Kyoto is an ideal place to live

04/02/09 THURSDAY

We love Kyoto! It’s modern and chic, yet it holds so much visible culture and history. Today we went to the Rokuon-ji (Kinkaku-ji, Golden Pavilion) and the Ryoan-ji (Rock Garden).

But of course we made a few stops before we got there, since we walk everywhere.  With all this walking, I sure hope it helps breaks down all the carbs I’m eating . On our walk, we stopped at McDonald’s and ordered the McPork sandwich and the Shaka Shaka

 chicken. Both were actually quite tasty. The McPork sandwich had some sweet and sour sauce that reminded me of Worcestershire sauces. For the Shaka Shaka chicken, you get to pick 1 of the following seasonings: black pepper, spicy garlic, or cheese. We picked spicy garlic and the package of the chicken showed you how to put it on the chicken. It’s Shaka Shaka chicken, it’s like shake your own seasoning onto the chicken like shake-and-bake! Not bad not bad..

Then we passed by a couple of unique vending machines – a vending machine that sold fresh tomatoes and another that sold ties, batteries, and film. I was waiting to see  pantyhose or knee high socks vending machine, but never saw one.

Oh, and the cherry blossom forecast, well it’s finally here!! More blooms! We passed by a shrine and inside was a huge setup for a festival that was probably set for this weekend. There were tons of gift booths and food stands. Some stands had started to sell their goods because we could smell the burning charcoal grills. Their charcoal smells so much better here.

After maybe about 2 km, we got to the Golden Pavilion. At the entrance, I noticed several secret service people hanging around and throughout the area. We were suspecting the Emperor, some one really rich, or a big politician? We think it was a famous monk because after awhile, we noticed the secret service just following a bald guy in his monk garb. On to the Golden Pavilion, it was really stunning..bling bling! The entire pavilion is covered in gold leaves. They wouldn’t allow us to get close enough to see the detail on the building though.

Then we went to the Rock Garden, about another kilometer.  The cherry blossom trees here were half bloomed and very beautiful. I went camera happy with all the pretty blossoms. The rock garden was very serene and calm, definitely a bit smaller than I imagined it to be, but I have their construction and remodeling to blame. They had all this staging and bamboo holds etc blocking some of the extended view of the rock garden. The whole time I was staring at the rock garden, I was wondering if they have a Zen master go in every morning to re-rake the garden and make it perfect. But really how would he rake it without getting any foot prints on the gravel? What happens if it’s perfect and they don’t want to touch it yet leaves or twigs fall from a tree, or if a bird decides to land on the rocks and run his feet through the lines?! Crazy I know. I guess I wasn’t as calm as I thought then.  All the landscaping on the grounds was lovely. I took lots of pictures.

I’m so glad they was a JR bus nearby that we could take back to Kyoto Station, otherwise we would have had to walk another 2 km back in the freezing cold. It felt like 35F with chilly winds. So we took the nice warm bus back to the station and walked around the Isetan Mall. I love their huge pretty malls, it could entertain me for days, and mostly I would be hanging out in the basement levels. B1 is all the sweets, pickles, crackers, pastries, and desserts.  B2 is all the grocery items. Now why can’t Safeway/Albertson’s sell produce or day of cooked things for a discounted price at the end of the day? I’m sure they would actually sell more instead of having to throw it all away? Anyhow, Elgin and I went around enjoying all the free samples (kinda like Costco) : pickled vegetables, sweets, dried fish. ..all yummy! I can say that I usually don’t really want things and I have a lot of will power for purchases, but in Japan, I really do want everything! I want to taste and eat everything! Even if it tastes bad..i’m sure it’ll still be good because it came in the prettiest packaging with the neatest label and shaped in the most perfect way. Yes, Elgin was a good husband and held me back from it all.

Onto dinner, we found the 10^th floor of this mall – 8 ramen shops, 1 burger place, and a sweet shop. We settled at one of the ramen shops and no it didn’t beat Ippudo, but it was still the best mall food we’ve ever had.