We had not known much about the Japan's temple city and former imperial capital, Kyoto, till our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi visited this city in 2014.
We were left amazed by the sights of Kyoto from the Prime Minister's vist and we had to have our own date with the city on this trip. So we checked out of our hotel in Osaka, had a leisurely breakfast and headed to JR Osaka to catch a suburban train to Kyoto, a short 40-minute haul.
Street art at Herbis, Osaka...
The train ride to Kyoto was pretty uneventful and we got a chance to doze off for while. And there we were in Kyoto.
The first thing - secure our travel passes from the tourist office at the station itself. The elderly gentleman who sold us the travel passes guided us on how to get to the various attractions, in his broken English that bordered more on being cute rather than funny. Man! I love Japan...
We hope to cover the length and breadth of Kyoto visiting numerous temples - some Buddhist, some Shinto - all of which are pristine and charming in their own right. And I was startled to see a video on YouTube that Hindu Gods and Godessess are venerated in Japanese temples. They have been adopted as their own and for instance Goddess Saraswati, Lord Ganesh and many others. Many Sanskrit mantras have also found their way into Japan, in ancient times.
Interesting to say the least...
In fact, Mr. Yasukuni Enoki, Former Ambassador of Japan said “It is very important for the Japanese to know that in the bottom of Japanese culture, Indian culture is very firmly imprinted.”
And now we are off to our hotel across the street to dump our bags before we head out sightseeing...
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