Back to Business

So it took me a month to get all the blogs up from our week long trip, but you’ve got to admit that I wasn’t exactly a slacker about it.  I was posting more than twice as often as usual.  Still, there’s some catching up to do.

 

 

 

 

 

This was at the Wonder Museum.  Actually, it’s been so long that they’ve already rotated this exhibit out, but it was too much fun not to share a glimpse of it with you.  So the kids go to the top of the stairs, drop the ball into the ramp and come down the slide . . .

and the ball makes its way down, down, down while the kids (and adults) watch in amazement and excitement trying to guess which path it’s going to take.

Next you come over here, put the ball in the cup and use the pulley system to drop it up in the funnel and then chase the ball as it rolls down through the roller coaster tube.

Those were just the highlights but, as you can see, they weren’t quite enough to keep all of us entertained. 

Thanks Uncle Jonathan!  The rug and the “pack-ack” have been another big hit.

She is growing WAY too quickly.

  

 

 

 

 

 

They LOVE playing with each other and nothing gives me more joy than hearing the two of them giggling together.

More cuteness coming soon; I know you’ve been feeling deprived :)

Arashiyama Monkey Park

This one was supposed to be for the kids (Logan mostly, for obvious reasons), but I’m sure that Jake and I enjoyed it as much, if not more, than they/he did.  The mountains around Kyoto are a native home to a species of monkey called the Japanese macaque.  To the west of the city, a particular mountain is designated as a preserve for the monkeys and a troop of about 130 of them live there.

After you buy your tickets from a vending machine at a small shrine at the base of the mountain, you begin the hike up to the top.  It was a pretty good hike—there was still snow on the ground but Jake and I both stripped off our jackets about halfway up.  This little fellow accompanied us on the path for a while.

 
The cool thing is that you are totally in the monkey’s world.  There are no bars, cages, glass or anything else separating you from the monkeys as you climb up the hill.  

While they are still wild, they are fairly well-accustomed to humans and completely at ease or even friendly with us.  They are smart little creatures too—they are the only animals, besides humans and raccoons, who have been observed to wash their food before they eat it and in other locations where they have the same type of monkey, they have been observed seasoning their food with sea water and even relaxing in natural hot spring baths!

Monkey baby!

The view as we approached the top was pretty nice too.  Down in the bottom right corner you can see a portion of Kyoto.

One you reach the top (of the trail, not really the top of the mountain but close), there is a small building where you can buy bags of food (apples, peanuts, etc.) to feed the monkeys.  You are given strict instructions not to feed the monkeys or even show them food while on the trail or anywhere outside this building.  But the monkeys definitely know where to go for a handout; I counted fifty of them in the immediate area of this little building.

It’s not easy to take a good picture of someone who is tied to your chest.

Logan was pretty excited about feeding the monkeys.  Honestly, it really was a lot of fun and a pretty cool experience.

There is a viewing area around the building, but it’s arguable who the viewing area is supposed to be for.  The monkeys had a nice little set-up there, complete with a pond they could sit in on the hot summer days and look out over the city.

On the way back down the hill, we stopped for a while to watch a couple of baby monkeys playing together and pestering their mom.  Eventually one of them sat still enough for me to snap its portrait.

Logan to monkeys: Hey guys, want to play? 

And that pretty well wraps up our Kyoto trip.  It was a fabulous vacation and definitely one of the top cities I’ve seen worldwide.  We got to do and see SO much, even though we were going at a fairly relaxed pace with a toddler and infant in tow. 

One thing that interested me was comparing Kyoto to Okinawa.  The straight lines of Kyoto’s roads seemed to be indicative of the personality of the city.  Everything was neat, orderly, and perhaps a little rigid.  Whereas Okinawa’s roads are . . . well, decidedly not straight.  Things here a little more easy-going, a little messier, and a whole lot warmer! And now that I’ve finished up Kyoto, I’ll be bringing you updates from our own little island again soon! 

Imperial Palace

Although Kyoto was the capital of Japan for over 1,000 years, the Imperial Palace was only nominally the seat of power during most of that time, while the actual power was held primarily by the shoguns.  (Go back and look at Nijo to see where several of the shoguns lived.)  However, the Imperial Palace is still used for important ceremonies of state such as coronations.

Probably because of its continued political functionality, this was the one place in all Kyoto where we had to pass through some sort of security (basically just an ID check).  It was also the only place that can only be seen by guided tour, and the only place that offered English-speaking tours.

Two prominent features of the palace are the cypress bark roofs and the ubiquitous 16-petal chrysanthemum emblem, which actually appears five times in this one shot (and twice more just barely outside the margins of this shot).

All the buildings are connected by passageways, so that the emperor could move from living quarters to ceremonial and administrative areas without ever stepping foot on the ground.  The servants, meanwhile, moved about primarily via underground passageways so as not to detract from the view.

Visitors are only allowed inside the palace two days a year but certain rooms are visible from the outside.  This room was one of three rooms where courtiers waited to receive an audience with the emperor.  The courtiers were assigned to a room based on rank, and each room is identified by the paintings on its screens: tigers, cranes, or cherry trees.

Through the gate, across the courtyard and up those steps is the imperial throne.  This is as close as we got to it.

It was a great day for rooflines though.  Incidentally, I counted 134 chrysanthemums in this picture.  No kidding.

The gardens were pretty spectacular, but even more amazing was something the guide pointed out to us.  She indicated a couple of gardeners tending to a pine tree near the path and explained that they were hand-plucking the dead needles from the tree!  They also go through in the spring and pinch off each of the buds (again, by hand) so that the trees maintain their desired shape. 

This painting on a sliding door depicts a garden party drinking game.  A small boat, basically a toy, was sailed down the little river that wound through the garden and you had to compose a poem by the time it reached you in order to drink your sake. 

Not much time left in Kyoto; I really only have one more place to take you.  I really think you could spend a month there as a tourist and not see all the sights, but we did our best, and relaxed and enjoyed ourselves besides.  The final entry is something a little different . . . stay tuned!

Nishi Hongan-ji

Nishi is the head temple of the True Pure Land sect of Buddhism, which has one of the largest followings of all the Buddhist sects in Japan.  While the temple has a great deal of historic value—in fact, when we were there they were preparing to celebrate their 750th anniversary!—it is also quite active as a religious center, and the brochure, accordingly, was half tourist pamphlet and half missionary tract.

One of the really fascinating things (okay, at least I find it interesting) about this particular sect of Buddhism is that they embrace an idea which is basically analogous to the Christian idea of grace.  According to them, we can all reach the Pure Land simply by placing our faith in the Primal Vow of the Amida Buddha.  We actually studied this parallel in one of the last classes that I took, so it was neat for me to know a bit more about the beliefs of this place we were visiting.

 

Plus, the architecture was pretty spectacular.  I love all the roof lines here.

Unfortunately, the preparations for the 750th anniversary celebrations entailed some construction, leaving a large portion of the temple rather un-photogenic.  The buildings here are the scripture repository (smaller building in front) and behind it, the bookstore (not tourist-type bookstore, more like Buddhist theology student store).

  In contrast to the Shinto shrines, which have the torii gates, Buddhist temples have massive gates, often with elaborate doors such as this.

A dragon is featured in the center of the base of the lamp which is suspended from the gate.  And yes, that’s all gold. 

The karamon gate is traditionally reserved for the entrance into the temple compound of certain dignitaries such as the emperor.

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The details on the karamon gate are painstakingly elaborate and beautiful.

Odd little point of interest, the shisas, including this rather exuberant little fellow, are not nearly as popular in mainland Japan as they are in Okinawa.  They are a Chinese import and in Kyoto are often replaced with little samurai-type figurines or flowers.  (We thought the flowers might be intended to represent chrysanthemums, the imperial symbol, but we weren’t sure.)

A plum tree begins to bud in the courtyard of the temple.

I’m getting close to wrapping up the Kyoto blogs which is good since we were there a month ago!  How does the time go by so fast?

Also, my apologies if you think I should have called you recently.  My phone is being stupid, specifically the battery is retarded and I haven’t been able to get it fixed yet.  Email me or hang around Skype and let me know how you’re doing!

Philosopher’s Path and Train Museum

Yes, it’s really called the Philosopher’s Path, or at least that’s the English translation of Tetsugaku-no-michi, and no, that’s not the only reason we walked it.  It’s a beautiful stroll that begins right outside Ginkaku-ji and continues alongside a canal.  The path is lined with cherry trees and is one of the best spots in the city (which is renowned for its cherry blossoms) for cherry blossom viewing.  Not that we saw many when we were there, but it was a pleasant, scenic walk all the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The idea we had was to walk along the Philosopher’s Path to the end (which we did) and then go a couple blocks west to the zoo.  We figured by this point that Logan had been a really good sport about all the temples and it was time for him to have some fun.

Unfortunately, the zoo happened to be closed that day!  However, we did find this MASSIVE torii gate very near the zoo.  It is the entrance to Heian Jingu which we chose not to visit—you can’t do everything.  But the torii gate is the largest in Japan at almost 80 feet tall and the top rail over 100 feet wide.

Luckily for Logan, even though the zoo had been closed we had a few other surprises in store for him.  So the next morning we headed off to the Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum.

While waiting for our own train ride, Logan very intently watches other trains go past, including the Shinkansen (the bullet train).

Logan’s reaction was a bit different than expected.  He was excited about the roundhouse, the model trains and the Thomas display, but the locomotives themselves (18 of them!) rather overwhelmed him.  Still it was a hit overall and left us in close proximity to our next adventure . . .

Ginkaku-ji: the “Silver” Pavilion

Remember the gold-plated building?  That one was Kinkaku; this one is Ginkaku.  It was built as a counterpart to the gold one and was originally intended to be covered in silver foil.  Despite this never actually being accomplished, it remains known as “the Silver Pavilion”.  And in the freshly fallen snow, it was sublime!

 

 

 

 

 

Coming up to the main event, some elegant snow-covered scenes.  I especially like the partially-buried Zen garden.

This is what would have been covered in silver.  By the way, it was built in 1482 and has survived intact to the present day.

The temple complex was built at the height of Japan’s artistic blossoming, and, rather ironically, the lack of the planned silver foil fits very nicely with the then-developing Japanese aesthetic sense.  The unfinished nature of the temple illustrates a quality that the Japanese call “wabi-sabi”.  Derived from the Buddhist idea of the transience and impermanence of things, wabi-sabi focuses on the beauty of the imperfect.  And on a day like this, why gild the lily?

   The surrounding gardens were gorgeous.

And the view pretty incredible too.

Sometimes the smallest details are the most stunning though.

Continuing with the wabi-sabi theme, in case this post is too perfect, I’ll bring you back down to earth.  While I was nursing Naomi in the bathroom, Logan was outside playing in the snow and making friends.  Japan isn’t keen on public breastfeeding, but they are excellent about providing comfortable nursing facilities and baby/child care spaces.  And where there weren’t dedicated nursing areas, there were at least heated toilet seats—a nice feature considering the cold weather.  There now, doesn’t that knowledge just add to your Zen contemplation of this post?