Kyoto Day 2 ... The Deer Hunters

This is the next post of our Japan trip.  It took place in September but I only managed to write these notes a couple of months later.  For contemporaneous reports, take a look at Track My Tour -- a brilliant app that I used to ... well, track our tour.  Here is the link.

After yesterday's breathtaking series of events, we did wonder what could top that and Cat's schedule for the day was interesting:

1.  Kyoyo station for breakfast
2.  Train to Nara -- Todaiji Temple (buddha), Kasuga Grand Shrine (3,000 lanterns) and Nara Park for deer (rickshaw between)
3.  Stopping train back to Kyoto stopping at Fushimi Inari
4.  Ponto Cho in th evening

It doesn't sound too much.  Only 4 things on the face of it.  Yesterday's had 6!

Anyway Nara was a short train ride away and is another Japanese city with old buildings on the outskirts built around the large train station... of course nothing like Kyoto's! Nara isn't that much of a city really but has a whole slate of important buildings probably because for about 70 years from 710 AD, it was the capital of Japan.  Back then it was called Heijokyo and lost its status in another one of the civil wars.

We asked a lady at the station where the Todaiji Temple was and she kindly hauled out a map and with vigourous strokes of a red crayon drew all the bits we should see in Nara City.  It was exhausting listening to her and we were probably the 43rd tourist who'd asked the same thing that day.  She was a one-person tourist authority.

More to the point, her directions were spot on too and all too soon as we strolled the 15 minutes in the warm sunshine (yay!) along Omiya Street, we came to the front gates of the temple and went inside.

We'd noticed before in Miyajima that deer walked all over the place and came up to people hassling them for food.  But here in Nara there were attack deer who hunted in packs.  Cat's mum, Thelma, made the big mistake of trying to shrink away from the deer and move away but they were remorseless and just kept on following.

Some do's and don'ts of deer feeding.  If feeding, place cookie in open hand and offer it to the deer.  Do not hold it in your fingers as they may get chomped instead by these voracious critters.  So (top) well done, Cat but (bottom) what do you think you are doing, Indy?  No fingers!!

And if you decide not to feed them, hold your hand out as though you are a policeman stopping cars.

Despite the Do Not Feed the Deer signs, concessions sold deer food to the massive numbers of tourists.  The food itself was large round cookies probably made out of something nutritious for deer.  Whatever they went nuts over them and herded around even the more.

Love the helpful signs!  Do NOT turn your back on the deer.

However deer aside, that wasn't the reason Nara was item 2 on Cat's list.  It was the wooden temple, Todaiji, the world's largest wooden building.  Founded in the 8th Century, the current version is number 3 or 4 rebuilt in 1709, but as the then Shogun was short of cash, he couldn't rebuild it to its full extent.  So it is only one-third the original size and still the largest wooden structure in the world.

The 800 year old gate house

But the real reason this place is famous is the Daibutsu (or Great Buddha) inside.  It is a monster, sorry being more respectful I meant ENORMOUS.

Pretty much standard lay out though:  chubby and sitting with a sort of cheery grin on his face.  Like many other places though, as the buddha is a peaceful man he needs protection so is surrounded by a series of scowling friends that I suspect are meant to scare the bejasus out of you.

Daibutsu in person

This temple reminded me very much of a Cathedral in the west in that it was set out wholly as a place of worship without other stuff getting in the way.  Mind you, the stalls where indulgences were sold were doing a roaring trade.

Some helpers, very grim looking too!

As far as I could work out, you bought an indulgence (something like good health or happiness for the family) and you took it forward to the statue of your choice.  There are plenty around so even if there's a throng of people, there's usually a free statue with one of those chests in front of it with what looks like sand and some candles.  You take a candle, wrap the indulgence around it (usually in the form of a small piece of paper with your indulgence written on it in Japanese characters) and set light to the candle setting it up in the sand.  That's the basis around which there are local customs in different places.  One that cropped up fairly often was the bell ringing option where for again a small payment of another indulgence you could ring that bell.

I know there's gift shops and donation boxes in churches but indulgences like this nearly brought the Catholic church to its knees and sparked the Reformation.

But we did buy a roof slate to help out!!

Next temple was thankfully only a shortish stroll away through the forest and always up more steps (!!) called the Kasuga Taisha Shrine.

I didn't count the steps!

This was a Shinto temple (remember Japan is about 50/50 Shinto/Buddhist) and had its own Zen garden of raked sand and perfectly shaped rocks placed just so.

This shrine is number 60 or so as it's been around over 1,200 years like many of the other temples, shrines, pagodas and other buildings in this really old city so has burned down many times before.  It is also home to the 3,000 lanterns which seem to go on forever.

However it was a long walk up and down through the forest, park and gardens so after Kasuga we were looking forward to a libation and something to eat but ran into the Five Storey Pagoda on the road back to Nara Station for a brief visit too.

The team on tour!

It had been a long walking day so the consensus was for not that much more walking and something easy for dinner.  However Indy found an Irish Pub near the downtown core of Kyoto which we found irresistable particularly as we found that Chelsea were playing Cat's dad Gordon's team, Everton, and were in the process of getting soundly stuffed.

15,500 paces of walking today according to my new pedometer!! Felt like it too.

The art photo!  Some of the lanterns in the dark... helped out by strategically placed mirrors!

Kyoto Day 1 -- Beat This!

This is the next post of our Japan trip.  It took place in September but I only managed to write these notes a couple of months later.  For contemporaneous reports, take a look at Track My Tour -- a brilliant app that I used to ... well, track our tour.  Here is the link.

Cat's itinerary for Day 1 in Kyoto ran like this:

• Arashiyama -- Tenruji temple, bamboo forest, Okochi Senso (villa that includes tea and cake), maybe Jojakko-Ji, moon bridge crossing and lunch in village
• Taxi (20 mins) to Kinkau-Ji (gold temple)
• Taxi or 30 min walk to Ryoan-Ji (stone garden)
• Ninna-Ji (5 storey pagoda) next door
• Myoshin-Ji and Taizo-In (walled complex of temples and gardens)
• Geisha evening

What a day if we actually made it all (we didn't!) but still an epic day!

The taxi ride to Arashiyama was through Kyoto, as it turned out the southern very populated part of the city to journey's end where we found Tenryu-Ji Temple (yet another World Cultural Heritage Site -- by the end of the trip this became kind of normal.  Everywhere was World Heritage this, that or the other).  However this was different.

Religion in Japan is in the main either Buddhist or Shinto -- about half each.  The religions co-exist fairly well and the temples themselves are pretty much identical except that in the Shinto ones, there's no big chubby looking chap sitting and smiling.  Usually there's quite a few grim looking guys whose primary job is to scare off evil spirits of one sort or other and in the process give small children nightmares.  However this temple was the first Zen temple in Japan established in 1339 by the Shogun following yet another civil war in which vast numbers died.  Of course it had the raked sand garden with little rocks strategically placed all around in perfect position (of course).

The publicity blurb says this version is of course not the first, nor the second or many after as most perished in fires throughout the ages, but dates back to the Meiji period 1868-1912.  Interestingly this temple is one of the few that did not start out as some bigwig's home that was subsequently bequeathed to the religious sect.  It was purpose built from the outset... even though a bigwig ordered it done.

Classic Kyoto art being preserved under the Tsuzuri program.  This is a dragon looking distinctly boggle-eyed.

Being a Zen joint, it was very nicely laid out with plenty of places to sit back and reflect.

Crazy thing happened after in that a TV film crew asked if they could interview us for a TV programme of some sort so Indy, Cat and I hopped into their car and were filmed and interviewed driving around pointing out sights and giving our views on the world.  Who knows where that will end?

Bamboo forest

Behind the temple was a bamboo forest that we walked through and up to a silent movie star's home in the hills above the temple called Okochi-Senso.  It was sited in a lovely spot in the hills.  Obviously the movie star was a wealthy guy to be able to afford not to live with the hoi-polloi in the valley below.

Daytime job

Okochi-Senso is a place where you can book for events of all sorts.  It is very peaceful and has lovely overland views.

The highlight of the day though undoubtedly was the golden temple called Kinkaku-Ji.  This again belonged to a bigwig but dates back to the 1300's ... even though this one was actually rebuilt in the 1950's.  

Kinkaku-Ji

Again lovely gardens all around and a splendid place to visit.

Both these places took so long to take in properly that we felt that enough was enough in the templing stakes and that a cold beer and quick rest before Geisha night was called for.

Actually there's no Geishas in Kyoto, they are called Geiko's.  They have trained for years and are in fact professionals who get paid to appear in various places... such as where we had dinner in Gion.  They have trainees called Maiko's who to all external appearance look identical except that they are not yet professionals and are therefore unpaid.  They have day jobs.

The evening had one of each who danced (really slowly) for us, poured tea, played a stringed instrument in a twangy fashion that sounded ... well sort of really twangy.  Reminded me of watching the Monterey Pop movie years ago which had Ravi Shankar playing in the same twangy way only for the audience to burst into applause once he'd finished.  He looked bemused as he'd actually just been tuning up.  

We got to play games with the Geiko/Maiko.  Something like slaps for drinks!  Great fun and the dinner was another one of a multitude of small exquisitely presented very small dishes of items that were largely unidentifiable... along with unending sake!!

The full menu was: Snapper and salmon sushi, boiled crabs and vegetables, ginger, egg, squid with salted entrails and roe of Ayu fish, Prawn, Fried maiden hair-nut, Kelp with herring roe, Duck, Edamame, Grilled scallop, gluten cake, grilled bonito, Hamo conger eel, Rolled tuna and condiments, Steamed snapper with tofy skin made from black beans, eggplant, salmon roe, Bean with shark fin thick starchy sauce, Fried Hamo conger eel, Deep fried Hamo's born, Tofy and yuba (tofu skin), wild vegetable with clear soup, Steamed rice with Hamo sea eel and Japanese pepper and for dessert Pear comport, Grape, Jerry, sauce mint.  Whoa!

This is becoming a trend!!!