The Backpack Adventures

Located at 541 Nijojocho Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto City in Kyoto Prefecture, Nijo Castle  ( 二条城 ) is one of the 17 and the only non-temple UNESCO World Heritage Site in Kyoto City. Nijo Castle  ( 二条城 ) Nijo Castle History Nijo Castle or Nijo-jo is a flatland castle that was constructed under the orders of shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu . Construction started sometime in 1601 and was completed in 1603. The castle served as the Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa shoguns since Kyoto remains home to the Imperial Court during those times.   Nijo Castle - Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture Tokugawa Ieyasu Nijo Castle underwent a large-scale renovation in 1624 during the time of Ieyasu's grandson, Tokugawa Yoshinobu in preparation for the Imperial visit of Emperor Go-Mizuno in 1626. For this event, the Gyoko-goten Palace was constructed for the Emperor. The castle was also expanded to its current size. Stunning wall paintings were also created by painters of the Kano School. After the Imperia

Located at 60 Horikawa-dori, Hanaya-cho, Kudaru Honganji Monzen-machi, Kyoto City in Kyoto Prefecture, Nishi Honganji  ( 西本願寺 ) is one of the 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Kyoto. Nishi Honganji  ( 西本願寺 ) Nishi Honganji History Nishi Honganji , also called Nishi Hongwanji , is the mother temple and headquarters of the Jodo Shinshu sect. The name Nishi Hongwanji means "Western Temple of the Original Vow". The temple and its sister temple Higashi Honganji were established in 1602 by Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu after he split the main Hongan-ji in Kyoto into two temples.  Shinran Shonin The temple follows the Judo Shinshu teachings of Shinran Shonin who was famously known for his major work "The True Teaching, Practice, and Realization of the Pure Land Way" or Kyogyoshinshu. After his death in 1263, a mausoleum was erected at Otani, Higashiyama in Kyoto City. This became the foundation for Hongwanji. The Goeido on the left and the Amidado on the right

Day 6 May 22, 2018 Kyoto Adventure (Day 3) Good morning Kyoto! We woke up to another great weather, perfectly suited for our planned third day of adventure in this historic city of Japan .  Speaking of adventure, today would be the first time that we'd use our Kyoto City Bus One-Day Pass which we bought two days ago. We didn't use it yesterday as our itinerary focused on a walking tour around Kyoto Station . The itinerary that I crafted today is aimed for us to visit as many UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Kyoto as possible. So far, we already managed to visit three since our arrival in Kyoto two days ago.  Nishi Hongwanji's Amidado-mon Since the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Kyoto are mostly temples, we did not exert effort to wake up very early as temples usually open at 8:30AM. To start the day, we took our breakfast in our Air BnB residence instead of eating out (to save money). We also reviewed our itinerary for today and contacted our friend Gil about our