Sunday, May 09, 2004



OK holiday story.

Our Saturday and Sunday were non eventful - basically - just on Sunday we prepared to go to Fuji and do something (?) with Li's friends.
The original plan had been to go to FujiQ Highland and go on the HUGE roller coaster. I was a little pissed by Sunday evening as it had been decided by the collective that FujiQ would not be on the list because it would be too busy and no one wanted to wait in line for hours. I, on the other hand, was more then prepared to wait in line for two hours for five minutes of total adrenaline.
Instead we rented two cars to carry the 12 of us up Mt. Fuji and visit the Five Lakes area. Now I am sure that this is a beautiful area when the sun is shinning and the scenery is probably amazing - but it rained. Not real rain. It was that typical BC mist that does not even make you realize it is raining. It was, of course, accompanied by major cloud cover and any views were totally obscured. We were not the only people up there - there was a traffic jam. We went to this one lake that was supposedly blue but very grey on this day. I was quite fascinated with the fact that the beach was all lava rock. Mt. Fuji is an active volcano and just the other day there was a news article talking about how Mt. Fuji's cone has been growing and changing. Not a good sign according to the scientists.
We then headed out to this cave that has icicle thingys hanging from the ceiling. It was sooo cold in there. We also went for a short hike. The day was not really that bad, though totally not well planned, and not a whole lot was accomplished that could have been. The 12 people were actually total strangers to us. We knew only 4 of them. The rest were friends of Tsu 's from Tokyo. They were young and a little annoying. Definitely city type folk who had no concept of how to enjoy the peace of a forest or wild life in general. They acted like it was there first time out of a city, which it quite possible could have been. They made us feel a bit old. Li also felt very left out as they were new younger friends of the friends who had invited him along and he felt, and I also noticed, very left out. He dealt with it and was polite as usual.

Fuji area pictures.

On Wednesday and Thursday (May 5th and 6th) we headed out to Kyoto.
For those of you that don’t know, Kyoto is the original capital of Japan and is situated in the southern area of the main island. It is a beautiful city and has the most wonderful warm and friendly feeling about it. It is the type of city where many woman visit the temples and shrines in their kimonos because they will get in free. The curators have decided that it adds to the ambiance of the place and they are right. Looks cool. We went around one corner and came across a kendo event so the road was lined with men in traditional dress carrying their sticks and there were kendo sticks and clothing vendors everywhere. It was very interesting. The people were wonderful and so helpful. Not a single person asked me where I was from but many asked if I needed directions or help. Everything was written in multi-languages and all the restaurant people seemed to know all the important service English. We had a very comfortable time – so comfortable that I am going to keep my eyes open for job opportunities in that direction. Seriously. Li is for that.
If I have to compare Tokyo to Kyoto I will take Kyoto any day of the week. Tokyo is just another city and personally the people are a little rude as most big city people are.

We were very lucky the first day as we were able to hook up with Li’s friend Kona who has a car. She was our chauffeur and guide the first day. Very comfortable and helped us get our bearings. We collected a map from the very helpful English speakers in the information booth and headed off.

The first place we went to was the Toji Temple. This temple consists of a 5-story pagoda, lecture halls and some OLD buildings housing some very old statues of Buddha and what not. Very interesting. This is what the pamphlet has;

In the 13th year of Enryaku(794) the Emporor Kammu the capital of this country from Nara to Kyoto and he built, after the model of Chungan, the then capital of China, two huge guardian temples on the east and west side of the Rajyo-mon which was the south gateway to Kyoto. They are Toji Temple (East Temple) and Saiji Temple (West Temple).
About thirty years later the Emperor Saga honored Kukai (774-835; founder of Shingon Biddhism) with Toji Temple and gave it the official name Kyo-o-gokokuji, which means the temple that guards the capital and the land by virtue of Ninno-gokoku-kkyu (the main sutra of the Shingon sect).

The pagoda was built in 1644 and is the tallest in Japan. The statues were very cool but we were not allowed to take pictures of them. There was also a pond full of turtles hehe

Toji Temple pictures.

Then we had lunch on Teramachi Street. This has been an amusement area since the early 17th century. Cool shopping and an interesting mix of old and new.

Teramachi Street Pictures.

Then we headed out to the Genkoan Temple. I really wanted to go here because there was a horse related Samurai festival going on. On Monday they had Samurai men on horses doing their bow and arrow stuff. On this day they had horse racing down the temple lawn. The men were in full costume and putting on a good show. There were tons of people and I am sooooo short that many of these pictures did not work. I have a few racing pictures but I think I will scan in the program as my pictures kind of sucked. I do have one picture of a racing horse’s tail. Hehehe.

Genkoan Temple pictures.

The last temple of the day was Heian Shrine. This place is very orange. The gardens were quite beautiful but we were unfortunate in between flower blooming for this garden. The major attraction for this garden is the cherry blossoms but we missed them by a few weeks.
This place is huge and really resemble a Chinese temple. The white raked sands and court yard areas make a perfect movie setting.

Heian Shrine pictures.
After this we headed to Kona’s house for a quick rest and recuperation before heading out to find a restaurant for dinner. We headed out to Ponto-cho Street for dinner. Very interesting ally. It is situated on the sandbar of the Kamo-River. In 1712 the residents allowed inns and tea houses served by hostess girls to enter and it became a high quality gay quarter. Now it is lined with hostess bars, izakayas, and numerous restaurants. We ate in an interesting BBQ restaurant where our meat was BBQed on a hot lava rock and we were served on hand an foot. We had a lovely dinner.

Ponto-cho Street pictures.

Then we had a lazy drink in a pub and took a cab to a love hotel (they are much cheaper then real hotels). We crashed we were so tired. My feet hurt.

Thursday morning we woke up and headed to the Station for breakfast then we went to Nijo Castle. I liked this place. It was like steping into a movie with it’s walls, moats and guard doors. Very interesting.

Nijo Castle was originally built in 1603 to be the official residence of the first Tokugawa Shogun Ieyasu, and it was completed in 1626 by the third Shogun.

Its gardens are beautiful and lavish as well as the guardhouse and palace. The flooring is called Uguisu-bari or Nightingale Floors because they make a soft chirping noise as you walk on them. These floors were designed to warn the guards on intruders, as it is impossible to walk upon them silently. When we went there were unfortunately tons of annoying school children with no respect for the history they were walking in or the beauty if silence. Thankfully they were not in the gardens. In the gardens there were some tree pruners and I took a picture of one of them. Yes I asked first.

Nijo Castle pictures.

Then we headed out to Kinkakuji Temple. This place is BEAUTIFUL! It is covered in real gold flake. The pond was full of purple iris and it was just lovely.

Kinkaku (Golden Pavilion) is a popular name for one of the main buildings of this temple, which is properly called Rokuon-ji Temple. In the 1220’s it was the comfortable villa of Kintsune Saionji.
Yoshimitsu, the 3rd Shogun of Ashikaga, abdicated the throne in 1394. After three years, he began to build Kitayamaden and he made a special effort to make it a breath-taking site. He indulged in his peaceful life in the serene setting. After Yoshimitsu’s death, it was made into a Zen temple in accordace with his will. All of the buildings of those days came to ruin except Kinkaku. The garden, however, remains as it was in former days and can still be enjoyed, as it was hundreds of years ago.

Kinkakuji Temple pictures.
Our last temple of the day was Kiyomizu Temple. This place is neat. It is built into a hill and on pillars. Very wild. It is also a temple to the god of mercy. It is the place of worship that women go to pray for a painless childbirth. It is beautiful. I took pictures of many signs that have more information about this temple so;

Kiyokizu Temple pictures.
Then we headed home. We had a wonderful two days with perfect weather and a perfect time. Anyone who is thinking of coming to Japan make sure you put Kyoto on your list.

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Posted by (Top)Andrea::5/09/2004 ::

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