The drumming started at 6:30 am, calling the faithful to morning Zen meditation. I rolled over on the futon and tried to keep sleeping. However, by 7:30, we were up. We took a quick look at the Myorenji gardens before heading to a Zen meditation in English at Myoshinin Temple. We were joined by two women from Seattle and one guy from France. The monk who led the meditation was apparently not a traditional monk. He spoke of meditation, religion and neuroscience. After meditation, we viewed the rock garden as well as several painted panels that were 200 years old.
The most well-known tourist attraction in Kyoto is Kinkakuji, the Golden Temple. The current temple was rebuilt and regilded in gold in 1960, after a young monk burned it down (according to the book 'the temple of the golden pavilion' by yukio mishima).
Next, we headed to the town of Fushimi, famous for its' sake factories. We took a tour of the Geikkekan sake factory. There was a brochure in English; however, the tour was completely in Japanese. However, the museum had many English translations. We finished our tour by sampling two sakes and a plum wine (interestingly, most of the plum wine is exported to the USA). Our tour included one take home can of sake. Overall, well worth the tour cost of 400 yen.
Fushimi has a famous Shinto shrine called Fushimi Inari. Originally founded in 711, it has pathways lined with thousands of reddish-orange gates called torii. These torii have been donated by individuals and businesses; and, it appears that one can donate torii still today. inari.jp
For dinner tonight, we headed back into Kyoto for conveyor belt sushi! The place was packed but efficient. We didn't have to wait long before getting seats along the conveyor belt. The sushi chefs quickly served up some of the best sushi I had ever eaten, with a much wider variety of sushi than I had previously been exposed to. Some of the more unusual ones that I tasted were crab guts, horse, cuttlefish and nato (fermented soybeans). We ate until there was a stack of plates in front of each of us. The bill was simply the number of plates times a flat fee per plate. Green tea was included for free.
Our night ended at a small bar in a back alley run by Ray, who speaks fluent English and Japanese (and caters to expats as well as locals). In addition to the sake and beer we ordered, Ray provided sweets, including homemade green tea bite size candies. It was a relaxing end to a busy day.
For dinner tonight, we headed back into Kyoto for conveyor belt sushi! The place was packed but efficient. We didn't have to wait long before getting seats along the conveyor belt. The sushi chefs quickly served up some of the best sushi I had ever eaten, with a much wider variety of sushi than I had previously been exposed to. Some of the more unusual ones that I tasted were crab guts, horse, cuttlefish and nato (fermented soybeans). We ate until there was a stack of plates in front of each of us. The bill was simply the number of plates times a flat fee per plate. Green tea was included for free.
Our night ended at a small bar in a back alley run by Ray, who speaks fluent English and Japanese (and caters to expats as well as locals). In addition to the sake and beer we ordered, Ray provided sweets, including homemade green tea bite size candies. It was a relaxing end to a busy day.
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