Kyoto last day!

Our last day was Saturday, April 1st. It was expected to be the biggest tourist day for cherry blossoms. Ryan and I had planned on going hiking to avoid the crowds. We split off from Jeremy and Stacey, who decided to linger a bit and see some last sites, at around 10am. We were too meet up with them again around 3.

But when we got to Kyoto station to drop off our bags, there were Maiko,or Geiko (Geisha) in training, all over the station. They were advertising for a dance they would be doing later that week. It was one of the rare opportunities in which normal, not filthy rich, people could simply ask for a picture with the girls without interrupting their busy schedule.





We realized we couldn't see the dance they were advertising since it would occcur later that week, but we did realize that if we canceled our hike we could go to see the Miyako Odori, a yearly celebration of spring that is put on by a classical dance school for Maiko that is famous in Kyoto. So we set off for the Gion district as quick as we could to Gion Corner a famous theatre in the heart of Gion.

We opted for the expensive tickets which included viewing the most highly formalized version of the Japanese Tea Ceremony that we have ever seen. The girl in blue is a Maiko, the girl in black is no longer in training and is officially Geiko.




Only one person was actually served tea by the Geiko and Maiko. There were many girls there with carts of bowls and plants, serving tea and sweets to the rest of us.


The tea is powdered green tea and is mixed (not brewed) with a bamboo whisk in a small bowl. The method of serving is extremely formalized, the method of drinking is as well: The bowl is served with the "best side" of it facing you, you should not drink out of the best side, but hold it with your left hand and with your right, turn it clockwise twice so the best side is facing away, then, it's most polite to drink all the matcha in three gulps, or in a few sips, either way you pick it up once and drink it all before setting it down. Matcha is served with a sweet to balance the bitter taste.



After that we were allowed to tour the garden behind the hall and then were ushered into the theatre to watch the Miyako Odori.

First, there was an introductory dance.


Next came a dance depicting a story from The Tale of Genji. Note the Heian Period (around 1,000 years ago) dress and hair style. It's very different from the more recent, although not as recent as Western dress, Kimono and dramatic updos that currently represent Japan to many of us.


Then there was a scene from Urashima Taro, a legend about a boy who caught a sea turtle while fishing and let it go. The turtle then gave Urashima Taro a ride to the underground palace of the sea people. When he returned after what seemed just a few days, everyone he knew was dead and gone.


Then there was a dance celebrating the Fall.


One celebrating Winter.


And, of course there was adance for the Spring


All the characters and dancers came out for The Finale.


After that, we were able to catch up with Stacey and Jeremy and they went to see the later showing of the dance since plans had changed so quickly that we weren't able to contact them until after the first show. So we didn't get to see the show together, which was sad. But at least we were both able to see it and talk of it afterward. While Stacey and Jeremy were watching the show, Ryan and I went to Keninji a temple extremely close to Gion Corner. It had the most interesting classical rock gardens I have ever seen.



It has also recently had it's ceiling repainted with a now-famous image of a dragon. We thought that was pretty cool.


When Stacey and Jeremy got out of the show, it was by then around 6pm. We went down the street to Maruyama Koen again where everyone was out picnicking around the famous old cherry tree.


When the sun set, torches around the tree were lit up.


From there, we left to go to Kyoto station. Stacey and Jeremy took off for Osaka and from there had many adventures of which I have no images to show you, but I hope to see the things they saw someday soon. Ryan and I lingered about Kyoto station to wait for the night bus back to Tokyo. We arrived in Tokyo at around 6am and went straight home on the early commute train.

The End!

Kyoto: Day 4

So I was wrong~the last post was our 3rd day in Kyoto. The following morning I took off on my own, since I felt like walking everywhere, and went all the way from our hostel to Ginkakuji (the Silver Temple) which is my favorite temple. To get there (or anywhere in Kyoto, really) you just follow the very straight (or would that be straightened?) Kamo River.

The cherry blossoms were looking gorgeous by then.



A man was feeding the hawks while his teeny little dog was looking a little scared. There was actually quite the motley collection of birds: cranes, pigeons ravens, gulls, and hawks were all present. The seven or eight hawks that were continually swooping down from the air pretty much dominated the scene, however.



After about 2 1/2 hours I made it to Gikakuji. It's not actually painted silver because it happened to burn down at least twice. After the second burning, the proprieter dindn't have the cash to actually cover it in gold foil like the Golden Temple (Kinkakuji).


I love it because it has a very unique rock garden (more like a sculpture almost) and also because the garden is very peaceful.



The ground is entirely moss, no sirree no grass there.


There's even a display, explaining a bit about the moss.
"Moss the Interruptor", or, "bad (ugly) moss."


"Very Important Moss, like VIP"...or like VIM...



The view of Ginkakuji and looking West out to the NE section of Kyoto.


After Ginkakuji there was quite a hike back to the hostel, on the way I...

walked the Philosopher's walk. It's actually an old Meiji era (or earlier probably) road that was so renamed for a well-loved professor at Kansai University (close by the area) who used to walk up and down it during his lunch breaks.


saw Pooh's?...cafe which was closed,


and enjoyed the view of the river and hills that border the Eastern side of Kyoto.



Then Ryan and I finally met up after sating all our independent touristy wants and explored a bit of the Kiyomizudera area (some fun shopping, etc. see November postings). In the early evening we met up with Stacey and Jeremy who were also pretty tired and, YAY!, went to Bikkuri Donkey for a well deserved huge plate 'o meat. This one was Ryan's meal, rice with curry and a huge Hamburg Steak (or you can just say Hamburger in the old sense) with cheese. Considering it was only our second meal, I'd say it was well earned.

Kyoto Day 3!

So it's been a while since I've posted--sorry. Most of my already budgeted computer time was allocated to touching up a song for Melissa! She is now 16 and will soon have one of the world's most deadliest weapons at her hands~the automobile.

So Happy Birthday (again) Melissa!

Our 4th day we separated from Stacey and Jeremy (who went to Ginkakuji~the Golden Temple, already pictured in October's blogging) and went to a little garden that is basically across the street from our hostel. The garden is called Shoseien Garden. It was very small, but the space was used incredibly well, there were dozens of beautiful views as you went through. And the cherry trees were basically in ful bloom here.


Near an area highly-populated with cherry trees there was a fence with this sign posted on the fence~y'know, the way most people fence in a post signs saying "Beware of Dog."


Our next stop was Higashi Honganji a gorgeous, gigantic and well-kept temple. This temple was actually like walking into a church. Apart from the temple (where they were woshipping in a group). There was a new off-shoot area where people could sit and chat and have coffee and the feel was precisely like a church at home. There was an air of fellowship and it was interesting to see that in Buddhism, faithfully practiced, there is a sense of fellowship similar to the type Christianity has maintained since that which is described in Acts. I guess it just shows that a key part to why we need religion is for the fellowship. Only, as Christians, we also have an intimate fellowship with God Himself. Which is pretty darn cool.

To build the temple, over 1,000 years ago, the women of the community gave their hair to make strong rope that would be used in the pulley systems (and in other ways) to bring the giant framework together.

An outside shot of the building which was positively coated in carvings of sunflowers etc. Here you can see the many levels and how the end of each roof beam has a small design in it as well.


After that we tripped off to the Emperor's castle grounds. The actual Royal Famliy's home is in Tokyo, but Kyoto is a famous second home and there's sometimes a competitive feel between Tokyo and Kyoto since both have reasons to be "The most important place in Japan." It was raining on and off all day. In many of our pictures it's raining and sunny at the same time. In this area, the plum blossoms were still there in full color, so the cherry trees were just bursting into full bloom and the plum trees were still hanging on. I was really happy to get to see more plum blossoms, since they are my favorite.

A picture of the plum trees (cherry blossoms are in the background I believe too).

The actual walkway was (usually is in many places) quite wide and made of tiny-stone-gravel. It was like walking on giant grains of sand, so we frequently kept to the garden grass. To the left is the fenced in castle (can't see it when your there) and in the back is a hill. Kyoto is surrounded by such hills.


At night we met up at the hostel. Then Stacey, Jeremy and Ryan took off for one of the most ancient eating areas in Kyoto, Pontocho Alley.


Pontocho also is famous for one of the oldest "Gay Districts." We passed by it one night in October (when we toured Kyoto with Brandon) and there was a young man wearing shiny black leather: teeny hot pants, boots, choker, vest and cap; looking very nervous as he jingled with chains and zippers and handing out advertisements for whatever establishment he was working for. He really looked so nervous that Ryan, as he passed by, commented to him "にあいます”　which means "(your outfit) suits (you)" because he thought it would make the poor guy feel better...

Installment 5: The Longest Day

NOTE:

Temples are buddhist and generally have images of, you guessed it, Buddha.

Shrines, however, are Shinto in religion. Shinto is the original Japanese religion based on nature gods and such.

Most Japanese celebrate holidays and ceremonies of both religions. For example, many families belong to a specific Buddhist sect and celebrate the Buddhism-related tradition of tolling the temple bell 108 times on New Year's Eve. However, it is also common to have a Shinto wedding ceremony when you get married.

Actually, nowdays, Western-style Christian (Protestant, Catholic, Lutheran, you name it) are held after the Shinto-style wedding. More on that another day.


Our second day was the longest. We took the train from Kyoto to go to Byodoin. It's a lovely temple with a museum hidden in the back of the grounds.

The phoenixes on the very top left and right edges of the temple roof are famous.


A Weeping Cherry tree in almost full bloom.


The Side View of Byodoin.



Our next stop was Nara we took the train there; a nap too.


In Nara,Deer were everywhere! I thought "deer park" would be like a petting zoo, but in reality it's deer all over an entire gigantic area full of pagodas, famous temples and many other sites. It's more like a "deer town." I loved them. If I was homeless, I'd stay there and live with the deer. Ryan let me buy some Yaki Imo (a fire-baked sweet potato) to feed myself and the deer.


Unfortunately I chose some young deer since they looked cute, it turned out they were a bit...petulant.
In the video that wierd girl wearing her husband's jacket is tyring to escape by walking away slowly because running away might get them all excited and trample her. She also starts telling the deer "No, I'm hungry, I'm hungry," in a fruitless effort to appeal to them that maybe she likes Yaki Imo too and they should just be happy she shared with them in the first place...*click the play button to play!*



Then we saw Todaiji Temple it's one of the largest wooden structures in the world and houses Japan's largest Buddha made of bronze. So this IS the biggest one made of bronze...the Kamakura one is the largest OUTDOOR buddha made of bronze.

Todaiji and Stacey and Jeremy


The Big Bronze Buddha



We then hiked on to Kasuga Shrine. There are over 3,000 lanterns (most are made of stone) and they're lit only twice each year. We got followed by more deer that had the munchies. I couldn't help it, I just loved them! They were so big eyed, silent and sniffely.

Stacey and Jeremy and a lot of stone lanterns.



We returned to the hostel only to decide at around 8pm to hike the famous Fushimi Inari Tori (gate)Trail. Fushimi Inari is a shrine to the fox god named Inari. This was also in that movie (Memoirs...). The trail goes up a tall hill and in a circular path and almost all of it is lined by these vermillion gates which are a part of all Shinto Shrines. Every 10th gate was had a lantern hanging from it.



After our little night hike, we stopped at Maruyama Koen (Koen is Park) at around 11:30pm to see the famous, very old, cherry tree. In this image it's not yet in full bloom.