The Calm After the Storm

3/18-3/21 (Sorry another late one!)

Spent the weekend in Kyoto with A. Every time I have been to Kyoto has been a different experience despite visiting many of the same places. The first time I went, I was 17 and it was with my eldest host sister. 



Nijo castle



Everything was new for me and seeing old style temples and seeking out Geisha in the streets made for a fun and vibrant experience. I even got to dress up like a Geisha, complete with make-up and photo shoot to make the memories complete.



The second time was a few years ago with my college roommate during our summer vacation. We spent a day in Kyoto and a day in Nara and it was a different kind of magical. I got to watch while she got Geisha-fied and guide her to all the famous spots for tourists. I got to see someone else experience Kyoto like I had but luckily for her we both spoke some Japanese which made the trip a little less stressful for us both. It was amazing to see Japan for the first time through someone else’s eyes and it reminded me of my own host mom saying almost exactly the same thing via a taxi driver turned translator upon our first meeting driving back to her apartment in Sendai.



Some of the blooming flowers



Over Christmas, I stopped into Kyoto on a trip to Tokyo with E (one of the girl’s I ran the marathon with) and we spent a good part of an afternoon trying to see the sights. Unfortunately, this trip was more fraught with chaos and time wasting than actual sightseeing, since our lack of planning and time estimation threatened to ruin everything.



We saw kinkakuji (the golden temple) though, making it my third time. This monument is in every memory I have of Kyoto. On my first visit, it was the most peaceful and amazing place I had ever seen and I don’t even remember there being other people present is so tranquil my memory. The second time it was watching the same amazement in someone else’s eyes; awakening my own fondness for my first experience to give a more complete view of the temple. The third time it wasn’t so much the beauty of the temple itself as solidifying the path my life had taken and the effect of the sight on older, more wizened eyes. It was no longer the most beautiful place I had ever seen and while I could still understand the tranquility in the image, I appreciated more the beauty of the surrounding landscaping and the aesthetics of the entire temple.



The gate of Kiyomizu temple



On my most recent and likely last trip to Kyoto, I appreciated kinkakuji in a fourth, entirely different way. Although it was also A’s first time Kyoto and first time seeing Japanese architecture in this fashion, I found myself appreciating less the temple and more the journey of finding our way to the temple and the pleasantness of having someone with whom to share my thoughts on what we were viewing.

We visited many places, some of which I had been to previously and others I hadn’t, and at every place I tried to remember what a friend had once told me - ‘you can find beautiful pictures online of all these places, but being sure to enjoy them with your eyes, less so than your camera. Because your photographs won't give you the fullness your memories will.' With that in mind we spent less time posing for pictures and more time appreciating the beauty of ... everything. 



Sunset at Kiyomizu temple



I think our best memory will always be catching the sunset on kiyomizudera. When we checked into the hostel on Saturday morning, we headed out and rented bicycles so we could enjoy the city in a more traditional way - not to mention the buses were packed! Fighting off crowds of people, we went to a few of the major hot spots on our new rides and tried to take our time. After a long day, we parked outside the hostel around 5:30 and checked into our room. It had been a tentative plan to try and catch the sunset at one of the temples, and since kiyomizudera was the closest to our hostel it seemed the best option. Unfortunately, the worker at the hostel told us the temple closed at 6 and we would be unlikely to be able to stand around for the sunset. 

Hopes crushed, we decided to venture out toward the temple anyway, thinking, at the least we could try. Turned out, the hostel was mistaken. We snuck into the temple just as they were closing the ticket counter and when I asked one of the workers what time we had to be out, he said we could stay until it got dark. We did just that. Watching the lines of tourists line up outside the entrance (turns out there was a night festival going on that weekend and they were lighting up the temple once it got dark) while we sat in the company of two staff and about five other tourists to watch the sunset. It was so beautiful and peaceful that it was hard to believe we had one, spent the day fighting off crowds of tourists while sightseeing and two, summoned a fighting spirit enough to make it into a closing temple before dark. It’s a time I will never forget.



The silver temple-Ginkakuji



We spent Sunday doing more sightseeing, but it rained in the afternoon and after spending too much on dinner the night before, we were content to call it an early day and head back to the hostel for some much needed rest and foot massages. Monday saw rain all morning but we managed to find our way to fushimi inari (the shrine with the long lines of red gates leading up a mountain) where we hiked up all the way to the top only to find a small shrine with no view of the surrounding landscape. The trek wasn’t bad though and we got some amazing pictures.

After the shrine we had time to kill so we went to a spot marked on the map called tofukuji (a famous zen temple). It was only one station away so we walked. There were hardly any people on the road though, a stark contrast from the hoards of people we had been fighting off all weekend, so we thought we were going the wrong way. Then we stumbled upon the temple where we entered through the first entrance we saw - which of course was the exit. Touring around on our own, we found a ticket gate and a bunch of dead trees and thinking things might improve we went inside. Having no idea what to expect, we were pleasantly surprised to find a very beautiful sanctuary hidden away in the foothills where we rested and enjoyed the sound of birds awakening to the coming of spring. Although many of the trees were still bare, the place was so peaceful and beautiful that I have decided it is my favorite place in Kyoto.

Side angle of ginkakuji

In a city of ‘world cultural heritage’ sites, a 1000 year old zen temple isn’t very special but let me tell you, if you want to see the most beautiful place man can make, go to this temple. After touring the rock garden and moss display, we were at peace, and with that calm, returned to the train station to fight through the people again to find both our baggage and the train. Luckily tofukuji had been all but deserted so we had had a nice break from the crowds because the trains saw no relief.

Overall, an amazing weekend and a fitting end to a nice visit from A. Please, enjoy the pictures and LOVE.

Fushimi inari`s gates

More pictures to come. Work computer is being tempermental!




UPDATE: 4/6/11

More pictures and as A mentioned in the comments, I am obliged to explain the accidental Gaijin smash that we performed during our fleeting time in Kyoto. While looking for a pair of running shorts for A (who forgot to bring his), we parked our bicycles outside a resturant side entrance for lack of a better place to put them. The store was packed, like the rest of Kyoto that weekend, and it took us a while to find the items we were looking for. Of course we also got sidetracked by unnecessary items. :-P Regardless, when we returned we found our bicycles moved further down the block with small notices attached. Under the glare of a police officer standing in the alley, I quickly pulled the tags from both of our bikes, shoved them in my bag and said we should off immediately. After checking the tag later, once we were sure of our escape from the police officer (who likely didn`t say anything to us because he didn`t want to have to deal with foreigners) I realized it was simply a notice directing us to legal bicycle parking. Whew was it a close experience. I thought for sure we would have our bicycles either impounded or be asked to pay a fine. Sometimes being a foreigner in Japan has advantages but I feel kind of bad for not even giving recognition of the officer... Oh well.

Still having trouble with pictures so those you can either check facebok for or wait patiently unti lI figure out how to upload them. LOVE!