Japan Day 7 - Kyoto and Fushimi!

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.

Japan Day 6 - Kyoto!

This morning, we took the train to the the home of Nintendo's headquarters, Kyoto. Unlike Tokyo's system of trains and subways, in Kyoto, we spent the majority of our public transportation time on busses, all of which are a flat fee (either 100 or 220 yen).  We visited the Philosopher's Way and ate lunch at a temple along the path. The setting was peaceful as we enjoyed the beginning of the fall colors. We continued our day by walking to and around Nanzenji Temple. It is an enormous complex, opening with a large wooden gate. We followed the ritual protocol of hand and mouth washing before walking to the altar, throwing in a coin, ringing a bell, making a wish, bowing twice and clapping twice. The Nanzenji complex was a peaceful, garden retreat.

Next, we attended a traditional geisha performance. The performers were both maiko (geisha in training) and geisha. Kyoto still has a geisha tradition, including the teahouses and places to rent geisha kimonos. We were first shown to a small sitting room, where we were served sweets and matcha green tea. Then, we moved to the auditorium for the performance. The geisha and maiko acted out five scenes, including traditional dances. They were accompanied by shamisen and three vocalists. They even played a version of 'rock, paper, scissors', with 'samurai, mother, tiger'.

Since the temple where we were staying (Myorenji) didn't have a bath or shower, they provided us with coupons to the public bath. Public bathing is something that I haven't done since the awkward junior high and high school years after gym class. However, the public bath in Japan is an experience that one shouldn't miss. These baths are still frequented in the older neighborhoods, where when the homes were built, there was either not enough space or money to include a private bath. Men and women have separate locker rooms and bathing facilities. First one soaps and rinses at the shower heads. Then, one moves into the large hot-tub. It was a wonderfully relaxing experience.
We rushed back to Myorenji Temple past our 9 pm curfew. However, the friendly manager led us to our room while his young son entertained us with his antics. The room was covered in tatami mats. The only furniture was a low table with hot water for tea. We unfolded our futons and slept soundly.