Japan Day 7, Part 6: The Stone Lanterns of Kasuga Taisha Shrine

I had a pleasant, though hot, walk across the Eastern side of Nara park.

In the Southeastern part stood a Shinto shrine. The area around it is filled with stone or cement lanterns, covered in moss and surrounded by large trees.

The hall of Kasuga Taisha was founded in the 700s replaced every twenty years in accordance with Shinto traditions, though the current building is about 100 years old. As I had come to expect with a Shinto shrine, it is very orange. 

It would be amazing to visit during one of the lantern festivals to see them all lit, but I enjoyed the lanterns even during the daylight. 

A fountain paid tribute to the deer residents. 

The bamboo base must be more modern than most of the lanterns, but I liked it nonetheless.

I then visited the Nara National Museum. My favorite part was the Buddha hall, filled with statues of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and guardian spirits carved from stone, wood, or clay.

I had a little time left before my bus to Osaka. I meant to spend my last 1370 Yen on a Japanese meal, but I ended up ordering ice cream with fruit instead. A cherry, orange slices, pineapple, and whipped cream sat above chocolate, vanilla, and berry ice cream (which I was pleasantly surprised to find to be actual ice cream instead of the soft serve that I'd come to expect in lactose intolerant East Asia), layered above peach, pineapple, mandarin orange slices mixed with cornflakes. I have no regrets.

I bumped into the poetry guy again in front of the pagoda on my way to the park. I was even less impressed this time as we went on about god and humility. Beyond the fact that he was obviously not humble himself, he had no response when I asked why being humble was at all valuable. 

In the park, I sat and wrote in my journal, which is good because otherwise there's no way I'd remember half of these details three years later. The deer kept me company as I wrote.

I was early to the airport bus and the airport. I wrote a little before boarding the plane. 

The airline was obviously operated by Koreans because the map of the route prominently labeled "Dokdo" island and "The East Sea". Japan would have labeled Dokdo their name for it since they (on flimsy pretext) claim the island themselves, and everyone in the world besides Korea calls the body of water separating the two countries "The Sea of Japan." The pilot spoke Korean, English, and Japanese with a distinct French accent. I returned for one final week in Korea before heading home.

Japan Day 5, Part 6: Kyoto Station

That evening I returned my bicycle and headed to Kyoto Station for dinner. In my rush to get out and see the ancient sites, I hadn't paid any attention to the train station that brought me to the city. Once I went back, though, I realized that it is an impressive building. For one thing, its enormous. The huge central staircase was used as benches for many people wanting to chat or read.

At the top I enjoyed view from the rooftop terrace, which itself is quite people friendly with lots of benches and greenery. I like that the station was turned into more of a public space than necessary.

I reserved a spot for dinner at a restaurant serving Kyoto beef, which is raised and served in the same style as the more famous Kobe beef. For $60 I was served slivers of marbled loin and marbled chuck. Serving was a very involved process: they greased a pan with a cube of fat, sprinkled on salt, briefly applied the beef, added marinade and natural juices, flipped the beef, and then transferred it to my plate. There was also rice and vegetables. Desert was pineapple, melon, and grapes. The beef was melt in your mouth delicious. It didn't ruin beef for me, and may not even (quite) be the best beef I've ever eaten, but it was damned good. Also, I sat at a counter along the windows, which had a fantastic view of the city.

After dinner, I went up to the twelfth floor terrace to watch the sunset. 

Japan Day 3, Part 5: Honen-in and Goya's Okinawan Curry

Just outside of Honen-in stood grave stones for the remains of monks. 

Naturally, I needed to take a self-portrait there in keeping with Eurasian Hobo tradition.

The temple buildings were quite small, but pleasant. 

The highlight was the moss and fern covered thatch roof that looked as much a garden as a building cover.

The famous temples of Kyoto are largely where the valley meets the surrounding mountains. I cycled down of the forested mountains and into the city to enjoy lunch at Goya. Okinowan green papaya curry is apparently quite similar to Korean curry, but it is more subtle and has some kindred with Indian yellow curries as well. 

As someone who secretly ate spoonfuls of brown sugar as a child, I appreciated the invitation to the brown sugar candies on the table. 

The surrounding neighborhood had some amazing houses that were private residences despite looking museum-worthy.

Japan Day 2, Part 5: Kiyomizu-dera Temple's impressive balcony and the streets of Gion

When I was first planning my trip to Kyoto, I thought I would go to all of the temples there. A glance at a guidebook was enough to realize how laughable that goal was, so I modified the goal to be all of the UNESCO World Heritage temples and whatever else looked most interesting. In the end, I decided to only go to twelve of the seventeen UNESCO sites in the Kyoto area, and Kiyomizu-dera was the first.

I can't believe I actually paid the token price to go on a silly walk in an unlit cave that is supposed to represent the womb of a female bodhisattva. I was continually convinced that I would hit my head of the cave's roof in the utter darkness and had to force myself not to cringe downward and I walked. The only area that is lit contains what is supposed to be a surprise so I won't ruin it, but I wasn't too impressed.  The rest of the temple, on the other had, was everything one would hope for from a world heritage site.

The main building of the temple was built like a giant deck on giant supports so that less than half of the building actually rested on the hillside. It was impressive, as was the view from the balcony.

Afterward, I wandered the pretty streets in Gion, the old Geisha district. I suspect that the 'Geisha' I had seen elsewhere in town were actually tourists dressed the part for the sake of photos, especially since actual Geisha are hardly ever seen out of doors even among the old wooden buildings of Gion. 

I don't know who this guy was, but he looked intense.

Near Gion I enjoyed a ramen dinner at Shantoka served as ramen should be: thick, creamy, rich, and full of pork and veggies. The instant noodles that we associate with the name don't remotely compare.

Japan Day 2, Part 1: The long temple of Sanjusangen-do

After renting a bicycle, I headed out to the Higashiyama district that is densely packed with impressive sights to see. The first stop was Sanjusangen-do, a Buddhist temple that is a replica, but a replica built only about one hundred years after the original, and one that is itself about 750 years old.

Having studied a bit of Kenjitsu in the years since I traveled to Japan, and having learned to count to 100 in Japanese, I now recognize Sanjusan as 33. The temple is named for its length of 33 ken - the length of space between two pillars that was a common measurement of Korean and Japanese buildings. I remember the average Korean home was three ken. In other words, this temple is long. 

Lonely Planet relates a story of an archery contest to sheet parallel to the length of the hall. The winner shot more than 13,000 arrows in twenty four hours (9 arrows per minute) and hit the target more than 8,000 times, which is difficult enough to be damned impressive but imperfect enough to sound plausible for a human to actually be able to do.

Inside the long dark hall - where pictures are not allowed, though you'd hardly know that from a google image search -  were 1000 statues each with 25 arms. The statues supposedly have 1000 arms because 'each arm saves 25 worlds'. The statues were thin half-sized men carved from cypress and painted gold, and mostly looked stiff and alike. Much more impressive were the 28 guardians who were life-sized (assuming a shortish populace in the 1100s) and had expressive faces and poses. The wood was left exposed, which I always find more beautiful than whatever paint is applied, and they were on natural wood bases. The crystals used for their eyes added realism to their already life-like poses. 

From the temple I went to a lunch of tempura, during which I came to appreciate Korean street food more as I realized in was tempura but without the price and pretension. 

Japan Day 1: Himeji

My plane from Seoul landed in Osaka, and I found my worries of being illiterate were unfounded because all of the signs were also in English. Thus I was able to buy a train ticket at an automated kiosk and head out past Kobe - of beef fame - to Himeji. I was happy to note that people tunneled properly when entering and exiting the train, whereas in Korea there were arrows on the ground to show people how to efficiently have rows of people embarking and debarking at the same time yet no one followed the instructions. The seats on the train had a brilliant design where the backs could be moved to change which way the seat was facing. Thus two or four friends could sit facing each other, or everyone could change their seats to face forward even after the train reversed course. I loved everything about the trains in Japan except the price tag, which seemed bloody high after the mass transit in Korea.

In Himeji I found that the tendency to anthropomorphize everything extends across East Asia. Even an ancient castle has to be cute.

I knew that Himeji was under renovation and that there would be scaffolding, but I didn't realize how covered it would be. I admit I was rather disappointed that none of Japan's most impressive castle was visible at a distance, though I understand the need to protect the old building from the elements. 

I still enjoyed seeing the outer fortifications. The moat, outer wall, and gate were impressively defensible.

The tour of the out buildings included an image of what the castle would have looked like during the feudal period. I always love maps like this.

The outer buildings were mostly empty corridors of wooden rooms, sometimes with signs telling of a princess who had lived there and some of the other history of the castle.  

I was amused by the security cameras masked in wood casings.

The gatehouse looked like a miniature version of the castle, and was impressive in its own right.

The massive stone walls looked unmortared, held together by being carefully selected to fit together well, with tiny rocks filling in any gaps. Perhaps this is why so much vegetation was able to grow on the wall's face.

The thick wooden gate door was studded with metal. 

It was no portcullis, but I wouldn't want to try to storm the place.

The ends of the roofs were decorated with fish made from the same ceramic as the roof tiles. I wonder if the reasoning was the same as for Korean temples having similarly placed water dragons: hope that symbols of water would protect the wooden buildings from their archenemy, fire. 

Inside the scaffolding building, I saw one of the fish close up, which both gave me an appreciation for the scale of the buildings I was seeing and for the level of detail work that went into them.

A highlight was a room full of samurai armor.

The renovations looked fairly major. All of the tiles had been removed, which explained the need for the shell of a building surrounding it, and the wood underneath was being repaired or replaced.

There wasn't much to see of the castle, but the view from the observation deck was worth the price of admission.

Back outside, I admired the plant-covered outer walls again, and watched the swans in the moat.

I was feeling disappointed, but felt much better after meandering through the large gardens beside the castle. I enjoyed crossing stepping stones and stone bridged between areas of sculpted plants. 

At points, the gardens even had views of the castle.

From Himeji I took a train to Kyoto, where I checked into a hostel and then enjoyed a dinner of chicken cooked various ways. I got a free appetizer of shrimp and squash - which I think was gifted to me because they didn't understand when I tried to order Lonely Planet's recommendation of chicken cooked in bamboo. I was quite happy with chicken meatballs, heart, and skewers.