Saturday August 15, 1997: Kyoto
Kamogawa River: 5pm
So far today has been incredible - despite my assumptions that it would be one of my more slow-paced days. Nuh uh. Let's see - no short version today, I'm going straight for the long one.
I guess it started at 6:30 this morning (ack) when I got up, took a shower and left that hostel in Osaka... headed for Kyoto. I got minorly lost in the Osaka station somewhere... but I managed to ask a couple of guards a few questions. Anyways, I was out front of Yasaka Temple by 9 or so, which is conveniently when it opened... Yasaka Temple is neat for its architecture.. it's one of a kind, supposedly. Unfortunately I don't know much about architecture, and was content to just look at how they'd hung all these sake (rice wine) barrels from one of thhe buildings. Maybe that's what they were talking about, but I doubt it. I didn't stay too long - I wanted to get to Chion-in because it sounded like a cool place. Why? Well because it's a huge Zen complex and everything about it is massive. Seriously.. I first saw its gates - oh yes indeed they are HUGE. HUGE. I can't stress this enough. Very big. Then there are its stairs which lead through these huge gates and up to the main temple. They were stone and they were huge. Go figure. Ya know, like each stair had a vertical of almost 2 ft! Woah. THEN, once I got up all those stairs, there was the actually temple which, surprise surprise, is huge too. Then there's its colossal (ie. huge) bell that has rung in Kyoto's New Year forever (so they say) with it's 108 rings, but I don't know the significance in the number. Anyways, I just poked around... then went next door to Shoren-in (Shoren Temple) whose main feature is its exquisite garden. Yes, exquisite. I had to pay Y400 ($5) to get in, and I'd say it was worth it. There weren't any other tourists because it was still early (and I don't think it's on the "main circuit") so it was very quiet and peaceful. It's Japanes-style - so a beautiful combination of water and plants... winding paths through the hills and trees... a moss garden (actually quite cool) and some Japanese-style buildings. Neat place.
From there I walked to the Heian Shrine, which was built only 100 years ago, in celebration of Kyoto's 1,100 birthday. What it is is a replica of Kyoto's old Imperial Palace, but only 2/3 the original size. Now just before I entered the shrine, this mid 30s Japanese man pulled up beside me (walking) and said "Nihongo o shaberimasuka?" ("Do you speak Japanese?") which, well, is strange because usually I get "Do you speak English?". And anyways, this guy wanted HELP to find the Ginkaku-ji (famous temple in Kyoto) and he decided to ask ME, a gaijin, not some Japanese person. I was so, well, honoured - so much that I answered "yes" - not my usual "uh, just a little" response. From now on I'm going to say yes. Yeah.
Anyways, as it turns out, this guy had just come back from living in France for 10 years, so he spoke French to me. Wow, I never thought I'd be speaking so much French on this trip! Anyways, we mostly chatted in Japanese, and actually, we explored the Heian Shrine together for about an hour. It was nice because he explained a lot of Japanese traditions to me, which is cool.
Ok, back to the Heian Shrine. Yeah, the building is nice and all, but the true gem was ... the garden... which I found was even BETTER than the one at the Shoren-in! Oh, it was truly incredible... there were beautiful waterfalls and ponds... sad drooping cherry trees...waterlillies.. stepping stones across the water.. and the crown was the central moon viewing pavilion out in the middle of one of the ponds. Really, it was serene and calm, I loved it. It had a price tag of Y600 ($7.50), and was worth every yen (penny - whatever). And talking with that guy was really cool too - a mixture of 3 languages. Well, when we left the garden (and the shrine) we went our different ways, him to Ginkakuji (I'd be going there later) and I over to Nanzen-ji (Southern Zen Temple)
OK, now there's a particular reason that I wanted to go to Nanzen-ji... and that's for its large San-mon (great gate). First of all, it is known as the gate that leads from nowhere to nowhere (how Zen!) since the path goes around it rather than through it. Really, it does, I checked it out. Now the second reason I really wanted to see this gate is because there's a story attached to it. See, this San-mon is actually 2-storied (not so common) and you can pay (Y300 = $3.75) to ascend it, which I did of course because the view is supposed to be spectacular (and it was!). Anyways, story has it that once this gate was used as a hideout by this local hero name Ishikawa Goemon - until he was captured and BOILED ALIVE! Sheesh, call that harsh! I had to see it.
Also in the Nanzen-ji is a garden called Nanzen-in, which I'd heard lots about. So I paid the 300 yen ($3.75) to look around but was somewhat disappointed. Its pond is suppposedly in the shape of the Chinese charactere "kokoro", buut I couldn't see the ressemblance. Oh well.
Aaah, and next on my itinerary was Philosopher's Path, named after a philosophy professor from some Kyoto university who used to take daily morning strolls along it. Now I was expecting a tourist-stall and shop lined lane, so it was a pleasant surprise to find it quite a charming gravel path along a tree covered stream. No shops, barely any people. Very nice. It took me a little over half an hour to amble down the lenght of the walk - I was going at a slow pace for a change and enjoying the beautiful scenery.
At the end of the Philosopher's Walk si the entrance to Ginkakuji, or the Silver Pavilion Temple. Actually, that's not its real name, but it's only called that now. It's because its founder had intended to cover it with silver gold leaf (in the same way Kinkakuji, or Golden Pavilion Temple, is covered in gold leaf) but died before it could be done. Anyways, the main feature is its garden which is also extremely beautiful. Wow, I'm *really* going to have to get me one of them Japanese-style gardens! This one was actually quite interesting because it uses raked sand and carefully placed stones as its garden, in some parts. Sounds strange? Yeah, it is... and it looked great. Also, there were wooded paths, and the most beautiful pond that reflected the Silver Pavilion. Impressive. 500 yen ($6) and well worth it. Oh yeah, there's this strange mound of gravel in the garden - just a mound with a cut-off top - actually, it ressembles Mt. Fuji. No one really knows why it's there...
Aaaah, so that finished off my absolute schedule of the day, so I started to meander back down Philosopher's Walk until I figured out what to do next. Don't get me wrong, there was plenty to do, I just didn't have something specific planned. So after about 20 minutes of walking, I stopped off at one of the benches to rest - it's been another sunny sunny hot day and I wanted to take a little break! As I was sitting there I decided to put on my University of Waterloo hat... and that action alone has made the rest of my day amazing. Why? Well let me tell you...
I put this U of W hat on at about 2pm, and started to walk towards the Imperial Palace. After about 20 mins I passed a family of 4 gaijin.. and just after I pass them...
"UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO!?!?!"
So of course, I turn around. And it's the daughter of the family (she's in her mid-twenties, I'd say) who's just yelled this at me. I was kinda confused -- I said "uh - yeah!", so she's like "Canada? U of W, Canada?" so I'm like "yeah!" "No WAY! *I* went to Waterloo too!" And this is how our conversation started. As it turns out, she's just graduated from MATH!! Really! And Co-op too! Really! And now she's teaching English somewhere down in Southern Japan! Really! What's even cooler is that her brother (he was there too - I guess her family was visiting her) is about 19 or so, and he's starting uni this fall... at WATERLOO! Really! In MATH! Really! Coop! So I got his name: Dean Nowell (sp?) so that I could tell Andre, Jon, Sko, etc to be mean to the guy. Oh, I made a plug for Math frosh week.
But isn't that so COOL? But wait, there's more! After chatting with this family for a few minutes, I headed off to the Kyoto Craft Centre. Hye, it was a cool (as in air conditioned) place with neat Japanese stuff. So I was on the 3rd floor looking at kimonos when this young gaijin girl, also looking at kimonos, says "University of Waterloo?" - this is sounding vaguely familiar to me at this point - so I say "yeah! Wow, this is the 2nd time in the last half hour that I've heard that!"... Anyways, this girl is from Toronto - she just graduated from Western with her MBA in Business. And she's been travelling ever since. Coolness. Oh, her name is Jackie. Jackie Williams. We shopped in this craft centre (very very great place, btw, for ANY kind of Japanese art/craft etc) for about an hour and a half together. You know, just chatting about her trip and stuff. It was lots of fun. Anyways, she was staying at a hotel that had a roof from which you could see the Daimonji Okiburi (the reason I had to come to Kyoto today was to see them burn these huuuge bonfires on the nearby mountains, a festival they call Daimonji Okiburi) and they'd given her ONE ticket. Now, I hadn't found a place to view these bonfires yet - and I was getting a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to get a place - or even if I could find one that they'd charge me $100 to see it (when I asked at the tourist centre on Wednesday they told me it would probably cost me that much) So when Jacki asked me if I'd like to try and see if they'd give her an extra ticket, I was all for it! I was also pretty sure that they wouldn't give her one though because this IS the Daimonji Okiburi, and it's the main event in Kyoto. Every rooftop will undoubtedly be filled. As a matter of fact, I am now currently sitting along thhe Kamogawa (kamo river) at the "prime" viewing spot. It's only about 5:45pm now (I've been sitting here for over an hour) and althought the first bonfire is lit at 8, the place is already packed! Actually, I have quite the good spot - I can see the big "dai" (means "great") character perfectly.
Oh, I said I'd meet Jackie at her hotel at 7 so that if she wasn't able to get me a ticket I'd still have time to get back to the river.
I think everybody and their aunt is here. Seriously. Now I must go and find that hotel! Through the crowds... I hope she was able to get a ticket - that'd just be fabulous!!
Osaka Youth Hostel: 10:20pm
Ok - yes. I found my way to the hotel OK - a little bit before 7. As I was walking away from the river I had a strange sense of deja-vu... ah yes, that's right, I walked completely against the crowds yesterday too! Ah well, it's always nice to see a crowd at a festival because I'll undoubtedly see a whole bunch of girls in kimonos or yukkatas, which is cool.
So, as I was saying, I got to the hotel and knocked on Jackie's door. And... and, she got tickets!! Wow! That's SO COOL. As it turns out, she really scammed them -- you know, she asked in English "Can I have a second ticket?" and even though she understood the answer ("No.") she pretended she didn't and kept on asking. Soon enough the lady just gave in and gave her the second ticket! Wicked!
We headed up to the rooftop at 7 - an hour early, but we wanted to beat the crowds. Plus, it was right around sunset and since it had been a clear day we were sure that it would be nice. Actually, they were handing out info booklets/explanations and fans to everyone. Funky. And they'd set up some chairs,, and since we were an hour early we were able to grab some front-rowers.
Kyoto is surrounded by mountains on the West, North and East, so the sunset over the western mountains was really beautiful. For the next hour we talked about her trip - absolutely amazing. She's been everywhere in the last 4 months (well, everywhere in Asia) and done everything. She'd even been to Bali! And China, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, Australia, etc etc. It was really interesting to hear how she'd managed because that's something I plan on doing - just over a longer period of time. Kyoto is her last stop, so she's heading home the day after tomorrow... or was it tomorrow? I dunno, but it was fun.
Then, at 8 o'clock it started. There are 6 bonfires: the big "dai" (great) is on an eastern mountain (to give an idea of size, it's about 80 metres wide and 180 metres long), then on the northern mountain are 2 characters, I don't know what they mean. Then on 3 separate mountains in the west there is a smaller "dai" (great) (still big though!), a ship, and Torii gates (the ones that ressemble pi). They light these bonfires in honour of Obon - it's the farewell bonfire... they are saying good bye to their ancestors who have returned to this living world for the last few days.
At 8 on the dot they lit the huge "dai". It was truly spectacular. It didn't light all at once, but after about 2 minutes the whole things was bright orange. It was so exciting! Then at 8:10 they lit the 2 on the northern mountain, but from our vantage point we could only see one. It was neat too. Then, at 8:20 they lit the smaller "dai" and the boat - the boat was REALLY bright. And at 8:25 it was the last one, the torii gates. A wonderful experience. And I was SO LUCKY to get a ticket from Jackie because there are very few places in Kyoto from which you can see more than 2 or 3 of these bonfires at once. And I saw all but one! Amazing!
Right after the last one was lit I had to leave (I didn't think I would make it back to Osaka by 10, which was when they close the gates at the hostel... not making it back would require me to spend a night in the park) and I actually made it back to the hostel with a whole 10 minutes to spare - just enough time for a shower! Ok, time to go down to the TV room becaus the gals in here want to sleep.
at the hostel: just past midnight
Well wow. I went down to the TV room at about 10:30 or so, and I hadn't even made it through the door before this guy asks me "Are you the one who was wearing the Waterloo hat before?". Ok. At this point I think I'm going insane! That's 3 times since 2 o'clock that someone's noticed that hat! As it turns out, this guy, Mark, is starting in September at Waterloo, in MATH! Co-op! REally! I told him that I'd already met someone today who was starting in September too. Hmm... He's been working here for the summer constructing wood cabins for the rich Japanese people... I'd heard about that before but had never had it confirmed. Neat. Then his friend came over, Mabi, and he went to the international school in Tokyo. I guess him and Mark met at Uni of Trinity in BC, where they've both been going to school. Mark was taking religious studies, and is now transferring to CS, of all things. Personally I find that somewhat strange. And I don't know if he ever said it, but I assume that Mabi is in CS, because, well, just because.
Anyways, the three of us chatted until we were kicked out a few minutes ago. It was really fun talking with them! Oh, they spent *13 HOURS* on trains today getting from Tokyo to Osaka on regular trains. Woah. Am I ever glad I took the Shinkansen!