When we first emerged from Kyouto Station, we immediately noticed a nearby temple. Having an insatiable thirst for learnding and smarts and such, Kim and I set out on foot for the temple. It turned out to be Higashi Hongan-ji, or "East True Wish Temple" as near as my (Peter) pathetic translation abililty can figure. There's also a Nishi (West) Hongan-ji, but we didn't visit it.
Here is one of the temple complex's main gates. It's enormous, and it leads to a couple enormous structures. You'll notice that everything appears to be made of wood. Although there was stone used in the foundations and a few protective walls, most buildings were entirely wood. This explains why, despite being 1100 years old, the oldest structures in the city are really only around 400 years old. Most are even more recent than that. Things burning down and being rebuilt exactly as they were before is apparently common to ancient Kyouto. It's worth noting that the hills around Kyouto were stripped bare many times because invading armies would burn everything down, and then everything would have to be rebuilt. Of course this isn't a problem today, with almost everything else in Kyouto now built from ferro-concrete.
To get to Kyouto, we took the night train. This was not the most comfortable nights sleep, as the look in Kim's eyes might communicate here. Behind Kim is a large bell which the monks will ring... as usually happens with bells.
This is an enormous hall. It bills itself as the largest entirely-wooden structure on the planet. I wouldn't doubt it. It was pretty much empty inside, though.
We also saw this rope which is made entirely from the hair of female devotees of this particular temple. The materials available for conventional rope making in those days were pretty poor quality, so if the cause was worthy (in this case the cause being the hauling of the hundreds of trees it took to build the temple), women would donate their hair, which made much higher quality rope.
This is the large temple that stands on the complex. It has a pretty neat two-tiered roof.
When we came up to the temple (shoes removed, of course) we were a bit disappointed. The doors were closed and we could hear a service, so we thought we wouldn't be able to enter. Fortunately, though, a kindly Japanese man said "douzo haitte" or "go ahead and enter," so we did! we stayed to the back, and kept our heads low. I think we were sufficiently respectful. Peter waited on taking photos until other people (Japanese people, specifically) started taking them, so we then decided it was OK to take a photo or two ourselves.