Kyoto (with Mom and Rae)

SO...
the day following the previous post:

Mom and Rae and I hop on a shinkansen to Kyoto! We chose early rides to and from Tokyo to make the most of the days on which we travelled. So we ended up in Kyoto around 9:30 and checked into Ohto Ryokan. If I had had mom's guide book I would have known that this ryokan was not at all like the one I stayed at in Sapporo, which is what I had been shooting for. Instead, it was kind of like a little bed and breakfast with and really kind old lady who had been working there for 20 years. It was inexpensive so that's a plus and it still had futons and tatami which is the sort of experience I had been looking for anyway...so it worked out.

We ate breakfast at a nearbye coffee shop (where rae and mom later ate hamburger sandwhich type things for breakfast while I munched on honey toast with ice cream) and then headed out on a walking tour that would take us all over eastern kyoto and its sights.

We started with Sanjusangendo, where 1001 statues of the thousand handed kanon are housed. It was beautiful but I actually mostly enjoyed the statues of the gaurdians in front of the kanons the most. Mom cried at the sight and afterwards we both bought the books describing the statues and all their religous meaning. Mom also purchased charms for herself, rachel and me...almost every sightseeing location in Kyoto sells charms for good fortune or acheivement or love.

After that we checked out kyoto national museum which I mostly wanted to see for the building which is a baroque frensh style. This building houses the special exhibitions and was closed off....unfortunatly..but we did go through the permanent collection as well.

Next we began our walk through the pottery shops leading the the temple, Kiyo Mizu. On the way we took an unexpected detour at a place that dresses you up like geisha with make up and kimono and all and then takes professinal type photos. It was about 4 hours all together and really kind of fun and awkward at the same time. But japanese people were doing it too so it felt a little less wierd. Finshing up our pictures we continued to Kiyo Mizu which was an amazing complex. Most fun was the love shrine with these two rocks you walk between with your eyes closed. If you make it the whole way your garunteed a succesful love life. Rae needed a little guiding but Mom walked completely strait. We saw one guy almost walk off a stair case trying to do it.

The next street we walked through was charming and we went through some more temples and shrines. one of the ones that was supposed to have great gardens was closed for tea ceremonies which was kind of bummer. Yasaka shrine was cool with all its lanterns and we made it to Gion but didnt manage to see any Geisha (though we may have seen maiko earlier-can't be sure if they were real or not though).

That was pretty much our first day in kyoto. The next day we went to Nara and spent the day in Nara park which houses all the best attractions. We started sort of in the middle and got to see a ton of deer right off the bat. Deer in this park are considered national treasures and were once thought to be messengers of the god that resides in Kasuga shrine. Well, while rae and I were petting one it grabbed the only map I was carrying and proceeded to eat. I tried to get it back but suceeded only in ripping it, the deer getting the most important piece! Rae and mom and I were laughing so hard, I even saw someone film it. Luckily, a volunteer student guide, Takako, stopped and asked us if she could show us around. We went to the shrine where we were lucky to see a traditonal Japanese wedding and lots of mothers carrying babies to their one month old celebration, and then to the large complex that is Todaiji temple. It has two great halls, one of which was hosting a fire festival that night (we couldnt make it)...it also houses the world's largest copper buddha which was fun to see. Also, behind the buddha, one of the pillars has a hole which you can try and squeeze through. If you do, and you make it, your supposed to be enlgihtened. I did it and everyone applauded...probably because no other "adults" (quoted because it will take at least three more years for me to feel like one) were doing it. Next Takako took us to Issen (?) Garden. So beautiful. I could have sat there for hours. It had small bridges and waterfalls and even some plum blossoms.

I think Nara might have been one of my very favorite parts of the trip.

We returned to Kyoto that night and the next morning took it easy until about 11:30 when we set off to Koya San, a mountain where you can stay overnight in temples and participate in the services. Now, my guidebooks lead me to believe it would only take two hours to get there. Try four. For that reason, although the train ride up the mountain was gorgeous and full of tons of nice scenery, we weren't able to actually see much in Koya San except the temple we stayed in. (if I had known it would take so long we would have left earlier-and yes, we could have hiked around in the night...but I think it would have lost some of its effect...plus most temples and shrines seem to close around 5 or 6). In any case, we got to the temple, Eiko-in, about an hour before dinner (an all vegetarian meal served very prettily). Mom and Rae seemed to immediatly fall in love with the place which is no surprise for me, since it was a lot more like the Sapporo Ryokan I stayed in. We explored the temple in out yukata and then ate our extra nice vegetarian meals. Afterwards Rae and I did some Japanese style bathing and even mom tried it later on (though she was shy and had to make sure no one else was around-not a problem since we were the only females staying over). I did some star gazing that night in the front garden and was delighted I could still identifying some constellations I learned in Astronomy lab.

The next morning we woke up early for morning service. Mom and Rae both felt a little awkward, as if they were intruding, but I didn't really see why. This is part of the experience at Koya san and I bet the monks are delighted to share their practices, provided people are respectful. We then got to see the Fire service which was really cool. Admittedly I don't know much about buddhism so I'm probably going to do some reading to figure out what some of it was all about but it was very neat and refreshing to see...

After services we were going to walk around but it was raining. We decided to head back to kyoto early and try and get in more sights there as opposed to in the mountain. We saw Nijo castle (I loved the sqeuky floors built in to signal intruders...I bought a book of the castle-very cool), the golden pavillion and another temple whose name illudes me at the moment....it has a very nice zen garden though...still...I prefer other Japanese gardens.

That pretty much concluded our trip to Kyoto.
The final portion of the trip will be described in the next post.