This was our last day in Kyoto and we decided to go into Kiyomizudera at the end of the day.
We started of by walking around the neighboorhood and having lunch at Ichiran. We sat at out individual booths and had our steaming bowls of ramen and headed our way to a pancake place — when you are in Kyoto, in the Summer, AC is your best friend, so you have to take the opportunity to stay out of the heat and eat delicious food whenever possible.
On our way to Kiyomizudera we went into Yodobashi where they had these cute robots that were very interactive (and a little bit creepy, I’d say) and the girls wanted to bring them home.
We have the most wonderful memories of Kiiyomizudera and it has always been such a special place for us. This time felt a bit damp for me however.
There were tons and tons of tourists just roaming about and shouting and some being outright disrespectful towards the place itself and towards other people. In one instance, our oldest daughter went over with a coin and tossed the coin into the offering box; afterwards you are to ring a bell (it’s meant to call the gods’ attention), so while she was grabbing the rope to ring a bell, another kid literally shoved her out of the way to ring the bell. I was so shocked that my teacher voice immediately came out — I told the kid and his father off (it wasn’t pretty). They were very shocked by my outburst and said sorry straight away, but the moment was ruined for me. All I could see was loud and disrespectful people bobbing about.
We went up to the temple and the number of people decreased slightly, because (alas!) you have to pay a small fee to go in (it’s a blessing in disguise). Keoshi was absolutely feeling the moment and very in tune with the spirit of Kiyomizudera, and it was only because he was enjoying it so much that I started to calm down and actually enjoying it myself.
We then indulged in a couple of ice-cold drinks and while sitting down to have them (you can’t walk around with food or drinks in Japan) we found another family of Portuguese people. We could barely walk around those streets without bumping into someone these days. It wasn’t like that 10 years ago.
We walked all the way back to our house and enjoyed each second of it, heat and all.
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