Off to Kyoto!

The ensoku to Kyoto was one of the trips our students were most looking forward to, but I’ll admit, it was also one of the trips I was personally most worried about. Kyoto hosts more than a million tourists from Japan and abroad during the Gion Festival alone, and we were going to be there on the first day of it. The forecast on all major networks in Japan also called for heavy rain. However, my prediction about being unable to enjoy this transcendent metropolis was, much like the weather forecast, laughably inaccurate.

The students have now fully adjusted to train commuting, with the possible exception of Jacob, who relies almost exclusively on his bike. The train ride from our high school stop to Kyoto is direct and rather convenient, so we arrived, figured out where to go on the bus, and headed off to Kinkakuji, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. When we arrived, at the gate, there was a large bell, and ringing it symbolized our arrival, but for some reason, all the students got shy and I ended up being the one announcing that IUHPFL had come.

The temple really speaks for itself, though, so perhaps it’d be best just to enjoy the pretty pictures we came there for.

The Golden Pavilion itself, amidst a sky that, at the time, looked more threatening. The original burnt down in a fire in the 1950s, and it has since been restored.

We relied on another group leader who brought a very expensive camera to take this shot. In retrospect, perhaps we should have told him we wanted the pavilion in the picture, too? Live and learn, I suppose.

The guys. The bird at the top of the pavilion is actually the same legendary bird whose character Jacob drew for the calligraphy event the week prior

The girls (and me). Nadya very wisely brought her uchiwa 

Godzilla has been travelling with us, as well, courtesy of Jacob:

The gardens around the pavilion have many spots for meditation. Some of the students took a seat on one of the stones where a famous philosopher is said to have found enlightenment.

Anh where a famous philosopher found enlightenment

Summer on the philosopher’s stone

Jacob and Wayne “sharing”

A temple is, though, after all, a place to be solemn and reflect. The students joined in the tradition of wafting the incense (o-kou) over the parts of their body they want to be blessed: usually the head for wisdom, but also any parts of their body that are ailing them.

The students then went for some matcha ice cream while Wayne got another legendary temple stamp for his shuin from the temple. I took a video of the calligrapher drawing beautiful work and then stamping it with several official vermillion insignias before finding out it was also very much against the rules to take pictures, as evidenced by a giant “no pictures” sign in Japanese and English. So, for now, just imagine it.

Kinkakuji is a beautiful monument and a staple Buddhist landmark, but it is also very far away from many of the other tourist spots in Kyoto, so we had a bit of a trek ahead of us, and unlike most other cities in Japan, Kyoto’s train system covers much less of the city, since so much of the land is of historic significance and can’t be just dug up for a subway. So, we hopped on a bus and then walked through the famous Gion district (for which the festival is named) to get to Yasaka Jinja, one of the more significant Shinto landmarks and the host of the festival itself.

The market in Gion

Austin at the bus stop enjoying the mix of architectural styles in Kyoto (presumably)

Dustin and I were a bit ahead of the others, so we waited at the intersection where we got our first glimpse of the shrine

Made it!

As the students learned in their culture class, Yasaka Jinja is dedicated to a famous god in Shintoism named Susanoo-no-mikoto, who is said to have defeated a hydra and established peace in the region. The shrine itself dates back possibly more than 100 years before even the Heian period in Japanese history, so it has a very special place in the development of Japanese Shintoism, and more than 3,000 satellite shrines throughout the country. Upon entering the shrine, typically there is a place to wash your hands and purify yourself for entry into the sacred area. The students seemed to have already adjusted to this quite well, although perhaps another motivation for washing their hands was the food at the different festival stalls that had just been set up.

The actual purification ritual involves quite a few steps, but the students seem to have picked this up from somewhere already

Some of the yatai, or street food vendors here for the festival. The large one on the left is selling hashimaki, which are essentially like a savoury wrap filled with vegetables and a barbecue-like sauce. Specifically, these rare hashimaki were made with a pounded rice wrap called yatsuhashi which is a famous Kyoto delicacy and something many students and us brought back as a gift

Group shot at the main hall in Yasaka Jinja

At this point, the students broke off for some free time to explore.

One of the list of donors to the shrine

Dustin observed several of the visitors going through the ritual of praying first, and then did his own prayer. Prayer at a shrine is often much more about personal reflection than anything specifically religious in Japan.

Anh had clearly done this before

Mackenzie at one of the smaller torii gates

The twins with some Wayne-approved hashimaki

Austin with a surprisingly affordable wagyuu skewer 

Summer enjoyed my less-than-successful attempt to eat hashimaki with dignity. To the right, Savannah is the one filming this unfortunate moment. Let us all hope it never surfaces again.

A torii gate marks the entrance to the sacred ground of the shrine, but typically, they were constructed in places where something terrible had happened–a battle, or a natural disaster, or a miscarriage–in order to invite the gods to that space and prevent it from becoming cursed. The rumour is that Yasaka Jinja is very similar in this respect, but because its initial construction predates writing in Japan, it’s impossible to tell for sure

We then headed back out to the Gion area for lunch. I’m honestly amazed that Yonezu-sensei was able to find a lunch place where all of us could sit and eat Kyoto food without spending a fortune, but it was quite a nice experience for us to have a very traditional local meal.

Our lunch spot, Okudohan

Summer, Nadya, and Anh were seated at the table right behind us in this picture

 

After lunch, we set out for Kiyomizudera, the Temple of Pure Water, something the students were very much looking forward to. The temple is located up on a beautiful hill overlooking the city, but it is essentially inaccessible by train, so we walked along Kyoto’s famous (…ly expensive) riverside district to avoid the crowds for a bit and then trekked up to the famous merchant district at the foot of the temple.

Chase is clearly very happy with my taking his picture at this moment, haha. Also of note here: Jacob is about 100m behind us still taking pictures.

Summer, Anh, Nadya, and Yonezu-sensei as we approached 法観寺 (Houkan-ji), one of the countless temples in Kyoto. Although the view from the top is quite beautiful, we had set out for a much larger target, and large pagodas like these are quite common throughout the city.

At this point, it had become extremely hot, and we had walked for several miles. When Yonezu-sensei stopped to look for a nearby convenience store to get some cold water and air conditioning, one of the friendly locals helped out

Eventually, though, we did make it to the entrance of Kiyomizudera, after stopping to check out the nearby merchant district

The students had learned in their culture class that the temple is home to Otowa Falls, where the holy water from the top of the mountain is split into three streams, representing the three blessings that are conferred on pilgrims. The students have to choose between wishing for 学力 (gakuryoku, academic prowess), 連運 (ren-un, luck in one’s love life), and 健康 (kenkou, good health). Yonezu-sensei and I both opted for health, but to my surprise, most of the students did not.

At the top of the hill at Kiyomizudera

Me and several of the students in line for the holy water. We learned from one of the local monks that, in very typical Buddhist fashion, the actual choice of stream is unimportant. The decision about which blessing to receive is made internally, in the mind (心で決める)

Dustin, Anh, and Summer on another of the good luck charms for bringing success in romantic relationships

The trio again cooling down with some green tea flavoured kaki-koori

By the end of the day, according to Mackenzie’s FitBit, anyway, we had walked a little over 13 kilometres, and Crystal and Mackenzie in particular were quite tired, but everyone really pulled through and made the trip quite memorable. There were lots of gifts purchased, and lots of memories made, just in time to come back to Osaka for a very event-filled week.