Up early today to get to the imperial palace's seemingly Kafka-esque offices where you have to book for the tour of the palace. However, we only actually had to wait about twenty minutes for our english-speaking (well, kind of), but very quiet guide to lead through into another world. I do like the respect given the place. Even though it's no longer used as a palace, the Japanese don't allow sightseers to trample all over it, and the fact that the last coronation of an emperor took place in Tokyo, rather than Kyoto, raised a lump in the throat of our guide.
Although many people are familiar with the "haiku" poem form, our guide told us of the "waka" which is 31 syllables long (lines of 5, 7, 5, 7 & 7 syllables). The second of the two gardens we visited had a stream which the shoogun would sit beside. If he could compose and write a waka by the time a wooden bird set afloat at the head of the stream reached him, he could take a glass of sake from its back. If he failed he had to allow it to continue downstream.
After the Imperial Palace we went for lunch. Our foot-bound journeying certainly gave us an appetite but I don't think that Fiona was quite prepared for the enormous bowl of pasta she was presented with - and that was supposed to be a half-portion!
After lunch we continued downtown on foot to go to the higashi-hongan-ji. I don't think we were very realistic. After all, Kyoto is a city and we walked halfway across it! We'd left the hotel at half past eight and it was 3pm by the time we reached the temple. We'd had a couple of breaks for food, drinks and waiting for our guide to the palace, but other than that we'd walked all day long.
The higashi-hongan-ji was phenomenal. As well as being the first building of historic interest I'd seen in Japan, thus having a special place in my heart, it was an amazing place anyway. The roof beams for the Founder hall were so heavy they couldn't be lifted with ordinary ropes so women from all over Kansai donated their hair to make 53 hawsers strong enough to lift the beams. We're talking masses of hair here. One of the ropes was preserved and it must be 100' long and as thick as your arm.
After culture, food. We went back to Tani House and prepared for our checkout. I had my first ofuro or Japanese bath which was very hot and nice, but not really built for someone of my stature. Then we booked our hotel for the following night and went out for food. The yakitori joint we found ourselves in was manned by a jolly chap who helped us with our difficult food requests and our terrible Japanese. All the same, we ended up spending more money for dinner than we had intended even though it was totemo oishi kata desu...
Although many people are familiar with the "haiku" poem form, our guide told us of the "waka" which is 31 syllables long (lines of 5, 7, 5, 7 & 7 syllables). The second of the two gardens we visited had a stream which the shoogun would sit beside. If he could compose and write a waka by the time a wooden bird set afloat at the head of the stream reached him, he could take a glass of sake from its back. If he failed he had to allow it to continue downstream.
After the Imperial Palace we went for lunch. Our foot-bound journeying certainly gave us an appetite but I don't think that Fiona was quite prepared for the enormous bowl of pasta she was presented with - and that was supposed to be a half-portion!
After lunch we continued downtown on foot to go to the higashi-hongan-ji. I don't think we were very realistic. After all, Kyoto is a city and we walked halfway across it! We'd left the hotel at half past eight and it was 3pm by the time we reached the temple. We'd had a couple of breaks for food, drinks and waiting for our guide to the palace, but other than that we'd walked all day long.
The higashi-hongan-ji was phenomenal. As well as being the first building of historic interest I'd seen in Japan, thus having a special place in my heart, it was an amazing place anyway. The roof beams for the Founder hall were so heavy they couldn't be lifted with ordinary ropes so women from all over Kansai donated their hair to make 53 hawsers strong enough to lift the beams. We're talking masses of hair here. One of the ropes was preserved and it must be 100' long and as thick as your arm.
After culture, food. We went back to Tani House and prepared for our checkout. I had my first ofuro or Japanese bath which was very hot and nice, but not really built for someone of my stature. Then we booked our hotel for the following night and went out for food. The yakitori joint we found ourselves in was manned by a jolly chap who helped us with our difficult food requests and our terrible Japanese. All the same, we ended up spending more money for dinner than we had intended even though it was totemo oishi kata desu...
Onto: 991007 - To Nagasaki!
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