Leaving Satoru halfway up the mountain, we sowhat ran up to Kiyomizudera.
Both Ryuji and I were well beyond the average person’s fitness, so we still had energy left after reaching the entrance of Kiyomizudera.
“Maybe because it’s a high altitude, the air is nice.”
“Yeah. It feels like my mind is clearing up.”
Ryuji appropriately responded to my comnt and leaned against a Haetae statue near the temple entrance.
“I wonder what Satoru is doing right now.”
“Given his personality, he’s probably already given up and is walking up.”
Ryuji chuckled and said that, then looked back while putting his hands in his pants pockets.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been here.”
“Have you been here before?”
“Yeah, in elentary school. Is this your first ti, Yu-seong?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
As I awkwardly scratched the back of my head, Chiaki, floating next to Ryuji, looked up at the temple and said,
“This is where I ca with you before.”
“You rember?”
“It was my last trip, after all.”
Ah, oh…
Suddenly creating a somber atmosphere, she, realizing her mistake, hastily apologized,
“Don’t mind it too much. It’s just nostalgia. Maybe I got sentintal because it was my last trip with Ryuji.”
Although it was a statent I couldn’t ignore, I tried not to show it and asked Ryuji,
“So, what do we do now? Wait for Satoru to co up, or start sightseeing ourselves?”
Ryuji then smiled wryly and waved his hand.
“If we go ahead, Satoru will be incredibly upset. Rather than seeing him sulking for three days, it’s better to wait.”
“True.”
The scenario of leaving him behind again was as clear as if I had seen a video of it.
Satoru, after all, is surprisingly narrow-minded.
“I’ll send him a text then.”
After sending Satoru a ssage saying we’d wait for him at the temple gate, I followed Ryuji to find a place to lean comfortably.
“It’s crowded here, even on a weekday.”
“It’s one of the top five tourist spots in Kyoto, so it can’t be helped.”
Typically, tourists tend to flock more on weekends than on weekdays.
However, the number of tourists visiting Kiyomizudera was imnse, making such common knowledge irrelevant.
There were elentary, middle, and high school students on school trips like us, foreigners of various nationalities.
And ordinary dostic tourists as well, creating a bustling crowd.
Mahes, who was looking at the temple on the stairs with his arms folded, said,
“Eastern temples are very different in form from those in Egypt. Doesn’t building them all from wood reduce their durability?”
“Oh, that’s fine. It has been continuously maintained. The current building has actually been restored several tis after being damaged.”
“There’s a theory derived from the world-famous Greek and Roman mythologies, called Theseus’s ship.”
“It started from the question: Is Theseus’s ship, which had all its parts replaced except for the keel during its journey, still the sa ship as when it first set sail? Contextually, this theory matched with the current Kiyomizudera.”
“In short, even if the original is gone, there’s no problem in serving as a symbol.”
“To those who don’t know well, there’s not much difference between the real and the fake.”
“Hey! You jerks!! Are you really leaving after just making a joke?!”
While the three of us were chatting and exchanging stories, Satoru’s voice, roaring like a lion, finally reached us from afar.
Still, for him, he ca up quite fast.
It seed he ran halfway up.
“Did you co?”
When Ryuji waved his hand with a natural look, Satoru’s face seed to get even angrier, but as he approached us, his fierce montum subsided.
He was quite angry, but it seed he belatedly rembered our physical abilities.
I patted Satoru’s shoulder and said,
“I was wondering when you’d co. If we went up just by ourselves again, you’d be sulking throughout the school trip, right?”
“……”
Hit the nail on the head, Satoru averted his gaze and shut his mouth tightly.
“Anyway, since we both did sothing wrong, let’s call it even this ti. That would be better for you, too, right?”
Saying that and reaching out my right hand, Satoru seed to have a mont of internal conflict, but then he reached out his right hand and shook it firmly.
“Sorry for leaving you behind and coming up.”
“That’s all I needed to know.”
To think he wouldn’t say a word until the end, he’s really sothing.
Thinking that, I let out a hollow laugh.
Thus, the three of us, having regrouped at the entrance of the mountain gate, began to seriously tour Kiyomizudera.
The first place that cos to mind when thinking of Kiyomizudera is the stage at the main hall.
The wide terrace overlooking the mountain view was originally a place for dances and performances dedicated to Kannon Bodhisattva, but it’s always open to the general public like this.
“Wow, it’s high.”
As expected of a traditional temple, it seed there were no special safety asures aside from the original railings, making the view of Kyoto City from the stage both beautiful and dizzying.
“There’s a famous legend about Kiyomizudera’s ‘stage’. It’s said if you survive falling from these railings, your wish will co true.”
“What kind of legend is that? What if soone dies?”
“If you die, they say you’ll attain Nirvana cleanly. That’s why this place was once one of the famous suicide spots.”
“That’s brutal.”
To risk your life for sothing so uncertain, I would never dare to do that.
After following the others to view the stage, we ended up drinking from the three streams of water coming down from Otowa Waterfall.
According to the guide, each of the three streams symbolizes health, love, and learning, but honestly, I thought it was nonsense.
Still, the water tasted not bad.
It felt like drinking spring water from a local watering hole.
As with most tourist spots, once we had roughly looked around everywhere worth seeing, there was nothing more to do, so we decided to head back down the mountain.
We had to hurry if we wanted to stop by a souvenir shop on the way back because there wasn’t much ti left.
Our next destination after visiting Kiyomizudera was the Heian Shrine.
We took a bus for about 10 minutes to get there. Despite its grand appearance, it had only been built about 100 years ago.
Therefore, while it didn’t have much historical value, the splendor and size of the building were on par with significant cultural assets, making it worth a visit.
After looking around the garden and casually drawing an Omikuji (fortune slip), we imdiately headed to our next destination, Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion).
I wondered if we were moving too hastily, but since most tourist spots in Kyoto close around 4 to 5 PM, we had no choice.
“Wow, it’s so shiny.”
Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion).
Its original na is Rokuonji (Deer Garden Temple), but it’s more famously known as Kinkakuji due to the gold leaf decoration on its exterior.
It was initially built as a villa by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the third shogun of the Muromachi shogunate, but beca a temple after his death.
“Did you know? This, too, once burned down and was restored in 1950. They say it was excessively gilded compared to the original.”
Now that I think about it, it did have a sowhat artificial feel.
I thought it was well preserved for an old building, but I never expected such a backstory.
After touring Kinkakuji, we continued to visit Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion), which you could say was part of a set.
Unlike Kinkakuji, which was entirely covered in gold, Ginkakuji was just a regular temple.
However, Ginkakuji seed to be more popular as a tourist site and cultural property because, unlike the one-trick Kinkakuji, there were more things to see around it.
After visiting both Kinkakuji and Ginkakuji, it was already past 5 PM, so we took the bus back to our lodging.
“Okay! Now it’s free ti until dinner! I know everyone’s excited about the school trip, but always be mindful of safety!”
““Okay~””
“Alright, dismissed!”
The students bustled into the inn following the dismissal order from their horoom teacher, Matsuda.
Perhaps because they could finally relieve the fatigue accumulated from walking all day, everyone seed quite happy.
“Everyone’s going back to their rooms to rest, right?”
In response to the question from the Class President, who was practically the leader of our group, all of us nodded without exception.
“Then let’s et in the dining room later.”
Having decided that, we dispersed from the inn’s first floor.
Dragging our tired bodies back to our rooms, we noticed the futons spread out on the floor, unlike earlier.
I wanted to dive into those fluffy futons and sleep, but bathing ca first, so I gathered my toiletries and a change of clothes.
“Going to take a shower?”
This question ca from Satoru, who was stuck to the floor as soon as we entered the room.
“Yeah. It feels uncomfortable to stay like this.”
“Then bring back so Garigari-kun ice pops.”
“…Go buy them yourself, dude.”
“Aack!”
Saying so, I stepped lightly on Satoru’s side and headed to the shower for a quick wash.
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