WHERE IN THE WORLD: KYOTO, JAPAN

By George Fontana

From our port of Osaka, Kyoto is a distance of 25 miles. We opted to take one of Japan’s famous bullet trains (shinkansen) one way to Kyoto in order to secure bragging rights. We returned via the slower JR Lines commuter train. The bullet trains typically travel at speeds around 185 mph, but trains are currently in development which will reach top speeds of 375 mph – “rapid transit” as defined in the 21st Century.

Kyoto, home to 17 Unesco World Heritage Sites, is highly acclaimed as Japan’s artistic and cultural center. For years I admired the reconstructed kyomachiya (traditional wood frame house) which was exhibited in the Asian Wing of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, a gift from Kyoto, Boston’s Sister City. And now I was, at last, in the home city of the kyomachiya.

With so many sites to visit, we chose to visit two within walking distance of the modernistic train station- To-ji Temple and Higashi-Hongan-ji Temple. At 5 stories, To-ji’s Goju-no-to pagoda is the tallest in Japan, and one of the most photographed. The temple grounds contain multiple buildings including the pagoda and the kondo (main hall). where we quietly observed Buddhist monks chanting and praying. Hongan-ji Temple was established by a powerful shogun in 1603. A dusting of snow topped the nearby mountains, resembling every print I have ever seen of a Japanese landscape

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