Our trek to Kyoto

Well, Friday I went to Kyoto, and, for that matter, Saturday as well. On Friday almost all the new international students went to Kyoto as part of a tour set up by the university… that is, depending on how broadly you define the word “tour.” We were split up into groups (my group consisted Daniel, Tommy, and Niklas from Sweden Arum from South Korea, and Kara from Minnesota) and assigned a guide (a Kansai Gaidai student). Our guide, however, did not seem to have much idea where to go and wasn’t terribly familiar with the workings of the Kyoto rail system, so we ended up getting lost a couple of times. We were fortunate to run into another international student who knew a little bit more about the area and that helped.

Eventually, we made it to Fushiminari Shrine, which is famous for its thousands of tori, which are those iconic red gates you might see in a picture of Japan in a tourbook or some such thing. The tori are all placed together along the paths that wind up the mountain through a forest, creating a kind of tunnel.


From left to right: Our guide, Arum, Evan, Kara, Daniel, Niklas, Tommy. Everyone's camera was used to take a similar picture, so I was getting bored with the same ol' facial expression. This was an unfortunate variation ;-)



Entering the shrine, we came upon a washing station. In Shinto (which, if I recall correctly, means something like “way of the gods”), purification is very important so at the entrance to most or all shrines is a basin with water and ladels. Before entering, it is customary to wash ones hands and mouth with the water. So we all stopped at the basin to do some purification before climbing the mountain (but, as fate would have it, the climb would turn out to be quite purifying…)


Note: This is not the washing basin at Fushiminari, but a washing basin I saw at another shrine near Ginkakuji

Also near the entrance was a place where persons could get their fortunes on a slip of paper. Some of the others did this, but, since it was in Japanese, we were mostly out of luck in understanding them. I believe the idea is that if one receives a negative fortune, one ties it to a nearby tree or post, thus parting with that unfortunate future.

Fushiminari is a shrine to the fox god, and so on either side of one of the first tori were two fox statues. I am not sure if they were guarding the way or what their function was. I actually would love to get a book (or maybe I’ll just talk to a professor at Kansai Gaidai) about the iconography of Shinto shrines and Buddhist Temples in Japan.



We passed through and began the climb up. The sun was setting and so we tried not to tarry too long taking tons of pictures, but, of course, we did. One of the interesting things about each of the tori is that they are all owned by some one or some family and have to be replaced every 30 years I believe (because the wood rots due to the humidity). I have no idea how expensive this must be, but I think it’s safe to assume that it is something only the very wealthy can do.

Along the path there are various shrines (and the ubiquitous vending machines – I suppose some, including some Japanese vending companies, would say that Coca-Cola is the nectar of the gods), to which persons make trips to make offerings and prayers for good fortune or cures to ailments.

Towards the top of the climb, there is an overlook from which all of Kyoto can be seen. It was dusk when we reached this point and the city was beginning to light up.



At this point a Japanese woman stopped and directed us (as the path forked into three directions) to what she said was the top. So we made our way in that direction up a very difficult climb and finally reached the peak. We were hoping to be able to get a better view of the city from this point, but trees and a building blocked any view may have had. Legs were aching, and many were complaining. We had all bundled up for the trip, but none were without sweat by the top. Some commented that it was getting warmer, but the sun had set. It was not an external change, but an internal one. Who sees this?

It began to rain lightly for our descent, and one girl had a wool coat, which apparently does not mix with rain and so we, with gravity as both an aid and a danger on the slippery steps, made our way down quickly.

I was hoping we might stop somewhere in Kyoto to eat as there was no shortage of places, but the others elected to return back Hirakata and go to the conveyer belt sushi place again (it’s fairly inexpensive and good, so why not).


From Left to Right: Tommy (Sweden), Kara (Minnesota), Daniel (Sweden), Me, Arum (Korea), Niklas (Sweden)

The next day, I woke up with my legs aching from all the walking the day previous. But, I really wanted to go back to Kyoto to see some temples and begin to get oriented in the city (as we only saw a very very very small part). So I toughed it out and went back.

I was hoping to start my trek at Kyoto station. After some confusion about doubling back on the rail system (as there express and local trains, sometimes it would seem advantageous to take an express past one’s destination and then go back a couple of stops, but occasionally one has to pay for a transfer, and I’m frugal so I opted to walk instead), I arrived at Kyoto station, which, as I had heard, was gigantic. Within this train station, there is a movie theater, a department store (like a 6 story department store, not like a JC Penney in a local mall back home), and all sorts of other things. I was mostly interested in stopping at the Tourist Information place and picking up some maps and information about bus schedules. So, after getting some info and a donut from Mister Donut, I found a bus and headed off to Ginkakuji.



Ginkakuji is known as the “silver pavilion temple,” but this is a misnomer. There is nothing, nor was there ever, anything silver about it. It was simply named that to differentiate it from Kinkakuji (The Gold Pavilion Temple). I got there sometime around 1:00 and paid the admission fee (500 yen) and made my way in. Ginkakuji has beautifully kept gardens, mixing architecture, rock elements, plants and ponds into a beautiful arrangement. I made my way through slowly, trying to be mindful of all I was experiencing.









The temple was a temple in the Rinzai lineage of Zen Buddhism. I am not sure if it is still an active temple, though. I did not see any monks, but it is possible they were hiding away in the part of the temple off limits to tourists. And of course, what attraction is complete without a gift shop… apparently not even a temple.

I had hoped to visit another temple as well, but it was nearing three and I was hoping to take care of one more thing downtown before heading back home to go out with some friends for dinner. So I began back towards a bus stop. Before doing so, though, I picked up a free sample of something from some sweet shop. It was a sweet, cinnamon jelly (from talking with others, I would guess it’s made of red beans or something) wrapped in a soft something. Whatever it was, it was absolutely delicious, and I would like to find more of it.

Back towards downtown, I was looking for a record shop to buy some concert tickets to a show coming up in Kyoto. It was in some shopping district that has kilometers of covered roads (well, I guess it’s not too dissimilar to an indoor mall), and though I had a hand-drawn map (read: bad idea), I had no idea where to go. Fortunately, I was able to ask some people for directions to landmarks near the shop and was able to locate it. For the most part, I have yet to really feel lost thus far in Japan. By lost I mean the feeling of not only being in the “wrong place,” but also feeling unable to find one’s destination.





I bought the tickets (Joanna Newsom on Feb. 19 in Kyoto – I’m stoked!) and headed back home. Not having a cell phone, it is always an uncertainty as to whether I’ll be able to meet up with the people I want to or not. Fortunately, I ran into my friend Daniel in the dorm and we headed to meet a group for dinner.

The restaurant we went to was near the Seminar Houses and served Okonomiyaki, which is a mixture of lettuce, egg and some other things (this is actually only a guess, I’m not exactly sure what goes into it) and your choice of something (like shrimp or vegetables or meat of some kind) and then covered in some sauce and cooked (like a pancake). I had one with Shrimp (Ebi). This was actually pretty good, except there were occasionally bites of something that didn’t quite suit me. It’s a taste I encountered the other night when I unwittingly ate octopus. Oh, I didn’t tell you this story did I.

I was out and about in Makino (an area right by the Seminar Houses), hungry and looking for something to eat (tonight is the first night we are allowed to cook in the kitchen). I saw this one guy in a stall wide enough only for him frying up some balls of something. I was hungry, and they didn’t look too bad and so I got some and took them back home. I bit into it and it was chewy and then there were tough bits to it. It didn’t taste too pleasant, and the texture was a mix of too chewy and too tough. I ate four and then decided I had no desire to finish the rest. After digging around on the internet, I have since determined that I was eating octopus (a food called takoyaki). So I can now tell you quite objectively that I do not like octopus.

Today was the day that the homestay kids moved off to live with their host families. My best friend here, Daniel, left, but we have a class together so I’ll still be certain to see him regularly.

Speaking of classes, I registered on Thursday and, after being fortunate in drawing lots (#97 out of over 400), I got all the classes I wanted – Death in East Asian Thought and Sumi-e (brush painting). I also found out yesterday that I made it into level 2 of Japanese! I’m really glad about this. One semester of Japanese at Elon covers half of what level one does here (Lessons 1-4 in Genki vs. Lessons 1-9 – of course they meet every day of the week), and so I was worried that I would be in level one and spend half the class repeating what I already know. So over January I started studying and got through lesson 8 in Genki, albeit not absorbing as well as I had lessons 1-4 in class. So Level 2 should be a little difficult, but I’m glad I’ll be challenged and hopefully make some big improvements in Japanese.

That’s about all for now; I hope I’ll be able to take some film this week of my journey to or from school and of the Seminar House and maybe I’ll have a video tour of the immediate area in the next couple of weeks for you all, but that’s all time-dependent.