京都駅にわりと近い「東寺」
Have you ever found yourself with an hour to kill at Kyoto Station waiting for a train? It’s a real bummer. There is SO much to see in Kyoto, but with only an hour, you feel sort of trapped at the station. What a waste.
If you are “walker” like I am, one suggestion is to take a leisurely stroll west and south of the station. Less than two kilometers away is “Toh-ji” (literally “East Temple”).
If the weather is cooperative, you can fill up your digital camera with some nice “snaps” of the temple and its environs and get some exercise at the same time.
The most prominent feature of Toh-ji is its five tiered pagoda, which is actually visible from the Shinkansen Bullet Trains just after leaving Kyoto Station heading toward Osaka (south of the tracks).
電線を地下に埋めてあるから、五重塔の写真もばっちり
Of course, being so close to the station, the roads around Toh-ji are a bit congested which makes it hard to take those “serene” tourist pamphlet type photos which feature that OH-SO-ADVERTISABLE “Kyoto mystique”. I didn’t have time to try anyway. So, I went for the “ancient / modern” contrast shots mostly.
お寺さんなのに、めずらしく大堀もある
Anyway, Kyoto is REALLY easy to navigate. All the streets run straight either north/south or east/west.
To get lost lost in Kyoto, you either have to really be trying, or be my wife. Never met a girl with a poorer sense of direction. But that’s OK. It gives me an excuse to take her places.
東寺の南大門をくぐって
Folks say that Kyoto has lost a lot of its original charm. I suppose it’s inevitable. But you can still see bits and pieces of the old neighborhoods holding their own against the tide of modernization.
Just south of Kyoto Station and along the way to Toh-ji, I took a few snaps of these neighborhoods, narrow roads, local shrines, etc. just to wrap up my one-hour walk.
京都駅のすぐ近くに残る町屋
東寺へ歩く途中で見る京都ならではの小道
An older house book-ended by more modern structures.
An “alleyway” curves through the block just south of the station.
A little Buddhist shrine tucked in between a shop and cigarette vending machine
Some runners taking advantage of the nice weather.
Anyway, all in all I scored about four kilometers on this walk, took maybe 20 photos, learned a bit more about how ancient civilizations cope with rapid modernization (at least from a city-planning perspective), and met some cool people along the way
Not bad for an hour’s walk. Beats the heck out of sitting on the train platform.
キーワード: travel, 旅
