Apologies to my adoring fans (hi mom and dad!), but blog.com has been down for a few days. I've abandoned ship and have the highest of hopes for this new blog! While it was down, you missed Kyoto!! I'll catch you up, though, don't fret.
We went to Kyoto on Sunday on the Shinkansen (bullet train). It's super fast and clean and easy and why can't America have this? The ride was two and a half hours west from Tokyo and would have taken about five and a half hours to drive it. The train can reach up to 200 mph and there are lines that go all over Japan. I was expecting countryside for the view but really it was town after town. There were farms but nothing I would remotely call "rural."
Once we got to Kyoto, it was time to shrine and temple hop! Kyoto, unlike Tokyo, was not bombed during WWII so the buildings are older and temples, shrines, castles, etc, from the shogun period and earlier still remain. Kyoto does not have the city-of-the-future feel of Tokyo but is still a bustling metropolis. The population is over a million people and a drive across town took about 30 minutes. In the eastern part of town, where we stayed, you basically can't walk a block without hitting a landmark. The most common question I got from AT when we were walking to our tourist destinations was, "is this the one?" It was never the one.
Our favorites in eastern Kyoto were Ginkakuji Temple (the Silver Pavilion) and Eikando Temple . Both were former residences that had been turned into shrines. The temples consisted of several buildings all connected by beautifully landscaped gardens. They included Buddhist temples where you could make offerings and rooms that were enclosed only by sliding doors made of paper with elaborate paintings on them. These two particular temples also included pits of sand that had been raked into designs. This is a zen tradition that relieves stress (think those little ones you can buy to keep on your desk) and is beautiful to see. The entire area is a peaceful sanctuary where you could easily sit for hours and think all of your deep thoughts. 
Between spots in eastern Kyoto, we walked along the Philosopher's Path, a cherry tree lined walkway made famous by the Kyoto University philosophy professor who used to walk along it. Again, perfect for all your thoughts.
The next day we ventured to western and central Kyoto. We started at Kinkakuji Temple (the Golden Pavilion) which is on the opposite end of the city from the silver pavilion. The silver pavilion was actually built by the son of the builder of the gold pavilion. The silver pavilion definitely won in the landscaped garden department but it couldn't top the showiness of an actual gold-leafed pavilion. This was definitely the main attraction for other tourists in the city, the place was mobbed!
We then walked to Ryoanji, a temple that featured a Buddhist sand garden that included 15 stones. 15 is the number of completion in Buddhism and it is said that you can not sit anywhere at the garden and see all 15 stones at the same time. This shows that you can not achieve completion in this lifetime alone. Whoa. Real deep thoughts, y'all.
We then went into central Kyoto to the castle built by the shoguns, Nijo Castle. When it was built, the shogunate had already moved to Edo (Tokyo) but this castle was kept for their visits. It was hardly used for many centuries and features a palace within the castle walls and moat and then another palace within another set of walls and moat. These people were big on security. The coolest feature inside was the "nightingale floor." These floors were designed to squeak (but with a bird-call sound) when you walked on them. This was to prevent anyone from sneaking in while the shoguns were in residence. The rooms, like the temples we visited, were all matted rooms with painted paper doors and no furniture. We also toured the gardens around the palaces. These were not quite as beautiful as those of the shrines but featured the same attention to landscaping as the others- bonsai trees, bridges over lakes, manicured paths, and azaleas in bloom. 
We ended the day with a kimono fashion show (like ya do) and a traditional Japanese meal complete with matted floor seating!
For our last day in Kyoto we aimed to hit up one more spot, Kiyomizudera Temple. On the way, of course, there were many other shrines and temples and we stopped at a few. I got some audio of a Buddhist service at Chionin Temple that featured chanting and a bowl-drum. Get excited to listen and answer questions about that, next year's orchestra students!
We finally reached the desired temple after a bit of an uphill climb through the heat but it was definitely worth it. There were bright orange pagodas with a great view of Kyoto.
We ended the day with the bullet train back to Tokyo for the night. The next day we flew to Bangkok to begin our Thai journey where we are now!
No comments:
Post a Comment