Kyoto - Day 2

For our first full day in Kyoto, JD and I started on a fresh note by finding a laundry mat. Hooray less stinky clothing!

Fresh as a slightly still damp daisy, we joined the group to visit some shrines and historic neighbourhoods. However, in keeping with the back roads theme of the tour, we started with a walk through the largest cemetery in Kyoto. It was four or five tiers high in places and covered several city blocks. It was massive.

On the other side was Kiyomizu, a large temple complex perched high on a hill. We had a second chance at salvation here (if you failed to find the key to salvation in Nagano). Beneath the temple is a winding pitch dark passage way. You are looking for a circular boulder, representing Buddha's belly. It was not difficult as the boulder is on a spinning platform and dramatically top-lit. Touches the spinning boulder and making an earnest wish, your wish will come true and you are granted salvation.

Salvation attained we were on to the next shrine area. This shrine is on a cliff face and supported by sets of wooden scaffolds, which I didn't notice until we were below the shrine.

Next we walked up to the star attraction, Jishu, the love rocks. The shrine is dedicated to Okuninushi, a god of love. 

According to folklore, if you can walk straight from one rock to another with your eyes closed, love will come soon. If you miss a rock, love will be a long time coming. I hit my target dead on as the stone floor had grooves that were easy to feel and follow... I mean, as I truly believe in luuurv.

 We also stopped to get our omikuji, fortunes, in English. If you get a good fortune, you keep it with you to have it come true. If you get a bad fortune, you tie it to a sacred tree and monks will collect, pray over, and burn your bad fortune. I got a "lesser good" fortune.

After hiking down the cliff side, we walked to the next temple complex through shop-lined streets. Of course the tourists immediately scattered and lost themselves in the shops. We infuriated our guide, but the shops were worth it. ;)

Next we arrived at a shrine with great crazy ghost lanterns and a giant outdoor statue of Buddha. We wasted our time shopping though, so on to the next site.

Our guide took us through a secret back alley as a shortcut to the geisha district, Gion, and our next destination. I did not see any geisha as they mostly wait for it to cool down in the evening before coming out and are purposefully camera shy. You can enjoy the company and entertainment of geisha or maiko for rather steep prices. Not on my budget though!

All over Kyoto, we did see people dressed beautifully in kimonos. A group of girls were kind enough to let us snap a photo of their girls day out.

Kenninji temple at the end of the street was fantastic! There was a zen garden, painted screens in each room, people practising calligraphy, and an incredible surprise in the main building...

Painted on the ceiling of the main building are two just awesome dragons. Personally, I love their beady eyes and wrinkly old man foreheads. They were painted to celebrate the temple's 800th anniversary.

The temple also houses painted screens featuring Fujin, god of thunder, and Raijin, god of wind.

 

A small group of us bid the gods and dragons farewell and were off to a tea ceremony. The tea house, En, offered one hour condensed ceremonies explained in English. It was beautiful, precise, and peaceful. Every movement, every gesture, every implement has a meaning.

Here's what I remember to the best of my ability. The way of tea is one of Japan's traditional cultural practices. The ceremony encompasses not only making matcha tea, but also spirituality, an appreciation of nature, a respect for tea utensils and bowls, appreciation for nature, and Zen Buddhism.

The host or hostess of a tea ceremony not only dresses and prepares tea traditionally, but also arranges the garden, flowers, and calligraphy to create a zen environment for guests.

Next, she purifies the spaces and the tea utensils prior to guest arrival. When guests arrive, they kneel bowingt and slide through the door. They present a folded fan in front of their knees as a sign of respect for their host.

Before the ceremony starts, guests remove a paper from their kimono and accept a sweet from the host as matcha is strong and can be quite bitter. As a guest, you also bring a youji (small stainless steel fork for sweets) with you.

The ceremony is about four principals: harmony (with people and with nature), respect (of others and the often antique utensils), purity (of the mind and the utensils) and tranquility (peace of mind and appreciation of nature).

Now for the tea utensils. There are 10 utensils in a ceremony: a tea container for the matcha, a tea scoop, a tea bowl for drinking, a bamboo whisk, a bamboo scoop for water, a bowl for holding the spoon, a container of cold water (from a carefully selected source like a mountain stream), a pot if hot water, a burner for the fire, and a short divider forming a right angle.

Moving the utensils around and preparing the tea was a delicate and meaning-charged dance that takes a minimum of a year to learn and 10 years to master. So I'll just gloss over that as my one day if training seems insufficient somehow... I can share the proper way to make matcha though!

You put one or two scoops in your tea bowl, pour two ounces or so of hot water over it and make an L with your left hand. Place your left hand on the rim of your tea bowl and pick up the bamboo whisk with your right hand. Quickly whisk the matcha until a light green foam appears on top, like a green cappuccino.

You're nearly ready to drink! Pick up the bowl and place it in the palm of your left hand, using your right hand, turn the bowl a half circle clockwise. Your host will have placed the bowl with the front (the most beautiful part) facing you for you to appreciate. It is polite to turn the face out to your host before drinking to preserve the beauty of the face of the bowl and not slobber on it. Next, steady the bowl with your right hand and drink.

When nearly finished your cup of tea, it is a sign of respect to slurp the last if the tea from the bowl to ensure no tea spills when you are appreciating the bowl as well as to demonstrate how much you enjoyed the tea.

Thoroughly Zened out, we left the tea house and made our way back through some shrines to the shopping district. Those souvenirs weren't going to buy themselves!

We caught the bus back to the hotel just in time to meet everyone for our last dinner together on the tour at (hushed silence) the NINJA RESTAURANT.

What seemed like it would be campy, good-time fun soon turned out to be the worst meal ever. It's advertised as a ninja restaurant and labyrinth. We swiftly solved the mysticism and enigma surrounding both attributes. Here's the great secret: ninja = disgruntled teens in bad costumes, and labyrinth = turn right at he bottom of the fake brick staircase instead of left. Oh no...

I'll cut the story short and just say the menu was misleading (somehow I ended up paying nearly $45 for dinner and one drink when I thought it was going to be $19), the portions were small and disappointing, the service was slower than learning ninjutsu would have been, and we all left tired, cranky, and out of money very late at night.

Although the food was nicely presented.

The only upside for me was the ridiculously bad albeit unintentionally hilarious "ninja magician". So much bad!

While most of the group parted ways after dinner to head home to their respective countries, a few of us with an extra day in Kyoto joined our guide for a palette-cleansing last drink at a dive bar by our hotel.

(The door on the left)

This place was sketch city! Sasha asked me to watch her back as she used the communal bathroom. The man peeing on the wall into the urine trough seemed as though someone should keep an eye on him while a lady used the enclosed stall. And it's a good/terrible thing I did.

As I was standing guard, a very intoxicated gentleman stumbled from a private room, unzipped and prepared himself while stumbling toward the pee wall. He gave a respectful nod and pointed his intention to use the piss wall. I thought it best to step out of the way to avoid the spray... I did tell Sasha to hang on a sec before editing the stall while the man took care of his business.

Anyways, back at the at counter we were hushed a number of times and cut off from singing along to the radio, so we said our goodbyes (*sniff* *sniff*) to all and headed back to the hotel.