Japan: templed out
Sep. 14th, 2006 09:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieI think I have seen enough temples and shrines that if I were a Buddhist, I'd be worried I've achieved enlightenment and was going to shuffle off this mortal coil.
We have seen 16 (!!!) temples and shrines here in Kyoto, 11 of them today. After literally walking for ten or so hours, a good chunk of it up hills, I am going to have legs of steel. Literally. Mine will have to be cut off and replaced.
But startlingly, every single temple/shrine is different from the next and they do not blend into one another but are all distinct and beautiful. We have seen temples in the woods, temples in the hills, and temples wedged in onto busy streets. Gigantic temple complexes that would take ages to cover and tiny neighborhood shrines. There are temples that are so ornate they could be a medieval Catholic church and temples stark in their simplicity. Shrines with orange wooden torii, with paint still fresh on them, and ones with weathered stone ones. A monk chanting serenely, and another one in full vestments hurring somewhere with a photographic tripod (one of my favorite images of the trip). Boys tripling up on a bycicle (I am so impressed with riders here. They often ride with one hand on the handlebars and the other holds a cell-phone or an umbrella. We saw a gentlman in a sharp suit riding a bike today, too). Being in a small temple that was founded in eigth century and realizing we are the only people there...A serene and open temple where there are gardens of moss and all you hear is...a children's pop song as there is a kidergarten nearby and they are having their lessons. A young man (and quite a hottie :P Btw, I got much better at sneaking pics of people so I did take some pictures of attractive men, let's see if they come out) praying at a temple and wafting the insense towards himself and all that, being engaged in a very dedicated prayer and then, a few seconds later, taking out his camera and snapping pictures, with that easy alteration from worshipper to tourist.
School groups crowding into a temple that looks like what Shangri-La should have, and giggling middle school girls doing the ritual trips from one stone to another with their eyes closed, (if you can make the short trip and touch the other stone, you will have luck in love) as members of their group kept clapping in order to help them by the sound. A middle aged couple praying devoutly in the hall of the Thousand Kannons (it is incredible: there are literally a 1000 statues there in the hall) in a temple near which Musashi fought his famous duel (and where there used to be archery endurance contests and which still hosts annual archery tournament). Walking the Path of Philosophy next to an ancient canal and passing by a high school with rap blaring out of the windows. Women in traditional dress walking in the incredible sand gardens of Ginkaku-ji. Ending up in the shrine with thousands of torii donated by worshippers so it is as if you are walking through a prayer manifest, and it is dusk and the rows are never-ending (it is also where there was a duel in Kenshin, but that is a separate matter).
Narrow steep streets up some of these temples, selling everything from sweets (I am addicted to green tea ice cream) to kimonos to religious amulets. Seeing a geisha in full get-up drive up to a temple in a rikshaw, and sitting next to her a gentleman (friend? client? family member? business associate?) in t-shirt and jeans. And earlier seeing two geishas walk down the street, stopping for a moment for one to fix the other one's hair and to...fiddle with their camera phone.
And at night, one can walk the narrow streets hung with lanterns, where traditional Japanese establishments (where unless you are Japanese, good luck!) mix with modern, English using clubs (and a Russian vodka bar, with a slign in Russian no less. It is run by a Japanese person though), and where people in traditional clothes walk next to young people in English language t-shirts (there is a great deal of illiterate shirts here, one odder than the next. My favorite spotted t-shirt being "I lost my virginity in Madagascar." Seeing that the girl was a 16 year old Japanese girl, and the t-shirt was mass made, unlikely, but A for effort. I guess it is the equivalent of all those Asian calligraphy shirts back home).
I love Kyoto.
I have also discovered one Japanese food I definitely do not like: natto. Fermented soybeans mixed in with raw quail egg. Appealing only if the alternative is starvation to death.
And checking the TV schedule in the paper for last night, I discovered that they are showing Mars here, in Chinese with Japanese subs. It is on after 1:30 am, so I did not get a chance to watch it, but it would have been fun to watch on TV!!!
Also, every day there are articles in the papers about the new baby Prince. There are write-ups that mention normal Imperial rules and regs too, so now I know where the creators of Goong got their idea. No wonder Shin was going spare...
Tomorrow, the mighty castle at Himeji. Yayness!
P.S. I do intend to read all of my flist when I get back. Daunting but fun!
We have seen 16 (!!!) temples and shrines here in Kyoto, 11 of them today. After literally walking for ten or so hours, a good chunk of it up hills, I am going to have legs of steel. Literally. Mine will have to be cut off and replaced.
But startlingly, every single temple/shrine is different from the next and they do not blend into one another but are all distinct and beautiful. We have seen temples in the woods, temples in the hills, and temples wedged in onto busy streets. Gigantic temple complexes that would take ages to cover and tiny neighborhood shrines. There are temples that are so ornate they could be a medieval Catholic church and temples stark in their simplicity. Shrines with orange wooden torii, with paint still fresh on them, and ones with weathered stone ones. A monk chanting serenely, and another one in full vestments hurring somewhere with a photographic tripod (one of my favorite images of the trip). Boys tripling up on a bycicle (I am so impressed with riders here. They often ride with one hand on the handlebars and the other holds a cell-phone or an umbrella. We saw a gentlman in a sharp suit riding a bike today, too). Being in a small temple that was founded in eigth century and realizing we are the only people there...A serene and open temple where there are gardens of moss and all you hear is...a children's pop song as there is a kidergarten nearby and they are having their lessons. A young man (and quite a hottie :P Btw, I got much better at sneaking pics of people so I did take some pictures of attractive men, let's see if they come out) praying at a temple and wafting the insense towards himself and all that, being engaged in a very dedicated prayer and then, a few seconds later, taking out his camera and snapping pictures, with that easy alteration from worshipper to tourist.
School groups crowding into a temple that looks like what Shangri-La should have, and giggling middle school girls doing the ritual trips from one stone to another with their eyes closed, (if you can make the short trip and touch the other stone, you will have luck in love) as members of their group kept clapping in order to help them by the sound. A middle aged couple praying devoutly in the hall of the Thousand Kannons (it is incredible: there are literally a 1000 statues there in the hall) in a temple near which Musashi fought his famous duel (and where there used to be archery endurance contests and which still hosts annual archery tournament). Walking the Path of Philosophy next to an ancient canal and passing by a high school with rap blaring out of the windows. Women in traditional dress walking in the incredible sand gardens of Ginkaku-ji. Ending up in the shrine with thousands of torii donated by worshippers so it is as if you are walking through a prayer manifest, and it is dusk and the rows are never-ending (it is also where there was a duel in Kenshin, but that is a separate matter).
Narrow steep streets up some of these temples, selling everything from sweets (I am addicted to green tea ice cream) to kimonos to religious amulets. Seeing a geisha in full get-up drive up to a temple in a rikshaw, and sitting next to her a gentleman (friend? client? family member? business associate?) in t-shirt and jeans. And earlier seeing two geishas walk down the street, stopping for a moment for one to fix the other one's hair and to...fiddle with their camera phone.
And at night, one can walk the narrow streets hung with lanterns, where traditional Japanese establishments (where unless you are Japanese, good luck!) mix with modern, English using clubs (and a Russian vodka bar, with a slign in Russian no less. It is run by a Japanese person though), and where people in traditional clothes walk next to young people in English language t-shirts (there is a great deal of illiterate shirts here, one odder than the next. My favorite spotted t-shirt being "I lost my virginity in Madagascar." Seeing that the girl was a 16 year old Japanese girl, and the t-shirt was mass made, unlikely, but A for effort. I guess it is the equivalent of all those Asian calligraphy shirts back home).
I love Kyoto.
I have also discovered one Japanese food I definitely do not like: natto. Fermented soybeans mixed in with raw quail egg. Appealing only if the alternative is starvation to death.
And checking the TV schedule in the paper for last night, I discovered that they are showing Mars here, in Chinese with Japanese subs. It is on after 1:30 am, so I did not get a chance to watch it, but it would have been fun to watch on TV!!!
Also, every day there are articles in the papers about the new baby Prince. There are write-ups that mention normal Imperial rules and regs too, so now I know where the creators of Goong got their idea. No wonder Shin was going spare...
Tomorrow, the mighty castle at Himeji. Yayness!
P.S. I do intend to read all of my flist when I get back. Daunting but fun!
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-14 02:01 pm (UTC)Bob
no subject
Date: 2006-09-15 12:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-14 02:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-15 12:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-14 03:25 pm (UTC)Please tell me there's a picture of the tripod priest.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-15 12:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-14 06:50 pm (UTC)And this is why I read your journal. :-D
And I can't believe you actually tried natto. This is something I would never do. Even some Japanese people won't eat it. Kudos to you on that though--you can now impress any Japanese acquiantances in the states by saying you tried it. I've seen Japanese people kind of tease Westerners about having to try it to "really" experience Japan. :-P
no subject
Date: 2006-09-15 12:15 pm (UTC)Re: natto. You are not missing anything, trust me!
no subject
Date: 2006-09-14 08:43 pm (UTC)I love that they're showing Mars in Japan--I'm sure they would, as there's a huge Taiwan wave going on there, and they did film some of Mars in Taiwan. Also, in case you're interested, I did manage to post my giant drama pimp post here
no subject
Date: 2006-09-15 12:16 pm (UTC)Natto must be like vegemite in Australia. I tried it and nearly threw up while an Australian girl next to me was clamly eating it in gobs with her breakfast...