We woke up, gathered our luggage, and high-tailed it out of the hostel as soon as we could, and walked towards Kyoto Station looking for a new hotel. We ended up booking rooms at super fancy Hotel Granvia which resided inside the station. We left our bags (as usual, check-in wasn't until 3pm), and walked several blocks to UCC Cafe Plaza (yes, Billy is carrying my backpack for me because 1) he is super awesome and 2) the backpack is super awesome).
This is where we subsequently ate the best waffles this young American has ever had.
While we were eating we were trying to decide what to do that day. Kyoto is known for its temples, so we thought, "Gee, maybe we should try to find a temple?". We looked out the window and saw:
A temple! Also, while we thought that pointy building on the right would be the main attraction, note the big point coming out of the western style building on the left? Hmm... So we walked over.
It turned out to be Higashi Honganji, the "mother temple" to a branch of Buddhism called Shinshu Hombyo, and is one of the biggest wooden structures in the world. This is what the side gate looks like:
They didn't allow photographs in the main hall, but this is what it looked like as we walked around outside:
and as we were entering Amida Hall (rebuilt in 1895):
Like I said, pictures weren't allowed inside the main building, but it was very awe-inspiring. Incredibly detailed sculptures and archways along with a Buddha in the center. They had plastic bags for you to carry your shoes around in as you weren't allowed to wear shoes on the tatami mats inside. There were several people praying and it was very peaceful.
As we walked out of the main hall, we saw the main gate (the back of it):
As you can see the temple was under minor construction and various places were being rebuilt. Also as we were leaving the main hall, an older Japanese lady approached us and tried to have a conversation with us, though she spoke no English. As Billy gathered (he spoke the most of all of us), she thought we were Italian because we were short for Americans, she has 3 kids who were living all over the world (one in Spain...?), and asked if we were in Kyoto to check out all the temples. Very friendly. We said goodbye and wandered into a different building in the temple's grounds. We found a little rounded theatre inside which looked like this from the outside:
The pictures show the left and right sides. Inside, there was one person sitting down in an auditorium-style setting, watching a movie which looked like it was an information movie which looped throughout the day. We sat for a while and then left. By the way, in front of the movie theater was this wooden structure (note the details!):
We left the building and walked towards the main gate (even more amazing up close)
Wandered and found more killer details (as well as the employee-only entry which, you guessed it, had people asking us to leave).
So we left the temple and were sitting outside at a bus stop trying to decide where to go next, when a very kind Japanese man with excellent English (better than mine) approached us and started giving advice of the area. He explained that he was trying to improve his English, was travelling, and happened to have the afternoon free. He offered to go with us wherever we wanted to go and show us the sights (I should mention that I was extremely wary at this point (too many horror stories), but don't worry! There's no bad ending to this story!). His name turned out to be Hiroshi. I will explain where we went in the next entry - we did a lot this day!
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