Wednesday: Kyoto

Today was our last full day in Japan. We've been running full speed this past week to pack as much in as we could, so we decided to make today a slow day by meandering on the Philosopher's Walk, a cherry tree lined walking path that follows a canal along the base of the Higashiyama (Eastern Mountains). We caught a bus to the start of the pathway at a temple called Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion). You might think that the Silver Pavilion is silver. It's not. It was intended to be silver plated at its inception in the 1300s, but a war happened at that time and the temple never received its coating. We didn't see much of the temple today, as it was covered in scaffolding for restoration work. But the main reason for our visit was to see the garden, considered a design masterpiece by many. And let me tell you, it was COOL. It had these freshly combed, perfectly perfect (yes, perfectly perfect) gravel sculptures that were just amazing. The garden also had a ton of moss that was brighter than bright due to the heavy rains here last night. All of the gardens we have seen have been so perfectly maintained. As you stroll through gardens, there are always a bunch of workers clipping, wiring branches, and get this...sweeping the moss and gravel. The moss and gravel in garden landscapes are kept clear of every fallen leaf. Workers use bamboo handled straw brooms to carefully sweep all foreign objects out of the moss and gravel. Can you imagine doing that all day every day?! The careful maintenance of gardens is an important part of Japanese culture. Even informal courtyard gardens at homes we'd pass by were meticulously maintained.

After Ginkaku-ji, we made our way down the Philosopher's Walk until we came to the sign for Honen-in, a small temple that is a slight detour from the main path. We climbed up the steep hill and passed under the thatched gate to find a lovely, relatively people-free experience. Freshly raked sand mounds representing the seasons and water (impermanence), moss, loud bullfrogs, and a slight wind that was causing these tiny little leaves to flutter down off the trees in a way that seemed like confetti falling from the sky. Totally neat-o. We sat there a bit and took in the tranquility before heading back down to the path.

Our final stop on the path was Nanzen-ji Temple. This temple has a lengthy and important history...essentially meaning it was destroyed and rebuilt a couple times as a result of war and attack. I find it interesting that so many temples were destroyed by monks...I guess I just thought of them as peaceful sutra chanters. So naive. Anyway, the temple is lovely and had a rare public western toilet. (Hey, I like western toilets. I gave these squatties my best effort and open mind, but let's be real--how much squatting can these thighs take?!)

After Nanzen-ji we hopped a bus back to Kiyomizu-dera, where we went Monday. We both loved the walk up to this temple--crazily crowded and lively--that felt much like being part of a pilgrimage. We loved it so much that we decided to experience it again. We walked up the cobbled streets amongst what seemed like a gazillion people. It was especially crowded today--not an extra inch to move. On Monday we had admired a larger ceramic Buddha at a pottery studio, but because it was so heavy, D picked out some little guys instead. Well, we both kept thinking about the bigger one and decided he was the perfect way to remember our million and a half shrine visits on this trip and well worth the backache that would surely result from lugging him around in our backpack. We stopped in again to buy him. He'll be such a great memory of our experiences here.

After loading up the Buddha in our backpack, we stopped for an afternoon snack at the little row of tea rooms I described Monday. D had buckwheat noodles and cold dipping sauce and I had the much talked about condensed milk shaved ice with sweet bean jam. Deeeeeelicious. This place is so neat because on one side of you is a steep drop into a greener than green forest and the other side is masses of people passing by. I'm sure the Buddhists would some how make this an analogy to life, but I am too brain-dead right now to be that clever. Tee hee.

We finished our climb down from the temple and decided we were tired. Really tired. Normally we pushed through our early evening tired time this week and packed more in, but today we wanted to chill out before leaving tomorrow. So we caught the bus to or hotel stop, went to the convenience store across the street for pre-packaged lattes (coffee shops here don't often do lattes...'coffee' here still means black coffee) and came back to pack and prepare for our departure tomorrow.

I can't believe how fast this trip has flown by. We have had an absolute blast here. Of all the places we've ever traveled, this one is culturally the most different from our own and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring it together. We've learned so much this past week. (Though the bowing thing still throws me a bit...) I can't believe I was ever nervous about traveling here--I'd come back in a heartbeat and I'm sure we will. I think I'm a Japan junkie.

A few photos from today: Self-portrait at Ginkaku-ji's perfectly perfect gravel mound... Another amazing combed gravel bed at Ginkaku-ji (Can you even believe how perfectly perfect that gravel is?!)... Very Important Moss (like VIP...or is it VIM?)... Walking path at Ginkaku-ji... Moss sweeper... Now that's what I call pruning shrubs... Me being goofy at Honen-in... Serious roots at Honen-in... The Philosopher's Walk... Ornamental dragon at Nanzen-ji... Nanzen-ji... Rickshaw... Huge line for natural spring at Kiyomizu-dera (The cups get sanitized between uses by a UV light. Gotta love Japan.)... D and his buckwheat noodles... Me and my condensed milk and red bean jam shaved ice... Random roadside parasol.



Sayonara, Japan! Thanks for the memories!