Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara

Saturday:

Another week ends, and I am off to travel around the wonderous Japan. This weekend will probably the biggest trip I make since it was the longest distance I have travelled yet and the msot expensive, but it is a trip that canno be missed out on. This weekend I spent my time in

Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara a desitantion that required my first use of the bullet train and its

tremendous peed to make the 9 hour train ride into a minimal 2 and a half hour ride. The trip began

saturday morning around 4:00 am and we jumped train from yokosuka to tokyo where we plnned to meet our bullet train to Kyoto. We spent the minimal hour to tokyo sleeping and upon arrival we got a quick breakfast and found the platform to meet the bullet train. The bullet train I have to say is probably the most effective form of transportation I have used to date, comparitively to the ever deafening roar and rattle of the transam train that takes 16 hours from the bay to oregon. The train is sleek, extemely fast, and its engines our minimized to a sleek hiss that the travelers cannot even be bothered by. Going off of only 2 hours of sleep from friday, because I figured it didnt make sense to go to sleep when I was leaving so early the next day, I slept the entire train ride comfortably only waking to the hiss of the brakes as we pulled into the hustle and bustle of Kyoto. I have to say I was extremely surprised when I pulled into Kyoto because I knew only of the shrines that littered the city but I thought the town was a more rural area, well much to my surprise as I stepped onto the kyoto platform I was staring at a huge, bustling city was a mix of

new and old school Japan. The city is just as modern as the rest of japan but as we traveled the bus through the city we caught glimpses ancient japan sitting right in the dead center of Kyoto's urban sprawl. Well it was easy to say I was impressed by the cities layout, but the weather upon our arrival was pouring rain and we had no time to spare so we trudged through the city with our umbrellas trying not to get completely soaked (unsuccssfully I may add).

Our first stop was the founder temple, also known as Higashi Honganji, it is the mother temple of Shin Buddhim whose founder was Shinran. The temple enshrines the founder Shinran inside of it and was constructed in 1895, it is one of the largest wooden constructions in the world.

After the mother temple we made our way to the Shosei-en Garden, located just east of the Higashi Honganji temle, and is also known as the Orange Grove. This was my first encounter with a japanese garden and it was probably one of my favorite places I saw in Kyoto. The garden covers 8 acres of Kyoto and was a nice scenic route to take to avoid some of the rain using the cover of the trees. The garden is full of beautiful bridges surrounded entirely by ponds, lillies, and japanese trees. Our group spent a lot of time in this garden one because it was so beautiful and two because we

had a nice little karate kid photo shoot and struck poses all over the garden. Once we were done posing we walked through the garden a bit and checked out all the traditional tea houses and even managed to find ourselves in the middle of a small japanese tea ceremony. This tea house was the only one open to the public and just to my luck no one there spoke a word of english, just my luck I had no idea what I was doing and they tried to communicate the best they could but it was a bit of a struggle. We were able to walk through the tea house, check out the art, and then after our short tour we sat down on some pillows on the ground at a table that as only a couple inches off the ground and they served us some tea. Although the whole situation was completely awkward I think it made the trip that much better because they knew we were trying to cope with the situation and were very friendly.Once we were done with the garden we were only a short walk to Kyoto tower so we made our way to kyoto tower and bought a ticket to the top. The tower is a 159 meters and gives a complete 360 degree view of Kyoto. So it was easy to see all over the city and eye out any shrines we wanted to catch the next day. We even managed to take some group photos with the Kyoto mascot who was located at all these different spots of the tower. We had way too much fun striking poses with the awkward staues of him. After te kyoto tower we made our way to our hotel where we would stay the night before we left for Osaka late afternoon on sunday.

Before the day was over the we had a show to catch in gion corner, the gion district of Kyoto. Most notably known for its geisha shows, we planned on going to a show that would give us a taste of multpiple japanese arts. The show gave short versions of many different styles of japanese arts including: tea ceremony, Koto music, Flower arrangement, Gagaku (court music), Kyogen (ancient comic play), Kyomai (Kyoto tyle dance), Bunraku (puppet play).

Tea Ceremony- tradition of tasting tea began in the 8^th century brought by zen buddhists who used the tea to prevent drosiness after long hours of meditation.

Koto Music- A thirteen string instrument used in in the imperial court to play the special court music gagaku.

Flower Arrangement- started around 1500 years ago as altar flowers, placed in front images of buddha or ancestors to help console their spirits. Is now ussd popularly in tea ceremonies to create simple, natural symbolic arrangments.

Gagaku- literally translated as “elegant music” it was popular in japanese royal courts and was used to cover classical dancing and singing.

Kyogen- an ancient comic pllay style that samurais use to study as an accoplishment under the patronage of the shogunate.

Kyomai- a style of japanese dance, that adopted the elegance and sophistication of the imperial court manners.

Bunraku- established as the popular entertainment of the people of Japan this puppet play was developed over a period of 12 centuries, and often displayed the daily lives of merchants in osaka and other merchant cities.

Sunday:

Sunday started off pretty early, we got up and checked out of our hotel and decided to go see the rest of our planned shrines trips for Kyoto, because that afternoon we would be heading Osaka. We bought a bus pass fo the day, only costing us 500 yen (about $5), and headed off to our first stop...Rokuon-Ji Temple (the golden pavilion). The golden pavilion is one of those shrines that you have to see when in Kyoto, the building is not made entirely of gold but is actually gold leaf (although it still took a tremendous 50 pounds of gold to cover the plaza at the center of the pond in its current location). Luckily the today was beautiful and we were able to catch a glimpse of the pavilion during one of the sunniest days I have witnessed in japan, allowing us to catch glimpses of the gleen and awe of the gold leafed temple. We were fortunate enough not only to witness the shrine in the midst of the sunny day but were also able to catch its reflection off the pond (coincidently named “mirror pond”) located at its feet so we could catch the full capacity of the golden shrine. Besides the Pavillion itself the shrine is also home to a scatter of islands, pagodas, and tea houses.

After we stunned at the golden paint of Rokuon-Ji Temple, we walked a couple kilometers down the street to Ryoanji Temple, a simple rock garden reveered as one of the true masterpieces of Japaneses culture. The rock garden itself was laid out in the early 15^th century nd consists of only white sand and 15 rocks, with no trees present. This was the first rock garden I have ever witnessed and I have to say even though the garden was only 25meters by 10 meters in size, it was definitely one of the coolest sights to witness in Japan. The simple layout of the garden is different then any other noble court rock garden as therre are no trees present and it is left up to the visitors to decide what the garden signifies. It is calm around the garden, and even a I peered into is sand I could not truly guess what the gardn represents, but I couldnt help feel that the simple layout of the garden somehow help me gain my own sense of calmness and simplify everything around. It just had the ability to calm down your surroundings and you felt at peace staring at the masterpiece that the rock garden has grown to be known as today. With a new calming mind at my senses we left the garden, witnessed some local turtles in the ponds and made our way out to get some lunch.

After lunch we attempted to make a short trek to Toji temple, a popular tower in the kyoto region but we did not want to pay the entrance fee and ended up just taking pictures outside the gate. After our glimpse of the tower we got our baggage from our hotel and jumped on the local train to Osaka where we had a night of festivities and some sight seeing planned.

We reached Osaka llate afternoon around 5:00, got checked into our hotel and by the time we had left the hotel and ate it was approximately 7:00 and sun ahd begun to set. We had one goal in mind for Osaka and that was to witness the Osaka castle. Although it would have been cool to get to receive a tour of the inside of the castl seeing the castle at night is sight itself. The castle is completely lit up, and since it stands ontop a huge plateou with a huge moat surrounding its' base it stands alone as a beacon to the city of Osaka. The castle by night was amazing and I have to think that t is probably a better sight at night then by day, because the lights truly magnify its elegance and you get to witness the castle in glamour as it radiance shines down on the city.

We left the castle and wandered into the Osaka night life, known for its popular shows, restaurants, and clubs. We managed to find this small restaurant on the third floor of a building where every plate on the men was only 280 yen and even served some american dishes such as corn dogs. Even for a japanese restaurant they were abl to capture the deep fried wonder of corn dogs, and being from the united states (and a fan of corn dogs) I had to partke in the american dish. It was delicious to say the least. After dinner we made our way deeper into the night life and got my first true taste of Japanese karaoke. We got a small room for the four of us, ordered some drinks and ended up singing our hearts out late into the night crossing over into the early

morning of Osaka. Once we finally finished our favorite renditions of some american songs including: Bohmeian Rhapsody, Living on a Prayer, Pour some sugar on me, Hakuna Matata, Candy Shop, I just died in your arms tonight, etc. we took a taxi cab back to our hotel to pass out and get ready for the famous capital of Japan, Nara, most notably known for its popular national parks where the deer are as friendly as the people.

Monday:

Aboard the 7:30 am train to nara from Osaka I prepared myself for what may be the most anticipated part of my trip, the wonderous parks of Nara and the deer that inhabit them. After a short train ride we arrived to a very hot and humid Nara train station and found map that led us straight to the shrines and parks of Nara. About one and a half kilometers from the station we found our selves at the start of one of the parks pathways and immediately after turning a corner we found our first deer. Expecting the deer to run away it just stood there staring at us and we were able to walk up and take our first pictures interacting with the deers. I tell you what, the deer in thse park are just as friendly as dogs but they are still wild animals so you still need to ply close attention to what they are doing and your actions. I struck some self portraits with my arm around the deers back looking at them fac to face and then we continued on into the heart of the park towards Todai—ji Temple where there sits a statue of Buddha even larger then the one a I saw previouly in Kamikura. The japanese have yet to cease to amazze me because each new temple I see is dfferent then the last and presents a whole new aspect of japanese construction, architecture, and culture.

After snapping some picks, and doing some souvenier shopping, we made the trek back to the train station and got on our 3 hour train ride back to Shin-Yokohama station where we would trasnfer to to the yokohama subway and then jump onto another train back to Yokosuka.

The weekend was long, hot, and sweaty but I have seen more this weekend then I have during any other prt of the trip. I got to witness some of the shrines of Japanese culture that you usually only see online and in books, and after seeing them first hand I think it is saf to say that after this summer I will continue to make trips back to japan. These weekend trips have fueled my engine for adventure and travel and cannot wait to see the rest of the world. I fell in love this weekend with the thrill of the chase to find new and exotic experiences and cannot wait to share my trips with the rest of my friends and family. With much more to come in the near future I will leave you all with my stories and hope that you too can experience the thrill of traveling; I cannot suggest enough that you throw yourself out of your element into new experiences and to embrace the cultures of others and completely immerse yourself into another region.