Kyoto - the last destination in Japan

My last destination on my little trip through Japan was Kyoto and the report is now a bit delayed. It didn't fit in during Sebastian's visit. I stayed in Kyoto until Monday and then flew back to Shanghai. Sebastian arrived from the USA on Tuesday (:

I came to Kyoto through my Japanese friend Rie. She loves the city for its long history and tradition. Before Tokyo, Kyoto was the capital of the country, which gave it an infinite number of temples. Because there were so many to choose from, I decided to only visit the free ones. That made the selection for me a bit smaller.
When I arrived from Matsumoto, the Japanese Alps, at noon, I went straight to my hostel. I also wrote to some Couchsurfers for Kyoto, but didn't find anyone. That made the days there a bit more expensive, but it was also nice not to be a guest. Or at least being a different kind of guest in the hostel.

After I settled in there, I went straight out. On that day, I went on foot. The palace was my first destination. It is a huge complex with a beautiful garden around it. If I understood correctly, the royal family still lives there. The visit to the palace was free. That surprised me. It's not often that you get to enter the premises of a queen or a prince for free. It made my wallet happy. :D It was a bit of a shame that you could only look at the buildings from the outside. There is practically only one circular path between the buildings. From the palace, I went on to a temple complex - again on foot. It was extremely hot that day. Despite wearing a sun hat and sunscreen, I got quite a sunburn.
When I arrived at the temples, they were all already closed. The walk was longer than expected. Well, there were buildings to see from the outside again. It was still enjoyable. All the temples had a garden, and it was nice and shady. Here I can mention that I didn't sleep anywhere that day. Like an adult, I bravely held out throughout the day - unlike the previous days.
As a reward, I treated myself to falafel in the evening. That's neither Japanese nor Asian, but the restaurant was recommended in my travel guide, so I had to go there.
I'm really looking forward to being able to simply choose a vegetarian dish in Germany again. The selection in Germany is not big either, but I don't need a whole menu. I was always perfectly happy with the three or four options. If you take the falafel place out of the equation, it's different here in China and in Japan. In western restaurants, it usually boils down to margherita pizza or fries, in Japanese restaurants to noodle soup, and in Chinese restaurants to vegetable side dishes.
After the falafel, I went back to the hostel and had a few beers with the staff member. He had someone to talk to, and I had free beer. I think that's a win-win situation.

For my last two days in Japan, I rented a bike from the hostel. On the first day, I explored Kyoto with it. First, I went to a bamboo forest and then to a street with food stalls for lunch. There, unintentionally, I had fish again. The dish was called ginger bread. No one could guess that the main ingredient was fish. When I took a bite, I knew. From the restaurant, I cycled to the pretty famous and therefore quite crowded Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine. Fortunately, most tourists stayed at the entrance area. That's the kind of place where you take a photo, say it was great, and move on. It was good for me, but actually sad for the people. The complex is huge and spread out on a whole mountain. It's more than just a shrine. There are little shrines, temples, and specially made passages with many orange gates everywhere. I'm not exactly sure what the gates symbolize, but it was very cool there. Occasionally, I found a quiet spot, admired the area for a bit, and then continued walking.

The most difficult thing on that day was by far finding dinner. Either there was only extremely expensive food or it included meat or fish. Of course, ramen noodles were also an option, but I wasn't in the mood for that. In the end, it became expensive, but at least it was meat- and fish-free.

To make sure that my last full day in Japan would be relaxed and enjoyable, I trusted Rie's recommendation. I don't know if I've mentioned her before. She studies at ZUST, is Japanese, but her life revolves around Germany. She has spent most of her life in Tokyo, but whenever possible, she goes to Kyoto. She loves this city. Rie's tip was Ohara. Ohara is a small mountain village about 16km from Kyoto, in the middle of the mountains. Just because of its location, it's a must-visit place. As soon as you leave Kyoto, you're already in rural Japan. I also cycled to Ohara. Because it's a mountain village, it was tiring to get up there, but much more relaxed than the lake in the mountains. When I arrived in the village, there was one last full Japanese cultural program.

It started with the very small temple complex Kochidani Amida-ji Temple in the forest. Yes, maybe the complex's complicated, endlessly long name compensates for its size. :D

The entire complex is located on a mountain, which made the path there quite spiritual. From the main street, a path leads to the monastery through a pine forest. In this forest, it's so humid that moss even grows on the road. With the sunlight and the silence, it was really dreamy. The temple itself consisted of only one larger room. There, the staff members talked a lot about the sacred objects and the temple. But they didn't use "hello