Gion again - Blogabond

Visited the Sanjusangendo today, a temple basically consisting of a great hall featuring 24 statues of the Heavenly Guardians and 1001 statues of the Thousand Armed Kannon. These statues are nearly life size, 500 Kannons placed right of the great statue in the middle (oh, and this one is enormous, a truly great view) , 500 left and the 24 Guardians lined up before them. Oh, and the Thousand Armed Kannons here don't actually have 1000 arms, but 40. As it is believed that one arm of the Kannon can save 25 worlds, that makes a thousand per statue. Still a whole lot of arms in one hall. Picture taking is strictly prohibited inside.

Nishiki market

Went to the Nishiki-market then, a street lines with stalls and shops dedicated to food. Fresh seafood, cooking utensils, vegetables, all you want.
Went into a shop purely for cooking knives and bought some stuff (these utensils where pretty much on top of the things I want to bring home from Japan after all). Really nice merchandise and staff there, got my name in Katakana engraved into the knives (free service).

Oh, and I entered one of those:

100yen shop

Nice place to get some cheap stuff (there are some useful things on sale as well).

Geisha district

Wandered through Gion and reached the Geisha street. And there she was, on her way to the taxi bringing her to her appointment:

Maiko/Geisha

Stopped by the sake bar Yoramu on my way back.

Yurakuso sake bar

Really nice atmosphere and the barkeeper (came to Japan half his live ago by chance and never left) knows just about everything there is to know about his business. Oh, and he speaks English by the way.
He offers sake samplers, consisting of three different sake types which are different for every costumer. You tell him what kind of taste you like or dislike (not in liquor, in general) and he gives you a range of taste to get a feeling for sake. Mine consisted of a dry one, tasting like a dry white wine with high alcohol content, a foggy white one, dry with a bit of sweetness and a fruity one with lots of flavor. I didn't like the white one very much, the others were good. I ordered a sweet one for finishing up, something like a desert wine, I told him. What I got was a really unusual sake, one make from completely unpolished rice (meaning the rice still has its outer shell, its not rubbed away), which is really rare, I was told. It was sweet, it was good, it was a great wrap for the day.

Oh, and I saw this woman walking her dog...Or something. Anyone got an idea why she is driving it around like that?

On my way back I noticed this Torii from the bridge I was standing on. Interesting placement, to say the least.

Another hot day, and I spent quite some money today.

So long and stay tuned,
JuergenS

written by

JuergenS on July 21, 2010 from Kyoto, Japan

from the travel blog: Two month of Japan

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