Fall into Kyoto

Seeing as Autumn is probably my favorite season, and I was definitely missing American football, apple picking, and pumpkin flavored everything, I thought I would try to remedy this with what Japan has to offer. Leaves. Japan is famous for the Japanese Maple trees which grow all over the place like crazy. What is special about these trees is the way they change color, and how bright their leaves get. Well, I decided that I wanted to take a weekend trip to see the leaves in the best place for viewing, Kyoto.

Kyoto is the best place because it provides us with over 600 Temples and Shrines which provide a great backdrop to go with the leaves. Since there were obviously many places that I had left to discover here, I decided it would be the best place for a weekend getaway. I invited my best friends, Meredith and Miho, and we took off for our adventure. Meredith would be hiking during the day, but would meet up with Miho and I come evening and we would all stay together for the remainder of the trip.

We arrived in Kyoto around 1040 am, and much to our surprise our hotel was conveniently located and the streets were yet to be crowded. We grabbed some provisions and headed to our first destination after dropping off our bags.

We chose Arashiyama first. We had heard that it was traditional, beautiful, and full of great places to see the colors of autumn. The bus was as expected for a weekend in Kyoto, barely allowing enough room for one person to stand. Embarrassing as it already is at times to be foreign here, the embarrassment escalated when Miho didn't hold on before the crazy bus driver took off, knocking her into me and me to the ground with her on top of me laughing hysterically. The man in the seat above us looked at us distastefully, probably for a number of reasons.

As we were driving around the west outskirts of Kyoto, we started to notice that there were many young children dressed in Kimonos. We were thinking that maybe their parents just wanted to take photos of them in the kimonos with the fall leaves, but soon we realized that today was a special day, which might have been part of the reason that there were so many people with families in Kyoto. November 15th is a day here where children (boys of 5 and girls of 3 or 7) go to a shrine to pray wearing kimonos and take photos. These are special years. What I find interesting about these ceremonies and the one in January held for all the 20 year olds (legal age; much like the 18 in America...but they can also drink at 20) is that they are all head at the same time. It is good, I suppose, because you can celebrate with friends, but it feels a little too THE GIVER to me; the nines the tens... etc. (if you haven't read The Giver, I highly recommend you give it a quick once over.)

We got off of the train and headed around the part and looked at the famous bridge, Togetsukyo Bridge, which is the oldest bridge in Japan I think. It was once all wood, but now has some concrete supports. Another interesting thing about this bridge is the river that flows under it. From one shore, it is called the Hozu River (west of the bridge) and the other it is called the Katsura River (east side). Interesting.

We snapped some photos; my favorite being one of a girl with her boyfriend. She was dressed up as a "Maiko for a Day" which is a common thing you can do for about 10,000 yen. They dress you up as a Maiko and you walk around Kyoto, face paint, kimono and all, and take photos. I think I must do this before I leave Japan. Even though it is ridiculous. It is awesome, and many many Japanese girls do it, so I really have to I think. She was so funny b/c she looked traditional and he was dressed in a red leather Michael Jackson-Esq jacket with spikey hair. Modern meets Traditional... all with brightly colored leaves. Hah.

After this we poked around at some local temples, grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to the hotel where we would meet Meredith before going to our night viewing spot.

Miho's mother and father had suggested we head to Eikando Temple for night viewing of leaves because they light up the trees at night. I was very excited about this because Temples in Japan usually close around 4pm, so getting to go to a temple past dark is a very rare occurrence. We approached the gates to the Temple and it's beauty was overwhelming. It was tucked into the mountainside with the gates lit up and the bright colors of the leaves appeared even brighter in on this dark night. As we entered, the garden was lit up as was the bridge over water. We were luck because we arrived just in time to get to hear some traditional Kyoto music played by musicians on the bridge. I was so overwhelmed with Japan's beauty that trying to take this all in at once was a struggle, but a much enjoyed one at that. It was simply amazing.

We returned home for some rest after having a bite to eat and heading back to our hotel.

In the morning we headed to the lobby for our Japanese breakfast of rice balls, seaweed, miso soup, pickles, pasta salad, and bread. Of course, all of this lovely food was accompianied by a cup of coffee and The Japan Times newspaper. Here in the lobby we were approached by a small Japanese woman who asked us if we spoke Japanese. We told her that we didn't speak very much and she was curious as to how we were able to travel around Japan. Her English was wonderful and we asked her to sit with us. She told us that she was from Brazil and she was an English teacher there. Her parents were both Japanese, so she had heard them speak to her all of her life, but never formally spoke or studied until only 4 years previous. Now she had been saving for a long time to take a trip to Japan and she was vacationing for a couple of months.

She said that she had to take the trip now because last year the Brazilian government required her to declare her savings (for her trip) and upon complying with their request she was required to pay 45% of it in taxes to the government. She is not rich, merely a humble English teacher that had been saving for her life trip, but according to the tax bracket with the money she saved, she was a higher earner. She said she had to take the trip after she paid because she was worried they would come back for the rest of the money. She then cautioned us to travel as soon as we have the money. She handed us her business card, and requested we get in contact with her during the Olympics or if we ever wanted to travel in San Paulo. Very sweet woman. We then cleared her tray from the table as she disappeared down the street.

We gathered Miho from the room, as she was still getting ready for our adventure, and we headed off to Ginkaku-ji (the silver pavilion). Upon our arrival, we noticed a sign that the temple was undergoing restoration, so it was not looking great. We were bummed but due to the red and orange we could see up the hill behind it we shelled out the 500 yen a piece to enter.

We explored the trails and snapped some photos of the view and headed out to walk down the 哲学の道, Tetsugaku no Michi which is the Philosopher's Path in English. The trees that line the path are a pleasant mix of Cherry Blossom (Sakura) trees and Japanese Maples to give the colors of the two most 'philosophically inspiring' seasons; spring and fall. It is named the Philosopher's Path because a University of Kyoto Philosophy Professor named Nishida Kitaro used to walk this path everyday for meditation. It passes many places that are spiritual, such as many temples and shrines. It was very inspiring, and made us feel like we needed to grab a bite of food.

We headed to a small bowl restaurant where Miho and I grabbed a Child and Parent bowl (this morbid name is Kanji still makes me laugh today. Oyako Donburi is the name in Japanese which literally means Parent and Child. (It consists of Chicken and egg... Get it....parent and child... so funny). It is quite tasty...I have always enjoyed this bowl, probably mostly because of the name.

Next we headed to another Temple...this was the Chion-in Temple. It is famous for it's very large tori and number of stairs. There were many people here and we were lucky to hear some of the Monks chanting inside for a private prayer with a family. The sky was growing cloudy and we were feeling the night chill creeping up. Miho had plans back in Kobe, so we headed to the bus stop to see her off before heading to our last stop. Kiyomizudera.

Now, as you have seen in previous blog postings, I have been to Kiyomizu many times. However, each time it is amazing in a different way and I am always excited to take someone there for the first time. Meredith had never been here before, so I was hoping we could make it up the hill before the sunset. We arrived just in time to catch the colors in the sky overlooking all of Kyoto. It was breathtaking but short-lived because they were closing in 15 minutes and then for an hour before reopening to light up the leaves. Meredith and I didn't want to wait in the 300 person line for re-entry and decided to call it a night and head back to get some rest for the long work week ahead of us. What a trip!!