Kyoto, Day 1: Kurama to Kibune Hike

Saturday morning bright, and early we began our adventures on mainland Japan. At 8:40AM we departed Shinagawa station (Tokyo) on a bullet train headed for Kyoto. The experience was amazing - in two and a half hours we had traveled the 283 miles. By car, the trip would have taken five and a half hours!

It was around 11AM when we arrived at Kyoto station, and we couldn't check in to our Airbnb apartment until 4PM, so our first order of business was to make use of one of the thousands of coin lockers available at the station. Fiona and I love the show The Amazing Race and felt a little like we were on it as we searched bank after bank of lockers for an available one. It was hard to fathom how so many thousands of lockers could all be in use. Perhaps that should have been our first clue we were definitely NOT in Hokkaido any more...

Once we finally located an open locker (kudos to Daddy who somehow managed to fit all our bags into one after I had definitively proclaimed that there was "no way they would fit") and ditched our heavy bags, we set off for the mountain village of Kurama. Our plan for the day was to hike from Kurama station to Kurama-dera, a mountain top temple, and then down the other side of the mountain to the neighboring village of Kibune. Kibune is a popular escape from the Kyoto summer heat offering kawadoko, dining on platforms raised above cool rivers that provide natural cooling. 

From the Kyoto subway system we transferred to the Eizan Railway - famous for offering beautiful rides in the fall through tunnels of trees with leaves of every color imaginable. It must be an amazing site because even with the current all green state of the trees it was a very pretty ride.

Greeting us as soon as we stepped off the train was this huge statue of Tengu. As with many Buddhist  characters we have discovered since arriving in Japan, Tengu has a long and constantly developing history in Japanese folk stories and religion, but today is widely recognized as a protective - yet still dangerous - spirit of the mountains and forests.

Just up the main street of Kurama we reached the steps to the Kurama-dera temple gate. Despite having an entrance located right in the heart of Kurama village, the temple itself is a long hike up the mountain from here.

After paying the 300 yen entrance fee, Fiona gave Jason lessons in how to clean his hands before entering.

From the gatehouse there was a long series of steps passing waterfalls and small shrines.

Eventually we reached another gatehouse - this one the gate of the Yuki-jinja shrine, the protector shrine for Kurama village and temple:

After leaving Yuki-jinja, we passed several more small shrines, waterfalls:

We then climbed another long series of beautifully ornate stairways...

...before arriving at the courtyard to the main hall of the Kurama-dera temple. The views over the mountains were breathtaking.

The main temple hall itself was also beautiful with so many ornate details.

There are always dozens (if not more) Japanese incense sticks burning at the temples we visit. Fiona is incredibly perplexed by the concept of incense.

To reach the top of the mountain and the tail down the other side, we exited through the back of the main temple gates and were immediately greeted by this warning sign. We've seen a lot of warning signs during our hikes through Japan - bears, wild boar, heat stroke - but none have stopped me in my tracks like this one. No thank you to running into a viper!

No one else seemed to give the sign a second glance, so we continued up the steps leading out off the temple grounds and further up the mountain.

At the top of the steps was a bell. Visitors could ring the bell and make a wish before continuing on.

When I asked Fiona what she wished for, she said she couldn't tell me. "There's a hole in my heart where I put my wishes and it holds them tight." I wonder were she came up with that idea? It's pretty sweet.

As we walked back toward the main trail after making our wishes, I looked to my right and to my horror spotted this guy slithering along next to me. I didn't hang out long enough to see if it was a viper but Jason decided to stop for some close-up pictures, so I've borrowed from him. Now I can't help but wonder if Fiona wished to see a snake!

Despite my hesitations, we continued on up the mountain. At the summit, which was heavily forested and didn't offer any views that compared to those from Kurama-dera, there was this oddly fenced off stone. After some research, we learned that it is know as Yoshitsune Sekurabe Ishi (Yoshitune height-comparing rock). According to Japanese folklore, a young 12th century warrior named Minamoto Yoshitsune used the rock to measure his height while staying in Kurama and being instructed in sword skills by a friendly Tengu.

Across from the rock, was the coolest area of massive exposed tree roots.

After playing on the roots for a while, we made our way down the mountain past more shrines before finally arriving in the village of Kibune. It was the cutest little village all located along this one narrow mountain road. Contrary to what this picture shows, the village was a complete and total mob scene. This one lane road is used by not only pedestrians, but also traffic in both directions. It was complete and total mayhem with cars trying to get past each other as well as the crowds of people.

Almost immediately after exiting the hiking trail and starting up the road through Kibune we started spotting all the pretty platforms set up for kawadoko. I was really excited to try this, and as soon as Fiona saw it and realized what it was I had been trying to describe, she could hardly contain herself. So, you can imagine the building disappointment as we walked from one restaurant to the next only to be given "the X" over and over again.

We had actually given up and started to make our way to the train station about a mile walk down hill from the village when we came across a cluster of two or three more restaurants. I almost didn't even bother asking, but seeing the disappointment on Fiona's face, we gave it one more try. And, much to my shock and amazement, we were immediately led to a table over the river! The experience definitely did not disappoint.

In Japan, fancier restaurants often offer only kaiseki meals - traditional Japanese multi-course meals served as small dishes and plated artfully. Jason has had several such meals with work colleagues in Sapporo, but this was another first for Fiona and I.

As each dish is brought out, they are described and instrusctions are provided on how to eat it. Unfortunately, we didn't understand much of the descriptions, so a lot of what we ate was a mystery.

This dish had some tuna sashimi with some other unknown items:

The glass in the top left of the picture below had a thick white liquid with some small mushrooms in it. The bowl contained shrimp, tofu, a dried fruit, and a green jelly.

There were also shirataki noodles with a soft boiled egg and a golden broth to pour over.

And this amazing (but sadly tiny) grilled fish. By far my and Fiona's favorite dish which was unfortunate given that we were sharing a meal!

The last course was a bowl of rice with what I thought was pork over the top. I dug right in with a huge bite and as I chewed and realized it tasted nothing like pork, I simultaneously realized there were dozens of baby eel eyes staring up at me from the bowl...

After we finished our meal, Fiona quickly cooled her toes in the river before we said a sad farewell to an amazing dining spot.

Then we walked along the Kibune river back to the train that would return us to Kyoto.

As they walked, Fiona asked Jason if he wanted to play one of her new favorite games, "Name your favorite..." The topic of the evening was "Name your favorite book." The volley back and forth went something like this:

Fiona: Mouse and the Motorcycle
Jason: Statistical Mechanics
Fiona: Ramona Quimby, age 8
Jason: Dynamical Systems
Fiona: Ralph S. Mouse
Jason: Quantum Mechanics
...

They went on and on like this for the entire walk. I giggled the whole way to the station at the fact that Fiona didn't even bat an eye at Jason's obscurely odd "favorite book" choices.

Once we made it back to Kyoto station, we collected our luggage and took two more short subway rides to our apartment. We were relieved to find a clean, comfy, well air conditioned apartment that provided a great home base for our explorations of Kyoto! 

After our long day, we wasted no time showering and getting to bed so we'd be ready for our next day of adventures - Iwatayama Monkey Park and Nara! I'll have to wait until another day to write about those - our train is just about to pull into Hiroshima. Wish us luck in explaining the Atomic Bomb Dome to a six-year-old!