Kyoto Day 3 (continued) Nijo Castle

Nijo! Another world heritage site not to be missed!!
First of two moats.
Nijo was a fantastically gorgeous and impressive castle, but unfortunately they did not allow photographs inside the buildings. Nijo was both an imperial palace and a fortress of protection for the ruling samurai class. One of the coolest things about this fortress is the "nightingale" floors. To alert the samurai of intruding ninja the floors chirp!! We got to walk on them and it was super cool! There was also a floor plan of all of the imperial rooms and their uses and models of the shogunate and some of their ladies in waiting.
My mom makes friends wherever she goes!
After we got to Nijo Lilia needed some refreshment. We all did. A morning like Fushimi Inari will do that to you...
What a cute kiddo! She was the best little traveler ever.
Nijo Castle was Cliff's favorite place in Kyoto. With all of the delicate carvings, painting, and detail that went into creating this masterpiece I can't really blame him. I wish that we could have taken pictures of the fabulous tatami rooms and the windows and doors from the inside. Hopefully the impressive craftsmanship of the outside will give you an idea of the effort and importance behind this fortress and political playground of the shogunate and Japanese imperial class. They were well taken care of.




Again, because we were not allowed to take pictures inside the palace, we took a TON of pictures of the details outside.
I just love how the palace is decorated with motifs of flowers and birds and still manages to look imposing and masculine.







expertly manicured grounds and gardens. I suppose it is to be expected at a Japanese castle...


Moat. Nijo had two, an outer and an inner, for double protection!
This was all wisteria. It would have been soooo pretty a month or two before we were here.

Before we left Nijo Castle we were lured towards a stage in a traditional Japanese garden. We could hear strange music being played and our curiosity got the better of us. Turned out that an imperial style wedding ceremony was taking place! We decided to watch for a while and wait for the bride and groom to make their exit! We stayed and watched... forever - BUT it was well worth it!
The scenery around the stage was really beautiful. There were rock gardens and a pool of water right in front of the bride and groom where we stood taking pictures.

The pictures aren't super great, but hopefully you can tell how happy these two were. They were having a blast!

I love seeing happy newlyweds. It's how it should be!
Preparing the bride and groom's carriage.

Last minute touch-ups for the bride and groom before their families, (and a ton of bystanders,) see them off!
Helping the bride and her TWELVE kimono prepare to ride in the carriage. Apparently the lady of the imperial court at Nijo traditionally wore 12 kimono. Geez that would be heavy!
The wait was soooo worth it. We got to see the bride and groom escorted through the castle grounds all the way to the street outside! (We sort of crashed the wedding party and jumped in their wake to take pictures...)

Hands down the best (ok, and only) imperial style wedding I have ever witnessed!

Fushimi Inari... or Fushimi Ineveragain.

Ever seen the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha?" That is one of my favorite movies. The book is one of my favorite books. Well in the movie there is a scene where Chiyo, (Sayuri,) runs through a tunnel of Torii gates and offers thanks to her gods by throwing money given to her by "the Chairmen" into well of offerings and ringing a bell to send her prayers heavenward. I think that this scene is just gorgeous. Ever since I learned that we would be moving to Japan I have wanted see this tunnel of Torii gates. I researched it and learned that the place is called Fuishimi Inari and it is a shrine located on the side of a mountain with literally thousands of torii gates. I was thrilled to see it when we began planning our trip to Kyoto!
Kitsune (or fox) statues are everywhere at Fushimi Inari. I guess they are always linked to Inari shrines. They're pretty mean looking... huh?


So everything started off ok. We hiked, we saw, we hiked some more.
Then it began to dawn on us that this hike would never end. We would forever climb and climb and sweat and ache and never get anywhere. The mosquitoes became unbearable and the sticky humidity drenched us before we were even halfway up the mountain according to the convoluted maps we came across.
Bless our hearts we sure did try to make it all the way, but really people... how many torii gates can you look at before they all start to look the same... because they ARE the same. It was tortuous and not very rewarding to continue climbing and climbing upward and never feel like you were getting anywhere...
Not only were we not getting anywhere, but the entire place was sort of crumbling. Many torii gates were in shambles or had faded from rich bright vermillion, to pinkish white or grey. They were moldy and bug infested.

Much needed touch-ups. I felt like the place was falling apart! A lot of the wood was rotting and many of the gates were entirely or partially removed.
Snacks for the weary climber. I found out later that I wasn't supposed to take pictures of the snack stands.... oops!

The view was ... ALMOST worth it. This was only halfway up too. Maybe it would have been even better at the very top... but we didn't make it. We most definitely gave up.



And.... we're calling it quits... Worth seeing? Maybe, maybe note. Worth seeing again? HECK NO!!