Sunday, 27 December 2015
We've had four great days in Kyoto, a city where the old and the new blend seamlessly. Considered the epicentre of Japanese culture and history, we have been just two of over 40 million visitors that come and go each year. With over 2000 temples and shrines, we could have easily spent weeks exploring the city but we did cover a lot of ground in four days.
Here are some of the highlights.
Gion
On our first night in Kyoto, we went on a two hour guided tour of the Gion district. Gion is the main tea district area in Kyoto and still has a large number of working tea houses and okiya (boarding houses). Gion is famous for its Geiko (known as Geisha in other parts of Japan) and Maiko (trainee Geisha), of which there are about 200 who work in the area. The Geisha tradition goes back hundreds of years. A Geisha is an entertainer, who spends five years training in arts including dance, music and Japanese calligraphy. Once qualified, a Maiko becomes a Geisha but the training does not end there, with Geishas continue to attend school on a daily basis to refine their skills. Each evening, Geishas and Maikos are paid to attend tea parties at tea houses to entertain guests. The rule is that what happens in the tea house, stays in the tea house, enabling guests to truly relax and forget their worries. Our guide assured us that despite what has been popularised by books such as 'Memoirs of a Geisha', the Geishas and Maikos are strict professionals and services do not extend to anything beyond the rooms of the tea party.
(A canal in Gion, overlooked by tea houses and restaurants)
(On this stone is carved a poem by the Japanese writer Yoshii Isamu.
It reads: 'my love is Gion, where when I sleep, below my pillow, water flows')
(A house mother, dressed in white, walks with two clients)
(A subtle black and gold plate beside the doorway indicates this is a tea house. The white shapes
on the red lantern mimic the skewered dumplings available to eat.)
We
were fortunate on our second night to see a real Maiko walking from one
tea house to the next. Maikos live in the boarding houses which are run
by a 'house mother'. The house mother receives all of the income made
by the Maiko and in return, covers the cost of the Maiko's tuition, food
and board. A Maiko can be distinguished from a Geisha by their hair and
clothing. A Maiko must style her own hair, while a Geisha wears a wig. A
Maiko must also wear a long sash at the back of her kimono,
contributing to the total weight of 20kg of fabric she wears. Another
distinguishing feature are the 12cm high wooden clogs she must wear, in
order to make her appear taller and, therefore, older.
(A Maiko hurries past on her way to a tea house)
(A door to a boarding house. The vertical plates indicate the names of the Maiko
and Geiko living in this boarding house)
(A charm hangs above a doorway to ward away evil spirits)
City Centre Wonders
(A ryokan)
(Colourful tiles. The script on the lantern tells passersby what food is available.)
(A barber's window depicts a baseball game. Baseball is a very popular sport in Japan.)
(Kyoto's town hall)
(Green tea flavoured rice dough sits on the counter top ready to be made into sweets.)
(A pampered pink pooch.)
(The Minami-za kabuki theatre. Kabuki is described as Japanese opera, where all characters are played by males. The vertical boards indicate all of the kabuki actors who will be performing throughout the New Year period, with their family crest at the top of each board.)
(Each taxi company has its own unique logo which is illuminated on the roof of the cab.
Nicky particularly likes this one.)
Christmas Day Dinner
(An okonomiyaki restaurant serving Japanese style pancakes. It was a tiny, bustling place
serving delicious food.)
(Rice based sweets for dessert.)
Temples, Shrines and a Golden Pavillion
As mentioned, there is no shortage of temples and shrines to visit in Kyoto. We visited two on our own, and four with a guide. It must be all the steps up to the temples that keep the Japanese people so fit and lean!
Shinto is the national religion of Japan. According to our guide, there is no clear point at which Shinto was established, nor are there any strict guidelines to adhere to. Followers believe in as many deities as they wish to. When Buddhism was introduced to Japan from India, the Buddhist temples were built on sites that were considered sacred to Shinto and as a result, many temples sit side by side with Shinto shrines.
(Map of the Fushimi Inari Shrine)
(Entrance to the Fushimi Inari Shrine)
(The Fushimi Inari Shrine, famous for its 10,000 orange tori gates.)
(The fox is said to be the messenger of the deity, Inari.)
(It is popular for domestic and international tourists to hire kimonos for the day)
One of the temples we visited was that of Sanjunsangen-do. It is a temple dedicated to the 1000 armed goddess, Kannon. The main hall is filled with 1000 life sized statues of the goddess, with 500 located either side of one very large Kannon statue. It was a really incredible site, with each statue appearing to have slightly different shaped faces and facial features. Photography was not permitted inside the temple so I'm afraid we can't share any of the interior images but it was a very memorable experience.
(Outside the temple Sanjunsangen-do.)
(Nanzenji Temple)
(Japan's largest tori gate.)
(Excavations underway outside a gallery)
(Heianjingu Shrine)
(Five Tier Pagoda in front of Kiyomizudera Temple)
(Kiyomizudera Temple)
(People catch water to drink running from the springs above Kiyomizudera Temple. The water is said to bring good luck in areas of life including love and finance.)
(An itinerant monk. When the Government declared Shinto as the national religion,
many Buddhist temples had to sell off property which resulted in monks becoming homeless.)
(Kinkakuyi Temple, known as the Golden Pavillion)
(A phoenix sits on top of the Golden Pavillion)
Tomorrow we head south to Mount Koya where we will spend two nights at a temple and hope to attend a dawn ceremony. As New Year approaches, we will be on the look out for signs of people preparing to welcome in the new year.
