Aimless Wandering

Today is Sunday and the rest of our group has gone off to Ise for the day. I decided to stay in town and give myself a day of aimless wandering, allowing whatever catches my fancy as I walk the neighborhood streets to be my guide. I started by going into the walled complex near our hostel and found it to be this incredible garden called Shosei-en. These crazy stone walls are what greet you when you enter the garden gate.. This garden was first designed in the mid-1600's, though razed in the mid-1800's by fire it was fully rebuilt during the Meiji period in the late 1800's.

I love these crazy walls. They look like they were assembled from all the broken bits of old construction.

It is a hot and hazy day so all the pictures I have taken have white skies and the shade was greatly appreciated in the garden. What was this young lady observing?

These carp were the attraction and there was one albino in the bunch.

The gardens this time of year are mostly just shades of green, though I imagine this one is quite beautiful in the spring and fall with the stems if iris visible on the left of this picture and the maples throughout the garden.

But even I am getting bored already with the well manicured "natural" garden so I wander off to Higashi Honganji, the large central temple of the Jodo Shinsu sect of Buddhism. I particularly liked the modern lotus fountain in front of the entrance. The main temple is undergoing a major renovation that is why there is a large grey structure in the background.

Being close to the Kyoto station it is interesting to have the juxtaposition of the ancient architecture and the modern Kyoto Tower in the background.

Inside the temple grounds is this water fountain for purifying your hands before entering the temple
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The main gate has stairs up to the second level so one can climb up and stand on the balcony for a better view.

The main past time in the temple grounds was feeding the pidgeons and sacks of grain were sold at the gate for that purpose.

And enjoying the afternoon sun was the resident, Buddha Cat.

Then it was off to see Nishi Honganji, the sister temple to Higashi Honganji. Nishi means West and Higashi means East though the two temples are only blocks apart. I discovered that Nishi's main temple is also being renovated, so I decided to eat lunch instead of wandering into the temple. The shop across the street had sweets in the front and in the back a place to sit and eat. I couldn't tell what people were eating and I had no interpreter, so I just started saying dishes I knew in Japanese, Donburi?, Sushi? Tempura? Soba? The woman's face brightened when I said soba, so I learned this was a soba shop. She told me I could have it cold and brought out cold buckwheat noodles with a quail egg, wasabi and scallions with a bowl of Shoyu on the side. Inwardly I said ugh as I had had this once before the last time I came to Japan and I knew the quail egg was raw and considered a great delicacy in Japan. I began to crack it over my noodles and grin and bear it when the cook came out and in her halting English explained to me that you crack the egg into the shoyu, add the scallions and wasabi then put small amounts of the noodles into the mixture and fish them out to eat. It was delicious! I'll definitely have that again. The cook explained to me that she had a friend she visited once in New York City and so ended our connection and a great lunch. Back to the streets and more wandering.

I skipped the big temple but found smaller ones on the side streets nearby and enjoyed the entry gardens.

In my travels I heard music coming from down a closed off street and figured there was a festival going on of some sort. Actually when I arrived it felt more like the block parties we used to have in Hough area in Cleveland in my youth. Colorful vendor and game booths, a religious institution behind the festivities, in this case the local Shinto Shrine and art showcases by the local children. Probably early on there had been a parade or demonstrations by local performing groups, but by the time I got there things were winding down.



These images remind of the artwork my penpal used to send me from Japan when I was five years old.

As I wandered away from the festival I noticed again how efficient the Japanese are about space making a garden out of less than two feet of ledge on the corner of one's home and creating beauty in the process.

Looking down the alleyway, this reminds me of Parisian courtyards only much narrower.

As I got to the backside Hiagshi Honganji again, folks were stopped and looking into the moat that surrounds the walls and this is what I found. Lively looking carp, including this large golden one that shone so bright in the afternoon sun.

This is the moat.

And the employee's entrance to Hiagshi Honganji Temple.

Across from the temple was one of many religious accessories shops, offering prayer beads (malas), altars, incense and gongs. I have always wanted a larger gong for my meditation space, but finding a shop that takes credit cards took some doing. This lovely lady assisted me and now I am the proud owner of a right proper gong, striker and pillow stand for a very reasonable price. I don't know how many foreigners she has for these items, though the Buddhist boom is happening in the West. Note the large monk and Buddha statues standing just outside the shop. So with this large package I decided my wanderings were over for the day.
Tomorrow we get on a train for Koya San the headquarters of an Esoteric Vajrayana Buddhist Sect founded in 800 AD by Kobo Daishi. He was an amazing man who first established public education in Japan and created the first written language unique to Japan. I'll fill you in on more when I return as we will be staying at the temple so I'll be offline until late Tuesday when we return.