Day 7: Last Day in Kyoto

Tuesday, December 24, 2007

Another full day of sight seeing ahead of us we hit up Starbucks at the hotel and set off, this time by bus. The agenda today included the Ginkakuji or commonly known as the Silver Pavilion, then the Kinkaku- Ji or the Golden Palace and lastly the Nijo region. In Nijo there is a Shogun castle that was home to many Samurai over the centuries. That was more impressive than many of the other Shrines or Temples that we visited so far.

The Silver Pavilion had an enormous Zen garden that included huge sand & rock gardens and a beautiful little pond surrounded by the same type of trees traditionally seen in the gardens. It also has a trail of rock stairs that led you through the gardens and up the hills with a bamboo railing. Flowing throughout the garden was a waterway that I suppose used to bring water to the individual temples. Once up in the hills the trail provided another breathtaking view of the premises and overlooked the neighboring town. I got to peek inside a typical classroom for whatever teachings that went on in the temples. Similar to most of the other places we visited Cherry Blossom trees littered the area but looked more like trees out of a scary movie do to the fact that it was winter. The Silver Pavilion was one of the few places that had bamboo growing in plain sight of each of the temples.

We stopped by the imperial palace of Kyoto on the way to the Golden Palace but since it was not open we only got to stroll through the not so impressive gardens. The Golden Palace is not golden in name only, it is a temple set right on the lake that was literally coated with a golden leaf lacquer. It was a bright sunny day so the entire temple sparkled and glistened. If only it weren’t so windy there would have been a reflection off the water. No one was allowed inside the temple or even remotely close, but that certainly did not take away from the beauty and grandeur of the temple. Of course, it is accompanied by rock gardens, waterfalls and other symbolic statues.

The last spot of the day was the Shogun Castle in the Nijo district. This was particularly interesting to me because for those of you that don’t know Shogun is essentially the king of all Samurais. At the main gate you walk through my first thought was that the Shogun might be held in higher regard than even the Emperor. The gates were just as imposing as the rest, with big strong solid doors but this time they were accented by beautiful golden works of art including dragons, peacocks, cranes and other symbolic animals. The gates are complimented by massive temples, which are uniquely accentuated by golden pieces of art as well. The main temple was the most spacious of any that I had seen thus far. The huge rooms were decorated with paintings of animals and nature. A thin sliding wooden door separated each of the rooms. Large double-sided wooden carvings that differed from the adjacent room punctuated each one making individually different from the next. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed but I managed to sneak a few anyway. The temple’s wooden floors squeaked loudly on every step. A provision taken by the builders in order to allow the warriors inside to hear if someone was sneaking around. The place was thoroughly fortified, including a double moat and extremely high barricaded walls. The Shogun Castle has one of the more extensive gardens that provided the warriors with long peaceful walks with the Shogun.

Following the eventful day we went out to a local restaurant and ate some “new generation Japanese food” as the hotel manager described it to us. As we entered the restaurant we removed our shoes in traditional Japanese fashion and immediately noticed that the floors were actually heated, a nice accommodation for a chilly night in downtown Kyoto. We enjoyed some Curry pizza that was especially delicious, a kind of chicken Kabob, and of course my favorite kind of sushi fried crab and a Yesibu beer to wash it all down. After another mini-meal, the Japanese apparently don’t believe in feeling full (nor do my parents at their age), we walked to the hotel through “Fish” street. This is the main fish market of the area. Another day down, we head out to Hiroshima tomorrow, Christmas day oddly enough. Now I will retire to bed dozing off to the appropriately named BS News newscast trying to catch up on what is going on in your end of the world. Hope Santa treats you all well…

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

GB

Day 6: Ancient Kyoto

Tuesday, December 23, 2007

With nothing to report about our first day in Kyoto other than it was a long train ride in some shitty weather, I will leave it at that. After a terrible night’s sleep on the world’s hardest and shortest bed, we were off to our next selection of sites. The day’s agenda included Nanzenji, the Heian Shrine, the Yasaka Shrine and Sanjusangendo.

We walked through a humble countryside town until we encountered the first of the bunch, Nanzenji. Located at the foot of Kyoto’s eastern hills, the grounds are absolutely breathtaking.
It is widely considered as one of Japan’s most important Zen temples. Built originally as an imperial villa in 1264, its main building is famous for its daunting size and surrounding rock garden. Now it is the headquarters for the Rinzai School of Zen. There are a number of smaller temples in the hills and even a full functioning water aqueduct that can be found close to Nanzenji’s main buildings. Arriving at around eleven o’clock we walked up to the main temples and then proceeded through the foothills to the smaller ones.

There was an eerie mist coming from the forest and it rolled off the rooftops creating a mystical phenomenon…

You could just tell there was something about this place…

You could even feel it- as if it were tangible...

Once you set foot on the grounds, you sensed it, immediately.

I don’t know if it was because of the magnificent visuals the gardens provided or the massive temples or even the serene sounds of the passing water but there was certainly something else here, this was certainly an ancient presence.

I know very little about the way of Zen and the whole idea behind the philosophy. But hell, Phil Jackson used the school of thought as a way to unite Kobe and Shaq for three championships. I had certainly never witnessed anything like this before...

Truly there is no other place on earth like this.

The Heian Shrine had an unusual color scheme to it, as my mom accurately pointed out. We entered the shrine through a massive red-orange Torii that was accented with gold. Most of the shrines and temples were more of a dull darker color as you can see from the pictures, but this one was distinctly different. The red-orange color of main part of the structure seemed more like Communist China red to me but was still pretty authentic Japanese nonetheless. There is a ritual that takes place here that is loosely translates to “Adult Day” where teenagers literally and symbolically cross a bridge into adulthood.

Yasaka Shrine was another location that intrigued me. It resembled just about every other shrine that we had visited aside form the fact that it was set right in the steepest hills of Kyoto. It is famous throughout the country for being the home of one of Japan’s largest cherry blossom festivals in the spring. Up the massive set of stairs sat the main temple, which like most was very imposing and surrounded by large stone lanterns, gardens and other subtemples. I decided to take the road less traveled, far behind the last temple, up a set of stairs to what turned out to be a graveyard. I climbed up to the highest point that provided a stunning view of the temples and the main city.

The last location of the day, Sanjusangendo, was kind of a big deal. It was home to over a thousand national treasures, most of them made out of gold, including a large Buddha. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the temple but I managed to sneak a few anyway. So if my plane goes down on the way home, it is due to bad karma and thousands of generations of angry monks acting their revenge for the picture. The statues you can see in the background behind the God of Thunder are of the goddess of Mercy, Kannon. Each was about six feet tall and gold, there were over 1000 of them. The main temple that housed the golden statues at Sanjusangendo is Japan’s largest wooden structure, spanning over 100 meters.

Trekking our way back to the subway station after we had spent sufficient time looking at the various statues in Sanjusangendo, we crossed over a bridge that provided a view that would take anybody back to feeling as if they were in the “old country.”All three of us were pretty tired from all the hiking and walking so when we got back to the hotel we just chilled until we indulged in a fancy dinner at the hotels main restaurant. Four different locations across the span of only a few hours with lots of distance between certainly had taken its toll. It’s Christmas Eve tomorrow, when we traditionally open our presents from the family. Unfortunately it’s a bit of a anticlimactic celebration this year as my trip to the far east not only accounted for all my Christmas presents but graduation as well. So far it has been well worth it and I still have more than two weeks left.

More coming from Kyoto tomorrow,

GB