Kyoto the Former Japanese Capital

The picture is I and the bowl thing at the Kiyomizu Temple.

The two-month program participants left for Tokyo on Wednesday morning, and will not be back until Saturday or Sunday. We the six-month program participants spent all day on Wednesday (July 8) to prepare for our trip to Kyoto yesterday (July 9). Our teachers divided 15 of us into 5 groups of two to four people. Most groups have one place in Kyoto they must go to. My group members were Rimi and Julio Cesar. The teachers assigned my group to go to the famous Kiyomizu Temple. Each of us chose a place we wanted to go.

We caught the shuttle to the train station at 7:31am. We changed train twice, and unfortunately caught second to the slowest train on our last transfer. Instead of 10am, we arrived at 10:30am. On the brighter side, an origami old lady gave Julio Cesar an origami bird, and soon proceeded to teach us how to make it on the train.

We went to Sanjusangendo where 1000 buddhisattvas were housed, 500 on each side of this gigantic buddhisattva in the long wooden structure. The presence of all 1000 together took my breath away.

I will not want to walk more than 15 minutes to get to a different location in the summer heat and humidity in Japan. We walked for about 30 minutes without any good scenery to get to the Kiyomizu Temple from before noon to after. Kiyomizu has many old buildings, including a three-story pagoda. I also enjoyed this big bowl thing that makes great ringing sound after you hit it. One can see the city of Kyoto from Kiyomizu, which is on the top of the mountain. We can also see Kyoto Tower.

I paid 100 yen each time to get my fortune told on a piece of paper at Sanjusangendo and Kiyomizudera. I got "luck" in the former and "small luck" in the latter place. At Sanjusangendo, I put money in this place and drew a piece of paper on the tray. At Kiyomizudera, I shook this wooden cylindrical container and make one wooden stick to come out of the container. I then got the paper fortune that corresponded to the number on the wooden stick.

We had very bad udon (Japanese noodle) for lunch, except for Rimi who had yummy soba noodle.

We walked for about 40 minutes to get to the Kyoto National Modern Art Museum. We saw the special late-19th century-early-20th century special Japanese exhibit, and then the usual gallery which has some Japanese and Western art. The museum also hosted a Soviet Union silent movie posters from the 1920s and 1930s. Overall, the museum was very small, especially in comparison to any museum I had been to in the U.S.

We did not make it to Nanzenji Temple, and just walked around near the famous Gion area (where many maiko resided, maiko in the old days were called geisha). I bought a lot of souvenirs for people at the temples and around Kyoto.

We had 15 minute to finish our dinner in order to catch the train to get back to the train station near the Institute, in order to catch the last shuttle back to the Institute. I did not know I could not pack leftovers at this place, and thus left the egg-over-rice dish almost untouched at the restaurant. I was mad that I was forced to waste food! We caught all the trains fine except the last transfer, when we missed the train by 1 or 2 minutes (we did not pay attention to the time). We had to wait for about 25 or 30 minutes for the next one.

We arrived at the station at 9:30pm, and walked back to the Institute on the strong windy dark road.

I felt great to return to Kyoto after my trip last year. Although the places I visited yesterday were new to me, I still have so many places I want to visit in Kyoto. I plan to visit one every time I go to Kyoto for research (at least 5 times before this program ends). I just love Kyoto.