Kiyomizu-dera is the most popular temple in all of Kyoto and it's usually crowded - often
with lots of tour groups.
This video was photographed in the off-season which was the first week of December and even
then it was fairly busy -- comfortable, nice to have some other people around, so no problem,
but if you're here in the peak season during the summer in the middle of the day there
will be so many people you'll have a hard time getting to the railing to enjoy a clear
view of the beautiful scenery.
The main hall is the most spectacular single item here.
It’s up on large wooden stilts and designated as a national treasure.
Large verandas and main halls like this were constructed at many popular sites in the past
to accommodate large numbers of pilgrims.
And then we have the views looking out across from the main hall into downtown.
Looking up towards the temple which is up on the hillside.
An old tradition that held that if you could survive a 13 meter jump from the stage, your
wish would be granted.
Over 200 people jumped, and most of them survived, but that practice is now prohibited.
You can also buy good luck charms and various kiosks here and omikugi which are the paper
fortunes, and incense and various other talismans.
Shoppers will be kept quite busy at the various kiosks and you can also get a bite to eat
at some of the food stands.
The word Kiyomizu means clear water, or pure water.
The Otowa waterfall runs off the nearby hills in three channels of water that fall into
a fountain.
Visitors can catch and drink the water, which is believed to have wish-granting powers.
And it’s said you will gain health, longevity, and success in studies by drinking from the
three different streams.
These typical incense burners offer a smoke that's designed to chase away the evil spirits.
The temple is actually so old that it predates Kyoto itself.
It dates back to the 700s, before Kyoto was founded as a city.
Of course the structures have been rebuilt numerous times since then.
There are some 30 buildings here and most were constructed in the early Edo period,
in the early 1630s.
And the different altars and shrines within the temple grounds -- Images of the Buddha
here and there in the different altars and shrines within the temple grounds.
There's a Shinto shrine just as part of the temple complex as you often find here, the
Buddhist and the Shinto blended together, the two religions harmoniously coexisting
in Japan.
Kiyomizu-dera has something for everyone.
First of all it's an important religious site where serious pilgrims come to pray; young
people come looking for good fortune; visitors arrive to see the sites; history buffs have
much to admire; shoppers are made happy by vendors; and all fall under the spell of Kyoto's
most popular temple.
During the busy seasons this temple gets extremely crowded with the tour groups.
They come by the busloads.
But generally, early December is a wonderful time to be touring the temples of Kyoto.
It's just not very crowded.
There's a monk waiting to receive some offerings.
For the rest of this segment we have a different focus – we’re going shopping on a very
quaint and historic series of lanes just in front of Kyoto's most popular Temple.
There are some small shops inside the temple but the main action for shopping is outside
on the pedestrian lane leading up to the temple as you find typically throughout Japan.
A main temple has a shopping street leading to it, something like the inevitable gift
shop at the exit of the museum.
A similar shopping arrangement has like this been around for hundreds of years, originally
set up to supply the pilgrims who are coming to temples and now it's to sell trinkets to
tourists and offer some high-quality goods as will be showing you.
When you arrive here you could start out with some shopping or of course you could go into
the temple first and then save your shopping for later it just depends on your schedule
and the timing and your preference -- the shops are generally open between 10 AM and
4 PM or 5 PM.
A typical visitor to Kiyomizu would arrive by taxi and the taxi will drop you off at
one end of the shopping lane, it’s a pedestrian lane.
You can walk straight up this lane to the temple and along the way you'll see ceramic
shops and there's food stores, you can get some free samples of noodles and other good
treats.
But here's a tip: you also want to get onto the side street which is even more interesting
-- Sannenzaka which becomes Ninenzaka, the most famous historic shopping street in Kyoto.
But you could easily miss it if you don't take that turn off the main lane and go down
that fleet of steps which will lead you into this wonderful historic zone.
You can see you want to have good walking shoes for this slightly irregular flagstone
pavement.
So this neighborhood around the temples is not modern at all.
You see here one of the older streets of town now with the old classic wooden façades all
along it, with traditional shops and restaurants, teahouses, snack bars.
It really makes for a lovely walk.
Our timing for this visit was perfect because it was not crowded.
We’re here in early December which is definitely the off-season and it's a weekday, so really
there were not too many people around.
On the other hand if you come in the summer it can get very crowded.
That is one of the main comments you'll run into on Trip Advisor, people saying “oh,
it was gridlock with bodies, I couldn't move.”
Of course the majority of comments the travelers have about the street are really favorable
-- people are just blown away by how beautiful it is, how nice the shops are, and just generally
how pleasant this atmosphere is.
It looks like it's some kind of a movie set but you're actually here walking through it
in real time.
Another of the tea gardens, this is a commercial garden attached to a restaurant.
There are a few restaurants along Sannenzaka but of course this is a touristic place so
you’d be better off eating a meal in the downtown area instead, but you cannot beat
this atmosphere.
You'll find the vendors are quite friendly and many of them speak a little English.
You can pick from a variety of Japan-made goods, there's fans and bags and wallets,
ceramics, lacquer dishes.
And some side staircases.
There is a residential neighborhood right behind the shop fronts.
Ceramics are one of the very popular items for sale here and they are made not only in
Japan but a lot of it is made right in the Kyoto area, it's a local specialty.
Of course you'll find all of the typical items for sale: fans, trinkets, miniature samurai
figures and figurines.
You can buy handbags and purses made from kimono material.
Perhaps a Japanese print or a painting to hang on your wall.
But some careful shoppers have noticed the prices on these touristic lanes are little
higher than you'll find in downtown and the selection is pretty much the same everywhere,
so keep that in mind.
But when you're shopping, if you see something you love, just get it.
You might never find it again.
And here you might see what looks like some geisha in traditional costume or perhaps maiko,
the geisha in training, [geisha?
laughter] but no actually these are Japanese tourists.
lt's a tradition here among some younger ladies to get dressed up like maiko and you pay about
$70 or $80 to one of the several costume shops in the area here.
And so if you see geisha-looking ladies carrying around their digital cameras and taking pictures
of each other, well they're not really geisha.
They are tourists out having fun for the day.
They can also hire a rickshaw driver who will take them around in the district and take
their photograph for them, telling them some about the history of the area.
We’ll show you a little more of that at the end of this segment.
We've left the little lane of Sannenzaka and returned to that main shopping lane that leads
up to the temple, called Kiyomizuzaka.
It’s a little busier up here.
The shops love to hand out free food samples, perhaps a cup of tea to entice you to stop
and look at the merchandise.
So the street is just a perfect spot for strolling and hanging out.
You can sit down on a bench and just watch the parade of people go by if you like.
Let's have a look at another shopping lane -- this one is out in front of Ginkaku-ji
Temple.
We've shown you this wonderful Ginkaku-ji earlier in a different episode, which included
a nice long walk in the Zen temple garden, now we’re going to show you the shops out
front.
It's no surprise that the shop along this temple shopping street are really quite similar
to what you find in the other temple areas, and in fact what you find scattered around
downtown, so we’re just having a quick look, and especially enjoying some of the food possibilities
here, the free samples, the chocolates, the rice cakes, the tea -- all sorts of goodies.
It seems like some of the merchants speak a little bit of English but it's really kind
of hard to tell.
You'll say something and they’ll smile and nod back, but it's the language of food and
gesture.
Rice cake, rice cake.
With sesame, some have sesame, sesame?
Smells good.
Rice cracker.
Please.
Uh-hu, what have you got?
We have sesame, musubi, hot tea.
Is that green tea?
Green tea, please.
OK.
You cannot resist such a friendly and polite offer so go ahead and help yourself.
You can see it's a fun diversion on your way up to the temple to shop along the way to
Ginkaku-ji, but really the shopping lane over by Kiyomizu-dera is hard to beat, so we’re
going to take you back over there now and just cut you loose for the next few minutes,
for the rest of the program to let you enjoy the visuals while we play a little bit of
music and show you more of these wonderful shops.
This is part of our series on the temples and gardens of Eastern Kyoto, the Higashiyama
district, and also we’ll take you downtown in some of our other videos.
[music]