Miscellaneous Travels Around Kyoto

One of the things that I like best about being here is how easy it is for me to get to these amazing cultural places that seem almost magical. It is easy to get caught up with the routine of classes and going home, but it seems exciting somehow that if I wanted to, after school I could just keep riding the train past my stop, and in less than in hour I could step into a whole different world in Kyoto with temples and little shops with enticing sweets that look like food for fairies. I think the 2 main things that make me a little nervous about going home in a month is that I’m still not as good at Japanese as I wish I were, and that I won’t be able to have that proximity anymore.

Anyway, that’s not to say that I do actually end up going anywhere on weeknights generally, but I do have a couple of miscellaneous travels around Kyoto that I haven’t written about yet.



Me at the entrance to the Torii gate path

The first is Fushimi-Inari, a shrine on the outskirts of downtown Kyoto. Fushimi-Inari may be recognizable to some of you as the location where they shot the opening scene of the movie Memoirs of a Geisha. It is about 4 stops along the railway before most of Kyoto, and I had been wanting to go there for a while, so I ended up going on a whim the week before spring break. (Yeah, that was a while ago.) Fushimi-Inari is a shrine for the fox deity (“inari” means fox), and it is most notable for its hilly and very long path that is completely enclosed by thousands of bright red Torii gates, which are usually only found at the entrances to shrines, and denote purification for those who pass through them. Shops in the area sell a lot of fox-related items, such as stuffed animals and fox-shaped foods, and restaurants sell inari-udon and inari-zushi, noodle and sushi dishes, respectively, that feature fried tofu, which is really good, and supposedly is a favorite of the fox.



Memories of Memoirs of a Geisha?

Foxes have an interesting relationship with Japanese mythology—legends tell of foxes that came to people disguised as women and wrought havoc on people’s lives, so one had to be careful to look out for them. As an interesting trivia bit, evidently one of the only ways to figure out that these ladies were actually foxes was to ask them to say “moshi moshi,” since apparently foxes are unable to make that sound, and that is why people now answer the phone not with “hello,” but with “moshi moshi,” to show that they are not a fox. Nonetheless, Japanese people seemed to hold the fox close to their heart, as evidenced by shrines such as this one dedicated to them, and I even remember reading a story in one of my classes about a woman who had a vixen and its cubs living near her house, and from time to time she would give it fried tofu and pieces of clothing as offerings. In fact, the Inari is one of the principle deities of the Shinto religion. I guess people liked foxes, just not when they were trying to mingle among humans.



A Torii with my name on it!

Fushimi-inari shrine as it stands today first began to be built in the 800's, but the number of Torii gates built up over a long time. The shrine is primarily a shrine for business, so a lot of businesses buy Torii gates with their name on them. Some of the gates were pretty old-looking, but many of them still looked pretty new, so I guess that the number continues to increase.



From Kiyomizu Shrine

Actually, the real reason that I was headed into Kyoto in the first place that day was because they were having a special celebration of spring’s coming with lanterns and under-lighting of some of the more prominent temples and shrines in the downtown area. I think that there was also some kind of performance that I missed, but I did see a procession going down a street with people dancing and making noise, and at the heart of it was a palanquin with the “fox queen” on it, a woman in a kimono with a fox mask.



A view of the structure of Kiyomizu

I had already been to the places that were lit up, but they had a new special feeling at night time. The first stop was at Kiyomizu temple, famous for the tall wooden structuring that holds it up.

After Kiyomizu, I followed a walkway lit up with lanterns that led through some historic shops in the area. Thankfully it was really warm that night, and there were a lot of people out shopping and sightseeing.



Downtown Kyoto

More recently, this past weekend I saw the Kinkakuji, or the Golden Pavilion, for the first time. The Golden Pavilion is one of Kyoto’s most famous sites, and until recently was the building pictured at the top of this blog. (I kind of liked the cherry blossoms better, though, and anyway I figured I may as well use a picture that I took myself.) It was built by the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in the late 1300’s, and is predominantly meant to be a Zen temple. Unfortunately, like so many other famous locations in Japan, it was destroyed in the 1940’s, and had to be rebuilt afterward. Then, in the 80’s, they redid the outside of the main building and made the gold leaf covering much thicker, which made it really shiny. (In the words of Kurasawa-sensei, the much-loved Japanese professor at Oberlin, it is really “bling.”) I think I liked the Golden Pavilion’s sister, the Silver Pavilion, a little better, since it was more understated and peaceful, but it was pretty impressive, and there were bustling crowds all around the spacious garden.



The Golden Pavilion

On my way out, I paid 100 yen for an o-mikuji, or a slip of paper with my fortune on it. I guess since the Golden Pavilion is so famous, they have o-mikuji in several languages, meaning I could get mine in English (the Japanese ones were completely undecipherable). The way that it works is that you insert your coin into a little machine, and your fortune pops out in the bottom in the form of a small folded piece of paper, and if you get a good fortune you keep it, and if you get a bad one then you tie it to a tree or a piece of wire that they provide, leaving the bad luck behind. O-mikuji are often found at larger temples. My fortune was “very good,” (a step down from the highest “excellent”), and said that I should have the courage to give up old things and go ahead. (Maybe that means that I should get rid of the clothes and other junk that I brought with me to Japan and are STILL sitting in my suitcase, yet to be used.) It also had 13 sub-categories where it offered cryptic advice, such as “travel: dare to go,” “speculation: change your way of view,” and “love: see his/her heart, not his features.” Hmm...



On a different note, I got a haircut! I had needed one for a while. Actually my hair is still pretty long now, and a lot of people didn’t even notice I cut it, but there was a lot of hair lying on the floor when I left. Most Japanese haircuts seem to range around $50 at least, but I managed to find a place that would do it for under $15, although they did not give me the head massage or experience with the hair-washing-machine that I had heard about from friends. Still, not a bad deal. I now have bangs, and the guy cutting my hair was very friendly, and seemed amused by my comments about liking sushi.



Poppies

Also, for some reason, these red poppies have recently sprung up everywhere. Really they are everywhere that I go, peeking out between other flowers in people's gardens, and growing in the cracks along the sidewalk. They are pretty. I guess it's spring.


This weekend I am off to Iga, the hometown of ninjas, and after that I’ll be heading to Kobe for hot springs and beef. (Since I will be away from school, I probably won't have internet until next Thursday, so, yeah.) Up and out!

Golden Week / Ogata Renkyu

As spring finally makes its (hopefully) lasting presence, we are coming up to Golden Week in Japan. Golden Week is a period containing the following holidays:

April 29th (Thursday): Showa Day (the birthdate of the emperor during WWII, and is meant to encourage people to reflect about all the things that happened at that time)

April 30th (Friday): Nothing, besides an awkward day when a lot of people cut class.

May 1-2 (Saturday and Sunday): Well...also nothing, but at least it's the weekend.

May 3 (Monday): Constitution Memorial Day (a day meant to reflect on democracy and the government)

May 4 (Tuesday): Greenery Day (a day to reflect on...nature?)

May 5 (Wednesday): Children's Day, also known as Boys' Day (technically the girls got their own day with the Doll Festival in March, but only the boys' day was special enough to get people off of work, evidently. Maybe that's why they renamed it to "Children's Day," and also said it was a day to appreciate mothers, even though Mothers' Day is only 4 days later...This holiday is notable for the flying of carp-shaped flags representing different members of the family.)


Children's Day carp flags

Since this is one of the longest breaks that most Japanese company workers get, it is an extremely busy time for travel, especially for people going back to visit their hometowns. Originally I was going to go to Miyajima, an island near Hiroshima, but that ended up not working out, so I think I'm going to see a few new locations around the Kansai Area so I don't have to travel so far. And yes, I think I will come to campus on Friday--I don't think I could last for 7 days without internet, and anyway I don't want to miss time in ceramics, since I need to finish things up so that everything will be finished in time.

Things are starting to wrap up with Kansai Gaidai's program. Finals end in 3 weeks, meaning that I only have about a week and a half of real classes left because of Golden Week. I am really glad that I am here, although I will definitely be ready to go home once I am done!

Lately there have been a lot of suspicious-looking men in dark suits with big cameras roaming the CIE building and shooting pictures of students lounging and studying. Today in Japanese, a group of 3 of them wanted to come in and take pictures, and Shikaura-sensei explained that they were pictures to advertise Kansai Gaidai's program to future generations (or as she said, they were propaganda). Funny Shikaura-sensei, she posed in front of students and told them to point at their books and look like she was helping them to learn while the shutters clicked away. I hope the pictures show up in a brochure for some future generation.

I guess that's it for now!

Softbank Commercials

From my hours of watching TV over dinner with my host family, it seems to me that on average Japanese commercials are really good. Most of them feature little kids running around and singing endearingly slightly out of tune jingles related to what they're advertising, whether it be cars or prepackaged food or whatever. One of the best lines of commercials, however, comes from Softbank, which is a cell phone company. It so happens that I got my cell phone from Softbank, and their shops are pretty much everywhere. Their commercials always feature a big white talking dog, which I believe is an Akita, and his "children," who both happen to be adult humans.


The Softbank dog.
In case you are interested, here are some of the better Softbank commercials that I have found on Youtube. (They all have English subtitles by the way.)

iPhone Games
Otosan ("father," the dog) gets an iPhone.

Rejected
The son gets rejected via cell phone plans. (This one might be the best.)

Diet
Otosan has been putting on weight.

Night Sky
Otosan shows his sensitive side with his iPhone.

Daily Life in Japan

I realize that I have thus far written very little about what I actually do from day to day here in Japan. It seems less exciting than actually talking about trips, but I suppose it is more representative of what I'm really doing...Anyway.



My host family's house in Yawata city, Kyoto

As you probably already know, I live in a city in Kyoto prefecture called Yawata, and it's about 45 minutes in either direction to downtown Osaka or Kyoto. Yawata is a pretty nice town, mostly residential, and there are a lot of small restaurants, karaoke bars, and shops in the area. My house is about a 15-20 minute walk from the train station, depending on how fast I go, and I am lucky to have a fairly scenic walk, part of which runs along a little creek where I sometimes am able to spot fish, turtles, and various kinds of birds.



A bridge along my walk to the train station in Yawata


The Yawata City train station

On the average weekday morning, I get up at around 7 or 7:15, at which time my breakfast is usually already sitting out waiting for me on the kitchen table. My host mother has work at a local factory from around 5:30 am until the late morning, so she is long gone before I wake up. She always prepares a lot of things for me, usually an egg and some kind of meat, as well as fruit and yogurt, and puts out a plate and jam for toast. It is a little hard to get used to eating that much in the morning, compared to the cracker or one slice of bread that I would probably eat at home in the morning, but it is pretty nice to have it there. My host father usually sits in the adjacent room watching TV and telling me he thinks I'll be cold. (Seriously, Japanese people dress so warmly all the time--even in 60+ degree weather when I am almost sweating just wearing a T-shirt, everyone else will still be wearing winter jackets and boots.)

At 8 or so I leave the house for the train station. Unfortunately it has been raining a lot lately...I had thought that it would mostly stop raining by mid-April, but today it has been pouring all day, and the weather forecast says it will continue through next week. As I said, it takes me about 15 minutes to get to the train station, and from there 10 minutes on the train to Goten-yama station, and then about a 20 minute walk to the Kansai Gaidai campus. That walk is not as scenic as the first leg, and is significantly more hilly. Highlights of the walk include making it to the top of the initial giant hill, a big apartment complex that is under construction but seems that it will be done within a few months, and a long walk past the construction plant next to Kansai Gaidai. Pretty exciting, no? All in all the commute takes me a little under an hour.



The venerable Center for International Education

All of my classes are at the Center for International Education, or CIE, a big building in the middle of Kansai Gaidai's campus. I can't say that Kansai Gaidai is too attractive of a university--all of the buildings are made of the same reddish colored bricks, creating a uniformity that is un-heard of in Oberlin, and there are not too much grass or other plants in between. Usually when I go into the CIE at 8:45 or so in the morning, I do not leave until at least 5 pm, save for an hour or so break in the middle for lunch.

I have class starting at 9 or 10 every morning, and there are usually 2 hours of Japanese, and sometimes a 2-hour block of ceramics before noon. The Japanese classes here are pretty relaxed, but they pack a lot of information in, and the professors are very good. To avoid time conflicts, all Japanese language classes are offered in the morning, and all electives in the afternoon. My spoken Japanese professor is named Shikaura-sensei (sensei means teacher), and is a very funny middle-aged woman. She is kind of weird, but in an endearing way, and our class meets at 11 every day. The entire second half of the semester is centered around the Japanese movie "Shall we Dance?" (you may have seen the American remake featuring Richard Gere), so we usually have to watch a 7 to 8 minute clip of it and the next day we talk about what happened, and are quizzed on grammar points and vocabulary that they use. As a result of this I have learned some fun words, such as "debu-babaa," whose meaning is similar to that of "cow" when used as an insult, and "hentai adzukai sareru," or being called a pervert. In the reading/writing class, which meets for an hour 3 times a week, we learn a lot of new grammar and vocabulary words based on articles that we read at the beginning of each chapter of our textbook. The professor is named Yuki-sensei, a young woman who looks to be in her 20's, and who I'm pretty sure does not weigh more than 75 pounds. She is extremely cute and cheerful, and is very patient with all of her students. The main focus of the class is learning how to write formal essays in a scholarly-sounding style, so we also learn about points relating specifically to written language, and sometimes we have writing assignments or in-class essays.



A late-afternoon view over Hirakata City from the 4th floor of the CIE

I am also taking a modern Japanese literature class called "The Intersection of Fantasy and Real Life in Modern Japanese Fiction," a title that is quite unwieldy and has proven to have little to do with the class itself, since only about half of the books that we read had anything to do with fantasy, whether it be people's imaginations or science fictiony type stories. (Why not just call it "Modern Japanese Fiction"? I don't know.) It is taught by professor Berry, previously mentioned for his laugh (I hope he never reads this), and he is an American who also teaches classes on manga and Japanese cinema. I have enjoyed the readings a lot, although some of them were pretty bizarre, and I think in total we have read around 10 books, though I didn't count. There are no more books left on the syllabus so I'm not entirely sure what we're doing from now on. (Today we watched a movie based on a short story by an author whose work we read.) Unfortunately the classes are not as interesting as the books. We meet for 90 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and the classes are rather painfully long. I will give him credit that it is hard to have class discussions with around 35 people in the class, but still there is just not that much to say about the discussion questions that he picks. Sigh. Thankfully there isn't a lot of homework outside of the readings, so that is good at least.



The ceramics studio, with Inomata-sensei in the middle


Bowls that I made in ceramics--note that this shot is from awhile ago so I am making more interesting things now...

My favorite class by far is ceramics. We have 8 hours of work in the ceramics studio every week, scheduled around our other classes, so I come in for 2 hours each on Tuesday and Friday mornings and for one 4-hour stretch on Wednesday afternoons. The professor is named Inomata-sensei, and he has apparently been teaching ceramics at Kansai Gaidai since before I was born. He is pretty funny, and he speaks in a strange mixture of English and Japanese that some how comes out being pretty easy to understand. I think he is a good teacher, and he seems to like me. So far we have learned to make a lot of things, including cups, sets of bowls, vases/sake bottles, goblets, and teapots. Each piece involves 3 steps, including throwing the piece on the wheel, trimming the bottom once it has dried, and later glazing and firing in the kiln. In addition to learning throwing and trimming techniques, we have also learned about a variety of ways that Japanese pottery is decorated. I wish I had more time in that class--I will only have 2 days next week in which to finish throwing things, and after that I will be spending all of my remaining time trimming and glazing everything that is left. I really hope I will be able to keep pottery up once I get to Oberlin--there is a pottery co-op that I could join, but I don't actually know that much about how it works or how much equipment they have there. Anyway, I've been working on trying to make stuff that I will actually be able to use, which is always a plus.



The CIE Lounge, where I spend much of my free time, especially on the computer

Most of my time, when not in class, is spent in the lounge on the first floor of the CIE. It is a pretty big and comfortable space, and there are always a lot of people there. Since I don't have internet at home, it is also the only place where I really use my computer. There are always a lot of study abroad students hanging out, and many Japanese students also come to practice their English and make new friends. Because the Japanese academic calendar is different than the American one, the regular Japanese students here have been on vacation from the first week of February until a week and a half ago, so lately the campus has gotten way more crowded with Japanese students. There are a few brave Japanese students who take classes in the CIE (I think that they offer business-related classes taught in English to them in the mornings, and a few of them opt to take regular classes with international students) as well.

I usually eat lunch at noon in the cafeteria. There are 2 cafeterias on campus, and also a dining court type thing with a McDonald's and a Seattle's Best Coffee. For students in a hurry, there is also a convenience store directly above McDonald's that sells packaged snack foods, and also bento boxes, nigiri (rice balls), sushi rolls, and the like, and that are pretty good. The Japanese students are free from 12:15 to 1:15 for lunch every day, so going to any of those locations at that time is a nightmare, with lines out the doors and no place to sit, so I do my best to avoid that hour.



A Thomas the Tank Engine train

I usually leave the campus a little after 6 pm, although some days I leave earlier, and take the same route home. When I am lucky I get the Thomas the Tank Engine train instead of the regular green ones.



Host father's place for prayer to ancestors, in the living room


Koko

I usually get home and eat dinner while watching TV with my host mother and father. Before dinner, my host father often rings a bell, lights incense, and briefly prays to his deceased parents and ancestors before the thing pictured above. I can't remember what it is called, but it is a Buddhist thing, and is fairly common in Japanese homes for the purpose of remembering the dead. My host family also has a little dog named Koko, who is around 17 years old, and is mostly bald and blind. It smells kind of bad (well, I guess it just smells like a dog) and is very skinny and frail so I don't really like petting it that much, but I guess it is kind of cute in its own way. Still I miss my cats.

After dinner, I generally take a shower and then a bath, which is a big part of Japanese traditional hygiene and is used mostly as a soaking tub, and which is very nice when it's cold inside of the house, and then I go to my room and read or do homework until I go to sleep.


Anyway, hopefully this has been an informative post. Sorry if it a little lackluster but I am tired right now. It is weird that my classes here end in a month! I can see the end drawing nearer...

TV Hosts and Train Rides

Before I came here, I knew that I would look different than most other individuals residing in Japan, but I did not worry about the issue of ethnicity much. There is certainly not any overt racism or prejudice evident in Japan, and on a personal level there is not any kind of noticeable coldness or judgement.

Yet, there are some things that I have noticed. Anyone who is not Japanese or at least of full Asian heritage here really sticks out. The thing that I had heard of most before I arrived from past study abroad students was that they were stared at on the train and when walking around their neighborhood. Personally I have not experienced that so much, or maybe I just haven’t noticed if it’s happening, although I have heard from some of my friends here that they frequently notice Japanese people staring at them. Not in a particularly negative way, but just curiously staring. Although it seems a little rude, I guess I don’t blame them that much. Not that I do the same thing, but for example, there is one woman who I often see on TV who is half Japanese and half something else (maybe Caucasian?), and sometimes is an announcer on news programs, and is also on commercials for things like cell phones or household products. Maybe she’s famous for something, I don’t know. Anyway, she clearly grew up in Japan, as evidenced by her language and mannerisms, but she always sticks out a lot. I wonder if it is ever hard for her to live here and not be completely Japanese. I take racial diversity so much for granted at home, but I really see almost no non-Asians who grew up here, and hearing someone who doesn’t look completely Asian speaking Japanese like a Japanese person just seems weird. It’s not in a bad way, but you just notice it. Usually I pay almost no attention to the hosts of news programs (and I think they’re designed not to be noticed) but she is the one person I always remember.

What I have personally experienced the most, and which I think is the most revealing, is the behavior of people around me on the train. When I first noticed it, I thought maybe it was just my imagination, or maybe just a coincidence or something, but when I was talking to my friends recently I found that they had noticed the same thing. Okay, I am not an intimidating-looking person. I am a short young woman, the same height as most other Japanese people, and I shower every day, so it’s not like I smell or anything, and on the train I always have my backpack with me and wear headphones like most other students here. I am even part Asian, so although I have brown hair and may not be as skinny as the average Japanese woman, I don’t think of myself as so different. Yet, people do not like to sit next to me. Let me set up the situation. The trains that I ride have two long benches along each wall that face each other, and those are the only seats. Generally people do not like to sit next to each other, and are even a little too respectful of each other's personal space, to the point that they will go to great lengths to maintain at least a one-person distance between each person, as long as there is no one standing. So I get on the train at Yawata, and there’s still usually a lot of space when I get on, so there will be maybe 2 people’s worth of space between me and the next person. With each stop as we get closer to Kansai Gaidai, more and more people get onto the train, and gradually I notice the row across from me getting progressively more and more crowded, but...there will still be 2 people’s worth of space around me in either direction. Sometimes the row across from me will be completely crammed so that there could not possibly be room for one more person, but there will still be vast amounts of space near me. No one wants to sit next to me!

That doesn't happen every day, but it has happened many times. As I sit there, I watch people get onto the train, and I see them look at the spot(s) next to me, and then they look at the spot across from me, and then they almost always go for the spot across from me. What do they think will happen if they sit next to me? Well, I don’t think they think anything will happen, but they would just rather not sit next to me because I look different. It doesn’t really bother or upset me when they do that, but it does feel weird, and it reminds me that I am not the same as the community of people who live here.

To an extent I suppose I would do the same thing at home—probably, when I get on a train and have the option of sitting next to someone who looks more like me or someone who looks different (I don’t just mean ethnically similar here), honestly, I will sit next to the person who looks more like me. However, I think that I am much less extreme than people here are. I mean, unless the person looked threatening or drunk or something, I would much sooner sit next to the different person than endure the discomfort of pushing myself into a now overly-crowded row of other people. I don’t know. I guess this is what non-Whites feel like in more racist areas of America. (Or maybe in other areas too.) Although it doesn’t really get to me now, I can see how, if I had grown up with people avoiding sitting next to me, I could really feel alienated in this situation.

Maybe if I really took efforts to make myself look more Japanese (ie, lost weight, dressed better, wore more makeup) I would experience this avoidance less, but I suspect it would still happen to a lesser extent. My host mother frequently asks me if I am interested in living in Japan after I graduate from college, and I usually tell her that maybe I would want to live here for a few years, but ultimately I’d rather spend my adulthood in America. That it is where my friends and family are, and is also home to the foods and culture that I am used to. She points out that if I lived in Japan then I would build up friends and family here as well, and over time I would get used to the way of life, so I wouldn’t miss America anymore. What she doesn’t realize, and what I did not think of at first either, is how much courage it would take to live somewhere where you will always be different. It doesn’t matter how well you can speak Japanese or how much you know about Japan and its customs, because people’s first gut reaction upon seeing you will always be that you are not one of them.

Hanami, etc.

Hello!

I apologize for the long gaps in between my posts here. I realize that I still have not put up a Tokyo Part II post yet...that will come sometime, hopefully sometime soon, when I am not feeling lazy. Instead I will write about hanami, or the cherry blossom celebration, while it is still relevant.

(by the way, note that you can now click on the images for a larger view!)



A group of merrymakers

Hanami celebrations generally last through the 10 days or so that the cherry blossoms survive, and consist mostly of having picnics and barbecues under the cherry blossoms, eating seasonal foods (or in our case, combini (convenience store) food--much better than convenience store in the US), and drinking. Notably, this is the only event of the year in which it is acceptable to drink in public. I did not see any drunk people wandering around, although I did see many jolly-looking salarymen.



Along the walk to the train station


Hanami in Yawata


The view from within

The first cherry blossoms actually began to appear awhile ago, as early as late March, although the flowers were pretty few and far between. I am lucky in that there are a number of cherry trees lining the path that I take to the train station each morning, so I have gotten to monitor their progress, as well as appreciate them as much as possible. Additionally, there is a famous hanami spot beyond the station, about a 20-minute walk from my house, with a mile-long walk completely enclosed by cherry trees (photographed above). I'm not sure how many there are, but it was really amazing. The first time I went there was with my host mother, and we went on a Saturday afternoon, April 3rd, when it was full of people. There were so many smells of barbecue that took me back to summer afternoons at home, and many families and their pets walking, eating, and playing sports. One lady even brought her cat. I thought it looked a little scared though, especially considering the number of yappy dogs...Anyway, it was so nice, really pretty and dreamlike.



At the garden of the old imperial palace in Kyoto


A cool group of salarymen celebrating hanami

The next day, I went to the old imperial palace in Kyoto (the emperor now lives in Tokyo, but Japanese history buffs will know that he lived in Kyoto for a long time during the days of samurai) with Mieko and Alex. I had never been there before, but apparently it too is a famous place for the celebration. The cherry trees were a little more diffused than at Yawata, but nonetheless it was really pretty, and it was fun to people-watch (e.g., the picture above). Hanami seems to be especially popular among families with young children, who were really cute.





The Philosopher's Walk in Kyoto

This past weekend, Alex and I went to Kyoto and went down the Philosopher's Walk. It is a path that runs through an old area of Kyoto, and was supposedly used as a place for meditation of a philosophy professor at a local university. It is easy to see why--it runs along a little creek, and the whole thing was lined with cherry trees and countless little shops selling traditional art, clothes, food, and other curiosities. It was really crowded, and the Japanese people there were all stopping to take pictures on their cell phones. I highly recommend it--I'm sure it's still beautiful in the summer and fall, and it felt like I had stepped into ancient Japan.



The garden of the Silver Pavilion


A view from above

The Philosopher's Walk culminated in the Silver Pavilion, which is a famous Buddhist temple. Built in the 1400's, it was originally meant to be the retirement place of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa. Now, it seems not to be an attraction so much for religious reasons, so much as just because it is really pretty and has an amazing garden. There were sand gardens, as well as a pond and a path among trees and pretty plants that led up a hill to an amazing view over the garden and downtown Kyoto. I think that it's my favorite of all of the sightseeing locations that I've been to in Kyoto. (Then again, I have yet to witness its big brother, the Golden Pavilion.)

Unfortunately it's been a little rainy this week, meaning that most of the fragile flower petals have now been knocked down. In spite of the weather, I now feel that it is springtime! Hurrah!


Also, on a funny note, on my way to the station to go to Kyoto one day I saw the most pitiful cat ever. Enjoy!


CAT!