Our new friends are students, as I mentioned before. All of them were freshmen in college, and all of their majors were English and Chinese. They were an interesting group of girls, and we enjoyed trying out our Japanese and English skills on one another so much that I nearly forgot that I should be taking pictures of the beautiful things all around me. After changing train lines once and noticing that all the buildings were getting gradually taller, I figured we were nearing Kyoto.
I must say, Kyoto was much different than I expected, at least the part that I visited. I had simply assumed it was another large metropolis similar to Osaka, but it very much had an old, woodsy, traditional feel about. The walk up to the jinja we were going to visit (Kiyomizu Temple) was a very steep slope. The Japanese girl whom i had been talking with most of the trip and myself began to pull ahead of the main group, but by the time we reached the beginnings of the temple and the end of the slope, we were both breathless.
My first reaction to seeing the characteristic oriental building styles and the bright orange roof was a sort of disbelief. I am really in Japan.
All those pictures and movies I have seen have temples like this in them, no wait, these ARE those temples and I am here, now. Every single building there was probably older than the United States. Each of them was painfully beautiful, unique, and breathtaking. I more than likely walked around more than half the time with my jaw on the ground. Keep in mind I hadn't even entered the grounds yet. I will admit, I ran up the steps to the doorway of the temple grounds not because I felt like reaching the top faster, but because I was as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning. The orange and green archway building that acted as the door to the temple grounds was not only just an entryway, but it housed two triple sized intricate wooden statues of the ancient warriors who had protected the temple in the past.
The details were amazing, and one of them even had great abs. Once inside, I felt like I was flying from place to place, not having the time to dedicate to each object what it really deserved.
We stopped for a few minutes to enter the womb of the Mother Buddha. It is a series of tunnels beneath one of the temples which is kept in perpetual darkness for you to be better able to relax and set free your mind, soul, etc. We removed our shoes, and with me leading walked down into the dark tunnels. We were instructed to hold onto the beaded railing along the walls, and I was a little unsure of the entire thing when I walked face-first into a wall. I realized, however, that I had just missed the turn. The entire depths were, as they said, pitch black, and it had a strong smell of sweet incense, which was very very calming. In the center of the labyrinth was a large gray stone with a symbol on it that I didn't recognize. We were told to place both hands on the stone and make our wish or our prayer, and then proceed to find the exit. We were told that when you exited the womb, it was to be reborn refreshed and renewed. It was quite an interesting experience.
After that, we entered the actual temple area, washing our hands- left one first, then our right one- in a fountain. The temple was beautiful, full of large gongs that elderly religious Japanese would offer up to and ring on. The temple it seems was full of smaller, individual shrines, and I almost felt irreverent for not knowing more about what I was seeing. I felt truly foreign, but very lucky to experience it.
There were a couple of interesting things on the temple grounds. The only really hands on 'events' that one could participate in were to lift a series of spears, one was completely iron and was near 60 or 70lbs and the other was a giant wooden spear a foot or two taller than myself. I guessed it weighed over 500Lbs because no one in the entire crowd could lift it.
The second event was to walk through the love and matchmaking shrine which is still commonly used by japanese people to test out their luck in love. Many married couples will also return to the shrine after their marriage. What you must do to test your fortune in love is to walk from one ancient love rock to another safely with your eyes closed. If you have someone walking you through it and succeed this signifies that you will have help in obtaining love. When I chose to walk the walk, the only 'help' I received was our new Japanese friends saying "Aaaahh!!! hayakudesu!!"- too fast! We Americans just see a challenge and we run towards it, even if it is a symbolic test of love, ha ha. (I did reach the rock safely)
Inside the temple I took advantage of having my fortune read and was handed a translucent paper full of Japanese kanji that I could not read. I asked our new friends to translate for me, and they promptly started shrieking and being generally excited, their eyes wide with shock. Apparently I had received the best fortune that was possible to receive and Japanese people in the crowd came over to see me and congratulate me and nod and bow. From what I gathered, some of the fortune said that I have and will continue to have the best lover, the best health, and the greatest chance one can have at success and fortune. It is tradition to fold up your fortune and tie it to a series of metal bars near where your fortune is given to you, but I was told mine was so good that I must keep it. So I will keep it, and maybe find a nice, little frame for it!
The rest of the temple was a beautiful experience, the final thing we did had to do with 3 separate streams which are natural waterfalls which pour down from the side of the mountain. Each stream represents a different desirable thing, one for love, one for health, and one for wisdom. It is said that it is greedy to try and drink from all 3, so all 3 of the Valpo girls headed up there at the same time and we each drank from one of the 3 different streams. A very neat experience!
On the way down the mountain from the temple grounds, I noticed a repetative phenomena that started occuring. On the hills of the mountains and even housed in little temples were small liter-sized miniature people statues, dressed in red. Some had flowers laying in front of them, some even had little offerings of food, and some had hats brought out to cover their heads. I found out that these hundreds of statues were representative of aborted infants and that people would come to bring them food, to comfort them, and even keep them warm. They are called "Jizo" or "Water children". It was a very interesting thing to see permanent, ancient, though continuing representation of the loss of infants at a Buddhist temple. It was quite sobering.
After the entire temple experience. We headed down a street full of shopping vendors selling the MOST AMAZING things. Imagine any old town Americana place that has a bunch of antique/ neato shops times one hundred. They sold everything from Katanas to rice cakes to ice cream, to cell phone charms. Needless to say, I picked up a few gifts for my family. Be ready.
After the shops, we found a okonomiyaki restaurant where the seven of us could fit, and let me say. Okonomiyaki is the MOST delicious Japanese food I have EVER tasted. It is described as a Japanese pancake or omelet, but it is just so much more. Plus, mine had squid in it, though I asked for shrimp. It was a wise mistake, I think. Oishidesu! Simply amazing.
Well that is all for now, talk to you all again soon,
Sarah
Here are some more images from inside the temple
What is that delicious squid pancake doing not in my tummy?
ReplyDeleteLook up the recipe- it was 'Modanyaki' it had squid and noodles inside. I will also try to figure out how to make it. I am bringing a cookbook back for SURE.
ReplyDelete