The Takao District in Kyoto

July 1st

The night before in the soba shop where we had eaten dinner, Julie had expressed interest in going to a location that seemed difficult to get to. I read the description in Lonely Planet, "Takao is secluded district tucked far away in nothwestern part of Kyoto." The fact that it was secluded was enticing, the reason I didn't want to go was it seemed like a pain in the ass to get to. That assumption wasn't too far from the truth when we arrived to the bus station in the morning. I went into the bus center to ask for further information on how I should get there. The woman there was not about helping me. I went in and expressed where I wanted to go and the means I wanted to get there by. The woman cut me off and just started speaking rapid Japanese. I couldn't understand her. I tried again, with a map showing the way I wanted to go and expressing I needed a ticket. No, she wasn't having any of it. I finally got fed up with her, purchased a two day pass for later and went to use a different bus service other than hers to get to Takao.

We got in a line that was already queued up to about 20 people full of hiking gear. The bus pulled up and we didn't get a seat. Julie was really worried that we were being shipped off to some huge mountain since everyone was in hiking gear, boots, packs, hats, hiking clothes and we were standing there looking cute in skirts. I asked the woman next to me, who didn't really understand me but really only understood I was asking where people were going. She responded to me that they were all going to a ping pong game!!!! I chose the one woman who wasn't geared up in hiking stuff to ask and so I never really got my answer. This entered us into a nice conversation about my self introduction and all that.

In the meantime I was keeping a close eye on the kanji and try to hear the Japanese on what was being said for the next stop. This bus offered no English whatsoever. Moreover, they didn't put hiragana on the upcoming bus stop. That was a bit wierd; usually they always offer hiragana, too. So, for example, the name of where we were going was 山城高尾．That is the Chinese characters for where we were going, or Kanji. My Kanji understanding is lower than a first graders reading level. I am studying it but it takes years to get to the fluency level of an adult. Whereas, I can read hiragana which looks like this: やましろ　たかお. I can read all of that, no problem. So, the last two things I wrote out - first in Kanji and second in Hiragana are read in the same way and mean the same thing. But, you see, Japanese custom uses the Chinese characters for names of people and places as default. I was really worried we might miss our stop which would have problematic as buses only come once an hour. But lucky for me I knew two of the kanji that is used in the name of this area, I knew 山 and 高　so I was lucky and able to get off in time without missing it.

We sat down in front of a little shop and Julie practiced saying Good Morning in Japanese, ohayo gozaimasu to the people coming in and out of the shop before we headed on. The area was secluded and set into mountains, it was gorgeous. First we needed to walk down and down a bunch of steps, walk down a narrowly paved road, cross over a bridge and head up, up and up into the mountains to get to the first temple. We had to walk up hundreds of stairs to get to the top, a task that was a bit arduous for 9 in the morning.

We finally reached the Buddhist temple, Jingo ji, which dates back to the 9th century. The name of the temple means "god's protection" and is one of Japan's 3 oldest areas for higher Buddhist officials. The area is about 200,000 square meters and offered a few buildings to look at. The first one we looked at was set up on the end of dozens of stairs tucked away with the greenery of the trees surrounding it. It's called the Daishido (Founder's Hall) and has been around for seven centuries. Following a small path heading away from the gate, you reach the kondo or the Gold Hall. This is also set up at the top of the stairs, but we didn't need to climb up them as we came in from the side. The Gold Hall houses many of Japan's National Treasures, 16 in all, in addition to more than two thousand important cultural assets from as long as 1100 years ago. We walked around for a bit looking inside before to the back to look at a locked up temple behind it.

We followed a wooded path, not entirely sure where it led to. Where we came out to was gorgeous. It was the Kiyotaki River Ravine and soooo green. We fed our eyes to the majestic beauty of the area while playing photographer of the area.

We made our way back down to the river area again and headed in the complete opposition direction as jingoji. It was a quick walk uphill for about 5 minutes alongside a river, over a beautiful red bridge until we reached the gates of saimyo-ji temple.

This temple was founded between 824-834. When first entering the gate, you see several stone lanterns. There is one main building that we were able to walk around and see. The land surrounding saimyoji temple was really beautiful, and we walked around it a little bit before going to the last temple in this area.

To get to the next temple was a bit of a walk. Most of it was uphill and through crowded streets. I asked a group of people when we reached a large set of stairs if this was, kosan-ji temple because I wasn't entirely sure. Thankfully it was. It seems the story of this trip was stairs, stairs, stairs. We had to walk up MORE stairs to get to this area. Then we had a choice to make, go straight up more stairs or go right. I asked that same group of people for help because I wasn't really sure. It turns out we had to go right. This area was made a World Heritage site in 1994 and the area was more of a complex than the other places we had been to yet.

You first enter into the actual temple that was created in 774. It has been regarded as a sacred Buddhist site for hundreds of years. The original temple was destroyed in civil war fires in 1547 but had been restored in 1636 to nearly it's original state. This temple also houses thousands of objects that have been declared as national treasures. Kosanji was really small, so we were in and out of it in maybe 10 minutes..but the area is very large. We walked up steps into the woods again and saw other smaller buildings throughout the woods that were significant to the well-being of this temple and who took care of it.

We had spent nearly 3-4 hours total in the Takao District. Without planning it, we lucked out and caught the next bus out of the area. I am so glad Julie stressed how much she had wanted to go to the area because I wouldn't have even bothered with it's far location on my own. However, it was great to get out there mainly because there were very few tourists to deal with and the area was really gorgeous. I will save the second half of this day for my next blog.