After a good night rest, have to fuel up properly for an incredible day. This morning’s selection is as follows.
First stop, the Kyoto Imperial Palace. The Kyoto Imperial Palace is around 15 minutes walk from our apartment. Very near. Kyoto was the capital of Japan for a period of over 1000 years. Then, the Emperor moved to Nara, then he eventually moved to Tokyo.
Before going into the Palace, we walked around the Kyoto gyoen (park). And there was of course, a shrine there.
Entrance to shrine
And look who we found … garfield … 
Lake next to shrine
Found another garfield when we walked out of the shrine.
This… is the entrance to the East Palace, or something like that. We were denied entry, because need to apply a special pass.
The Palace Walls
Caught this while walking in the gardens
To enter the Imperial Palace, we also have to apply a special pass. You can apply the special pass from the office near the palace.
I noticed something on the form:
You an alien?
While waiting for the time to go into the palace, we continued walking in the park. Walked through the apricot and peach orchard.
What’s left of the apricots and peaches… seeds:
Ok… time to go into the Imperial Palace.
This is the Okurumayose. This was the entrance used for official visits by courtiers who had been granted permission to enter the Palace precincts.
This is the Shodaibunoma. This building was used as a waiting area for courtiers paying official visits to the Palace. Courtiers rested or waited in different rooms according to rank.
You can see the royal seal everywhere, especially on the ornaments of roofs. It’s the chrysanthemum… if you’re wondering what the seal is.
Next picture, we can’t enter. So can only take picture from afar. This is the most important building on the Palace grounds. It was used for important ceremonies of state such as enthronement ceremonies.
The roofs of this Imperial Palace is made of hiwada, or layers of cypress bark. They are put together using tiny bamboo nails. Picture below is the Imperial Palace tourguide showing us the roof. She spoke in very good English.
Next picture, I think it’s called Shunkoden. It’s where they placed some mythical objects of the royals, and nobody has ever seen it before, because no pictures of the object/s were allowed to be taken… therefore… a myth…
Picture below. We saw the Emperor’s bedroom. No doors one right? There were no such thing as electricity last time. And no such thing as air conditioning and heating systems… that’s why the “bedroom” is in such an open area.
As I said before, the roofs are made of layers of cypress bark. These roofs can only last about 30 years or so. So when it starts to deteriorate, they have to replace the roofs with new cypress bark. And it takes about 30 years to replace a section of the roof. So by the time you finish replacing the roofs, you have to do it all over again. You can see the difference between the newly replaced roof and the old roof:
The Oikeniwa Garden is a strolling garden.
The main feature of which is a large pond with an artificial shoreline.
By the way… remember in the last post that I said I met someone in the Manga Museum which made Kyoto so small? You know who I met?
My ex-course mate. We were in the same group numerous times doing assignments and projects together. The last time I saw her was like 10 years ago. Of all the places to meet again…. here… in Kyoto, Japan. If we would have met again in Malaysia, that’s cool…. but to be meeting again… of all places…. right here, in Kyoto… that made me speechless… super awesome!
We were like … “What are you doing here?” and I go … “What are YOU doing here?”
Not only did we meet the first time in the Manga Museum, we met AGAIN in this tour group visiting the Imperial Palace. Made Kyoto so small. Made the WORLD so small.
Emily, my ex-course mate. Great to see her again!
I wonder when and WHERE I will see her again, or any of my other course mates.
Picture below is also part of the Imperial garden. The Emperor and his fellow literature mates will sit beside this stream, put some sake into a cup and let it float around the stream. While the cup is floating around the stream, the emperor and his mates will try and create a poem of a certain number of syllabus, and they have to finish the poem by the time the cup reaches them again. If they can manage to finish the poem, then they can drink the sake. If not, they have to let the cup float one more round.
You see the white dots on the roof supports? Not only does it create a visual statement, the main purpose is to protect the wood from termites. The white colour is actually made from shellfish. It’s a calcium compound, made into paint, and they paint it on the wood (I hope I got this fact right).
Hope you’ve enjoyed the tour of the palace.
Next picture, just a church that we saw when we walked out from the Imperial Palace park.
Next stop, Nijo Castle (Nijo-jo). If you’re being stingy and only want to go into museums/shrines/parks/palaces for free, this Nijo Castle, is worth paying to enter.
The Emperor lives in the Imperial Palace. So who lives in Nijo Castle? The shogun. A shogun is someone who we call a Prime Minister in Malaysia.
An interesting information, Ninjas are under the Shogun 
The castle was originally built in 1603 as the official Kyoto residence of the first Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu. It was completed in 1626 by the third Tokugawa Shogun, Iemitsu.
The castle was designated as an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.
The Higashi-Ote-mon (Main Gate)
Nijo-jo is separated into 2 sections. The Ninomaru Palace and Honmaru Palace.
The Ninomaru Palace is characterized by the shoin-zukuri architectural sytle, which was favored by the warrior class. It has 33 rooms and over 800 tatami mats. The flooring of the Ninomaru Palace is very special. You have to go there to experience this. When one walks on the corridor of the Ninomaru Palace, it will sing(squeak) like a Nightingale. It’s really cool! No matter how careful I walked, there’s no way I could walk silently. This was purposely made so intruders can be caught.
Mat makes a terrible intruder. He was walking the corridors like he was an elephant.
The floors “singing” floors, from the outside
We were not allowed to take pictures inside Ninomaru Palace. Only the outside.
Ninomaru Garden (Special Place of Scenic Beauty)
The Honmaru was added to the castle complex in 1626. A five-story castle tower (donjon) was a part of the original construction, but it was struck by lightning and burn down in 1750. The Honmaru Palace was destroyed in a large-scale fire. The present structure is part of the former Imperial Palace of Katsura, was transferred here from the Kyoto Imperial Garden.
Inner Moat
Just a very geli friend on the gravel in Nijo-jo
After visiting Nijo-jo, it’s lunchtime! We saw a Japanese Fast Food beef bowl chain on the way to Nijo-jo, and we decided to eat there for lunch. The RAW egg is for you to crack into the small bowl, scramble it, then pour it into your hot steaming bowl of beef rice, and then mix everything together. The steam from the rice should be able to cook the egg.
Next stop, Nishiki-ichiba Food Market. This 400 year old food market is one of the best markets I’ve ever visited.
They sell all sorts of fresh and pickled and cooked foods that I’ve never seen before. Like this one below, I think it’s fish eggs.
A lot of shops were selling pickles. Japan is a nation who eats a lot of pickled vegetables. The vegetables below is pickled in Miso paste I think.
Some more pickles.
We came right after lunch, which was a good and bad thing. Good is, coming here with a full stomach prevents you from eating everything. There’s so much food in this market, you can try it one by one. Bad, you’re too full to eat anything else
However, we did stop for a drink at one of the stalls.
Mine is with green tea, and we still can’t figure out what Mat’s one taste like.
There are so many temples and shrines, especially in Kyoto. After visiting and seeing so many of them, sometimes you don’t bother to go in anymore. This is one of them. I can’t even remember the name of this temple. I think it’s called Kenninji Temple (have to pay to go in).
So we just walked around the temple on the outside.
Just some girls in kimono walking along the street
After this, we planned to try and spot some geisha in Gion. But we thought it was too early to spot them. So we went to Mos Burger for afternoon tea. Burger on the right is their mos burger. As for the burger on the left, rather than having the normal bread bun, rice is used as the bun. And the meat and vege is in between. Interesting.
Walked past another shrine, the Yasaka-Jinjya Shrine, which we shall enter another day.
Welcome to Gion. Gion has many tea houses visited by Geisha. And if you’re lucky, you can spot a Geisha walking to her workplace. According to the Lonely Planet book that we were holding, it said to come here in the evening. According to my uncle, he said to come here late evening, when the rich business men finish work and come here for some entertainment.
DON’T!
Please come here around 4pm if you want to spot a Geisha.
We missed the lot I suppose. We came here around 6 something in the evening, and we only saw ONE.
We were walking along one of the streets, when I heard footsteps created by wooden slippers. I just had a feeling that it could be a geisha. So I waited at the exit, put up my camera ready…
And WHOOSH~….. out came one!
But she was walking sooooo fast, and …
sigh…. this was all I could get. Sorry guys… I feel sorry for myself that I can’t get a clearer picture. GRRRR~!
And she was the one and only geisha we saw that night. Couldn’t be bothered to wait any longer. We were both extremely tired by that time.
Before going home, walked along Pontocho Street and Kiyamachi Street. They are both lined with expensively priced restaurants.
So if you’re not a rich bloke like me, just enjoy the lights ya?
That’s all for today.
strange yeah, bumping into people in unexpected places. the same happened to me some years ago. bumped into my classmate (last met when we were 18) in lugano, and then again in milan. so bizarre. in lugano, we were actually leaning on the same pillar, then we turned, saw each other and got a shock – i think we used the same ‘what are you doing here’ line.