The Wandering Age

Day 2 – Kitano Tenmangu, Kinkakuji, Ryoanji, Daitokuji

June 25, 2006 at 11:00 pm (Japan)

The second day I got up early and met Eri and Hiromi again. We planned to take a bus to Kitano Tenmangu Shrine because there was going to be a flea market there, but when we went to the bus stop we realized it was probably a pretty popular flea market. We would have had to wait for a few buses before we could fit on one so we took another bus that would get us close and then walk. We asked a lady in line if our plan looked good and that’s what she was doing too. Then Eri talked to her for a bit and I only caught some of it, but I did hear the part where the lady thought it was great to have an American boyfriend. Eri quickly corrected her and told her what we were doing. Then the lady asked Eri if I could understand, which is a funny feeling. It’s like being a little kid again when you can just stand by your mom and not be a part of a conversation unless the other person turns to you and changes their tone and invites you into the conversation. Anyway, then I joined the conversation for a little and the bus came.

The flea market was big and very interesting. It was sorta like a fair mixed with a flea market. There were antiques, new things, junk, games, food, etc. I would have bought a lot of things like souvenirs for myself and friends and a yukata for myself, but I since I was traveling with nothing but a backpack, I couldn’t buy anything. I did buy some taiyaki though. It looked like a waffle shaped like a fish (detailed shape with scale and eyes and such). I was very surprised when I bit into it and there was something gooey inside, but it was good. Eri told me it was anko, a sweet bean paste which I’d heard of before but never had.

Kitano Tenmangu shrine itself was pretty nice but packed since everyone was there for the flea market. I saw this a couple times later too, but there was a ring of straw to step through a certain way to get something (I’m not sure what, maybe to get married or something for all I know). Also, before we left the shrine, Eri went off for a bit and when she came back, she had bought me an omamori. These are little charms you get from shrines and mine is a fancy light blue cloth folded in the shape of a tag around something hard. It also has a fancy inoshishi (boar) design on it because that’s what I am in the Chinese zodiac. After this we walked to Kinkakuji and again stopped at some shrine we found on the way. These little randomly found shrines were some of my favorite things to see. Also when we were just walking up a random road, I noticed Daimonji in the distance. Daimonji is a festival in Kyoto in August where they set a mountain on fire in the shape of a kanji. It obviously wasn’t on fire at this time, but we could see where it normally burns. It was really cool to see this because Daimonji is in the background of one scene of my favorite movie and I used to think it was just a fire that happened to be in the shape of a kanji for symbolism (actually the first time I saw it I didn’t even know the kanji at the time).

Kinkakuji was just like I expected. If you look at my pictures you’ll see I have the exact you find in every brochure and guidebook. That’s something I’ve noticed about Japanese architecture; they really have a handle on line-of-sight. They don’t just build something that looks beautiful overall, but they always pay attention to what you see when you’re there in different places. I think that’s one reason everyone has great pictures of Japan, when they build places, they build with with scenic shots in mind. This (balance and consideration of the surrounding views) was even one of the seven(?) critical features of a beautiful garden in Japanese tradition. The only time the Japanese don’t pay attention to line-of-sight is when they build bathrooms. In many bathrooms (including the one by class at ICU) I would be standing there peeing and then look over and, “Hey! There are some girls in the hall that can see me perfectly.” I’d be really interested to see why they build bathrooms that way. Anyway, Kinkakuji is a temple that’s covered in solid gold in the middle of a nice lake with, of course, beatiful gardens all around. I liked the place a lot, but I like the simpler Japanese architecture much more than something covered in solid gold.

After Kinkakuji we walked to Ryoanji and again stopped at a few neat places along the way. I saw what was probably storage for stone lanterns. It was just tons and tons of them behind a fence on the side of the road. I stuck my hands through the fence and took pictures so you couldn’t see the fence itself. Ryoanji is the famous rock garden that everyone’s seen in pictures before. They gave me lots of good literature on the garden and different interpretations, but I think overall it has to do with the flow of life. It’s very spartan but also very big so it was hard to get representative pictures; the stock pictures are probably a lot better than mine. One neat thing was they had a model on the way in that was glued down so blind people could touch it and understand the garden. At the time I thought that was the only thing the Japanese ever did for the handicapped, but someone explained to me later how great Japan is for the blind and I just hadn’t realized it. Ryoanji is another place I took pictures that I later found in guidebooks.

I think it was here that Eri got us some dango (little balls of goo on a stick) that was really good. That’s one thing about food in Japan; there’s tons of stuff and I have no idea what it is. First there are lots of fruits and vegetables I didn’t know existed, but then past that there’s other stuff and I don’t know at all what it is. Was this made from a fruit? a vegetable? an animal? some sort of mineral? There’s things of all sorts of consistencies and tastes and I can imagine where it came from. I found out later a lot of it is made from rice; I think the Japanese can make anything else out of rice and all of it tastes good. While I’m talking about food that’s another thing; I like almost all Japanese food. Everyone kept telling me how much the food was going to shock me and I’d have trouble finding things I liked. Especially since I don’t like a lot of things in America everyone assumed I’d die of starvation in Japan. Obviously that wasn’t right. I loved all the Japanese food I had except two things and even those were okay and I ate them. The fish head and the chicken knuckles. The reason I like most Japanese food is the texture; the Japanese always make sure to keep good texture for their foods even when they’re mixed but a lot of American foods (or foods we eat in America, like Mexican) have random textures thrown in together and it’s that, not the taste, that make me not like it. Anyway, back to the story it’s not hard to find.

Ryoanji was like a giant temple-garden complex with lots of different places to see. There was a cool bridge going out to an island in the middle of the lake, a tea house, bamboo gardens, other types of gardens, lots of shrines, etc. I think there were also some cranes and ducks in the lake.

After Ryoanji, we took a taxi to Daitokuji to make sure we’d get there before it closed. Daitokuji was also a big complex with smaller subtemples. I have tickets here to Zuihoin, which had a small more rounded rock garden, Daisenin, which also has a famous rock garden, and Kotoin, which was very peaceful with some nice tree gardens and stone lanterns.

After that we went into a cool, urban part of Kyoto to eat dinner at another traditional place. I thought it was funny they low tables in the traditional style but instead of sitting in seiza, they had holes in the floor under your table where you would put your legs. I asked Eri about it and she said most modern Japanese can’t sit in seiza so they usually do that… Did I already tell this story? If so, here it is again. This place was the style where the middle of your table is a pan where you can cook your own food and I tried my first okonomiyaki (like a pancake with things (like cabbage and meat and such) in it) which was very good. Actually on my last day in Japan I ate at another place sort of like this but less formal (all you can eat and actually sitting on the floor). It was also on the way to this restaurant that I saw the “Cabbage and Condoms” sign a lady was holding. I explained to Eri that they were trying to write about and they actually said “condom” which is, and she said she knew what that was (the word is the same in Japanese).

After dinner Eri and Hiromi came back to my apartment for a little and we looked at maps and thought about what to do for the next few days and then they left and I went to bed.