Day 12: Matcha in a slice of heaven

Our last day in Kyoto was our most memorable one. We had exhausted our interest in crowded touristy sites and needed a rest day. Lucky for us, our host, Masa, decided to take the day off work (he builds traditional Japanese houses!!) to bring us to his favourite place in Kyoto. He mentioned something about a garden and temple and I wasn't quite sure that I was ready to see yet another temple. However, after skilfully manoeuvring his stubby Japanese car through the winding roads, we arrived in the rural town of Ohara, situated in the mountains just north of Kyoto city.

The most well-known temple in Ohara is the Sanzen-in Temple which was established some time between 794-1185 by a monk named Saicho, who founded the Tendai sect of Japanese Buddhism. In the same area, there were also many smaller temples, all belonging to the Tendai sect as well. The pathway leading up to the temples was lined with shops selling pickled vegetables and rice crackers. The shop owners spoke with a heavy Kansai accent (Kansai is the region that Kyoto is located in) and often said "ookini" instead "arigato". We walked past the famous temple, only stopping for 2 seconds in front of it and deciding to move on.

Shorin-in Temple stood out to us because of its architecture. We asked Masa if he had ever worked on a building like that. He said no, but that he had a friend who had worked on its maintenance. As we started towards our next destination, we heard a low hum echo from the main hall - a group of monks had started chanting! This Shomyo style of Buddhist chanting had originated from China.

Shorin-in

Hosen-in Temple had a very modest entrance but quite a steep entrance fee (800yen!!). Upon entry, we were given a ticket stub and I made out the words "tea ticket". The main building was constructed with traditional Japanese architecture, meaning it was held together without a single nail. Impressive, eh?

Posing with a traditional fireplace

The place was surrounded by different shades of green - ferns, mosses, trees, shrubs, etc.. Finally we got to the farthest room. The floor was completely covered with tatami, a common flooring in Japanese buildings made of a rice straw core and a soft rush straw covering. On one side of the room there was a small shrine. On the other two sides, we saw paradise.

The pillars acted as picture frames and the pictures we saw were absolutely surreal. The first picture featured a 700-year-old pine tree and the second, a luscious bamboo forest. There were only a few people around us and not a single one of them was foreign to the country. A young Japanese lady took our tea stubs and served us each a bowl of matcha and a wagashi, a small sweet made of mochi, azuki bean paste and fruits. Sitting in seiza style, with my legs tucked beneath my thighs, I sipped my matcha and took it all in.

700-year-old pine tree

Sneaky blurry photo

The making of tea with tea leaf powder was first seen in the Tang Dynasty in China and the process of mixing the powder and hot water with a bamboo whisk was developed in the Song Dynasty. This practice was brought over to Japan and became popular while it died out in China. Each matcha bowl is hand-made and unique with asymmetrical designs that show the beauty in imperfection. Will the Botanist and I both agreed that this was our favourite place in Kyoto, and definitely one of the highlights of our entire trip. I'm usually not big on buying souvenirs since it's hard to travel with so much stuff, but I couldn't help picking up a matcha bowl before leaving.

On our way out, we walked through the beautiful gardens around Hosen-in, and watched a group of monks exit a beautiful house and into shiny black cars. Nearby, a cat was taking a nap on the back of a scooter, not noticing the huge commotion happening just steps away.

The next thing on our agenda was to walk along the Philosopher's walk, a 2km pedestrian pathway that ran along a stream and under cherry trees. Unfortunately at this time all the cherry blossoms had already bloomed and fallen off. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant stroll accompanied by many stray cats.

At the end of the walk, we came to Nanzen-ji Temple. It was very spacious. To be honest, I don't remember much about it except for the aqueduct that stretched across the temple grounds. I was quite surprised to see this architecture here. The structure was a part of a canal system that carried water and goods between Kyoto and Lake Biwa.

Since it was our last night here, on the way back we stopped at a florist and picked up some flower's for Masas lovely mum!

We got ready to go out and meet some friends, one of them being Cisi, someone I haven't seen since I was 17!! We had met on a 5 week-French program in Quebec. I noticed from her photos on Facebook that she was in Japan. Luckily we would be in Kyoto at the same time for one day! She was more beautiful than I had remembered and just as lovely as ever!! We hung around the bank of Kamo River before heading to an Izakaya.

That was a long post. Thanks for reading! Especially you Russians. I have no idea how you guys even managed to find my blog but much love to you all :)

Day 11: The god of rice and his foxes

As usual, before Masa went to work, he left us with a little surprise. Casper greeted us on the way out this morning.

When we were at the Malaysian airport on our way to Japan, we met an American guy who claimed he had visited 80 or something temples and shrines in Kyoto. I'm not sure how he did it because by day 11 I was being a bit more selective, especially since many temples and shrines had an entrance fee. I was half expecting Sanjusangen-do to be another one of those touristy places that I'd have to pay and be disappointed in but the attraction was actually quite spectacular. This Buddhist temple's name translates to "thirty three spaces between the columns", a name to describe the architecture of the main hall.

The main hall

"Sanjusangen-do"

In the temple lives the Thousand Armed Kannon. Actually, it houses 1001 Thousand Armed Kannons but only one spans from the ground to the ceiling. On her left and right, 1000 smaller identical statues stagger themselves in 10 rows. Each statue has 11 heads and 42 arms. If you minus the two regular arms and multiply by the 25 planes of existence, you get 1000 arms! 28 guardian deities, originating from Hinduism, are spread along the hall in front of the kannons. I was caught in huge groups of students and other tourists but managed to snap a sneaky blurry photo between the "no photo" signs.

Thousand Armed Kannons

A short train ride took us to Fushimi district in Southern Kyoto. Mount Inari stands 233 metres above sea level and has a network of trails running through. The main shrine is called Fushimi-Inari and is one of the most important shinto shrines dedicated to Inari, the god of rice. As rice was a measurement of wealth and status back in the days, many merchants would come pray to the Inari. Within the mountain grounds, there were as many as 32,000 smaller shrines. Many of these shrines had statues of foxes around, animals that were believed to be Inari's messengers. The most impressive sight, however, were the thousands of orange torii gates that straddled the trails, each donated by a business, that led us into luscious bamboo forests.

Our special bamboo forest

Small torii gates could be purchased from shops along the path.

Someone offered a Kit Kat to Inari. If Inari knows what's good for him, he better accept it.

We stopped for lunch at an Udon restaurant with a beautiful view of the bamboo forests. Please note my extreme tan lines after 11 days in Japan.

Back at Kyoto station, we stood in front of a donut shop deciding what we wanted when an elderly Japanese man came up to us. He spoke English well and welcomed us to Japan. After a couple minutes of rambling he took out a piece of paper and started reciting sentences written in English. At first it was some pretty dark stuff, something about people getting cancer and we thought he was going to ask us for money. But then the sentences became random and irrelevant. He left us with a smile and asked us nothing more but to enjoy ourselves. When we finally sat down with our coffees and donuts, we saw him approaching a foreign couple and attempting to perform the same act again. The couple waved him off, unfortunately.

THERE IS A FOUNTAIN IN KYOTO STATION THAT RAINS PAGODAS.... along with Japanese and English.

Masa's mum invited us to have dinner at their place again. This time, she made tempura! I just texted Mason telling him that we need to tempura everything when I get back to Vancouver.

Day 10: It's not every day you witness monkey sex and eat raw chicken

It's been a while since I've woken up to breakfast all laid out for me on the kitchen table. Every single morning before Masa's mom went to work, she prepared breakfast for us, something that she didn't even do for her own son. She even bought snacks and left a little note for us. Talk about good hospitality! Will the Botanist replied back in Japanese while I copied his writing and added my own "arigato gozaimasu", nothing but cute squiggly lines to me. We had a new guy waiting for us when we went to put our shoes on this morning.

After a train and tram ride, we arrived in Arashiyama, a district just west of Kyoto city. We hiked for ten minutes up a forest trail and arrived at the monkey park, Iwatayama. Here, macaques had become habituated, roaming fearlessly among the tourists and at times even demanding for food. To feed them, tourists had to go inside a little shack with caged windows for their own safety. The monkeys would reach between the bars, waving their human-like hands while kicking competitors off. Warning: the following photos contain some sexual content.

Photo Credit: Will the Botanist

Lonely Monkey

Arashiyama is a pretty touristy place and to get away from it we had to walk off the main area. Skipping the biggest temples in the city centre, we strolled through the famous Bamboo Groves and past the traditional homes in the rural neighbourhoods. Our first temple was Gio-ji, a moss-covered temple with a modest entrance, shaded by a scattered collection of maple trees. Will the Botanist was happy. He really likes moss.

Bamboo Groves

Gio-ji

Our next stop was Otagi Nenbutsu-ji, a hidden gem 3.5km from the Arashiyama station. The temple was nestled in a forest and was home to 1200 stone rakans representing the followers of Buddhism. The statues had been carved by amateurs from all over the world and each featured a humourous face.

Otagi Nenbutsu-ji

There were about three others in the temple while we were there but we saw a tour group of about 50 seniors hiking to the temple just as we were leaving. Perhaps not so hidden after all! But at least we dodged the crowd. We crossed the train tracks and made our way back to Kyoto to meet up with Linda and her boyfriend, Pontus. When I was in grade 8, Linda was my science teacher's student assistant and was in the same year as my brother. After completing an internship last year, she returned to Kyoto to do her masters. 

We went to a place that offered all-you-can-drink. We talked about Canada and caesars and Clamato. I had raw chicken for the first time in my life. It was actually pretty good once I got past the thought that I was eating raw chicken. 

Me, Will, Masa, Linda, Pontus

I almost expected some sort of physical change after eating the raw chicken. But still alive with no symptoms of illness! The boys made silly faces all the way home. I'm not sure if I can ever get Masa's funny face out of my head.