This year for my "tanjōbi" Jennifer planned a trip to Kyoto, ye olde capital of Japan. We had seen
Memoirs of a Geisha, we studied some of the traditional Kyoto architecture that defines Japanese style and we thought we pretty much had it figured out and it was time to see the real thing. Besides, most of our Japanese friends have been telling us, "if you want to see what most consider 'traditional Japan' go to Kyoto".
Our trip begin with our first ride on the Shinkansen, the Bullet Train. On the commuter rail from our house to the Shinkansen station in Tokyo we were crammed into a rail car so close to the people next to us we could feel it each time they exhaled. In Japan, rail workers are actually employed during peak commuting hours to push people into the train so that the doors can close. The lesson here is to avoid riding the train during peak hours if possible. The Shinkansen terminal was a completely different experience. We decided to book business class tickets and was it worth it. The sleek, shiny, futuristic time-machinesque rocket of a train quietly glided into the terminal. We were in reserved car No.9 and the trained stopped with the door to car No.9 directly in front of us. We were greeted with a polite bow, shown our seats and handed a hot towel. I thought we had made a mistake and gone to the airport by the appearance of the car. It was about a two hour ride to Kyoto that flew by.
We arrived at Kyoto Station, a vastly modern rail terminal plunked in the middle of a relic of old Japan. The station was huge, the biggest train station we had ever seen and resembled an airport, both by appearance and atmosphere. At first sight of Kyoto it seemed old, there were practically no skyscrapers. There was a small tower that resembled Tokyo Tower, but not quite the same; this was completely upstaged by the five tier pagoda at Toji, just south of Kyoto Tower. This is the tallest wooden structure in Japan and can pretty much be seen from anywhere in the city. This really gave the city an "old world" feel, it was cool. We stopped at the hotel long enough to drop our bags and get out of the door before it stopped rotating. In Kyoto, one will find temples, shrines and more temples and shrines. We visited Higashi Hongan-ji, a large temple in the center of the city which is the headquarters of the largest sect of Buddhism in Japan and one of the largest in the world. It was basically the Vatican of Buddhists; we purified ourselves at the ablution fountain, but it was all for naught. After frolicking in the dragon shaped fountain using our Gaijin identity as our excuse for our behavior, we looked at the hulking structure directly behind us (which we hadn't even noticed prior) and saw the main temple was enveloped in scaffolding, undergoing renovation; what a gip. We made our way to a garden near by which was amazing. It was the kind of scenery that appears in a Monet, the cherry blossoms, the Japanese bridge, the pond with the single bamboo shoot trickling water; we sat by the pond for about an hour and watched the giant cranes in the tree. I know it sounds obnoxious, but it was really beautiful and peaceful.
That evening we went to Gion the Geisha District. Geisha (geiko in Japanese) still entertain in the tea houses here and the maiko (geisha apprentices) can be seen scurrying along the streets darting in and out of the tiny wooden shops dressed in full regalia. It was awesome to see it, but it quickly became obvious that it was all for the tourist satisfaction. It was like finding out WWF was fake, you sort of expected it, but didn't really want positive confirmation. It became obvious when we smashed into gigantic masses of tourists here, of which we were the only Americans, and began to get annoyed. We actually saw a French group trying to take a photo while standing in the middle of the damn street and then, in typical french fashion, had to audacity to yell at a Japanese driver for honking at them to move.
After several other episodes and exchanges with other Giajin we decided Gion was not where we wanted to be, but not before we had dinner. I had my official birthday dinner at an Ohmi beef steak house. Ohmi comes from one type of cow, the Wagyu, the same cow that produces Matsuzaka and Kobe beefs. This stuff is rarely found in the U.S. and I am sorry about that. The dinner was fantastic, the chef prepared and cooked our beef in front of us. It truly was the best steak we have ever eaten.
The remainder of out visit included a ride on the actual Cherry Blossom Special. A clunker of an old train adorned with sakura that took us to the temples and gardens on the outskirts of the city. We visited Uzumasa Samurai Movie Studio. It is a little town constructed to look like an old Japanese village during the Shōgun era; it serves as a large movie set that visitor can walk through and interact and sometimes even see films being shot. We watched a Ninja demonstration and I think Kengekitai could take them.
The highlight for me was seeing Ryōan-ji, the famous Zen Buddhist rock garden where the monks rake the sand to look like waves. It was the first structure, while studying at Drexel, that made me want to know everything about it and the influences of it designer. I had written several papers on it, but was still surprised to see how small it was, much smaller that how it appears in photos. Visiting it was ironic, since in front of us is probably the most abstract form of religious imagery designed to inspire thoughts of harmony with nature and total nirvana and on the other side of the partition are screaming crowds of tourist shoving one another to get to the front only to snap a photo of them with their friends while shooting a two-fingered victory hand signal at the lens. I was lucky enough to find a small spot right in front where I could sit. I almost laughed out loud when a British guy sitting with his eyes closed next to me became visibly angry with his wife when she asked, "are you feeling it honey?" to which he exasperated responded, "NO! I not feeling the ZEN! I need to leave, I am just not feeling it here with all these people." He took a photo, got up and left.
The original purpose of the garden aside, it was beautiful to see and sort of a life accomplishment for me. At the exit of the temple structure there is a small fountain intended for worshippers to cleanse themselves. It is a small rock basin intentionally lower than the porch forcing one to bow their head to see it, enforcing humility. The inscription on the basin was one of Jennifer's favorites, "I learn only to be contented".
