Thursday August 14, 1997: Kyoto
Tenryu-ji: 9:20am
Wow, this temple is fabulous! I've been up since 7:30 - left the hostel at 8, and have been walking ever since. Since Arashiyama is very close to the hostel, I thought I'd go over there. It took about an hour - through rice fields, and farms, ponds, back streets, traditional areas, temples... a very pleasant walk.
Not too long ago I stopped at the Gojyuku-ji. Since I'm in the mountains now (did I mention that?) it's a tad cooler than down in Kyoto (just a tad though), which is a welcome change. Of course, this means there are puh-lenty of stairs at each temple, as there was at the Gojyuku-ji. Beautiful stairs, of course - old stone, weather-beaten, overhung with bamboo tree... you don't have to climb them all to see the temple, but if you're me then you have to.
From Gojyuku-ji I walked through a lush bamboo grove, and I was going to go into this famous movie star's property (which is supposed to be beautiful) until I saw it would cost me Y900 ($11).. Ouchh. I don't think so buddy!
And now I'm sitting on an old stone bench halfway up a wooded mountain in the Tenryu-ji. Entrance was Y500 ($6). It's famous for a few things... first of all, it's designated as a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO (impressive). Also, the gardens are spectacular. And then there's a pond in the shape of the chinese character "kokoro", which means, in the world of Zen, "enlightened heart", but in the everyday world it means "mind" and "heart".
on the bus into Kyoto: 10:30am
Well I just found a very touristy place for the Japanese - the Togetsu Bridge, ie, the bridge that leads to the moon. It really is a beautiful wooden bridge, but with the load of tourists and the traffic jams ON the bridge, well, it would've been more beautiful on an uncrowded moonlit night (2 mutually exclusive events, I'm sure). It looks really great in postcards! Anyways, now I'm on my way into Kyoto to start on the East Sice ... an area that could very possibly take me 3 days to conquer...
Oh, I stopped off in a few of the "treat" shops by the bridge. Yeah, Kyoto is famous for its sweet food. Too bad it's so expensive because it sure is good! They had free samples.
on the bus to the youth hostel: 6:40pm
Well - WHERE do I start? I think I climbed 82 mountains, got a sunburn, and managed to easily get those ooky sweat marks on my black shirt. All in a day's work in Alexa world. Oh, let's not forget that I got *lost* - numerous times! And put between 20 and 30 kms more mileage on my runners... umm.. my feet are a it sore.
Ok, so I arrived at the Kyoto station at about 11am, and I'd guess that the temperature was somewhere around 37C, since it's 32C NOW, and it's basically sundown. It has been really sunny all day. From the station I decided I'd walk to the Fushimi Inari Shrine, even though it was OFF my map, and even though there are 2 subway lines that have stops right close to it. Do you see where this is heading? Uh huh, I got lost. BUt hey, it wasn't *horribly* lost (that comes later).. I mean, I managed to find my way again ok. Hey, I found the Kamogawa river though! But I wasn't in the nicest part of town so it wasn't anything spectacular.
Anyways, at about noon I had arrived at the Fushimi Inari Shrine, which was SO COOL. Ok, it's located at the base of Mt. Inari, and is famous for its red painted Torii gates, or which there are over 10,000!!! (Torii gates are tall gates shaped like pi (yeah, you know, 3.14159...) - hey, maybe THAT's why I found them so cool!) So there's this absurd number of gates which are straddling the 4 km path up Mt. Inari. Now it's supposed to be an enlightening experience to walk under these gates, just because there are so many of them. So of course, I had decided that I wanted to do this little trek. What I hadn't realized though was that Mt. Inari is actually a MOUNTAIN and if these gates were on Mt. Inari then they too must be on a mountain (smart, huh). As it turns out, at the bottom of the path, it said that the full 4 kms would take 2 hours... sheesh! Unfortunately for me there were stairs, and as I've already mentioned today, I can't let stairs go undiscovered... I simply *must* know where they lead! Realizing this, I mentally prepared myself for this 2 hour hike up a mountain, in this heat. And WOW. It was really fabulous walking through these gates. Most of them were about 10 feet tall, and right beside eachother (as if they were dominoes) so that when you walked under them it was like walking through a tunnel.
Then, there was the scenery. This place is lush! A true jungle! Some parts were very steep. After about 20 minutes I came to a small clearing, and found quite the view of Kyoto - I was already quite high up! There was occasionally a person on the path - more at the beginning (most people walk up for 20 minutes then walk down). But on New Year's, supposedly that place is PACKED, since it's considered a good place to be for luck when the new year rolls around.
Anyways, I made it up, around, and down again in just over an hour! That's because (a) I was really hoofin' it, and (b) I didn't stop and rest (quite the feat actually), and (c) I didn't stop at any of the numerous shrines along the way.
So that was an extremely neat experience - I'd strongly recommend it to anyone who has the energy to mountain climb. And for this climb - I was *extremely* glad that I wore my runners, and not my Birks.
Ok, now it was 1pm, and I wanted to take the off-beaten path to my next destination - the Tofuku-ji (Eastern good luck Temple). Yes, the "off-beaten path". I'd read abouut this path somewhere on the internet and vaguely remembered that it said to take a "zig-zagging path to the North East". Uh huh. Well, I made several false starts (yeah, just what I needed... I ended up hiking up Mt. Inari part-way again ... 3 times!) I finally found what I *thought* was the path, but I was completely wrong. I got very lost. And just when I had NO IDEA where I was, I came upto this huge temple... so I go ask a lady where Tofuku-ji Temple is, and she waves her hand around broadly and says "THIS is Tofuku-ji". Oh cool! Unfortunately, I was a bit too dazed to appreciate any of the early Zen architecture or even go into the garden...ah well.
So I kept on walking - I now was off to find Sanjusangendo, or "Hall of the 33 bays". It's actually a temple by another name, but no one ever calls it by anything but Sanjusangendo. On the way I got myself an ice cream (first of the trip!) and 2 Diet Pepsis. Yeah, Pepsi. I wanted water! But water is WAY more expensive. Crazy.
It must've taken me about 40 mins to walk there - and it was WELL worth it. I paid an entrance fee of Y500 ($6), but I think it was worth about $20 - seriously. Ok, the main feature of this Buddhist temple is its 1,000 statues of Jyuichimen-senjyu Kannon, or Kannon with eleven faces and a thousand arms. Let me explain. There is a huuuge hall, well, it's very long at least, at 118metres (390 feet). That's long. It was first founded in 1164, but it burnt down and was then rebuilt by 1266. So it's REAL old.
In the center of this long hall is the main Jyuichimen-senjyu Kannon. Then on each side of this main guy is 500 statues of Jyuichimen-senjyu Kannon [editor's note: that's a bugger to type!]. That makes 1,000 statues plus the main figure (500 + 500 + 1) hence the hall has 1,001 statues of Kannon. Now I'll get into the details.
These statues aren't called Jyuichimen-senjyu Kannons for nothing - each statue is Kannon (Buddhist goddess of mercy), and has 11 heads (jyuichimen) and 1,000 arms (senjyu). Ok ok, they don't really have 1,000 arms - they each have 21 pairs, hence 42 arms. BUT, it's common knowledge that each arm can save 25 worlds, so these 42 arms can be considered as 1,000. (It's also common knowledge that Buddhists can't multiply 25 by 42...). And these statues are life size, my height exactly actually, at 5ft5" (coincidence? I think not) and covered in gold leaf. Only one of the 11 heads is regular size (the rest just come out of the top of its head like a hat) and only one of the 21 pairs of arms is regular size (the rest come out of the back like wings) so they don't look like freaks. In fact, they're quite beautiful. All 1,000 of them are Kannon (looks like Buddha to me, but whaddo I know), and they're all in the same position. Actually, they all look exactly the same until closely scrutinized, when you may notice a few differences.
Now really think about it... 1,000 life size statues - that's a LOT! They're placed in 10 rows of 100 across. That's why the hall is so wide. And that's why it's called the Hall of the 33 bays... there are 34 large pillars along this hall, hence 33 "bays" in between.
I was really awestruck by the beauty of these statues. I was in taht hall for over half an hour. Picture taking wasn't allowed but I was given a brochure.. so far this is the best thing I've seen since I got to Japan.
Next I thought I would go to Kiyomizu Dera (Kiyomizu Temple), considered the most loved temple in Japan. I'd heard about a back entrance (uh, off-beaten path) and wanted to find it. WILL I EVER LEARN?? I think not. (I hope not!). I wanted to find the back entrance to the temple, but to do so I had to walk along a national highway for 600 metres. At 3pm. Let me tell you, it's HOT when walking n the bright sun, at 3, in the middle of all this car exhaust. So when I started to think I was lost... hmph. Not happy. Well, I just wasn't happy that I climbed a whole bunch of stairs to find taht I just had to climb right back down again... 3 times.
Anyways, this time I ended up actually finding the back path, and I'd say it was worth it. The first glimpse I got of Kiyomizu Dera was from across the gorge, and I could see how it was precautiously (?) perched on this ravine. It's "stage" actually hangs over... oooh..
So I walked around to the front, to enter properly, and to pay the Y300 ($3.75) entrance fee. It was worth it. A couple of interesting things about Kiyomizu Dera:
•stunning scenery and great view of Kyoto from its perch on the mountain
•inside there is a statue of Jyuichimen-senjyu Kannon (yep, that guy again) that is so sacred, it's only displayed once every 33 years - even to the priests! Woah! Needless to say, I didn't see it...
•the "Love Shrine" - there are two stones about 7 or 8 metres apart and it's said that if you can walk from one to the other with your eyes closed then your wish in love will be granted. BUT, if you DON'T make it then you'll have bad luck. I was originally intending on making an attempt, until I heard about the bad luck part! Didn't wanna rishk it. And neither did anyone else I guess since not one person was trying.
I left Kiyomizu from its main entrance and woah! What a shock! Tha'ts because I found myself on "pottery street" which is just lined with tourist shops and packed with tourists. Crazy. So I walked and window shopped... then I found Sannenzakka (3 year slope) which is a quaint cobblestone street that slopes downward qutie steeply. Of course, if there's a 3 year slope, then there's gotta be a 2 year slope, right? Yeah, well Ninnenzaka was next, and it's cool too. I was walking down that street when I caught sight of the Yasaka pagoda... quite a beautiful one. Since it was past 5pm, I didn't bother to go and see if I could go in since most places close at 4:30. But I walked a bit more anyways... to Maruyama Park and around there. At 6 or so I thought it was time to head back to the hostel. So I needed to find the bus station - which ended up being much more difficult than I'd expected. After about half an hour of wandering the streets of Gion (at least I was wandering around a famous place!) I sat down near a bus stop with my map - determined to figure out what was going on. Soon enough a young Japanese guy came and asked me if I was lost. He really helped - I found out I was about 4 blocks east of where I wanted to be. Ah well - close! The bus stop ended up being right along the Kamogawa River, (same one as earlier in the day) but I was in a very nice area. There are wide paths along its shores - there were many people out walking. Then there were the restaurants built to hang over the river - it looked really nice. And the mountains to the south were all different shades of blue...
Utano Youth Hostel: 9:30pm
Well I'm not as sunburnt as I thought I'd be - actually, I'm not burnt much at all. But the skin on the soles of my feet is really wearing thin! I hope I have enough energy for tomorrow because I'll really need it!
Oh, I met one of the girls statying here tonight, she's from Hong Kong - very nice. She's heading to Tokyo tomorrow and when I asked her what she was going to do, she said shop! Wha? In Tokyo? Okaaaay.
Wow, I'm really tired. Walking poops me out. I may just sleep early. Nighty nite.