Kiyomizu Temple

Kiyomizu Temple is a much less Zen experience than the Silver Pavillion. A narrow street called Teapot Lane leads up to the temple’s gates and is lined with shops selling noodles, freshly-baked rice crackers and every sort of Kyoto souvenir you could imagine.  Down a sidestreet I posted ¥150 into a god-vending machine and received a small ceramic Jizo in the shape of a cartoon cat. (Jizo is a Buddhist god who protects children and travellers.)

The temple itself is set into the side of a hill and looks out over Kyoto city. The day we were there it was full of worshippers and sightseers. A quick walk down the hill took us to a place where people were catching water falling from above in long-handled dippers. Each stream is said to bestow different beneficial qualities on the drinkers. Hannah drank from the 'handsome' stream but was sadly not visibly improved by doing so. Maybe it's a delayed action thing.

A small shrine within the temple offers an astonishing array of methods for supplicating the gods.  Incense, wooden tablets and good luck charms are available for nearly any imaginable cause including road safety and good exam results. I was tempted by a boar-shaped road safety charm. The connection here is that if a car and boar collide (evidently a common occurrence in Japan), the car always comes off second best. Not being a driver, I wasn't sure of its efficacy on bicycles. Instead, I wrote my problems on a man-shaped piece of rice paper, dropped it into a bucket of water and watched happily as it dissolved into nothing.

Cha soba noodles from a noodle shop on Teapot Lane