Day IV (part I) - Kyoto

Day IV (Part I) - Kyoto

Sunday was a busy day in Kyoto. I tried to fit this all in one entry but it is simply taking too long so I'm breaking it up into one long entry and I'll follow it up with a shorter one later.




Nijo Castle


We started the day off by walking from our hotel over to Nijo (or Nijo-jo) Castle. Nijo Castle was the primary home or place of ruling for the Tokugawa Shogunate. The Tokugawa shogunate was a feudal regime that controlled Japan during a period of time referred to as the Edo Period. The Edo period gets its name from the capital city at the time, Tokyo. Although the actual capital was in Tokyo, the shogunate kept the Imperial Court, and thus a lot of the real power, in Kyoto. The timeframe that the Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Nijo castle spanned from1603 until 1868, when it was abolished during the Meiji Restoration.

The castle itself was amazing. Many areas of the castle had been damaged or burned down over the years but most of it has been restored to its original design. The castle had two moats and two surrounding walls, one outside the main gate and another on the inside.




Inside the first wall is the Ninomaru Palace, where from what I could gather the Imperial Court used to sit before moving to the castle. As you can see, the gateways and entrances are adorned with very intricate wood carvings and gold paint, designed to show wealth and power to visitors.





The inside of the palace was also very impressive. There were numerous paintings on the walls of each room as well as the hallways. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photographs inside but here is one I found on the web.

The walls were painted by some of the most prominent Japanese artists of that time period and most often depicted landscapes and animals.

Within the inner walls of the castle were beautiful gardens, ponds and landscaping.

The inner castle burned down in 1788. The building has been restored but there wasn't much to see as we weren't allowed to go inside. The inner area did have some higher ground that allowed for some pretty good views.





Imperial Palace

After visiting the castle we stopped by the Imperial Palace. The Palace itself was closed on Sunday so we were only able to see the outside. The outside of the palace was not all that impressive. We had read that the inside was not impressive either. We were told that the true power lied with the Shoguns which is why Nijo Castle was much more ostentatious and intimidating than the lame-assed Imperial Palace.


We had read that the park outside the Palace was a nice place to visit as well so we checked it out.








The park was very spacious and had numerous people sleeping on park benches, but we were not really in the mood for a nice stroll in the park so we didn't stay long. About the only highlight of the trip to the park was when we were walking along the edge of one of the enclosed buildings. I was a little bored so I jumped across a little divider that separated the building from the main walkway while saying "what if I did this?"

I took a few steps and then jumped back over. I was caught off guard when at that exact moment a loud siren began blaring. Apparently they do not appreciate it when people walk wherever. I was convinced that at any minute I was going to be hit in the neck with a blow dart or some kind of ninja star and I would spend the rest of my time in Japan in a holding cell where they would serve me nothing but sea urchin.


Fortunately nothing ever came of it. We kept walking and pretended as if nothing happened. It would not have been a mystery who actually set off the alarm as we were the only people within about a 100 meter radius of the building, but it appeared that simply no one cared.


Kyomizu-dera


After visiting the Imperial Palace and Park we headed across town to the Tendai Buddhist temple, Kiyomizu-dera.


This wooden temple was built in the mountainside back in 798 (although the current buildings were constructed in 1633). Thus, we had to hike up the mountainside and it was a little challenging. Some fat asses hopped in one of these man-and-carriages to carry them to the top but we just hoofed it. Here are a few pictures of the stairways that lead up to the complex, which contains an impressive pavilion and a pagoda before the actual shrine.

The Temple itself is a magnificent wooden temple supported by pillars off the slope of a mountain.





One interesting part of the temple was the Otowa waterfall, where three channels of water drop into a pond. Visitors to the temple collect the water, which is believed to have therapeutic properties, from the waterfall. It is said that drinking the water of the three streams confers wisdom, health, and longevity. However, some Japanese believe that you must choose only two — if you are greedy and drink from all three, you invite misfortune upon yourself. I didn't drink any, so I guess I'm running the risk of living a very short life filled with disease and utter stupidity.

We went to a handful of temples and shrines in our trip to Japan and this one was by far the most crowded. There were people everywhere. To me it was like the St. Peters of Japan.


There are a number of Buddhist traditions/rituals that were on display in this Temple. I am a little confused by the whole religion thing in Japan. As I understand it, technically all Japanese are Shinto, however, many consider themselves Buddhist as well. I am also a little confused by which traditions/ceremonies are Shinto and which are Buddhist. For instance, it was my understanding that cleansing yourself in a water basin, which you will see throughout these Japanese temples/shrines, is a Shinto tradition, along with many others, yet we saw them here at Kiyomizu-dera. Thus, I apologize in advance if I am incorrect in my explanations of temples, shrines, traditions, etc.



That being said, the first thing you will see in many shrines and temples is a water basin which people use to cleanse themselves before entering. These basins will have ladles for washing your hands. Appropriate conduct is to grab the ladel, draw some water, pour it on one hand and then the other, finally taking a drink of the water (only to wash out your mouth - not to drink the water) and spit it out.

In some shrines you will also see visitors burning incense. The smoke emitted from the incense is also thought to be cleansing so you will see people wafting the smoke onto themselves.
In Shinto shrines (I think) you will see patrons "summon the diety" by throwing a few coins into the donation box (5 yen piece is considered the luckiest), stepping up to a long hanging rope connected to a bell, pulling the rope sharply to ring the bell


clapping twice to "summon the diety", then bowing.


Some of these rituals may have been mixed up in this particular temple because there were numerous side temples that were accessible through the same tour. We did not have an English speaking guide so we kind of tried to piece together what we were seeing from what we had read in our guidebooks.


One thing that we did not do was take the "walk of love" in one of the adjacent temples, the Jishu Shrine. Basically there are a pair of "love stones" placed 18 meters apart (one pictured below), which visitors attempt to walk between with their eyes closed. Success in reaching the other stone, eyes closed, is taken as a presage that the walker will find love. None of us actually did the walk as it didn't seem like an appropriate thing for 3 guys to do on vacation.



Since I did not go on the walk I guess that in addition to being short lived, diseased and stupid, I will also be lonely.


Damn.


So that's it for this entry. More to follow.