The beginning of a new semester can be hard and stressful for anyone, so please don't be frustrated if things are not going in the way you wanted them to be. For me, what I do to relieve stress at this period is to plan a trip for the next break! If you have something that you can hope for, you will have the strength to conquer obstacles, right? (Or you get too carried away by the upcoming trip that you forget to do things... Please don't be like this...)
I traveled to Kyoto, Japan during this summer break. I want to share you about what I tried in this trip, and hopefully, you can add Kyoto into your bucket list and go there someday.
Little bit about Kyoto
Kyoto (京都) is located in the Kansai (western) region of Japan. Kyoto was the capital of Japan for more that 1000 years, before emperor Meji moved it to Tokyo. Due to this history, Kyoto has countless number of ancient buildings and shrines. There are so many different types of shrines built for different purposes, that you might get really confused when you walk down the street. You see, there are:
Big shrine
Street-side shrine
Small shrine
Shrine for gods
Shrine for person
Small shrine within a big shrine
Shrine for academic god
Shrine for god of love
"Can I get a ride please?"
With all these different shrines, you really get to taste the traditional culture of Japan!
Besides the view, Kyoto is also a well developed city for tourism. Buses and subways are convenient ways to travel within the city. You can get to all attractions in Kyoto by buses and subways, and there are intercity trains that go to other big cities like Osaka and Tokyo.
Test your fortune with Omikuji
I got good fortune!
Kiyomizu Temple
Kiyomizu Temple (清水寺) might be the most famous attraction in the city. This temple is famous for blessing people with good health and fortune! When you are here, one of the must-do things is to get a Omikuji (御神籤), which is a fortune-telling paper. It tells you how's your fortune recently and give you some advice about future. The fortune ranks from "very bad luck" (大凶) to "very good luck" (大吉). If you get a 大凶, don't be scared; tie your omikuji in the temple, so the bad fortune won't go home with you.
Jishu Shrine
Walk between the love fortune stones
After you walk pass Kiyomizu Temple, you will see Jishu Shrine, which worships the god of LOVE! If you are looking for a relationship, go to the Jishu Shrine and find the love fortune stones. The saying is, if you are able to navigate yourself between two stones with your eyes closed, your wish for finding a love one will be fulfilled.
Visiting Senbon Torii in Fushimi-Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社)
Senbon Torii (Thousands of Torii gates)
Fushimi-Inari Shrine is another famous attraction for tourists.
This shrine worships the god of rice and is famous for blessing people with business fortune. However, people all come to see the attraction - Senbon Torii. Torii (鳥居) is a traditional Japanese gate that is only used as the gate of shrines. It marks the entrance of god's territory. Torii is usually built at the entrance of a shrine to remind people that they are entering "god's territory", so they should show respect. However, Fushimi-Inari shrine has thousands of Torii built in the temple right above the road. It's absolutely beautiful to walk through this path.
Watch a high school baseball game in Hanshin Koshien Stadium (阪神甲子園球場)
Tons and tons of people
Koshien baseball field is not located in Kyoto. But I strongly recommend you to go there and watch one game of Japanese high school baseball game if you have a chance.
Koshien baseball field is the terminal station of Japanese nationwide high school baseball tournament. All high school teams must defeat every other teams in their region to win the entrance tickets to Koshien Stadium. After they get to Koshien Stadium, they play single elimination tournament until one team becomes the national champion.
There are three reasons that make Koshien baseball game unique:
1."playing on Koshien Stadium" is a once per lifetime experience for many high school baseball players. You really see players trying their best to make plays. And because this is single elimination tournament, the winners get to enjoy the next day, while the losers have to go home.
2. Almost all famous Japanese baseball players had played in Koshien. So many players had shined in Koshien and began their journey to become super stars, like pitcher of LA Angels Ohtani Shohei and former MLB player Ichiro Suzuki.
3.The atmosphere in Koshien is crazily hyped! There is no way I can describe how incredible the atmosphere is in the stadium. Can you imagine standing on the field with the whole school band playing your favorite song at the back? You can get that excitement by just sitting there watching! If you are interested about what it sounds like, please take a look at the video below.
Take some photos with the disposable film camera
Lastly, I recommend you to spend few dollars on buying one of the disposable film cameras.
We all have gotten used to taking photos with digital cameras. Whenever I use digital cameras, I just push the shutter down and take multiple photos for one scene. So even if I messed up one of the photos, I still have other photos that I can choose from.
However, It is not the case when you use a film camera. Because you won't know if the photo is good until the film is developed, you will be serious about every photo you take and try to get it as perfect as possible. It changes the way you take photos.
On top of that, these disposable film cameras are really capable of taking some unique photos. The photos won't look realistic, but it will have a unique favor to it.
Please look at the photos below for some comparisons.
Kamo River
"Kamo River in the 90s"
"Train station in the 90s"
Train station now
Outside of Kiyomizu Temple
Little shrine in the forest
Late night Gion street
Rainy afternoon in Gion street
I hope you can go to Kyoto someday, and try these things out!
