Japan 2006, Part 2

Day 2

The day started out pretty early for me, partly because of jetlag and the fact that all the hassle from landing, interrogation, train trip, etc wore me out. I woke up about 6:45am local time. I wanted to get up early so I had the best chance of hitting the showers before anyone really could. Around 7:30, all 4 of us went down for breakfast. They served very small portions for my tastes, and there weren't any seconds available. After breakfast, we left the hostel and headed to Kyoto.
There were no real problems going to Kyoto, at least not that I remembered. However, I do remember Kyoto station being very large, larger than any we have been to so far. We kind of wandered around, trying to find the booth that sells us day passes for the bus system. This one day pass cost me about $28, which will turn out to be a waste as I explain my activities for the day. As we stepped out of the station, the first thing we saw was the Kyoto Sky building, complete with a needle on top of it. I'm from a small town in Michigan, so the crowds amazed me. I think my Kuya Phil was more used to it because from living in New York. I've never really seen so many people walk around at the same time. I'm sure that when I arrive at Tokyo, I'll be blown away!

The first sight we see coming out of the Kyoto train station


Vending machines are everywhere! Want hot food? Just look for a vending machine.

Hugh and Roy while waiting for the bus.

After gazing and a few pictures, we decided to take a bus to our first attraction, Rokuon-ji temple, site of the Kinkaku (Golden Pavillion). Before I get into that, let me go into a little of the bus experience in Kyoto. This was supposed to be on my all day, unlimited pass in the city. First of all, it would end up being the only ride I go that day. That's right, it was a $28 bus ride, and it wasn't even for more than 10 miles. The rest of the time we were walking, or in my case, cramping up a storm. Anyways, the buses here get pretty crowded, we were lucky to get into a bus that was fairly empty so that we could get seats for ourselves.. However, the further we went, the more passengers came on board. It reminded me of my MSU days when the Cata buses would pick up people beyond capacity. After about 45-50 mins, we arrived at our destination, sort of. We still had to walk another 10 minutes to get to the actual temple entrance.

Us being tourists.

Rokuon-ji temple is known world wide for its golden pavilion, Kinkaku. In the 1220’s it was the comfortable villa of Kintsune Saionoji. Yoshimitsu, the 3^rd Shogun of Ashikaga, abdicated the throne in 1394. After 3 years, he began to build Kitayamaden and made a special effort to make it a breath-taking site. He indulged in his peaceful life in this serene setting. After Yoshimitsu’s death, Kitayamaden was made into a Zen temple in accordance with his will. All the building os those days came to ruin except Kinkaku. The garden, however, remains as it was in former days and can be enjoyed as it was hundreds of years ago. It was inscribed as World Cultural Heritage in 1994.

The Kinkaku

Me with the Kinkaku

Closeup view from the side

Scenic shot from the top of the walkway

Carlo, Phil, and Hugh

Along with this pavilion, there was also a large pond. The name of it is Kyoko-chi (Mirror Pond). The pond contains many large and small islands. Climbing a few steps, I ended up on the edge of another small pond, Anmintaku. The small stone pagoda on the island is called Hakujano tsuka (the mound in memory of the white snake). I had only seen these places on tv like the Travel Channel, as well as some animes and variety shows. However, being there really puts all those other things to shame as I was able to see it myself. A nice surprise that I found was that at the end of the temple path, there were plenty of small shops where you can buy souvenirs, trinkets, and other goods that seemed to attract everyone. I ended up buying a small keychain to commemorate the visit. There was also a small Fudodo shrine where the stone Fudo-myoo (Acara) is enshrined as a guardian. Around this time the weather started getting cloudy and it started to sprinkle, but it went away as we left.

Islands on the Kyoko-chi Pond

The next place we headed to was the Ryoanji temple. It’s known to have a beautiful rock garden. It’s a simple garden, consisting only of white sand and 15 rocks, laid out at the end of the 15th century. It’s acknowledged to be one of the masterpieces of Japanese culture. Its simple beauty is said to inspire philosophical meditation. Supposedly, this simple formation intrigues the viewer to come to their own conclusion in deciphering its meaning. The more you think about it, the more sense it's supposed to make. The garden itself measures only 25 meters from east to west and 10 meters from north to south. The rectangular Zen garden is completely different from the gardens of court nobles constructed in the Middle Ages. No trees are to be seen; only 15 rock and white gravel are used in the garden. This rock garden surrounded by low earthen walls may be thought of as the quintessence of Zen art. The mastermind behind it was a person named Soami, a painter and gardener who died in 1525. Maybe I can take the pictures and replicate them in my backyard when I get home. Like the temple before, there was a gift shop at the end of the garden.

Behind the sitting area of the garden, was the Tea Room “Zoroku” Unfortunately, all you could do is look at it. The public are not allowed to walk through the room. It is a typical style favored by Kishuza, a tea master of the early 17^th century. Zoroku means to contain (or hide) six. The six stands for the head, tail, and four legs. Consequently Zoroku means a tortoise, which is the symbol of Genbu, the guardian god of the north.

Passing through the garden, I came across a particular object, a wash-basin stone. This particular one is called Tsubaki, which was used for the tea room. What made this basin unique was its inscription “I learn only to be contended”. This relates to a very important Zen concept: “He who learns only to be contented is spiritually rich, while the one who does not learn to be contented is spiritually poor even if he is materially wealthy”. The Tsubaki is said to have been contributed by Mitsukuni Tokugawa, a feudal lord and the compiler of the great History of Japan known as Dainippon-shi”.

The temple also had a beautiful pond known as the Kyoyochi Pond. It was made in the late 12th century. Until recent years many mandarin ducks were seen on the pond. Hence the Ryoanji was known as Oshidoridera, the temple of mandarin ducks. The water wells out from around the two rocks in the south. On the islet, named Bantenjima, is a hall, in which an image of Sarasvati has been housed.

Next on the agenda was lunch, however, getting there became a real effort. We got lost for a good hour walking around. This was when my legs started to cramp. At first, my left calf would start hurting, then I'd have to stop and rest because it felt like my muscle would knot into a ball every time I would step. To compensate for the pain, I'd have to stretch my heel out and do heel to toe steps with my left leg. Eventually, my shin started to cramp up as well. So for about 10 mins, I felt pain every other step. I finally gave in to the pain and decided to take a break. I made a quick stop in front of a vending machine to pick up some water that I thought would solve my problem. It seemed to work after a 5 minute breather. The odd part kicks in here where my left leg becomes fine and my right calf starts to hurt, then it's the whole process again. After that, the back of my thigh started to act up as well (it never has before in my life). By the time we arrived at our destination, I was in bad shape, and just glad we made it to where we were supposed to go.

The place we had lunch in was a theme park in itself called Kyoto Studio Park. It's themed after ninja and samurai complete with characters in costumes walking around a 17th century Japanese town. It's a nice park, but it kind of reminded me like a 2nd rate park like Michigan adventures. Not saying that it's bad, but it could use some work. The rides here were pathetic, some of the worst I've been on. There was this one that was supposed to be a simulation, complete with moving chairs. Several things went wrong on this one. First of all it looked like it was filmed in the 70s, along with the film flickering and obvious cut marks. The second was that the seats did nothing more than vibrate. It was so unrealistic that I almost fell asleep. I get more excitement sitting in Brookstone than sitting in one of those seats. Finally, the film didn't even match up with the movement and vibration! At least get that! Minor things included: bad acting, credits scrolling like a tv show, and just bad characters. We didn't stay much longer after that simulation, just walked around some more and getting a picture with one of the characters walking around. After leaving the park, we walked back to the train station and headed back to the hostel.

It was a pretty quiet lobby that night, so I decided to hang out there to try to get the internet working. As I was doing that, the tv was playing some show where people would imitate acts of American musicians (or it seemed). The sad thing was that I recognized some of the comedians, singers, and actors on the panel. My internet luck was not so great because this so called free internet didn't even have access to the internet. The router I found didn't have an IP address from the ISP, which defeats the whole purpose of having internet. Giving up for the night, I went down in my room and fell asleep.