Without Crowds?
A long time since my last post on this website - I've had too many dealings with doctors and hospitals. That's one reason, anyway. Another is no doubt laziness. However, we're back in Kyoto now and again setting out to update KWC.
These days I look forward to our visits with a degree of apprehension. As a tourist myself, I can hardly resent the number of other tourists. But I do. And each time there are more. After years of urging friends to to come out to Kyoto I've now begun to hesitate. Perhaps try January or February, I suggest, when there are fewer tourists. Sometimes, of course, it doesn't matter. The crowds around Maruyama Park or Hirano-jinja in the cherry blossom season are part of the fun. But to visit some lonely sub-temple and find a score of people jostling to take selfies in front of the garden can be a dismal business.
So does it really make sense nowadays to talk about Kyoto without crowds? It's true that the same handful of sites - Kiyomizu-dera, Nijō Castle, Kinkaku-ji etc. - still claim a huge proportion of the tourists who flood into the city, but the pattern is less predictable than it used to be. I've no idea how Tenju-an (photo above), for example, has become such a favourite with Chinese tourists, but that seems to be the case. And why has Hōnen-in, after being overlooked for years by the crowds on the Philosopher's Path, recently filled up with casual visitors eager for a photograph? All it takes is a post on Instagram from some internet celebrity and even a temple as far off the beaten track as Otagi Nembutsu-ji can suddenly find itself in the spotlight.
Yet this is only part of the story. We've been here for a few weeks now and yes, the area between the station and Gion is bursting with tourists and yes, there are one or two much-loved gardens that have been a disappointment, but in other temples I've often spent an hour or more virtually alone. Ōbai-in, Renge-ji, Kompuku-ji, Shinnyo-dō, Keishun-in, Konchi-in, Unryū-in, even Taizō-in and Shisen-dō were as tranquil as anyone could wish. Admittedly, late May/early June is not a peak season, and it's also perfectly possible that if I'd gone, say, in the afternoon rather than the morning or on a Tuesday rather than a Monday, the experience might have been quite different. To some extent it's a question of luck. But if you can live without the cherry blossom and the autumn leaves, there's still a fair chance at other times of the year that you'll find many of the temples in KWC almost as peaceful as they were a decade ago.
And to end, some happy news about Entoku-in: the coloured tiles and cones of sand have gone. Visitor numbers are increasing, but at least the hōjō garden has regained its former serenity.