Travel logs of Thayumanasamy Somasundaram
Welcome to the Somasundarams travel pages. Here you will find links to our travel logs, photos, and blogs. The pages are grouped in two different ways; by travel dates and travelled places. Enjoy!
International
- Japan
- Kyoto
In August 2008, we visited Kyoto, Japan as part of our trip to Japan. Our visit ot Kyoto actually started in Osaka where we were staying for a week. So we took local Osaka subway trains to reach the Shin-Osaka station, where we needed to take the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. Then we took Hikari Shinkansen traveling toward Tokyo and got off at the next stop, Kyoto. We picked valuable information at the Kyoto City Information Center. Kyoto's tourist places are well connected by City Buses compared to the subway in Osaka and street cars in Hiroshima.
We first headed toward the Nijo Castle by taking the bus number 101. Our starting point was Kyoto Eki-mae (Kyoto_train-station_in-front). In Kyoto in the city buses you board from the middle of the bus and disembark from the front (in Nara it was just the opposite). While disembarking you either pay ¡ 180 for the ride or get use your All-Day Pass stamped once in the machine. Once stamped in the first ride, you simply show the card with the current date on it. That was what we did. We got out at the Nijo-jo-mae (Nijo_castle_in-front) stop.
Then we headed to Kinkaku-ji Temple (and not the Ginkaku-ji Temple) which is located in Kinkakuji-cho, Kita-ku, Kyoto prefecture (more about the nomenclature) and took the same Bus Number 101 and got off at Kinkaku-ji-michi stop. The Kinkaku-ji temple has a beautiful golden pavilion, hence the name kinkaku (golden pavilion). Even the tickets to the temple are so beautiful to look at. After you enter through the main gate and walk around a corner, you see the golden pavilion with a reflecting pond just next to it. Even though the day we visited the temple was cloudy, we could still see the shiny gold color. In the pond there were several colored fish swimming around. The whole temple had a peaceful mood. Even the walkway out of the temple is so nicely done. There were small shrines decorated with beautiful lamps.
After lunch we headed to the Sanjusangen-do temple (aka Rengeo-in, Hall of the Lotus King) by another bus from the Kyoto JR station. In the main hall (where you have wear the shoes provided by the temple) you see 1001 armedKannons. It is considered by one of the oldest and longest wooden structures in the world (the temple name literally means Hall with thirty-three spaces). Even the court yard outside the temple with corridors filled with equally spaced orange pillars make this place really nice to visit and visually very appealing .
The webpage contents © 2008-09 Thayumanasamy Somasundaram.
