miren naku
chiru mo sakura wa
sakura kana
without regret
they fall and scatter...
cherry blossoms
Issa
We have arrived!!! Oisashiburi! It is so exciting to be in Japan after so long. We landed in Nagoya after a short stop over in Taipei (Taiwan). All Cathay Pacific flights have been re-routed through Taiwan so that they can at least make a bit of money on that leg. Obviously since the earthquake, tsunami and radiation leaks, Japan is not the most desired destination. The flight to Taipei was 3/4 full and for the rest of the flight to Nagoya there were only a handful of people, and we were the only gaijin (foreigners) on the flight. Nagoya airport was also very, very quiet. We had no trouble finding the train to Nagoya station, I was able to purchase tickets in Japanese (yes a little bit of it is still there!!) and also understand the directions I was given! On arrival in Nagoya again I had no trouble getting tickets to Kyoto on the Shinkansen, even managing to do the entire transaction in Japanese! True to Japanese standards, the Shinkansen arrived on the platform in perfect time and pulled out at the exact time the ticket said. You can definitely set your watch by Japan Rail time! Richard really enjoyed his first Shinkansen (Bullet Train) ride but I was disappointed that they did not have the speed of the train showing in the carriage. I remember they used to do that many years ago! We travelled the 108km in about 30 minutes so the average speed was around 200km an hour.
Our hotel for the next 5 nights is very conveniently located right in front of the Kyoto station which is an amazing structure in its own right. This makes getting around Kyoto very easy, and we soon discovered that it is so simple and convenient to get around by bus. We have arrived just at the end of the Cherry blossom flowering season. Our timing could not have been much better. I had read that the gardens in Heian Jinguu (Shrine) have some of the later flowering weeping cherries so we decided that that had better be our first stop. Richard was a little worried about getting on the bus... it did take a little while to find the correct bus stop...but once on our way we soon realised that each bus stop was announced over the speakers as well as displayed up front in both Kanji (Japanese characters) and Romaji (English characters) and the main tourist stops were even announced in English so you really could not go wrong. But even if you were not sure, everyone is so friendly. People are happy to help you out, it gives them an opportunity to practice their English!
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| Kyoto Station |
Kyoto is one of the easiest cities to explore as it is basically a rectangle of flat land surrounded by mountains on three sides, the east (Higashiyama meaning literally East Mountain), west (Arashiyama meaning literally Storm Mountain) and north (Kitayama meaning literally North Mountain). It is in fact so flat that getting around by bicycles is one of the easiest ways to see sights, not that we were going to test that theory out!! Kyotoites describe their city as bon-chi meaning 'tray land' as Kyoto resembles a flat tray with three raised edges. Kyoto has been divided into 8 main districts, Kyoto Station area (where we are staying) Downtown Kyoto, Central Kyoto, Southern Higashiyama, Northern Higashiyama, Northwest Kyoto, Arashiyama and Sagano and Greater Kyoto. Our aim is to try to visit sites in each of the areas, to do so we will need lots of stamina!
Northern Higashiyama
Heian Jingu is one of Kyoto's most popular sights with both Foreign and Domestic tourists, but lucky for us there are no foreign tour buses at all in Kyoto at the moment. Heian is a recently built shrine, built in 1895 to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the founding of Kyoto and as such is not that special to look at, being a scaled down somewhat gaudy replica of the Imperial Court Palace of the Heian period (794 - 1185) There is a huge metal red Torii (gateway) over the road leading up to the shrine, which somehow we initially missed as the bus seemed to unload us right under it and we did not look up. This is considered the entrance to the shrine and stupidly we needed to ask someone where to go to get to the shrine, when there it was right in ront of us! Ah... but it is good to practice my Japanese! It was the garden that we were there to see, and we were not disappointed. This vast garden behind the shrine was build as a tribute to the style that was popular in the Heian period and flowering weeping cherries were in abundance and in full bloom. A large pond and Chinese inspired bridge looked spectacular with simple shrine structures and cherry blossoms adorning its edges.
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| Heian Shrine Torii |
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| Entrance to Heian Shrine |
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| The gardens in Heian Shrine |
Our next stop was probably one of our favourite Shrines in Kyoto, the Ginkaku-ji. The name Ginkaku means Silver Pavilion, however there is no silver to be seen on the temple. It was first built in 1482 as the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, modelling it on his grandfather's retirement villa called Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion). Yoshimasa was obsessed with collecting art and thus Ginkakuji became the centre of contemporary culture known as the Higashiyama Culture (the temple sits at the foot of the eastern mountain range - Higashiyama). He had planned to cover the whole structure in Silver but as usual, war seemed to get in the way and it was never completed before his death. In 1485, Yoshimasa became a Zen Buddhist monk and it was said that when he retired to the villa he sat in the pavilion contemplating the calm and beauty of the gardens as the Onin War worsened and Kyoto was burned to the ground. The Higashiyama Culture had a broad impact on the entire country. As war was waging around and Kyoto was burning to the ground, artists from that period scattered across the country to seek protection from other shoguns and thus took with them the culture that Yoshimasa had encouraged to flourish. Ginkaku-ji is said to be the centre of the tea ceremony, flower arranging, noh theatre, poetry, garden design and architecture. After Yoshimasa's death on January 27th 1490, Ginkakuji was converted to a Zen temple complex
Today, Ginkaku-ji consists of the Silver Pavilion, half a dozen other temple buildings, a beautiful moss garden and a unique dry sand garden. The garden was designed by the great landscape artist Soami and the sand garden of Ginkaku-ji has become particularly well known; the carefully formed pile of sand which is said to symbolize Mount Fuji, is an essential element in the garden. Apparently the sand came from the base of the pond as they were making it, it was washed and left to dry in a pile and at that time they discovered that the sun was reflected off the sand and helped to illuminate the inside of the pavilion. So they decided to make it part of the garden. As we walked into the gardens it began to drizzle which only added to the experience. It has been a long time since we have smelt the smell of rain falling on soil and moss, a smell that defies description!
We shared the walk around the gardens with beautiful Kimono clad young ladies...where ever we have been in Kyoto, from the high tech train station to the historic shrines, and on the bustling streets and buses, these floating canvases of intricate design and colour are a constant reminder that the ancient traditions continue to flourish in this modern city.
From Ginkaku-ji we wandered along the Tetsugaku-no-michi (Path of Philosophy) one of the most pleasant walks in all of Kyoto. The cherry trees lining the walk were in full bloom and hung low over the canal, their petals fluttering to the ground with each breath of air and floating on the water, giving the appearance that the entire walk was covered in snow. Apparently this is where the most famous of stollers, the 20th Century philosopher Nishida Kitaro was said to have wandered completely lost in thought. The burbling of the canal, the leaping of huge orange koi fish, the light breeze, the birds singing, the smell of fresh earth and flowers, all added together to make it easy to imagine a life of quiet contemplation.
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| The red umbrella indicates refreshments available |
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| A roadside Shrine made of stone shapes |
Along the path we passed a sign to the Honen-in, a hidden temple built in 1690 which we decided to explore. What a serene refuge from the bustle of everyday life, a lovely secluded temple with carefully raked gardens set back in the woods, devoid of the crowds of tourists. The main gateway showed signs of what Richard calls vertical greening - the buzz word with architects in big cities like Hong Kong - with thick moss completely covering the thatched roof. The whole effect of the temple grounds was one of a fairy grotto!
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| vessel for washing prior to entering the buildings |
We then attempted to go to Eikan-do, a temple that is very popular during autumn, only to find that it had just closed. Here we met a couple exploring Kyoto dressed in traditional kimono and enjoyed having a photograph with them. Japan is definitely the place to not feel embarrassed about asking someone if you can take their photo, already I have been asked a couple of times by students if they can have their photo taken with me!!
Finding Eikan-do closed we headed further down the road to Nanzen-ji which is a collection of temples originally built around 1290. Unfortunately one of many wars in the 15th Century destroyed most of the temple, so the present buildings date from the 17th Century. It had a massive entrance gate standing on huge pylons with its ceiling adorned with murals of birds and angels. We walked up to the front of the temple which has a raised brick aqueduct in front. We decided to follow this aqueduct around the mountain as a number of other people seemed to be doing. When we came to the end of the aqueduct we discovered that the other people walking along it were a group of university students and their teacher studying the aqueduct, and that the aqueduct did not really take us anywhere that interesting and so began the search for somewhere familiar so we could work out where we were and find a bus home. A deep hot bath welcomed us on return to our hotel, a perfect way to sooth away aching muscles.
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| Gateway to the Nanzen-ji |
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| Aqueduct |
Northwest Kyoto
Day two in Kyoto found us exploring the Northwestern part. First stop, in an attempt to beat the domestic crowds, was Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion). Kinkaku-ji, also known as Rokuon-ji, is a Zen temple whose top two floors are completely covered in gold leaf and a golden phoenix protects from the roof top. It was originally built in the 1220's as a comfortable villa of Kintsune Saionji and echoed the extravagant Kitayama culture that developed in the wealthy aristocratic circles of Kyoto during those times, but was later bought by the shogun Ashikage Yoshimitsu. On his death in 1408, it became a Zen temple of the Rinzai sect. Second only to Mt Fuji as Japan's most famous and photographed sight, on a sunny day the golden temple is reflected in the mirror like pond surrounding it, unfortunately not such a sunny morning for us, so no real reflection! During the Onin war, all of the buildings in the complex except the Golden pavilion were burned down, however centuries later in 1950, a young mentally unstable monk named Hayashi Yoken, consummated his obsession with the temple by burning it to the ground!! Fancy surviving centuries and loads of wars and then being deliberately burnt to the ground in the 20th Century. The current pavilion was rebuilt in 1955 and is said to be an exact copy of the original, although some people doubt such an extensive gold-leaf coating was used on the original structure. It certainly made it look quite gaudy, especially in comparison to the more simple Ginkaku-ji visited yesterday.
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| Kinkaku-ji |
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| Kinkaku-ji tea house |
On a quest to visit all the iconic spots of Kyoto, our next stop was Ryoan-ji, well known and thus well patronised for its simple zen rock gardens. The temple itself belongs to the Rinzai school and was founded in 1450. The most important garden is an oblong of carefully raked sand with a collection of 15 carefully placed rocks, apparently adrift in a sea of sand and enclosed by an earthen wall. Many historians believe the garden was arranged by Soami during the Muromachi period (1333-1576) though some argue that it was in fact built a lot later in the Edo period. Whoever designed it provided no explanation as to what the design represented. There is also a large pond in the grounds with Chinese style bridges in front of the stunning backdrop of colourful flowering trees running up the mountain. In one of the gardens there is a round stone trough that cleverly incorporates its square water basin into a Zen inscription roughly translated as meaning "I am always content"
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"I am always content"
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Our next stop for the day was Nijo-jo (castle) which was built in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo Period (1603 - 1867). Its palace buildings are arguably the best surviving examples of castle palace architecture of Japan's feudal era, and the castle was designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1994. As with all the other places we visited, this makes it a very popular site. Nijo Castle can be divided into three areas: the Honmaru (main circle of defense), the Ninomaru (secondary circle of defense) and some gardens that encircle the Honmaru and Ninomaru. The entire castle grounds and the Honmaru are surrounded by stone walls and moats. After crossing the moat and entering the outer thick wall - a wall very similar in shape and structure to ancient walls in Peru, obviously to provide strength in times of earthquakes - you come to another Chinese style Karamon Gate which is the entrance to Ninomaru Palace. This Palace served as the residence and office of the Shogun during his visits to Kyoto. The palace is made of wood rather than stone as you would expect from looking at the outer walls. Other than huge tatami rooms with elegantly decorated ceilings and beautifully painted sliding doors, what was so special about this place were the floors in the outer corridors. The palace consists of multiple separate buildings that are connected by corridors with nightingale floors. The floors have been laid so that the nails are set inside something so that when ever the floor flexes, ie when you walk on it, the nails emit a chirping sound, not unlike a nightingale singing and thus acting as a security measure against intruders. As we all walked along the corridor it sounded like a whole flock of nightingales had converged upon the palace! We tried tip toeing as we presumed a ninja would, but it did not seem to matter how we walked, the floor still chirped. Of course we are much bigger and heavier than a ninja might be, but even small children made the floor sing. In feudal times bodyguards would have hidden in concealed chambers ready to jump out at a moments notice to protect the Shogun and his family.
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| Entrance gate to Nijo Castle |
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| Castle Keep |
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| Entrance gate to the Palace |
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| Close up of the entrance gate. |
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| The Palace |
Outside the Ninomaru Palace lies the Ninomaru Garden, a traditional Japanese landscape garden with a large pond, ornamental stones and stone bridges along with manicured pine trees. After walking through the garden you come to a second palace complex called Honamaru Palace which is not usually open to the public. However you can walk around the gardens and climb up the foundation of the former castle keep which was destroyed by fire in the 18th Century, to get a great view over the castle grounds. There were about 400 cherry trees of the late blooming variety in the cherry orchard so you cam imagine it was both a beautiful and popular place to visit.
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| The Nijo Castle gardens |
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| Abundant Sakura |
Downtown Kyoto
As we exited the castle there were many stalls set up to service the hordes of cherry blossom viewers, so we felt obliged to sit for a while eating Japanese treats before heading on the the next destination. I had thought we would go back to the hotel to rest before heading out to check out a famous Geisha area of Kyoto, but Richard insisted he was ready to continue on.... I think the thought of Geisha spotting was giving him the extra energy he needed. So we hopped on a bus and headed to Nishiki Market, a narrow shopping street lined by more than a hundred market shops. You can buy pretty much any fresh or processed foods here including many Kyoto specialities such as pickles, Japanese sweets - we picked up a few samples of these- lots of dried food, sushi, fresh seafood and lots of different fruit and vegetables. We arrived at the end of the day and the street was pretty packed as locals headed home via the market for their evening food. Apparently Nishiki market has a history that runs through several centuries and many stores have been operated by the same families for many generations. Having walked down the narrow street and back again, tasting wares as we went, our feet were starting to get a little weary and the temperature was starting to drop. We decided to head for Pontocho Street, one of Kyoto's traditional nightlife districts where we hoped to spot a Geisha on the way to a teahouse and maybe to pick up some food. Obviously this place has a great atmosphere and there are a lot of restaurants and tea-houses, but none of them seemed to cater to our thin wallets!! So we enjoyed a stroll down the lanes illuminated by hanging lanterns before deciding it was too cold and thus time to head back to our hotel. Just as we were crossing the road to catch a bus we spotted a Geisha or Maiko (apprentice) hurrying by. Our mission was accomplished!
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| Pontocho |
Arashiyama and Sagano
The weather today was forecast to be lovely and sunny, rain is predicted for tomorrow, so we made the decision to head out to the Arayashiyama district which is tucked up in the Northwestern part of Kyoto between the mountains and a river. We knew that being the end of the cherry blossom viewing period, being Sunday and being sunny we were going to be in for some serious crowds of domestic and local tourists as this is a very popular spot with the Japanese. I particularly wanted to visit the bamboo forest here, which I hoped to be able to photograph without crowds of people, so we decided to head off as early as possible in an attempt to beat the crowds. Our timing seemed to be perfect, we walked through the forest with hardly another soul on the way up but by the time we headed back it was almost heaving with people.
We walked uphill through the whispering bamboo forest and came to the entrance of Okochi Sansho villa. I had read that this estate was particularly beautiful and well worth a visit to see the gardens. It was the former villa of the popular silent movie actor Okochi Denjiro (1896 - 1962) and consisted of not only beautiful gardens to wander around but a lovely tea house, shrine and his living quarters, none of which could be entered, but all were beautiful to look at. As we had left our hotel early, we decided to have a picnic breakfast here that we ate in front of the main living quarters sitting on a bench with not another person in sight. Heaven! As we left the gardens we came across the tea house where we were served complimentary macha green tea and a Japanese sweet.
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| Eating breakfast in front of the tea house |
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| A place of prayer and contemplation. |
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| The living quarters. |
On leaving the estate we were met by a steadily growing crowd of people, it was going to be a busy day here in Arayashiyama! We walked back down the hill stopping to buy gifts and chatting in Spanish to an elderly Japanese artist selling his paintings turned into postcards! He had lived for a year in Spain and his Spanish was very good which made Richard's day. We then entered Tenryu-ji, a Zen temple which has supposedly been ranked first among Kyoto's "Five Great Zen Temples".
Tenryu-ji was built in 1339 and like many other temples in the region was burnt down several times over its history. The current buildings date from the Meiji Period but the garden which was designed by Muso Soseki, the first chief priest, and completed in 1345 has survived the many fires and is considered to be one of the oldest of its kind. We wandered around the corridors surrounding the temple and spent some time just sitting in quiet contemplation overlooking the main pond of the landscaped garden.
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| Tenryu-ji gardens designed in 1345 |
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| Walkway around the temple |
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| One of the altars |
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| Front of the temple. |
Before too long our stomachs told us it was time to eat and we headed to the by now very, very busy main street in search of food. We found a little roadside stall that sold bowls of udon very cheaply and we sat in the sun watching the world wander by. I decided that the meal would not be complete without trying a speciality ice cream, made of 4 flavours - cherry blossom (made with real cherry blossoms), macha green tea (traditional tea ceremony tea) Japanese tea and vanilla. Most satisfying on a warm day. We headed towards the Togetsukyo Bridge (moon crossing bridge) which is Arashiyama's central landmark and originally built during the Heian Period of 794 - 1185 but most recently reconstructed in the 1930's. This bridge is a very popular site for the photography enthusiast due mainly to the forested mountain-side in the background which changes colour depending on the season, and of course there are many cherry trees both on the mountain and in the riverside park. Our timing could not have been much better. On the 13th April there is a special rite of passage for local children aged 13 called Juusan Mairi. Girls dress up in Kimono's and after paying respects at the temple Hoorin-ji and receiving a blessing for wisdom, they make their way across the bridge alone to the northern side with strict instructions from their parents not to look back towards the temple until they have reached the other side. If they do look back it is believed that they will have bad luck for the rest of their life. We may have missed the actual day of the 13th which fell on Wednesday, but as it was the weekend the town was still packed with kimono clad 13 year olds completing their special walk across the bridge. Richard kept wanting to call out to the young girls on the bridge to see if he could get them to look back!! Wicked boy!
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| A 13 year old on her way to the temple |
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| A 13 year old about to walk over the bridge |
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| Cute roadside shrine |
As it was such a beautiful sunny day, in fact we both managed to get a little sunburnt, the river was full of people boating, so we decided that this could be a lovely relaxing way to spend some time. However, rather than rowing the boat ourselves, we decided to hire a more traditional boat with a boatman to take us up stream for a short distance. The boatman used a wooden pole to push through the water by wedging the pole into the bottom of the river then running along the boat. We shared the boat with one other woman who was originally born in Kyoto but now lives in Tokyo who had returned to Kyoto for the weekend. It was a good opportunity for me to practice my Japanese and to find out about some of the local happenings.
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| Relaxing on the river. |
Southern Higashiyama
Today we thought we would take it a little easier, and thus set out a little later than usual. We caught the bus to Maruyama Koen which is a very popular park during spring due to all the cherry blossom viewing parties. At the height of the season every inch of ground will be covered with hoards of drunken hanami revellers but today it is very quiet as the season has come to an end and park workers were beginning to pack up all the paraphernalia associated with hanami parties. In the centre of the park there is a very old and tall shidarezakura (weeping cherry tree) which is apparently also lit up at night. On the periphery of the park there is a Shrine and a Temple which we took the time to visit. Yasaka Jinja (shrine) also know as the Gion Shrine and as such is the guardian of the Gion district, is famous for hosting the Gion Matsuri, one of Japan's largest festivals. Unfortunately, this festival takes place through out most of July culminating in a massive parade on the 17th July, so we would not have the privilege of seeing any of it. Apparently this shrine is also a popular spot for New Years, if you survive the stampede on New Years eve or any of the following days you will have been blessed by the gods! The current buildings date back to 1654 with a huge granite torii standing at 9.5m tall making it one of the tallest in Japan. Many lanterns bearing the names of their sponsors - mostly Kyoto businesses - decorate the shrine and again are lit after dark making it a very pretty place to visit at night. We did think about an evening visit but by the end of a long day, the last thing that we want to do is head out again.
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| Yasaka Jinja entrance |
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| Kyoto business lanterns |
At the other end of the park is the Chion-in temple which is considered the most impressive single sight in Southern Higashiyama. This is the head temple of the Jodo sect of Japanese Buddhism which has millions of followers and is one of the most popular Buddhist sects in Japan. It was guilt by the monk Genchi in 1234 on the site where his mentor, Hoonen, had once taught and eventually fasted to death. However the oldest of the present buildings dates from the 17th Century. We arrived just as a Buddhist conference seemed to be winding down and hordes of monks were saying farewell to bus loads of participants. The entrance to the Temple is a huge double storey San-mon gate which is considered the largest in Japan standing at 24m tall and 50m wide and dates back to the early 1600's. This helps to prepare the visitor for the scale of what is to follow once the gate is entered. A wide set of steep steps lead up to the gate and a further set of steps lead up to the main temple grounds. I was put to shame by 2 much older men who seemed to catch up with me on the stairs as I puffed and panted my way to the top. Everything is bigger and better in this temple, from the entrance gate to the gold alter and the 2.7m diameter, 80 tonne bell that takes 17 monks to make it budge when ringing in the New Year.
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| Chion-in entrance gateway |
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| Purifying vessel |
Richard was keen to have a look at Samurai swords, hoping to find somewhere where they actually make the swords. No luck on that front, but we did find a good shop selling all different types of ornamental swords and samurai armour as well as displaying many original Samurai sword. The swords that they make for sale are ornamental only, made of a zinc alloy that cannot be sharpened for obvious reasons. We spent some time procrastinating on whether to buy a sword and if so what size. We eventually decided on a small dagger, a hamidashi, as obviously space is of the essence in Hong Kong so something little made more sense. Whilst making the decision we found a lovely little family restaurant selling set vegan lunches made up of lots of interesting little dishes which proved to be absolutely delicious. We then wandered the streets looking in little antique shops and enjoying our last day in Kyoto.
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| Samurai Swords |
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| Samurai Armour |
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| Samurai Helmet |
