henry's letters: Day 9 and 10 Kyoto, Inari, Nara

Day 9 Sept 30 Kyoto

We ran into the JR office at Odawara around 7:50a and spoke to the only service person we encountered that did not speak English. The young woman at the desk explained that our 12:00 train was cancelled. We replied that we understood that, could we get onto the 8:10 train? Answer: all of the reserved seats were gone. Yes, what about another train that was not already cancelled? No, all of the reserved spots were gone on the bullet trains to Kyoto. Ok, was there any way for us to get to Kyoto on ANY train? Finally she understood that we were okay with getting onto one of the unreserved cars of the 8:10 bullet train. We walked to the platform and waited in line with other passengers at the unreserved area. We did get on the train, but we had to stand for about an hour until other passengers disembarked at Nagoya. At least the bullet trains are pretty smooth, so there were any jarring bumps and turns while we held on.

We got to our hotel, the New Miyako Kyoto around 10:30 AM, well before check-in time. We dropped our luggage off, and walked to Umekoji Park after having some breakfast at the railway station across the street (Cindy had a “Japanese omelet”, and I don’t recall what I had). The aquarium was closed because of the typhoon. The park also houses a railway museum which we did not go to, but we watched some kids play baseball with their (probable) salarymen fathers. Later we strolled south to the Toji temple, a UNESCO heritage site for its five storied pagoda. It has some nice gardens as well, that we did not appreciate well because of the weather. There was a giant weeping cherry whose branches had underbraces. The temple had gilded Buddhas, bodhitsivas, and temple guardians.

sign at aquarium

statue outside aquarium

braced weeping cherry

this pine tree was braced also

We went back to the hotel, whose policy was to refrain from checking anyone in until 2:00 sharp. They actually started at little early, but nevertheless there were huge lines of people waiting to get into their rooms (many things were closed in Kyoto in anticipation of the storm). After we were finally accommodated, we went to a Lawson’s to get some storm food (they were running out!).

The storm hit around 5 PM, and we didn’t leave the hotel. For dinner we had some rice with curry we bought from a hotel vending machine that actually microwaved it for you after purchase. The package also contained a plastic spoon - - so convenient! I also bought a big ice cream cookie, also from a machine (which registered a temperature of -22 C). I could also have gotten some beer from a machine, but didn’t bother. Japanese vending machines are great!

Day 10 October 1 Kyoto Inari Nara

We woke to post-typhoon beautiful weather – clear skies and temperatures in the low 70s. In fact, the storm hit south of the city, and all we had were some periods of rain with high winds. I think there had been more rain the night before in Hakone. I had an onigiri with salmon and tea for breakfast. We then hopped on a local train to Inari (two stops away)

Inari is one of the more well know Shinto gods, and white foxes are Inari’s messengers. Inari is represented as a god of agriculture, prosperity, and metal smiths. The fox theme is played on quite heavily at the Inari shrine. There are often two fox statues next to a tori, the left-hand one with something in its mouth (a stick, a sheaf of rice, a key, etc.), while the right-hand one has a ball. I don’t know if this is a play of the gate guardians of a Buddhist temple, there are usually a thunder god on the right and a wind god on the left of a temple’s gate).

Anyway, the shrine is famous for its hundreds (nay, thousands) of tori that line up the pathways to shrines in various spots along the hill, so many tori that in some places you are walking through a long open tunnel. Take that Christo! We walked about halfway up to the top. On the way back to the train we went through a small commercial area with many eateries. It’s almost like living in a cathedral town in the middle ages. Of course, we saw many kinds of food, as usual, placed on a stick. Cindy bought some delicious dried apple slices. They were thick chunks and semi-firm, not like the thin, potato chip dried apple you get in the US.

foxes everywhere

colorful prayer thingies

there was bad typhoon 3 weeks prior - repairs

cat #1

Beautiful orb spider webs

Subsidiary shrines

boar warning

souvenirs

a plush fox doll wearing a fox mask...

food on a stick outside the shrine

We went back to the train station and continued south to Nara. We thought we were getting an limited express, but it turned into a local, so the trip took a bit longer than expected. As we passed through the small villages on the way, you could see that each had their own temple complex (or more than one).

Nara is known for a whole conglomeration of large temples, and one, Todai-ji, houses another giant Buddha, which we were able to photograph. Its other claim to fame is the hundreds of small (mostly) tame Sika deer that roam the temples’ grounds. The deer can be aggressive in demanding food. One had its nose in my pockets, and another persistently butted Cindy (she had some bean paste balls on a stick in her hands at the time).

deconstruction in a narrow space

I got the persimmon smoothie here

watch out for deer!

This is the food they went after Cindy for

Entrance to Todai-ji

Gate guardian

Home of the great Buddha

This scary figure was outside. You are supposed to rub the corresponding area on this statue to take away your pain

Great Buddha

Butterfly detail

Can you imagine climbing these steps?

model

Apparently, going through this hole is supposed to bring luck. Is the hole the size of the Great Buddha's nostril?

On the way out we stopped at the fabulous Isuien garden, where an elderly Japanese gentleman guided us for over 30 minutes. I think he wanted to practice his English in preparation for an upcoming trip to the US. I especially liked the back garden, known for its “scenery sharing” garden, because it backed up against the Todai-ji complex, giving it the appearance of a much larger space. After visiting many gardens on this visit, I saw how the Japanese used this scenery stealing practice quite often.

tea plant

tea house

interior scroll

We returned by train, stopping for a persimmon smoothie (tasting of mango, melon, and slight smokiness), and then went into north central Kyoto by (very crowded) bus to the Gion area for a walking tour by night.

We found our way to Gion corner, a theater where you can sample seven forms of Japanese art quickly (puppet theater, dance, koto, etc.). We met our guide, Julian a young half-Japanese who grew up in Portland, and came back to Japan 7 years ago to take care of his grandmother. There were two other couples with us, one from NY, and one from Seattle.

The Gion area is full of narrow, dark, unnamed alleys. Most of the shops were closed after 6, so there are few pedestrians. We passed by a geisha (or geiko as they preferred to be called), around 6, going to work, passed by one in a taxi and on the tour we passed by a couple of the meiko (apprentice geisha) dormitories.

We went into a few shrines, one devoted to Yasui kompira Gu, devoted to the vengeful spirit of a deposed emperor, has a magical stone that reportedly can either strengthen or severe familial bonds, depending on which way you crawl through it. We walked past a five tired pagoda. Apparently, all of these pagoda are hollow, and were only used as architectural accents, with minimal storage use on the first floor.

We walked on and had an okonomiyaki, a savory pancake whose name means something like “however you like it”. These are cooked on a tableside griddle, and fillings often depend on what town you are in. Kyoto has its own style (see photo). The restaurant had unusual decor. Then we went to a stand-up bar, and had glasses of shochu for the end of our tour. We took a cab back to our hotel with the NY couple.