Tokyo!  We have arrived!  As sad as it normally is for us to leave a ship, today, we are sort of ready. It has been a wonderful cruise full of great experiences, but we are ready to be in one place for a while, on our own, and on our own schedule.  Of course we are up early – basically because we want to avoid the buffet breakfast scrum!  Which works perfectly well, putting us back down in the cabin with about 2 hours to go before our slated disembarkation time.  Ah well, we can just chill for a bit on the balcony, as it is a lovely sort of chilly day.

At the appointed time, we disembark, grab our bags and easily go through immigration and customs, making our way out to the taxi stand.  No line here either – we are on our way to Tokyo station in a jiffy!  The taxi driver is sweet – speaks a little English – and even gives us his “favorite candy” that he says is good for the throat.  When we translate the package that he let us photograph, it appears these are throat lozenges.  Hey, we’ll take them!  Um, yeah, sorry!  We are both masked up, but our coughing has obviously make him wary!  But a nice gesture – and we enjoy the ride, watching the ubiquitous taxi advertisement videos and laughing at the “manners” sticker on the back of the driver seat.

Arriving at the station we have 90 minutes to kill before our train, but the station is a zoo and there is nowhere to sit – even the McDonald’s is a storefront with no seating.  Poop.  Figuring we’ll just head to the Shinkansen tracks, we swipe our Suica card (love that you can attach the Suica card to the Shinkansen tickets and use that) and head up to wait (although an attendant tried to stop Ed from coming in so early, somehow we manage to just hop into the elevator and go upstairs).  We can see why they don’t want you up here early – there is nothing to do and virtually nowhere to sit.  It could get totally overcrowded if everyone came up as early as we did – but we made it – and after a foray to the toilet (downstairs – we remember that from the last time we were here) we end up buying coffee from an automatic machine – sweet!  Grinds the beans, French press drip the coffee and delivers it!  With a top already securely placed.  The automation here is astounding.

Our train finally arrives and we settle in for the 2 hour 15 minute ride to Kyoto.  Seamless and easy.  At the Kyoto station, we easily find our way to the pick up area where our host, Takashi said he would meet us to take our bags to the house since it won’t be ready until the afternoon.  He is great – the instructions he gives are perfect – pictures of everything so you won’t get lost.  Couldn’t ask for more.  He arrives exactly at 12:30 as planned, takes our bags and agrees to pick us up here again at 4:30.  And we’re off!

Since we are right across the street from the Airport Limo Bus stop, we head there to figure out how to buy tickets.  Easy as pie!  A machine (of course there is a machine!) spits out our tickets for the 7:50am bus on Sunday – and we’re handled.  Now it is time for lunch.  Since the station has a ton of restaurants – we’ve eaten here before – we head back that way, only to end up in the Annex underneath the Avanti mall where there are a few restaurants – but a great little food court with Takoyaki!! Yes!  Takoyaki and beer.  We are done.  Perfect to tide us over until dinner.

That handled we begin our explorations. This half day is a bonus, which allows us to reorganize our schedule and head up to Kiyomizu-dera Temple, one of the most celebrated temples in Japan.  It is a 45-minute walk from here, which would take too long with our short time limit, and sort of hard to get to on the subway – and the buses are out of the question.  But we have Bolt!  And we are right on the corner of a hotel and the mall – easy pick-up place.  Quick, easy – seriously – the taxi is there within minutes of pushing the button!  He was actually right there in the taxi queue and pulled out to pick us up.  Perfect.  And he is great – very little English, but enough. He points out different things along the way – the “number one ramen restaurant,” which has a line a mile long waiting to get in, the Kama river, something else we didn’t quite get. Then he starts talking about Kiyomizu-dera – and making motions for going up, up, up.  Yes!  We will walk up stairs and up, up, up until we are at the gate then out to the main temple where the views are said to be spectacular across the city. 

As we approach the temple, the roads start getting more and more crowded, and our driver keeps saying, “lucky, lucky, lucky clients,” apparently in reference to the fact that he was able to drive us all the way up to the beginning of a pedestrian walk that leads to the temple.  Hmmmmm…..that should have set our radar off, but no, we’re still in the ether thrall of being out on our own with no set timeline (well, ok, we have 4:30 for Takashi, but still!). 

He lets us off and we all happily wave goodbye – and then we turn around. OMG.  The crowds! You could not move – I mean jam packed.  There are thousands of people up here, all jammed into a little narrow walkway lined with shop after shop selling touristy food and souvenirs.  The pictures do not do it justice, it was seriously unbearable. 

We managed to make our to the top of the retail alley only to find the stairs to the temple gate just as crowded.  Eek.  It looks like a beautiful place, just not with all these people!  Somehow we found a little street that skirted the edge of the complex and managed to walk around a less populated area – with a couple of shrines and a weird and wild little statue garden – at first it looks like a graveyard, but no, these are simply little statues that, we assume, are meant to have special meaning to those who placed them here for prayers.  Don’t know – I just made that up, but it seems sort of reasonable.

Turning back toward the complex, there are some nice little shrines, lots and lots and lots of tourists in their rented kimonos and, well, just lots and lots of tourists interspersed with some decent views of the temples.  Arriving at the ticket booth – we look out along the walkway to the far temple with the views, and nope.  We just looked at each other and said – ABORT!  Not worth it.

We did manage to find a couple of spots where we could get some long shots into the city, though. That sort of saved the excursions…sort of.

Descending through the crowds, we kept heading downhill, with no destination in mind, just to be out of that morass!  We stumbled upon a temple where we were chastised for taking a photo in the graveyard.  Oops.  Gomen (yes, I’ve definitely learned the word for sorry in Japanese!), and then found a little unassuming place for a beer and a banana juice (yummy!).  After all that exertion and consternation, we needed a break!

Looking at the map, we figured we could walk back to the station from here – we had time – and we could make stops along the way.  Heading toward the National Museum, we made a quick stop at the Hoko-ji temple, but didn’t manage to see the enormous bell somewhere on the property. We did have fun with the artistic dragon at the entrance though.

Heading onto the museum, which was enormous, we decided we didn’t have enough time to do it justice and make our 4:30 pick up time, which was actually a blessing in disguise.  Instead, we went across the street to Sanjusangen-do temple.  Probably one of the best Buddhist temples we’ve visited!  First of all there is a lovely garden area lined with temple buildings and the iconic red paint – which made for great pictures along the little pond.

Then there was the main temple itself. Originally built in 1164, but lost to a fire and rebuilt in 1266, it has remained virtually unchanged for the last 700+ years.  The long hallway on the west side, almost 400 feet long, was built in the Wayo style, which means it has columns as support.  The temple is named Sanjusangen-do for the 33 spaces between those columns.  During the Edo period, Toh-shiya, an archery contest, was held in the hall; the man who shot the largest number of arrows that reached the other end won.

Entering into the temple itself, we are not allowed photos, which is a serious shame because inside are 1001 statues of the Buddhist deity, Juichimen-senju-Sengen Kanzeon, shortened and referred to as Kannon.  1,000 statues are standing with one gigantic statue placed at the center in a seated position. They are all made of Japanese cypress, the earliest dating from the 12^th Century, the lates from the 13^th Century. An overload of the senses!  You can sort of get the feeling from the brochure pictures below, but not really.  I could spend hours here just looking at all the different Kannons, facial expressions and poses!  Some of the most impressive are the Thunder God and the Wind God, placed at either side of the hall on raised pedestals in the shape of a cloud.  Impressive and scary.  Then there are also the Guardian Deities, placed in a straight line in front of all the statues which protect the  Buddhist Kannons as well as those who believe in Kannon.  Fabulous!

And perfectly timed too – from here we can walk back to the train station to meet Takashi at 4:30.  Per usual, he arrives exactly on time, and quickly drives us over to our abode for the next 4 days.  And what an abode!!!  This place is amazing.  A 2-story, technologically advanced traditional Japanese house.  Shoes off in the “reception” area where we can keep our suitcases and outerwear – Takashi gives us the tour – the front tatami room with TV, a bathroom in the corner, the long hallway to the totally equipped kitchen, then into the “washing” bathroom where Takashi explains how to bathe and shower.  The tub is only for relaxing, to bathe and shower, you use the rest of the room with a little stool to sit upon while you wash yourself and your hair.  There is also a sign on the door explaining what to do!

A sweet little garden outside along the hallway, then upstairs where there are 2 rooms – 1 tatami sleeping room and 1 traditional bedroom with a bathroom and sink area. 

In addition to the tour, there are signs everywhere explaining what to do and what not to do – like how to set up the cushions in the tatami room if you want to sleep there, area maps on the kitchen table, along with bus info and a sheet to take with us to give to taxi drivers so they can find the house.  Oh – and snacks and a little gift of bookmarks!  So fabulous.  The place is wonderful and Takashi thinks of everything! This will be a great HQ for our Kyoto explorations!

Settling in, we review our planned itinerary here in Kyoto.  Not happening!  Every place we planned to visit are on the top lists of every other tourist in the area, and judging from today?  We will not be happy campers.  We had read about the overcrowding and over-tourism here in Kyoto, but hadn’t really experienced too much of that last year when we visited.  Yes, places were crowded, but not like today! Obviously it has gotten so much worse.  A huge problems are the local buses, they are so overcrowded it isn’t funny – we watched them go by today and if there are 40 seats on the bus, there are probably 100 people on it.  Sardine city.  We had read about the bus problem too, because the city has been trying to figure out what to do with the over-tourism and the fact that buses are the #1 way for locals to get around.  Sigh. We know we are part of the problem – and the pot calling the kettle black and all that – but still!  We know the problem! We don’t add to it.  Ok, rant done.

So, all that being said?  Our plans will now be completely readjusted!  This is a huge city with tons of history and there are plenty of things we can do over the next 4 days without going to the uncomfortable “top ten list” venues.  Off the beaten path – that’s our motto.

Moving onto dinner, Takashi has told us there aren’t many options in this area and we should eat our dinner while we are out, before returning to the house.  That doesn’t do us much good tonight, although he has pointed out a couple of places, one being Mr. Gyoza.  Gyoza – we’re in!  Navigating our way to the restaurant, we stop at the Lawson’s for supplies, including the $2 bottle of Suntory wine (the beer and coffee drink people – that turns out to be pretty darn good!) then walk up the street only to find a line 20 people deep at Mr. Gyoza.  Bummer!  We are not in the mood to stand in line for dinner tonight – it has been a long day, topped off with a restless sleep due to travel anticipation and early wake up call – and we’re just hungry and sort of tired and want to go back to the house.  Fortunately, there is a restaurant across the street called Pastimes.  And it is blissfully empty.  Game on!

They’ve got everything you could want – including wine, which can be hard to come by here.  We have a very satisfying meal of mixed tempura and Korean fried chicken, along with some oddly good tofu snack thingies that arrive with our drinks. It’s quiet and clean and perfect for our first meal here.  And the chopstick holder says it all!  “Yummy” is right!

Back at the house, we play with all the different electronic pads around the house, watch a little tv then hit the hay.  It’s been a long and tiring day and we are ready to lay our heads on our little beds with our fluffy comforters and say goodnight.