The rain set in and kept the entire city of Kyoto company for our last two days. Taking the weather in stride we decide to explore a couple extra temples. The first was Sho-ren-in. At one point after the Imperial Palace burned down the emperor lived there and afterwards the temple maintained close ties to the imperial family. The tea house on the back of the property, where we participated in a traditional tea ceremony, was the emperor’s personal study chamber. Entrance to the temple cost 500 Yen and to join a private tea ceremony cost 1,000 Yen. The price felt a bit steep, but the grounds were serene and viewing them with the rain actually enhanced the experience. Plus, our visit corresponded with one of the few days a year when guests may join the tea ceremonies.
We sat for some time just watching the rain bounce off the pond. The garden was built in the Muromachi era and is famous for its pond with large rocks and a small island. Behind the pond tall bamboo trees stand guard watching over who comes and goes. We strolled through the garden to tea house and were greeted by a gregarious New Zealander. He was very outgoing and very excited to give a tour to native English speakers. His job is to translate and make sure foreigners understand the ceremony. Even though I greatly enjoyed talking with him, his constant babbling did detract from the very quiet and precise movements of the tea master. He explained that there was about a 100 year period when there were no wars and the samurai had nothing to do. The entire class of samurai couldn’t have jobs because their job was to be ready to fight. Thus, they had a lot of time on their hands. They were the ones who greatly refined the certain Japanese cultural activities such as calligraphy, tea drinking, pottery, etc. Long ago it would have only been men in a tea ceremony. As we exited the building he offered to sell me his car for my New Zealand trip.
The rest of the day was spent walking through some of Kyoto’s old streets. Many temples were lit up to celebrate autumn. A woman even tried to sell me hair pins and what I fondly call hair skewers. She grabbed my ponytail and started twisting it. She went to shove a “hair skewer" into my wad of hair and sheened off some of my scalp. OUCH. We all headed back to my host’s dormitory to make dinner. We had a great night with the bubbly Van cutting veggies and cooking up a delicious stew.
The next day we had a reservation at 1:00pm to visit Koinzan Saihoji also known as Kokedera (Moss Temple). Now get this if you want to visit this temple, you have to make a reservation through snail mail at least two weeks in advance. You must include a self-addressed envelope in which they can send you your reservation acceptance. I had several problems making this reservation seeing as I no longer have a home address. Luckily, my brother’s good friend, Miyuki, lives in Tokyo and offered to mail it in for me. Once she received the temple’s response she just took a picture of it and emailed it to me. AWESOME. Thanks Miyuki. Once inside the temple we had to pay 3,000 Yen… again OUCH. For those considering the temple I personally don’t think it is worth that much. We sat and completed a calligraphy sutra (copied Chinese characters with a calligraphy brush). Then proceeded to walk around the moss garden. It definitely has a fairy tale feel to it. There are 120 varieties of moss in the garden. Several of the large pond’s islands were interconnected by moss covered bridges. With the right lightening this garden could offer some spectacle photography. One reason I don’t recommend it is because it isn’t that close to the city and really takes up three fourths of a day.
Before heading back into the city we checked out Arashiyama the famous bamboo forest. I look forward to revisiting it in the spring earlier in the day. For dinner we hunted down a vegetarian restaurant called Choice. You have to pay a premium for vegetarian fare here, but it did taste oh so good. We said goodbye to Van and headed out to meet back up with our previous host Takao in Osaka. Next stop THAILAND.
We sat for some time just watching the rain bounce off the pond. The garden was built in the Muromachi era and is famous for its pond with large rocks and a small island. Behind the pond tall bamboo trees stand guard watching over who comes and goes. We strolled through the garden to tea house and were greeted by a gregarious New Zealander. He was very outgoing and very excited to give a tour to native English speakers. His job is to translate and make sure foreigners understand the ceremony. Even though I greatly enjoyed talking with him, his constant babbling did detract from the very quiet and precise movements of the tea master. He explained that there was about a 100 year period when there were no wars and the samurai had nothing to do. The entire class of samurai couldn’t have jobs because their job was to be ready to fight. Thus, they had a lot of time on their hands. They were the ones who greatly refined the certain Japanese cultural activities such as calligraphy, tea drinking, pottery, etc. Long ago it would have only been men in a tea ceremony. As we exited the building he offered to sell me his car for my New Zealand trip.
The rest of the day was spent walking through some of Kyoto’s old streets. Many temples were lit up to celebrate autumn. A woman even tried to sell me hair pins and what I fondly call hair skewers. She grabbed my ponytail and started twisting it. She went to shove a “hair skewer" into my wad of hair and sheened off some of my scalp. OUCH. We all headed back to my host’s dormitory to make dinner. We had a great night with the bubbly Van cutting veggies and cooking up a delicious stew.
The next day we had a reservation at 1:00pm to visit Koinzan Saihoji also known as Kokedera (Moss Temple). Now get this if you want to visit this temple, you have to make a reservation through snail mail at least two weeks in advance. You must include a self-addressed envelope in which they can send you your reservation acceptance. I had several problems making this reservation seeing as I no longer have a home address. Luckily, my brother’s good friend, Miyuki, lives in Tokyo and offered to mail it in for me. Once she received the temple’s response she just took a picture of it and emailed it to me. AWESOME. Thanks Miyuki. Once inside the temple we had to pay 3,000 Yen… again OUCH. For those considering the temple I personally don’t think it is worth that much. We sat and completed a calligraphy sutra (copied Chinese characters with a calligraphy brush). Then proceeded to walk around the moss garden. It definitely has a fairy tale feel to it. There are 120 varieties of moss in the garden. Several of the large pond’s islands were interconnected by moss covered bridges. With the right lightening this garden could offer some spectacle photography. One reason I don’t recommend it is because it isn’t that close to the city and really takes up three fourths of a day.
Before heading back into the city we checked out Arashiyama the famous bamboo forest. I look forward to revisiting it in the spring earlier in the day. For dinner we hunted down a vegetarian restaurant called Choice. You have to pay a premium for vegetarian fare here, but it did taste oh so good. We said goodbye to Van and headed out to meet back up with our previous host Takao in Osaka. Next stop THAILAND.
