Kyoto

For the past week the weather has been absolutetly perfect. I had a long weekend, so I decided to join my friends Jason and Haruka on a pilgramage to Kyoto.


Jason & Haruka

We met Sunday morning just off the highway, not far from my house, around 8am. I left my car in a parking lot and got in the back seat of Jason and Haruka's station wagon. Jason drove while Haruka navigated and I played DJ from the back seat.

We arrived in Kyoto about 11am and went straight to a sprawling complex of temples known as Tofukuji.


Sub-temple in Tofukuji

Inside this complex there were various sub-temples with beautiful rock gardens made by Mirie Shigemori, a famous garden builder from the 1930s who sought to express the simplicity of Zen through modern art.


Rock Garden

The largest temple in the Tofukuji complex we visited was Hojo (Abbot's Hall). It consisted of four rock gardens, one on each side of the temple, made by Shigemori.

My two favorites was the southern garden which represented islands (jagged rocks) amongst rough seas with mossy moutains (boulders) at the far side and the northern garden with square stones and moss in a checkered pattern.


Northern Garden Checkers


Southern Garden Islands


Southern Garden Mossy Mountains


Southern Garden

We also visited another sub-temple which is normally not open to the public and saw an intense rock garden made to represent a dragon flying in and out of the clouds. Unfornuately, cameras were not allowed.

After Tofukuji we walked down the road to a funky little restaraunt with red walls and ate Kamo (wild goose), chicken balls with vegetables, miso soup, and Yuba (a strange by product of tofu).

Haruka wanted to go off alone and do some shopping, so Jason and I drove through town, with me navigating this time, to another temple on the northern side of town called Tanuki Dani Fudo-in.

To reach this temple, we had to climb a myriad of steps. Upon arriving at the bottom of the steps, there were several Tanuki statues. A tanuki is a Japanese badger known for his unusually large scrotem and promiscuous behavior.


Tanuki



About halfway up the steps there was a mysterious, shadowy statue of a monk.


Mysterious Monk


Mysterious Monk

At the top of the steps was a large wooden temple on stilts with barrells of sake underneath.


Tanuki Dani Fudo-in

Around the main temple were several shirnes depicting various scenes, like a Buddha with babies crawling on him, and another Buddha behind bars. Jason and I presumed these were places people came to pray for infants or relatives in prison.

Unbeknownest to me, on the deck of the main temple the two most prominent pillars were covered in small wooden tags. It took me a minuet to read the signs in Japanese, but I finally figured out it was in prayer for people suffering from cancer.


Gan (cancer)

I immediatly went and bought a tag in honor of my uncle Ned, who is battling brain caner.


Cousin Harris, Uncle Ned, & Cousin Stuart

I incribed his name and age on the tag and circled the appropriate body parts afflicted by the cancer.


Wooden tags of prayer

Then, I went inside the temple doors, made a small offering and said a long, deep, emotional prayer.

Walking back down the steps, I needed some comic relief, so Jason and I stopped and started taking ridiculous pictures of some of the statues along side the steps.


Face

We met back up with Haruka at a pension in Higashiyama and then walked down a side street for dinner in a small Jazz cafe. The restaraunt, located next to a canal, had a nice atmosphere with Ella Fitzgerald-esqu jazz playing softly in the background, but they sat us at a table that was too small, so we had to eat fast in order to make room for the next dish.

After dinner we walked around the corner to Shoren-Nin Temple.


Shoren-Nin

This temple, with sevaral enormous trees along the ouside wall, was spectacularly lit with flood lights all around the temple grounds.


Shoren-Nin

We entered the temple and passed by a large kanji (Chinese) character that meant dream. Then we went through a large tatami (straw) mat room and casually bumped into one of the temple's monks. He, in very good English, suggested we try and have our fortune read.

In the tatami room was a small alter with instructions to kneel down, repeat a saying in Japanese three times, then shake a cylindrical box until a numbered chopstick comes out a small hole in the box.

Out of maybe a hundred or so chopsticks, mine was number one. Ichi-ban!

I carried it with me while we were checking out the temple, a very large multi-roomed place where the emperor of Japan used to stay while visiting Kyoto.

Just before exiting the temple and entering the temple's garden, we traded in our chopsticks for our fortune. Haruka had to translate for us, but basically Jason's was not so good; Haruka's was okay, and mine shot over the moon. Best fortune ever.

Feeling self assured, we walked through the lit up garden and through a small bamboo forest behind the temple.


Bamboo Forest

The last part of the garden we visted was the most wonderful. Inside a small room, with the doorway roped off, was a portrait of the 'God of Light'. We were instructed to make a wish in front of the portrait, then turn around and face the garden.


God of Light

In the garden, there were several lights on 10sec timers going off and on at different intervals. In the center of the lights was a projection of a sanskrit symbol. We were instructed to say the symbol, pronounced BOH-ROH-N, when it appreared amongst the other lights. Very cool experience.

Last but not least, next to the garden exit, was the grand bell of Shoren-Nin Temple. To my knowledge, this is the only temple in Kyoto that let's tourist ring the bell.

To grab the thick rope holding a suspended tree, swing it into a giant brass bell, and stand there as it reverberates all around you with a wah-wah-wah effect; all the while the lights are going off and on around you, was a truely mystical experience.

After that we were ready for bed.

The next morning we woke up, had breakfast at the pension, and went back to Shoren-Nin to see what it looked like in the morning sun.

It was a completely different atmosphere in the morning, just as cool, but totally different. We walked around very slowly and checked everything out for a second time, occasionally relaxing on the tatami or just sitting and taking in the garden.


Haruka relaxing

Next, we walked just up the road a bit to the San Mon (Third Gate) of Chio-in Temple. Most of the year this gate is off limits for tourists' entry, but we got lucky and were able to climb the steep steps and enter the sacred room on the top of the gate.


Chio-in San Mon

In all the time I've lived in Japan, I've never seen Japanese archticture quite like the inside of this gate. In sharp contrast to the brown and white exterior, inside it was brightly colored with dragons and winged angels all over the walls, pillars, and ceiling. There was a giant gold buddha seated on a throne in the middle of the room, and he was flanked on both sides by devilish deities.

We listened to a short explanation about the gate from a staff member who told us we could now enter Nirvana because we have seen the winged angel on the ceiling, and then we were escorted back down the steps.

We walked back to the pension and got in the car for a short drive to the northwestern part of town to Myoshin-ji, another sprawling of complex cobble stone streets and short white walls serparating the several different temples.

Before entering Myoshin-ji, we ate a nice light lunch across the street at an organic food restaraunt.

Inside Myoshin-ji, we first went to Dai Hou In where we ate a small Japanese sweet and drank green tea.

Next we went to Taizo-In, which was very nice, but at this point it was kind of the same, same, but different. Plus there was a large group of elder Japanese people being herded around by a tour guide that kind of ruined the atmosphere.

Lastly we went to Hatto (Sermon Hall). It was a place where rituals were performed and sermons given, but it's most famous for the gargantuan dragon, painted by Kano Tanyu, on the ceiling. The dragon is the guardian of Buddhism in Myoshin-ji.


Haruka & I waiting for the dragon

The dragon was painted so that it's eye always follows visiters around the room, but depending on where you are in the room the dragon looks like it's acending or decending.

After leaving Myoshin-ji we took a short drive up into the hills to Kurama Onsen (hotspring) for a hot bath and dinner in the hotel. We all had a very tasty tempura set.

Before leaving we decided to make one last stop at Kodaiji Temple to see it under the night lights. This was a very impressive temple, but it was also very crowded with tourists and bow-legged Japanese girls walking on high heels along pebbley paths.


Kodaiji Temple


Mirror Lake

It was also strange that there was an abstract art display in the main court yard garden and in some of the tatami rooms inside.


Kodaiji's abstract exhibit


Abstract Art

I thought the art work was very intersting, but it seemed a bit out of place in an ancient temple. Maybe it was just me.

Afterwards, we were all very tired, so we packed it in and drove home. It was a pleasant drive until we started listening to Don Caballero and Jason lost the highway ticket to pay the toll.

Anyway, we made it home safe and sound.

Until our next adventure...