Port 10 Kyoto (Kobe), Japan

by Ed · April 17, 2024

Aratamete go aisatsu! Greetings once again!

We have a beautiful morning – the most beautiful weather that we’ve had in a while – when we approached Kobe, Japan, on 29 March, 2024!

Our dock is adjacent to the Oriental Hotel! Yes, if you didn’t catch it, I said “Kobe”.

But wait! The title says “Kyoto”! Well, the original itinerary also said “Osaka”! The red tower and the people gangway both say “Port of Kobe”! No, we’re not in Kyoto, or Osaka. We get to stay overnight!

This lady on the balcony of the Oriental Hotel exuberantly greets us! …to Kobe!

Joy and I have a tour to Osaka today! Our tour guide is Taku-san. He makes an emphatic request that we not call him “Taco-san”! “Taco” in Japanese is octopus.

Our first stop is to Shitenno-ji Temple.

Shitenno-ji Gojunoto is a beautiful five-story pagoda. I climb the interior staircase – one way up and one way down – barefoot! No shoes allowed, and I do not have socks with my slip-on shoes today. Cold!

Every level is filled with thousands of tiles commemorating the many deceased members of the Temple. The fifth level appeared to be the only level with open display cases! Sorry – no interior photos allowed.

There is a large courtyard surrounded by a decorated walkway.

Hundreds of lanterns line the walkway in a double row. No one was certain, but I believe these identify the present members of the Temple.

At the far end of the quadrangle is the Learning Center. This is another location we are not allowed to take photographs, but there are stunning shrines and elaborate silkscreen paintings throughout! They appear to depict a princess being delivered to her future husband.

Just outside of the courtyard is this intriguing statue! It is the statue of Shinran Shonin, and a woman is there saying her prayers. Shinran Shonin was an innovator and founder of the largest school of Buddhism in Japan in the 12th and 13th centuries.

After our visit to Shitenno-ji Temple is complete, we journey to a lunch spot. We are given a lovely bento box lunch! Yummy! Soup, pork, egg, sashimi!

After lunch we head to Osaka Castle!

It is surrounded by a large moat, and we finally see some signs of blooming cherry trees!

A barricade is decorated with these four little friends! I love this!

Through the Main Gate we can see Osaka Castle at the top of the hill!

Osaka Castle is a lovely structure! It is now a museum, so 40 minutes of wandering around does not render any interesting photos. This one is all I have to share.

On Day 2 Joy and I head to Kyoto, but with different tour arrangements!

Our blue skies from yesterday are gone – a front is moving in. Grrrr…

Joy heads off with a friend from the ship to go to a kimono class. I head out on a ship’s tour to Kyoto’s Nonomaru Palace and the Golden Pavilion!

Nijo Castle has the Ninomaru Palace on the grounds. We are not allowed to visit the Castle, but we do get to walk through the Palace and part of the gardens! No photos were allowed inside the Palace, so I’ll add some pictures from the brochure so you’ll get an idea of what we see.

We approach the Nijo Castle and Ninomaru Palace grounds from the Higashi Ote-Mon (East Gate). The stone wall and white ramparts are very elegant!

We go the left, then turn right to reach the Kara-Mon Gate. Unlike Osaka Castle, there is not a straight shot from the Higashi Ote-Mon entrance to the castle here.

The detail on Kara-Mon Gate is equisite! Every layer has its own unique decorations!

We finally arrive at the Ninomaru Palace! This is a single-story structure, but is still decorated beautifully! Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu did a great job with this design! To be clear, the Nijo Castle next door is multiple stories tall.

Tokugawa’s crest of three hollyhock leaves graces every structure!

We enter the building through a side door set aside for group entries. We remove our shoes outside and step inside to the “nightingale floors”!!! This is absolutley lovely!

I learned of nightingale floors decades ago, as a construction method to prevent sneak attacks! But this turns out to be a myth. The floors “chirp” when walked upon because of metal clips that are used to secure the floorboards to the underlying joists! There are thousands of “chirps” going on continuously from all of the visitors! It’s a lovely concert I wish I could record!

I do grab a quick photo of the room on the right through the window before I put my camera away for good. Here is what I see! There are golden panels decorated with soft willow trees. This is the Tozamurai building’s Yanagi-No-Ma room.

OK, no more real photos.

This next shot is very grainy, but show three “tigers”. The artisit is suspected of having Chinese influence. The Chinese, at the time, believed that every third tiger would develop leopard spots. The two on the right have tiger stripes, and the one on the left has leopard spots! This is displayed in the Third Room of the Tozamurai building. This and the adjacent first and second rooms are where feudal lords wait for their turn with the Shogun.

These panels are from the Tozamurai building’s Chokushi-No-Ma room. This is where the Shogun meets with messengers from the Emperor.

The panels in this brochure photo are in the Ohiroma building’s Fourth room, Yon-No-Ma. It is believed the Shogun would display weapons here when he was in the Palace!

This brochure photo depicts the Ohiroma building’s Grand Hall, consisting of both the Ichi-No-Ma (first room) and Ni-No-Ma (second room. The Shogun meets with feudal lords here. He occupies the raised section of the room in the back (Ichi-No-Ma) and the feudal lords sit on the lower section in front (Ni-No-Ma). The Shogun’s room also has a raised ceiling and additional coffer section to make his area more grandios and make the feudal lords feel insignificant.

When we walk through here there are manikins occupying the spaces, as if the Shogun was in court! It looks about like every Shogun-related movie I have ever seen!

We walk the Ninomaru Garden path. There is not a bad angle for this garden! I have trouble choosing which shot I prefer, so I’ll share all three with you!

I finally find a clump of cherry blossoms that are thick enough to not see through easily! Lovely!

Sakura, Sakura, noyama mo sato mo, miwatasu kagiri…

It’s time to leave this Palace. It is absolutely wonderful and I’m glad I have the chance to be here to witness it, especially the nightingale floors!

We have lunch enroute to the second site, but it is family-style service and not pretty to show you.

Our next and last stop in Kyoto is Kinkaku Temple, better known as the Golden Pavilion!

Kinkaku Temple was originally built in 1792. It burned down in 1950! It was rebuilt in 1970 and remodeled with the gold leaf adornment in 1983. So sad we’re seeing so many reconstructions, but that is what happens all too often.

We approach the gate to the Kinkaku Temple grounds.

I spot and interesting stack in the corner. Would you believe – water buckets?

A short walk leads us to a pond and this magnificent sight! Oh, how I wish we would have blue skies today…

Ooh, there’s a hint of blue in the sky! But not enough…

The story goes that the three levels of the Temple have specific meanings. The first level is for the aristocrats. The second level is for the samurai! They are considered more valuable than aristocrats so their level received a coating of gold leaf. The third level represents the enlightened priestess, also deserving of gold leaf.

The pond around the Pavilion provides outstanding views from every angle!

Continuing on the path beyond the Golden Pavilion, I come across the Sakakikumo Shrine. Surprisingly, not many people seem to notice this!

A little island with a pagoda of rocks on it is White Snake Mound. White Snake is also interprested to be White Dragon. The stacked stone pagoda has four Buddhas carved at the bottom.

Nearby, a coin toss challenge is here for gaining funds for the White Snake Temple. Mostly kids are playing, and the goal is to toss your coin into the bowl. As you can see, many don’t succeed!

It is time to return to the ship. I just have a curious picture to share from somewhere in Kyoto before we hit the highway to Kobe. This lovely clock is outside a business!

When we see the ferris wheel we know we’re close to the ship. Remember what I said about ferris wheels in a previous post?

A few hours later we pull away from the dock, turn, and head out! The lady from the balcony was on the dock, again waving exuberantly! It’s nice to know some people are happy to see a ship come in!