Anyhow walk in Japan - The trees are empty at Kiyomizu temple

The tourist-popular Kiyomizu temple is right up the hill, so you've got to walk up a pretty steep slope! You'll know you've reached the entrance of the temple when you see the big red "main gate".



There is this weird ear-shaped thingy on the red gate on both sides. It is said that you can hear people saying good stuff about you from afar if you listen carefully, or the other rumor is that if you place your ear next to it, you'll get better hearing! Some kinda fairy tale...



After paying 300yen, S$4.80, you can enter the main hall of the temple. Of course, just like the Japanese, cleanse your hands and mouth before you pray! The dragon vomiting the spring water doesn't look as friendly as our Merlion though...



Kiyomizu temple's stage is THE place to be at to enjoy the whole hill of cherry blossoms or maple leaves. But of course all we saw were empty branches during the winter. Well, still a nice place to have a good view of Kyoto city and the Kyoto Tower!





It is also said that not one nail is used when constructing the Kiyomizu temple stage, they just slotted in and out the planks of wood to form up the whole stage. Talk about ancient intelligence!



Next to the Kiyomizu temple stage is the Jishu Jinja. It is a popular shrine that Japanese gals go to pray for good love luck!



There are a pair of love stones at the shrine, with one at a corner and the other smacked in the middle of the road! It is said that if you were to close your eyes and still able to walk from one love stone to the other without fail, your love life will be just as smooth. But with the large number of tourists and locals crowding the road? Good luck.





At one corner, Japanese gals were queuing up to pour water over a statue, which will bless their love! Well, pouring water does seem more environmental friendly than burning joss-sticks though!



These three spring water streams must be the most queued-up area in the temple. They represent, from left to right, longevity, health and intelligence. Drink just from one stream and you'll be blessed, but if you're greedy and drink from all three, you'll be blessed 1/3 of each... geez... I didn't check up this piece of info BEFORE going and so I followed the rest and drank from the middle stream, thus blessing my health. It's not so bad, but the Singaporean in me actually thought that the middle one is for wealth, since so many Japanese drank from it...








清水寺 (Kiyomizu dera) - Take the city bus till五條坂 (Gojou zaka) stop. After alighting from the bus, follow the crowd to cross the road and go up the slope.

清水寺 (Kiyomizu dera) Official Website

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