Kyoto Day 1

Kyoto is a lovely city with wide streets and older architecture. Today we divided into two groups. We started out going to the Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion).

We then went to the UNESCO world heritage zen garden

Then we moved on to visit the Orinasu-kan – this was an obi weaving studio. The looms were all operated by hand and the fine silk was hand woven using a complicated pattern. Unfortunately we were unable to take photos in the weaving studio. This company employed about 5 artisans and one 5 metre length takes about 1 month to weave, as opposed to the machine ones which are probably done in less than a day.

The garments were beautiful, the designs were so intricate they looked like embroidery but were woven.

This was the street the weaving studio was on. You can’t tell what’s going on in the houses/studios/factories as they just look like houses.

A lovely bit of modern Japanese architecture, would have loved to have a look inside this house.

These vending machines are everywhere, even contain alcohol!

This machinery was parked on a vacant section in a residential area.

After a brief stop for lunch (ops I’d already eaten some before I remembered to take the photo)

We went to the Yamamoto Rocketsu dyeing workshop. There was one man and three women, they were so lovely and excited to share their craft with us.

First we chose a design, then slipped it between the two sides of the T-shirt and painted the wax on. One layer of wax for a pale design and two for a bright design.

These were hanging on the wall, such an inspiring display.

Then it was time to put the t-shirts into the indigo dye, had gum boots on as well as all this gear.

The man then put the t-shirts into the boiling water to remove the wax.

The shirts were still wet so they bagged them up for us to hang up in our hotel room to dry.

Then we were off to the Gion district (the geisha quarter). These streets were very narrow and walking only, was disappointed not to see any geisha but was a lovely area.

They have lots of different manhole covers in the footpaths, these were denoting the geisha district.

The wooden panels below indicate how many geisha live in the house, this house has several. One wooden panel for each geisha.

The building below was the ‘big party house’ in the book Memoirs of a Geisha.

Our guide said it was not a popular movie in Japan as the Japanese felt it misrepresented them. The original writer of the story maintains that the English translation was dramatised and changed quite significantly.

Our guide took us to an Okonomiyaki restaurant tonight, was lots of theatre and very delicious.