I tried to find Kiyomizu-dera, most of which dates from 1633 and is supposed to be one of the grandest of the Kyoto temples. There are temples all over the place here, and I certainly wasn’t going to see them all, so focusing on two or three of the best seemed like a good approach.

Using my guide book map, I thought I had found it.

But that wasn’t it. I don’t know what temple that was. So I went out the side and started up the hill. It was a narrow street with houses, cafes, and…gravestones.

They’re very close together, so either the people were cremated or they were buried standing up. Anyway, they became more numerous until they covered the whole hillside.

Then there were some steps that passed through a gate…

…and I found the temple.

But when I got to the entrance, it was very crowded.

The main artifact of this temple is an eleven-headed Kannon. I don’t know what that is, but anything with eleven heads pretty much has to be interesting. However, they only display it once every 33 years, and the next time is in 2033. I wasn’t going to wait.

So I went back toward where the crowds were coming from. Apparently, that’s the way most people come up.

I bought some anpan from a vendor and shoved my way through the crowd.

The side streets were quieter.

Then I ran across another temple.

And another.

And another.

But none of them had eleven-headed things, so I squeezed past the tambourine guy and hopped across the river to get something to eat.