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Sorry for not finishing this more quickly, but we had a busy weekend and I’ve been busily trying to plan our trip to China in August this week.

So, on our last day in Kyoto, we headed to Nijo castle for a little break from temple viewing. Nijo castle was built by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, as the Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa clan. Although they had moved the shogunal capital to Edo (Tokyo), the Imperial family remained in Kyoto, necessitating frequent visits by the shogun to the old capital.

The castle has an outer moat and wall and an inner moat and wall, making it one of the more impressively defended castles I’ve ever seen:

Inside of the fortifications are two separate palaces: the Ninomaru palace and the Honmaru palace. While I’m not exactly sure what the Honmaru palace was used for, the Ninomaru palace was used as the private quarters of the shogun while he was in Kyoto and so it has a number of anti-assassin architectural features, including hidden doors and its nightingale floors which squeak as you walk on them. Also, like most castles, Nijo has several beautiful gardens on its premises:

After finishing at the castle, Anna and I decided to split up, as she had had enough of temples during our trip and wanted to go shopping instead. I headed for Kinkaku-ji, one of the most famous temples in Japan, and Ryoan-ji, famous for its Zen rock garden. I’ll spare everyone the history of these temples, as they are primarily for their visual appeal. First, Kinkaku-ji, the golden temple:

And Ryoan-ji, home to one of the most famous rock gardens in the world:

As you might be able to tell from the picture, the rock garden is a good example of one of those famous attractions that really fails to impress in person. There were swarms of people sitting around it, talking and making noise and I was reminded of seeing the Mona Lisa, behind glass and smaller than I expected.

Because of the crazy crowds during Golden Week, it took me nearly three hours to get through these two temples, after which I met back up with Anna and we decided to head home. Of course, we couldn’t escape the crowds even on the shinkansen, as we hadn’t been able to get reserved seats. We ended up standing in a smoking car for almost two hours in order to get home. As bad as it sounds, we were lucky, since we left tens of people at every stop after Kyoto unable to squeeze onto the train at all.

There’s not much more to be said about Nara - the primary attraction is obviously Todaiji and its daibutsu. There is also a very large five-storied pagoda in the temple complex of Kofuku-ji with a peaceful little pond behind it:

And, of course, no trip to Nara would be complete without feeding the free-roaming deer in Nara’s public park:

Unfortunately, exactly as the guidebook predicted, we saw several western tourists munching on the deer biscuits as they walked around Nara.

The trip from Nara to Kyoto was the shortest of our trip - less than an hour on the local train. As we stepped off the train, we were greeted by our first real taste of how crowded Japan can be. The station was one of the bigger and busier train stations I’ve ever been to, and I’m sure that Golden Week didn’t help. Moreover, the modern design of the train station and the ugly Kyoto hotel tower across the street immediately took away any lingering thoughts that Kyoto would be that picture-perfect, traditional Japan that is shown nostalgically in television or movies :

As we walked through the station, I was reminded of the first time I walked into the gigantic and similarly modern train station in Rome with its large shopping mall, finding it hard to believe that it was the central hub of the city that was home to much of western culture. Kyoto, the largest remaining bastion of Japanese culture, seemed decidedly uncultured.

Of course, Kyoto maintains its importance in Japan for a reason, and after checking into our hotel, we quickly found out why. Although they are scattered around the city, some of the most impressive, famous, and historically significant temples in Japan are located in Kyoto. After checking into our hotel, we decided to head to two of the most famous first, hoping to escape the crowds after visiting them.

Our first stop was Sanjusangendo, home to 1001 images of the 1000 armed Kannon (Sk. Avalokite?vara). These 1001 statues and the 28 guardian myoo, ten, ashura and other deities are located within 33 separate sections of the temple, hence the name Sanjusangendo, or “33 Bay Hall.” This number 33 is a sacred number in Buddhism, and represents the number of forms Kannon can appear in to teach the path to enlightenment. We weren’t allowed to take pictures and they would’ve have included lots of people’s heads anyways, so here are some pictures that I retrieved from this website:

The rows and rows of statues were really impressive and illustrate well the developing importance of Kannon and his pure land during the medieval period in which these images were made.

Next on the list was Kiyomizu-dera, definitely on the list of the top-three most famous temples in Japan. Unfortunately for us, this meant that the temple was literally overflowing with people standing shoulder-to-shoulder to get a chance to pray at the altar or drink the sacred water from the waterfall. I still got some nice pictures, however, as it’s a pretty large complex:

We waited in line nearly 20 minutes to get a drink from one of the three sacred water spouts you can see above and for which the temple gets its name. It was cold and tasted good, but I’m not sure it granted the health, longevity or success that is promised.

Because of the large crowds both in the temples and on the buses to and from the temples, we spent nearly 4 hours just seeing these two temples. We decided to have a look at the traditionally maintained streets of Gion, hoping to see a geisha or maiko (geisha’s apprentice), and then head back towards the station for some food. Unfortunately we saw no geisha but the streets were very beautiful:

By the time we finally made it home, we were exhausted and decided to call it a night so that we could wake up early and start again the next day. I’ll finish with Kyoto and this trip in the next post.

The next morning, we woke up at 6:00 so that we could attend Kumagaiji’s Buddhist ceremony at 6:30. It was an interesting experience - as we entered we were given some incense to rub on our hands and a shawl reading “Koyasan” to wear around our necks. Then, we took seats among the other people who had stayed the night at the temple, several of them still wearing their pajamas. The ceremony began with chanting and a series of ritual motions in front of the altar, conducted by the head priest. At the very center of the altar was a miniature version of Konpon Daito, a two-storied pagoda in Koyasan that we would see later that morning. It is considered the center of the lotus flower created by the eight mountains surrounding Koyasan and is thus the sacred center of Shingon’s most sacred site:

The second part of the ceremony was a sermon, given in Japanese of course, by the head priest. While I certainly didn’t understand complexities of the sermon, I do know that he discussed religious beliefs all over the world, religion in Japan (or its supposed lack there-of), and the failure of some major temples in Japan in fulfilling their social purpose. He seemed particularly unhappy with Tokyo’s Sensoji. Of course, he finished with a sales pitch for Shingon including recommending a video on Kukai’s life. After the sermon, we stood in the footprints of the Buddha and walked around the altar before returning to our rooms where we were served breakfast of miso soup and rice.

After saying goodbye to our hosts at Kumagaiji (and paying them the $100 per person they charged for hosting us) we headed out to do some final sightseeing in Koyasan. Notable sights included Konpon Daito (shown above) and Kongobuji (Shingon’s main temple) which had several beautiful gardens:

After stopping by the Tokugawa memorial where both Tokugawa Ieyasu and Tokugawa Hidetada are enshrined, we got back on the cablecar down the mountain and headed for Nara:

Nara is about 50 km away from Koyasan, but because of the windy mountain tracks and frequent stops, the trip took nearly three hours. After arriving in Nara, we immediately joined the crowds and headed to Todaiji, the largest wooden building in the world, and home to Nara’s daibutsu - the largest Buddha statue in Japan. The statue represents Dainichi Nyorai (Sk. Vairocana), the eternal manifestation of Gautama Buddha in the Lotus Sutra and the incarnation of the dharmakaya. It was impressive, to say the least, but the throngs of Golden Week tourists took away some of the atmosphere that must usually exist in Todaiji. Todaiji and the daibutsu:

At the back of Todaiji is a large pillar with a hole through it, which is said to be exactly the same size as one of the daibutsu’s nostrils. On a less busy day, anyone might be seen squeezing through the hole, as climbing through it guarantees enlightenment. However, since it was Golden Week only children were climbing through it and the line was ridiculously long:

Last week was one of the biggest holiday seasons in Japan - Golden Week. During this week, there are three national holidays - Showa Day (the birthday of emperor Hirohito), Children’s Day, and Constitution Day. Additionally, since Children’s Day and Constitution Day are always separated by a single day, the day in between has come to be known as People’s Day, since most people will get some kind of vacation on that day as well. This year, since Children’s Day fell on a Saturday and Constitution Day on a Monday, the Golden Week season ran from Tuesday, April 29th until Tuesday, May 6th.

What does this holiday season mean for us? Well, we didn’t get eight or nine days off like many Japanese do, but we did have a very light schedule last week and we didn’t have to work Monday or Tuesday of this week. This is the only four-day weekend that we’ll get the entire year that we’re in Japan, so we had to take advantage of it. So, we prepared ourselves for the ridiculous crowds that were bound to be everywhere during Golden Week and, last Saturday morning, set off for Koyasan.

Koyasan is a raised plateau about 1000m above sea level on the Kii Peninsula in Wakayama prefecture that is home to the Shingon sect of Buddhism. Shingon, is the only other example of Vajrayana Buddhism (with the exception of isolated sects in China) in the world besides Tibetan Buddhism. It was founded by a monk named Kukai in the ninth century after he brought the esoteric teachings from China. The ability to affect earthly problems with esoteric practices involving mandala and mantra helped the sect become successful in a period rife with political and military conflict. After Kukai left the sect (I say left because it is still commonly believed that he resides in deep samadhi in Koyasan, awaiting the coming of Maitreya) he became known by the title Kobo Daishi, and is best recognized in images or statues by his traveler’s hat and stick. Many pilgrims imitate this dress as they complete their pilgrimages:

Our first stop in Koyasan was Okunoin, a beautiful graveyard where a huge number of famous Buddhists are buried, or at least partially buried - one of the great benefits of the Japanese practice of cremation is that it’s then quite easy to be buried in more than one place. Additionally, the graveyard holds a memorial to Kobo Daishi that is one of the most atmospheric places I’ve ever visited. The smell of the incense, the chanting of the monks, and the strange light given off by the thousands of lanterns in the temple made it incredibly unique:

After Okunoin, we checked into Kamagaiji, a Shukubo, or temple with guest lodging. An hour after arriving we were served dinner in our rooms, in the vegetarian style passed down by the monks for centuries:

Later, we changed into our yukata (summer or sleeping kimonos) and went to bed early, as we had to wake up at 6:00 the next morning for the Buddhist ceremony:

I’ll end my post on Koyasan for now, but look forward to the rest of Koyasan, Nara and Kyoto in the next several days.

This past weekend, we took a daytrip to Hakone. Hakone is one of the most popular tourist destinations from Tokyo, both for its numerous onsen (hotsprings) and its sightseeing opportunities. One of the most popular attractions is the various norimono (???) or means of transportation. Following the recommended route through Hakone on the norimono was our goal, so we bought the “Hakone Freepass” for 3900 yen, and all of our transportation for the day was covered. We took the train one stop to Mishima and met up with one of my students who works at the Mishima Tourist Agency:

After she helped us buy our “Free Passes” we rode the bus to Hakone and caught our first and probably most unique norimono: a pirate ship across Ashinoko (Lake Ashi) with real pirates on board:

From the pirate ship, we jumped onto the ropeway on our way to Owakaduni - famous for it’s sulfur mine and stinky gas vents:

It also happens to have a famous delicacy known as kurotamago (????), or black eggs, which are basically eggs hardboiled in the sulfur springs during which they turn black:

They tasted completely normal. Even Hello Kitty chose to take part in the kurotamago sensation, apparently because of the seven years longevity that comes prepackaged with black eggs:

From Owakaduni, we took the ropeway to the cable car to the train, finally ending up in Miyanoshita which is the location of one of the three most famous hotels in Japan: the Fujiya hotel. We didn’t get any good pictures because there was a wedding going on, but you can check out their website here. Although we intended on going to an onsen in Miyanoshita, we were entirely exhausted and decided to head home for the day. However, we got some nice pictures of Lake Ashi (and it’s all-natural water fowl) as we waited for the bus home: