Sakura Wind

The first thing we did on July 2nd was head out to the Southeast Outskirts of Kyoto. I had seen pictures from friends that had visited this area previously and I thought it was definitely worth a visit. The shrine named Fushimi Inari Taisha, itself was dedicated to the gods of rice and sake in the 8th century. Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine is one of Japan's most popular, but that wasn't evident as we had woken up and arrived before 9am, before the rest of the tourists. The entire complex consists of five shrines that are scattered across wooded slopes of the Inari Mountain.

When we arrived, we saw several businessmen and locals praying. We definitely stuck out as the tourists at this time of the day. Pretty soon, we found what I had been looking for, the pathway of torii's. I know I have gone into detail about what a torii is in the past, but let me remind you as that is the significance of this place,

"A torii is what you can use to distinguish if a holy place is a temple or shrine. The torii is the gateway to a shrine. It is usually composed of of two upright pillars, joined at the top by two horizontal cross-bars, the upper of which is normally slightly curved. Torii are often painted a bright vermilion, though some are left as bare wood. "

Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine has a pathway that wanders 4km up the mountain and is lined with hundreds of red torii. There are also dozens of stone foxes that are symbolic as a messenger of the God of cereal grains named Inari. Julie and I wandered around this amazing shrine complex, coming into contact with some of the shrines along the way. Mainly though, we enjoyed running, just the two of us, on this pathway in the woods with red torii as our guardians. Eventually, the cereal God let the rain pour down on us, but we were prepared with umbrellas. Each red torii had kanji written all over it, perhaps with significant meaning or perhaps just a Marketing scam of the people who had donated money for that particular torii to be constructed. That, I'll never know, but it was amazing anyways. We easily spent around 2 hours going through the complex and the trailways of torii before I started worrying we might be lost. It was about 15 minutes of worrying before we came in contact with a crossing guard who gave us simple directions back to the train station. This shrine was both, mine and Julie's favorite shrine/temple/ sightseeing spot in Kyoto.

Not only had we been mistake free the day before, but also getting to Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine without any problems, we felt extremely accomplished. We were on a roll, it seemed. It wasn't even 10am and we had the whole day before us to check out the rest of the area as planned. We hopped on a bus and off we went. I wasn't really listening to the bus stops as I had counted out that it should be about 6 stops until our next spot. After 6 stops, then 7, then 8...and finally after 10 stops I was like what the hell, where is our next location? I started following the stops and matching them up on the bus map I had...it turns out we got on the right numbered bus, but headed the opposite way. We had been on the bus for about an hour and decided we might as well get off and see what else is on this line instead of just sitting here for another hour waiting to get to our original plans.

The bus map showed of some major temples in the area of where we got off the bus. There weren't any signs on the street and I didn't have a detailed map of the area we were in. I stopped into a store and asked for help on directions. We were directed a way, but eventually it seemed we were not really headed the right way. So, we improvised the plans, yet again and ended up going to some temple that was hidden amongst a small bamboo forest. This temple was named the Koto-in Zen Temple and was established in 1601. It housed several important historical objects from Japan, China and Korea. The garden to enter was probably the most impressive thing about this little hidden place we found.

After that we continued on our way down a beautiful path that was enclosed by large trees until we came upon yet another shrine. We walked around the area but pretty much viewing all that you can see anywhere in Japan. We decided to try to get to our original destinations since we weren't have too much luck finding things we wanted to.

We took a brief lunch break at some random Italian restaurant on the side of the road before finally reaching one of our desired destinations for the day. Ginkakuji Temple, otherwise known as the Silver Pavilion was FINALLY reached three and a half hours after we set out to find it. This Zen temple is also a major tourist sight for anyone going to Kyoto. It was built in 1482 as a retreat from the civil war that was going on at this time. I always thought that this temple was called the silver pavilion since there was a gold pavilion and this was one "second best" or something. But, in actuality, the creator of this temple had wanted to at some point cover the building with silver. However, that was never accomplished.

When you first enter the temple area, you go through a pathway with hedges made of stone, bamboos and camellias lining both sides for about 50 meters before you finally see the famous Silver Pavilion. Again, the actual temple is quite anti-climatic in comparison to the other beautiful gardens and structures that encompass the temple. The temple is two stories, the top floor being the Chinese temple style having a panel wall and a Chinese sliding door. The first floor is built in Shoin style, or traditional Japanese residential architecture style. On the roof, is a golden bronze phoenix that is facing east to guard the temple.

In front of the temple is a beautiful Zen rock garden named ginsyadan and kougetudai. The part of the rock garden named ginsyadan represents waves whereas the large rock pile named kougetudai has been built to represent Mount Fuji. As you walk further, you enter a stunning garden, with all sorts of moss grass, bamboo walkways, rocks and old trees that curve up on a small hillside that leaves you with beautiful views of the whole temple complex and the city of Kyoto as well.

Throughout our viewing of Ginkakuji Temple, we were being inundated by Junior High School students wanting our pictures with them. This gives meaning to my placement in Japan as a means of grassroots internationalization at my job. Many of the larger cities such as Kyoto, Tokyo, Hiroshima, etc. don't place foreigners in their school systems to teach English to their kids. The reason behind this is because they feel the students receive plenty of international experience with foreigners since they live in cities that most foreigners go to. However, these kids were really excited to have their pictures taken with foreigners meaning that perhaps, they don't receive as much internationalization as the cities think they do. I am sure my students would never ask a complete random foreign stranger for their picture with them since they have had exposure to foreign English teachers since 1st grade.

Since we wasted so much time on buses and being lost, our last goal of the day was to get to a castle. We took the appropriate buses to get there, but we had missed the entry time by 5 minutes. It was such a bummer because from the outside it looks really cool and it was our last day in Kyoto. We walked around the outer moat for a little while. A very curious man on a bike stopped to talk to us, he was really intrigued by Julie's tattoo. He went on and on about how the yakuza, the Japanese mafia, are the only people in Japan that have tattoos. He wanted to know why she got it, why she chose a butterfly why she chose that place, etc. The conversation ended up lasting for at least fifteen minutes before we went on our way and he hopped back onto his bike and cycled past us. Grassroots Internationalization even in the biggest tourist city of Kyoto, the difference of being able to speak a language and not.

Through the city of Kyoto runs a river and it seems it was the best date place to be for young couples living or touring in Kyoto. We joined those couples and sat down besides the river for a while. It was very relaxing to just sit and take in what was around us instead of constantly figuring out bus schedules and walking around.

My friend Yumie had told me about Kyoto's delicacy named Yuba. Lucky for me this is a vegetarian delicacy so I was keen on trying to find it. There was a woman standing outside of a very Japanese restaurant in her summer Yukata trying to recruit people to come in. She sold me as soon as I learned that Yuba was sold at this place. This was a perfectly Japanese dinner for both of us. Julie was in love with her miso, tempura, and sushi and I was thrilled with my Yuba.

What is yuba? The restaurants gives you a mini cooking device which consists of a small pot over a flame. Inside this pot was soy milk that is slowly brought to a boil by the flame. After a while, the soy milk grows a skin on top of it, when that happens you distinguish the flame. I was told to add some sort of oil or vinegar into the yuba and mix it all together. It coagulated into a firmer substance and from there you eat it!. It was pretty good and I would definitely recommend everyone to try yuba if they ever come to Japan to visit me =)

Our plans were to find a place to drink, but only ended up back on the streets drinking beers and checking out the men that were walking past us. We were discussing which boys we found attractive and why when we heard some guitarists playing. The music lulled us into finding where it was coming from. It was only across the street from where we were, so we walked over and sat down next to two girls who were also listening. They turned out to be their "managers" and we chatted a bit about the two boys singing who call themselves sakuranokaze or Cherry Blossom Wind. We watched them for about a half hour until they stopped playing, and at the end we chanted for them to do one more. Julie and I were in love with these two cute guitar players and asked for their picture. It was a great way to end our last night in Kyoto, with local music, friendly girls and cute boys. We headed back to our hostel via taxi and chatted with some lovely women from Taiwan before heading to bed.

For all my pictures from this day, click HERE

If you want to check out their webpage (entirely in Japanese), it's:

http://pksp.jp/cherrystyle/