + SAKE) and both tried three different samples which were all subtlety different, the blossom flavoured one was a little too floral for our palettes.
