After checking out from the Daiwa Roynet we took a taxi to the Hiroshima station for to catch our 8:15am shinkansen to Kyoto! We are very excited to see Kyoto -- for many it is the jewel of Japan. We are going to be there right during the peak of the leave changing, so we know everything will be crowded!

We boarded our train for the slightly under 2 hour trip to Shin-Osaka. There we transferred to another shinkansen for the short ride to Kyoto Station. Upon arriving at Kyoto, we checked the tourist information office to see if we could purchase our train tickets for tomorrow's journey to Mt. Koya. Most of the trains are not part of the JR system, so we needed tickets on the Nankai Railway network. There is a pass available called the Koyason World Heritage Pass which, similar to what we bought for Hakone, gives you access to the several forms of transportation required to get to Mt. Koya. We learned it wasn't possible to buy those tickets at Kyoto Station, and instead would have to buy them tomorrow at the Shin-Imamiya station that we would start our journey at.

So, we headed out of the very modern and open station to stand in line for a taxi. We probably could have braved the metro, but with our luggage we felt taxi was a better alternative. The weather had turned decidedly colder, but was still mostly clear and sunny. We hopped in the tax and directed him to take us to a specific metro station from where we had directions to our hotel for the night -- the Sakara Kyoto. The hotel was located down a pedestrian alley, so it wasn't possible to take a taxi directly there.

The cab dropped us off and with the very good directions provided by the Sakara, we soon were at their front door. There was a bit of confusion on how to enter as no one was a front desk during this time. There was a number to call and I spoke with Yuko who gave us the code to enter the building and told us the keys were in our room -- the Sakura Room. We went up the steep flight of stairs and were happy to find the door open. We grabbed the keys and dropped off our luggage before investigating the room a bit. This place had it all -- a mini kitchen, real beds, a loft with an additional bed AND a washer and dryer -- score! A chance to catch up on laundry for free! The only downside we could see with the room is that it was incredibly dark, and even during midmorning on a sunny day with all the lights on it was hard to find our way around. Oh well, that's why we brought flashlights!

Originally we were going to take it easy this afternoon and see some of the local sights in Kyoto saving the main temples for later days. However, given the crush of tourists we'd experienced so far, we decided to see as much as we could today, a day in the middle of the week, instead of waiting for the hoards on the weekend. With that, we grabbed a taxi and set off for probably the most famous of the thousands of temples in Kyoto -- Kinkakuji.

Kinkakuji (also known as the Golden Pavilion) is a Zen temple in northern Kyoto whose top two floors are completely covered in gold leaf. Formally known as Rokuonji, the temple was the retirement villa of an important shogun and according to his will it became a Zen temple of the Rinzai sect after his death in 1408. Kinkakuji was the inspiration for the similarly named Ginkakuji (Silver Pavillion, which we will visit in a few days) built by the shogan's grandson on the other side of the city a few decades later.

Kinkakuji is an impressive structure built overlooking a large pond. It has burned down numerous times throughout its history including in 1950 when it was set on fire by a fanatic monk. The present structure was rebuilt in 1955. After viewing Kinkakuji from across the pond, visitors pass by the head priest's former living quarters (hojo). The path once again passes by Kinkakuji from behind then leads through the temple's gardens which have retained their original design.The gardens were ablaze in color, and it was very crowded. Glad we came on a weekday!

After enjoying the gardens we decided to walk to the "nearby" Ryoanji Temple. In hindsight it probably would have been smarter to figure out the bus system a bit which would have dropped us right there for 100 yen. Instead, we walked along a busy road for about 20 minutes before reaching Ryoanji. Ryoanji Temple is the site of Japan's most famous rock garden and was converted into a Zen temple in 1450. The temple and gardens were quite lovely, especially a "hidden" spot we found near the pond.The very famous rock garden, which we found a bit underwhelming, consists of a rectangular plot of pebbles surrounded by low earthen walls, with 15 rocks laid out in small groups on patches of moss. An interesting feature of the garden's design is that from any vantage point at least one of the rocks is always hidden from the viewer -- much to the chagrin of those of us trying to take pictures of all 15 rocks!

Our final temple for the day was the nearby Ninnaji Temple. This time we took a bus and arrived at the sprawling temple complex. Unlike Kinkakuji and Ryoanji, this temple is just enough off the beaten track where we enjoyed the complex with low crowds. This was awesome, because the leaves here seemed to be particularly electric. We learned that Ninnaji is listed as a World Heritage Site and is the head temple of the Omuro School of the Shingon sect of Buddhism and was founded in 888.Due to the many wars and fires that ravaged Kyoto throughout its history, none of the buildings from the temple's foundation in the 9th century still survive. The oldest buildings date back to the beginning of the early 1600s, including the main hall (Kondo), the Kannon Hall, the Niomon front gate, the Chumon inner gate and the five storied pagoda. We thoroughly enjoyed walking around this complex.

By 3pm our feet were starting to hurt, so we took a taxi back to the Sakara. We needed to get there by 5pm to meet with the receptionist to pay for our first night and to make arrangements for our luggage which we were going to keep there the next day during our trip to Mt. Koya.

Upon returning to the hotel we sorted out the administrata and decided to walk the short distance to the main section of Kyoto to check out the Nishiki Market. Kind of like the Tsujiki Market in Tokyo, only less fishy and more crowded! We bought a couple of snacks before emerging in Kyoto's main tourist shopping area. Tons of restaurants and cafes were available, and we started to think about what we wanted to eat for the night!

Before eating we walked around a bit more including taking a walk along the scenic and upscale Pontocho dining area and the Gion district where we could see Geisha's doing their jobs through the main uncovered windows. We ended the day with some dinner and a foot massage. It had gotten extremely cold and windy, so strolling around in the evening wasn't too pleasant. We headed back to the Sakara, started up a load of laundry and crashed on the comfy beds. We needed to get an early start tomorrow to make it to Mt. Koya.