March 26 to April 5, 2007
Kyoto

Before parting at the train station, Jimmy and Hiromi purchased commuter box lunches for us containing sushi, mostly yellow tail and mackerel, two of our favorite oily fishes.  We ate in a park across the street from our Kyoto hotel under cherry trees.

Our hotel was easy to get to and located conveniently near excellent temples.  The dinky six tatami mat room was cozy and clean. The equally dinky 13” TV was appropriate.  Although we had a full but dinky bathroom, most of the Japanese tourists in the hotel used the large shared bath in the basement.  Dinky = cute.  Cute = kawaii!

Heian shrine and gardens were across the street from our hotel, where Tien stands.

Buds on trees foretold more flowering to come and we enjoyed the stone and gravel foot paths, water elements, maple trees, and exquisitely manicured pine trees.  Along this pond's walkway shown above, Lauren rescued a small turtle who was far from water and could have been stepped on.

Heian's gardens were the most spectacular for me.  I loved wandering through it.

Kyoto is a town for walking, so we continued up the hill passed Shoren-in temple, a lovely bamboo forest (above), Chion-in temple, through Maruyama Park, and upwards to the entrance of Kiyomizu Temple, a World Heritage location and my “must see” site.  Along this walk was a shop selling fresh soybean donuts, small, delicious and warm, eight for ¥200 (U$1.65) – we went TWICE!  Tien still talks about them.

The walk back to our hotel was long.  Shins, legs, hip joints were getting very sore.  A stop at McDonald's netted Tien an ebi burger:  patty of shrimp chunks mixed with whole shrimp.  How come they don't sell that here?!!  At a corokke shop (meat-filled potato croquettes) we ordered ebi for Tien and beef for me.

Lonely Planet guidebook calls this excursion "A Philosophical Meander Through Northern Higashiyama.”  We followed many of their walking tours.

Eikan-do Temple required shoes-off to visit the maze of buildings via covered walkways and staircases.  Wooden walkways, worn smooth from hundreds of years of footsteps, were a pleasure for our feet.   National Treasures and Important Cultural Artworks include Buddha statue looking over his shoulder, Buddhist scrolls and painted screens.  We watched saffron robed monks glide barefoot up a tightly curved wooden staircase to chant.  I'm falling in love with the simplicity of rock gardens.  No photos were allowed at the temple.

Nanzenji Temple began as a palace in 1264 and was changed to a Zen temple in 1291.  The gigantic solid wood gate above led to a quiet moss garden laid out in quarters and flowering trees.  Many old buildings, a brick aqueduct, a lovely garden, and a cemetery were at the top of the hillside grounds.  Tien continued up the mountain to find a waterfall and small shrine.

This low doorway made me feel very tall.

Lauren's favorite walk and where she would live is Tetsugaku-no-michi or Path of Philosophy.  No cars, a few bicycles, and a walking path lined with flowering trees and shrubs along a brick-paved canal with older small homes and modern architecturally-designed homes.  Pink, yellow, double-pink and white flowers made for a leisurely, charming stroll.  We stopped at a few tiny shops to look at handcrafted items, most notably a man who sold blue jeans painted with classic Japanese artwork of dragons, sakura, etc.  He wouldn't allow photos.

The Search for Lauren's Marudai:  not knowing we would buy my Japanese cord weaving equipment today, I left the info in our hotel.  Our guidebook referred to it – it would be a LONG walk from the Path of Philosophy – and bicycles ridden on sidewalks had me darting left and right.  At 3:30p I told Tien, “I hope we get there before they close at 4p.”  Adachi Kumihimo School & Museum was hard to find and we were losing time, even with Tien's fast walk and my trotting behind him.  A policeman pointed out, “Go around the corner, two blocks up, turn left, middle of the street.”  The building had no English signs nor was the building number posted.  We asked two nearby businesses but they were not aware of this world famous school.  Thankfully, I kinda remembered what the building looked like from the info I left at our hotel -- we arrived as they were closing.  I bought a marudai and set of 8 tama (weighted spools).  In my rush I forgot to look at silk thread.  I wanted 16 tama, but they were already heavy.  My lovely husband offered to carry the package and we rested in Kyoto Imperial Palace Park (but did not see any of the buildings).

A road within the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park

“Scone” at internet café:  I ordered a scone unlike we are used to - a puff pastry with scalloped edges, drenched in poured cream and surrounded by fresh strawberries -- ooh, decadent!  We wrote to our parents, but emailing on a Mac computer was frustrating for me.

After a walk through a huge mall with several "avenues" of shops, we stopped at Lipton (tea) Restaurant where they served food and desserts.  Young people gathered here with friends to eat cake and smoke cigarettes.  We had dinner: “Good Old Omeret” (omelet rice) and seafood gratin.

Everything aches now; Tien thinks we walked ten miles today.

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