By Trey:
The last full day in Japan was a day filled with fun, laughter, laziness, and SUMO!! On Friday we were blessed with the opportunity to watch some of the world's largest men fight each other to prove that they are the best of the best in the world of sumo.
The events leading up to the sumo meet went a little bit like this… The day started out with a carefree morning of shopping and hanging out until we needed to be back at the Hotel to meet up for Sumo. Some of the places we traveled to that day while shopping in Tokyo were Senso-ji Temple, and the infamous “teen street” in Harajuku. We had about 4 hours of time to shop and we all for sure took advantage to get our last minute shopping in for trinkets and souvenirs. After a long hot morning of shopping it was time to head back to the hotel.
I decided on that afternoon to have my own little adventure and leave the group and venture to the sumo hall in Tokyo all by my lonesome. This was probably not one of my best ideas that I had during the trip but I proceeded anyway. During this time while I left the group I tried to find the sumo hall to catch some video of the opening ceremonies of the main fights of the evening. While I was in the subway system I was constantly asking the natives how I can get to Ryugoku station, which was just outside of the sumo hall. While I was in this adventure I met a new friend that obviously could tell that I had no clue what I was doing. His name was Sean-Hu and he was from China. I showed him where I needed to go, and out of the kindness of his heart he left his plans that he had and helped me all the way across Tokyo so I could get to the sumo match. Finally after an hour of traveling I arrived at the station I needed.
I thanked Sean-Hu many times and we both bowed to each other as I heard a voice behind me that said “Trey Lets Go!” low and behold Ben was yelling at me and they arrived at the station the same time I did. I didn’t make it to the sumo hall early because I got lost. I should have stuck with the group the whole time because it would have saved me and my new Chinese friend time. O WELL! ☺.
Finally we arrived at the sumo hall and it was everything I expected. All the wrestlers were so large and all the fans were so excited and jacked up to be there and cheer on their favorite competitors. Ben and I watched sumo everyday so we got really familiar with pretty much all the wrestlers, and we actually made up our own names for many of them because we could not understand what their real names were in the writing they used on TV. We developed many names and ill tell you some of them now. We had names like, craterface, thunder thighs, Bulgarian, big baby, broken nose, chief sitting bull, scrapper, psycho, acne belly, giant hairy white man, and ole yoko (for the Yokozuna or supreme champion). Many of the matches were very short but we were pleased that many of our favorite wrestlers won their matches. The Yokozuna Named Hakuho won the final match of the day to stay undefeated and later went on to win the tournament with a record of 15 wins and 0 losses.
Once the matches were over it was time to leave and eat a traditional sumo feast. We ended up having reservations at a restaurant that specializes in sumo cuisine. It was a soup filled with shrimp, muscles, fish of all sorts, meatballs, squid, octopus, cabbage, eggs, and many other vegetables. It sounds terrible and believe it or not it was actually pretty tasty I thought. I think a majority of the people would not care for it ever again but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Finally we left and some went out for a night on the town and some retreated to the rock solid beds back at the hotel to rest up for a long trip back to the states.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Kamikochi Valley
Hello from Kamikochi!
It is currently our second day staying inKkamikochi, which is kind of located in the northern part of Honshu (main island of japan). Kamikochi is located in the mountainous interior of japan and looks much different from any of the other areas we’ve visited so far. On arrival I almost forgot we were in japan because we are surrounded by mountains and trees instead of buildings and busy streets. The scenery of kamikochi probably is not what comes to mind when one thinks of japan, but in fact the majority of japan is mountainous and sparsely populated, as is Kamikochi.
Our first day here was warm and mostly sunny, and there were tourists everywhere hiking and snapping pictures. Most of us went on a 2-3 hour hike along the crystal clear Azusa river and we were very pleased to see lots of monkeys that we missed out on while on Miyajima Island! For dinner we were served fresh fish and vegetables…and I mean fresh. The main dish was a river fish that had been salted and cooked over a fire, but what was alarming was that the whole fish was still intact, head and all!
Today the weather was very different from yesterday. It rained all night and continued to sprinkle throughout the day, but everyone hiked for at least a couple of hours. Personally I didn’t mind the rain because it brought out a totally new view of Kamikochi. Instead of boasting in the sunlight, the mountains now appear mysterious behind a veil of clouds and fog. The river is more murky today and the trails are dark and secluded.
On the hike today Christina and I attempted to follow a path which is supposed to lead to one of the many peaks, but after about a mile and a half of hiking we were halted by left over snow from winter and had to turn back around. Near the end of our 4 hour hike we encountered the first monkeys we had seen all day! Most of the monkeys were feeding, ignoring our attempts to record them, except for one little monkey that got it in his head to charge at us! He charged several times, screeching and bearing his teeth, and when we tried to run away he ran after us for a little bit until he decided we weren’t a threat. And yes, I got it on video. What a great way to end a nice day of hiking!
Enjoy the blog entries and soon to be video blogs!
-Logan Swarts
It is currently our second day staying inKkamikochi, which is kind of located in the northern part of Honshu (main island of japan). Kamikochi is located in the mountainous interior of japan and looks much different from any of the other areas we’ve visited so far. On arrival I almost forgot we were in japan because we are surrounded by mountains and trees instead of buildings and busy streets. The scenery of kamikochi probably is not what comes to mind when one thinks of japan, but in fact the majority of japan is mountainous and sparsely populated, as is Kamikochi.
Our first day here was warm and mostly sunny, and there were tourists everywhere hiking and snapping pictures. Most of us went on a 2-3 hour hike along the crystal clear Azusa river and we were very pleased to see lots of monkeys that we missed out on while on Miyajima Island! For dinner we were served fresh fish and vegetables…and I mean fresh. The main dish was a river fish that had been salted and cooked over a fire, but what was alarming was that the whole fish was still intact, head and all!
Today the weather was very different from yesterday. It rained all night and continued to sprinkle throughout the day, but everyone hiked for at least a couple of hours. Personally I didn’t mind the rain because it brought out a totally new view of Kamikochi. Instead of boasting in the sunlight, the mountains now appear mysterious behind a veil of clouds and fog. The river is more murky today and the trails are dark and secluded.
On the hike today Christina and I attempted to follow a path which is supposed to lead to one of the many peaks, but after about a mile and a half of hiking we were halted by left over snow from winter and had to turn back around. Near the end of our 4 hour hike we encountered the first monkeys we had seen all day! Most of the monkeys were feeding, ignoring our attempts to record them, except for one little monkey that got it in his head to charge at us! He charged several times, screeching and bearing his teeth, and when we tried to run away he ran after us for a little bit until he decided we weren’t a threat. And yes, I got it on video. What a great way to end a nice day of hiking!
Enjoy the blog entries and soon to be video blogs!
-Logan Swarts
castles and tigers!
It’s May 16th and our trip is more than halfway over; we’ve done so much it feels like we’ve been here a month already and we still have more to do! Today we got up early to travel to Himeji to visit the Himeji castle and then we ended our day with a Japanese baseball game.
Himeji castle is a great example of Japanese castles and traditional Japanese wooden architecture. It was started in 1333 and it was completed in its current form in 1609 by the son in law of the Shogun, Terumasa Ikeda. In order to preserve the integrity of the building and keep it intact, construction was being done on it so unfortunatley we were not able to see the whole thing. We were able to see a lot of the significant sights of the castle though: the Oil Wall made of sand and boiled rice water instead of the usual plaster, the fan curved stone walls which are harder to scale than normal walls, and the store house where rice and salt was kept.
We also spent a good deal of our time searching for “Okiku’s Well” on the castle grounds. Legend has it that a servant named Okiku serving the lord of the castle at the time overheard an assasination plot engineered by the chief retainer so she alerted the lord and foiled the plot. The chief retainer found out that it was Okiku who ruined his plans so he framed her for stealing on the the ten treasure dishes housed in the castle. The innocent Okiku was tortured to death and her body was thrown into the well. It is said that her ghost still haunts the castle grounds.
After that we got on a train to go to a baseball game between the Hanshin Tigers and the Rakuten Eagles. The rules of Japanese baseball are very similar to American baseball, but it is still a very different game. Teams are owned by companies, for instance the Hanshin Tigers are owned by the Hanshin railway company. The most noticable difference is in the fans. Fans at Japanese baseball games remind me of fans at college football games. There is a lot of chanting going on, each player has their own chant which the fans say when they get up to bat. The most memorable part of the game was at the end of the 7th ining; everyone in the stadium blew up a balloon and let them go at the same time.
All it all it has been a good day; the Tigers won, we got to see Himeji castle, and we became very familiar with the railway system. I hope you have been enjoying these blogs posts so far, there are only a few more left before we come back to Iowa!
Charlie Nichols
Himeji castle is a great example of Japanese castles and traditional Japanese wooden architecture. It was started in 1333 and it was completed in its current form in 1609 by the son in law of the Shogun, Terumasa Ikeda. In order to preserve the integrity of the building and keep it intact, construction was being done on it so unfortunatley we were not able to see the whole thing. We were able to see a lot of the significant sights of the castle though: the Oil Wall made of sand and boiled rice water instead of the usual plaster, the fan curved stone walls which are harder to scale than normal walls, and the store house where rice and salt was kept.
We also spent a good deal of our time searching for “Okiku’s Well” on the castle grounds. Legend has it that a servant named Okiku serving the lord of the castle at the time overheard an assasination plot engineered by the chief retainer so she alerted the lord and foiled the plot. The chief retainer found out that it was Okiku who ruined his plans so he framed her for stealing on the the ten treasure dishes housed in the castle. The innocent Okiku was tortured to death and her body was thrown into the well. It is said that her ghost still haunts the castle grounds.
After that we got on a train to go to a baseball game between the Hanshin Tigers and the Rakuten Eagles. The rules of Japanese baseball are very similar to American baseball, but it is still a very different game. Teams are owned by companies, for instance the Hanshin Tigers are owned by the Hanshin railway company. The most noticable difference is in the fans. Fans at Japanese baseball games remind me of fans at college football games. There is a lot of chanting going on, each player has their own chant which the fans say when they get up to bat. The most memorable part of the game was at the end of the 7th ining; everyone in the stadium blew up a balloon and let them go at the same time.
All it all it has been a good day; the Tigers won, we got to see Himeji castle, and we became very familiar with the railway system. I hope you have been enjoying these blogs posts so far, there are only a few more left before we come back to Iowa!
Charlie Nichols
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Miyajima Island
Today we had the chance to visit Miyajima Island which is a sacred island to Japan and is famous for the "floating" tori gate at the Itsukushima Shrine. We started our journey with about an hour long tram ride and then a short ferry ride across part of the Pacific Ocean to get to the island. Once there, we noticed more of the sacred deer roaming around just like we had seen a few days ago in Nara.
The significance of the Itsukushima Shrine and its tori gate is that both were built to look as though they are floating when it is high tide. However, during low tide(roughly every six hours) the stilts below the shrine and gate are visible.
After walking along the shrine complex we rode cable cars up the mountain side to go hiking and visit more shrines. Professor Boss had told us that there was a chance we might be able to see the monkeys that live along the trail. Once the boys found out about this they decided to call the island "Monkey Island" which we all found quite amusing. The trails and the view were breath-taking, and so was the hike! Needless to say, most of us only ended up visiting the first shrine the trail led to, but it was still a fun experience.
When our little hiking adventure was over we returned to the Itsukushima Shrine. It was great timing because not only did we get to see it at high tide but by the time we returned it was low tide. The view was much different but still very beautiful. There were many people walking around looking at the tori gate up close as well and digging for crabs, clams and shells. We also saw one of the sacred deer make its way down the steps to check out the sights.
Although we were a little disappointed the monkeys did not come out to say hi, it was still another amazing day on our trip.
Hope you're enjoying our blogging stories!
-Katie Braun
The significance of the Itsukushima Shrine and its tori gate is that both were built to look as though they are floating when it is high tide. However, during low tide(roughly every six hours) the stilts below the shrine and gate are visible.
After walking along the shrine complex we rode cable cars up the mountain side to go hiking and visit more shrines. Professor Boss had told us that there was a chance we might be able to see the monkeys that live along the trail. Once the boys found out about this they decided to call the island "Monkey Island" which we all found quite amusing. The trails and the view were breath-taking, and so was the hike! Needless to say, most of us only ended up visiting the first shrine the trail led to, but it was still a fun experience.
When our little hiking adventure was over we returned to the Itsukushima Shrine. It was great timing because not only did we get to see it at high tide but by the time we returned it was low tide. The view was much different but still very beautiful. There were many people walking around looking at the tori gate up close as well and digging for crabs, clams and shells. We also saw one of the sacred deer make its way down the steps to check out the sights.
Although we were a little disappointed the monkeys did not come out to say hi, it was still another amazing day on our trip.
Hope you're enjoying our blogging stories!
-Katie Braun
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Nara and Fushimi
Thursday, May 13th- Christina
Today we spent our day traveling to Nara and Fushimi. Nara, which is about a 45 minute train ride from Kyoto, was the first permanent capital of Japan. Prior to its establishment, the capital was moved with each new emperor; the death of prior emperor would taint the city, requiring movement of the capital. Nara is now celebrating its 1300th anniversary. We took the express train to Nara. It is so interesting to see the mixture of “old” and “new.” We saw lots of roofs made of tiles giving houses a more traditional feel, while others had a more “modern” tar paper. There was also an unexpected superposition of agriculture and industry. We traveled past many rice patties, but also saw signs, I’m guessing for some development/engineering offices, belonging to Nintendo and Suzuki. I feel as though in the US we tend to try to segregate our time periods. We keep historical sites the same and try to preserve them; in Japan there is some of that, most temples and shrines have that rustic feel, but they aren’t afraid to rebuild their wooden buildings or renovate to bring things to be more functional.
When we arrived in Nara the train station itself was under construction, we caught taxi cabs to Tamukeyama Hachimaryu Shrine. On the way we got our first good look at Nara’s sacred deer. They are sacred because they are messengers of some of the gods. Tamukeyama Hachimaryu is famous for its large number of stone lanterns. Nearly every path was flanked by a row or tow of lanterns. They varied in size and construction. Some were solid carved stone with holes cut for the candle inside to shine through. Others had a stone base and top but wooden and paper screens in the middle. Nearly all of the lanterns had paper covers (unless they had been damaged). Some even had the mascot of Nara’s anniversary, a little horned baby Buddha on them. At the shrine the purifying water came from a scroll in a carved deer’s mouth. All of the buildings were brightly colored. Dr. Boss said that due to the time of establishment of the shrine, Chinese architecture was highly influential. As such, the gates and buildings were painted the bright orange we saw. At the shrine we also enjoyed the beautiful wisteria hanging from some trellises. They even had fortunes for sale that were rolled as a scroll and held in the mouth of a wooden deer.
Once we were finished at Tamukeyama Hachimaryu, we walked through a park and watched some more deer. Tray and Noel bought some deer cookies and essentially got mobbed by bands of the little animals. They are supposed to bow if you hold a cookie right above their noses, but most weren’t overly inclined to make the effort and just attacked those holding the cookies.
We walked through the park to the Todai-ji Temple. Though it hosts most elements of a standard temple, Todai-ji’s claim to fame is the Daibutsu- or the really big Buddha. The bronze statue is actually housed in the largest wooden structure in the world, which has windows built in so that on special days they can be opened and the Buddha can look out. It’s hard to just describe how monumental this statue is. Hopefully we can get our videos up so that everyone can see…it’s just HUGE! There were offerings all over in front of the Buddha, like fruit. Flanking him on either side were two “assistants” of slightly smaller size, but still pretty darn big; they’re kind of like saints or apostles in Christianity, preaching the word of the Buddha. Additional wooden statues were sprinkled around the hall. My favorite part was actually a very small hole in a supporting beam of the building. There was a long line of children waiting to squeeze through the hole. Initially we were very confused, but after it was explained I wanted to try my hand at making it through (the line was a little too long for it to be worth it though). The hole in the beam was the same size as the Buddha’s nostril. It is said that if you fit through that hole, when you die you will automatically be reborn in the Buddha’s paradise. We all joked that Trey and Ben should go stand in line, but in the end none of us tried, we just watched the elementary kinds make their way through.
After a little shopping and lunch we headed back to the station and hopped a local train to Fushimi. The route was longer due to more stops, but that way we didn’t have to retrace our steps since Fushimi is in between Kyoto and Nara. At Fushimi we visited the Inari Shrine, which is famous for its tori gates. Inari is also unique in that it has a different messenger, the fox. They even shape their prayer boards like the heads of foxes. The fox theme carried through in that instead of the regular guardian dogs at shrine entrances, there were foxes, one with its mouth open and the other closed. Again, the shrine was brightly colored, mostly orange and a little green. We saw a couple of prayer sessions occurring while we were there at different little shrines. For a donation priests will pray to the gods with requests for assistance or intercession for the donating party. For me it’s interesting to think that most of their ritual services are preformed as needed, not on a set schedule. The person being prayed for may or may not be present, and so may just be hoping the gods will listen and assist them. As I said, Inari s famous for its tori gates, each one doesn’t look overly remarkable, but the sheer volume is truly impressive. In sections of the shrine grounds there are two parallel tunnels of continuous gates, one right after the other. The result is Really impressive (again something I hope you will see in my videos eventually). Each gate has a sponsor, whenever the gates need to be replaced the sponsor can re-donate to the shrine (it’s kind of like advertising) or the spot will be sold to someone else. The last part of the Inari shrine that I really liked was the smaller shrines up in the hills. Families can pay for a shrine to be kept up for them; of the shrines we visited this seems to be a rather unique characteristic. They varied vastly in size, from just a little area for candles to walk in full scale mini shrines. I liked the fact that they allow people to be a little more involved, they allow people to take a little more active role in their religion. After Inari we hopped back on the train and headed back to our hotel before getting dinner and enjoying an AMAZING night with Peter Macintosh and a Geiko (dancing Geisha) named Miehina.
Today we spent our day traveling to Nara and Fushimi. Nara, which is about a 45 minute train ride from Kyoto, was the first permanent capital of Japan. Prior to its establishment, the capital was moved with each new emperor; the death of prior emperor would taint the city, requiring movement of the capital. Nara is now celebrating its 1300th anniversary. We took the express train to Nara. It is so interesting to see the mixture of “old” and “new.” We saw lots of roofs made of tiles giving houses a more traditional feel, while others had a more “modern” tar paper. There was also an unexpected superposition of agriculture and industry. We traveled past many rice patties, but also saw signs, I’m guessing for some development/engineering offices, belonging to Nintendo and Suzuki. I feel as though in the US we tend to try to segregate our time periods. We keep historical sites the same and try to preserve them; in Japan there is some of that, most temples and shrines have that rustic feel, but they aren’t afraid to rebuild their wooden buildings or renovate to bring things to be more functional.
When we arrived in Nara the train station itself was under construction, we caught taxi cabs to Tamukeyama Hachimaryu Shrine. On the way we got our first good look at Nara’s sacred deer. They are sacred because they are messengers of some of the gods. Tamukeyama Hachimaryu is famous for its large number of stone lanterns. Nearly every path was flanked by a row or tow of lanterns. They varied in size and construction. Some were solid carved stone with holes cut for the candle inside to shine through. Others had a stone base and top but wooden and paper screens in the middle. Nearly all of the lanterns had paper covers (unless they had been damaged). Some even had the mascot of Nara’s anniversary, a little horned baby Buddha on them. At the shrine the purifying water came from a scroll in a carved deer’s mouth. All of the buildings were brightly colored. Dr. Boss said that due to the time of establishment of the shrine, Chinese architecture was highly influential. As such, the gates and buildings were painted the bright orange we saw. At the shrine we also enjoyed the beautiful wisteria hanging from some trellises. They even had fortunes for sale that were rolled as a scroll and held in the mouth of a wooden deer.
Once we were finished at Tamukeyama Hachimaryu, we walked through a park and watched some more deer. Tray and Noel bought some deer cookies and essentially got mobbed by bands of the little animals. They are supposed to bow if you hold a cookie right above their noses, but most weren’t overly inclined to make the effort and just attacked those holding the cookies.
We walked through the park to the Todai-ji Temple. Though it hosts most elements of a standard temple, Todai-ji’s claim to fame is the Daibutsu- or the really big Buddha. The bronze statue is actually housed in the largest wooden structure in the world, which has windows built in so that on special days they can be opened and the Buddha can look out. It’s hard to just describe how monumental this statue is. Hopefully we can get our videos up so that everyone can see…it’s just HUGE! There were offerings all over in front of the Buddha, like fruit. Flanking him on either side were two “assistants” of slightly smaller size, but still pretty darn big; they’re kind of like saints or apostles in Christianity, preaching the word of the Buddha. Additional wooden statues were sprinkled around the hall. My favorite part was actually a very small hole in a supporting beam of the building. There was a long line of children waiting to squeeze through the hole. Initially we were very confused, but after it was explained I wanted to try my hand at making it through (the line was a little too long for it to be worth it though). The hole in the beam was the same size as the Buddha’s nostril. It is said that if you fit through that hole, when you die you will automatically be reborn in the Buddha’s paradise. We all joked that Trey and Ben should go stand in line, but in the end none of us tried, we just watched the elementary kinds make their way through.
After a little shopping and lunch we headed back to the station and hopped a local train to Fushimi. The route was longer due to more stops, but that way we didn’t have to retrace our steps since Fushimi is in between Kyoto and Nara. At Fushimi we visited the Inari Shrine, which is famous for its tori gates. Inari is also unique in that it has a different messenger, the fox. They even shape their prayer boards like the heads of foxes. The fox theme carried through in that instead of the regular guardian dogs at shrine entrances, there were foxes, one with its mouth open and the other closed. Again, the shrine was brightly colored, mostly orange and a little green. We saw a couple of prayer sessions occurring while we were there at different little shrines. For a donation priests will pray to the gods with requests for assistance or intercession for the donating party. For me it’s interesting to think that most of their ritual services are preformed as needed, not on a set schedule. The person being prayed for may or may not be present, and so may just be hoping the gods will listen and assist them. As I said, Inari s famous for its tori gates, each one doesn’t look overly remarkable, but the sheer volume is truly impressive. In sections of the shrine grounds there are two parallel tunnels of continuous gates, one right after the other. The result is Really impressive (again something I hope you will see in my videos eventually). Each gate has a sponsor, whenever the gates need to be replaced the sponsor can re-donate to the shrine (it’s kind of like advertising) or the spot will be sold to someone else. The last part of the Inari shrine that I really liked was the smaller shrines up in the hills. Families can pay for a shrine to be kept up for them; of the shrines we visited this seems to be a rather unique characteristic. They varied vastly in size, from just a little area for candles to walk in full scale mini shrines. I liked the fact that they allow people to be a little more involved, they allow people to take a little more active role in their religion. After Inari we hopped back on the train and headed back to our hotel before getting dinner and enjoying an AMAZING night with Peter Macintosh and a Geiko (dancing Geisha) named Miehina.
Kyoto
Hello!! -Meg
I was in charge of keeping track or our second day in Kyoto. Unfortunately there was a misunderstanding about videos that needed to be cleared from the flip-recorder and mine were accidentally deleted. So please bear with me as I try to remember all of the details of what we did in Kyoto!
We started out our day with a meditation session at a Buddhist Temple (that I can't remember the name of, sorry!) The Buddhist monk-priest-guy that led our session was really nice! (Unfortunately I can't remember his name either...all that info was in the videos that were deleted...sad day!) He actually went to school at the University of Arizona, if I remember correctly, so he knew much better English than other people we have met so far. That was very helpful! There were two parts to our meditation session. Each was split into fifteen minute time slots. Before we began, our leader went through three main instruments that are used in a meditation session. They were two blocks banged together to notify people to prepare for meditation, a bell that is rung to help people focus on their mediation, and a long wooden stick that is used to gently smack a person's back (voluntarily) to help them if they are having trouble focusing on their meditation process.
I personally thought the mediation session was pretty cool, but it was kind of painful too. Trying to sit in one position, cross-legged for longer periods of time doesn't exactly fare well with my hips and legs. I'm pretty sure they fell asleep at least twice for each time slot! That made it especially hard to actually focus on meditating.
After our session we were shown the zen garden at the temple which was beautiful! The detail and time spent to make the garden perfect was visible in ever crook and corner of the garden. Truly a spectacular sight!! We were also shown a rooms used for audiences that had paintings on the walls and sliding doors. They were absolutely beautiful as well. At the end of our visit to the temple we were served rice cookies with matcha green tea. I really enjoyed both! The tea was a bit strong, but it grew on you after the first couple of sips.
OH! Before I forget, our tour guide for the day was a guy named Toyo. He was a very sweet and kind gentleman and he really knew his facts! It was so nice, he made charts of dates and information to show us as he was speaking so that we could better understand the importance of what he was telling us.
Next on our list for the day was a visit to the Golden Pavilion Temple, also called Kinkaku-ji Temple. Now this place was quite a sight! The outside of the temple is made of gold leaf. It was located right next to a small pond area that had little islands all around, each overflowing with beautiful vegetation and some had the traditional Japanese stone lanterns. Apparently from the top of the temple, the view of the pond area and the islands are supposed to look like the entire island of Japan. We hiked the trail around the temple grounds and saw different views of the temple, all of the beautiful!
Check back later for more details of our day in Kyoto!!
To be continued...
[And here is the next part!]
Hello again! Sorry it has taken me a few days to get this last post up! I wasn’t feeling very well when I wrote the first part of my blog.
So, Nijo Castle! That was our third stop of the day in Kyoto. I must admit that my favorite part of the castle was the Nightingale floor. That was way cool to walk across the floor and make it sound like birds. The way this works is by nails in the floor that rub against the wood underneath the floor that creates noise that sounds like birds chirping.
Unfortunately pictures on the inside of the castle were prohibited, so I will try to explain what we saw as best I can! The castle itself isn’t just made up of one big structure. It consists of a few structures that are connected together. If I remember correctly, this was supposed to help confuse anyone who came into the castle with intentions of assassination because they had to try and find their way around. The Nightingale floor also plays a role in this too because if there were intruders the floor would make noise and the Shogun would be warned.
For some reason I couldn’t help but think of the movie “The Last Samurai” as we walked through the castle. The time the castle would have been in use was around the same time that the movie takes place. It really was neat to see!
Our last stop of the day (with our guide Toyo) was the temple called Kiyomizu-dera Temple. The walk up to the temple was pretty cool. The street leading up to it has many shops full of traditional Japanese stuff. From fans and tea cups to kimonos and vases selling for over 30 thousand dollars. Crazy cool! The temple grounds actually had multiple structures. The main temple was neat because it overlooked the hillside and the city of Kyoto (as did the other structures). It was different because the gathering was more of a stage. Thank goodness for the guard rails or it would have been pretty easy for someone to fall off the stage if they weren’t looking where they were going! This temple is also important because it has a washing/purification area that has water come directly from the mountain. It is said to be very pure and good if you drink the water form it. The line to do so was ridiculously long, so we all decided that a picture was good enough!
Today was definitely full of lots of culture and history as well as amazing sights and fun shopping!
I was in charge of keeping track or our second day in Kyoto. Unfortunately there was a misunderstanding about videos that needed to be cleared from the flip-recorder and mine were accidentally deleted. So please bear with me as I try to remember all of the details of what we did in Kyoto!
We started out our day with a meditation session at a Buddhist Temple (that I can't remember the name of, sorry!) The Buddhist monk-priest-guy that led our session was really nice! (Unfortunately I can't remember his name either...all that info was in the videos that were deleted...sad day!) He actually went to school at the University of Arizona, if I remember correctly, so he knew much better English than other people we have met so far. That was very helpful! There were two parts to our meditation session. Each was split into fifteen minute time slots. Before we began, our leader went through three main instruments that are used in a meditation session. They were two blocks banged together to notify people to prepare for meditation, a bell that is rung to help people focus on their mediation, and a long wooden stick that is used to gently smack a person's back (voluntarily) to help them if they are having trouble focusing on their meditation process.
I personally thought the mediation session was pretty cool, but it was kind of painful too. Trying to sit in one position, cross-legged for longer periods of time doesn't exactly fare well with my hips and legs. I'm pretty sure they fell asleep at least twice for each time slot! That made it especially hard to actually focus on meditating.
After our session we were shown the zen garden at the temple which was beautiful! The detail and time spent to make the garden perfect was visible in ever crook and corner of the garden. Truly a spectacular sight!! We were also shown a rooms used for audiences that had paintings on the walls and sliding doors. They were absolutely beautiful as well. At the end of our visit to the temple we were served rice cookies with matcha green tea. I really enjoyed both! The tea was a bit strong, but it grew on you after the first couple of sips.
OH! Before I forget, our tour guide for the day was a guy named Toyo. He was a very sweet and kind gentleman and he really knew his facts! It was so nice, he made charts of dates and information to show us as he was speaking so that we could better understand the importance of what he was telling us.
Next on our list for the day was a visit to the Golden Pavilion Temple, also called Kinkaku-ji Temple. Now this place was quite a sight! The outside of the temple is made of gold leaf. It was located right next to a small pond area that had little islands all around, each overflowing with beautiful vegetation and some had the traditional Japanese stone lanterns. Apparently from the top of the temple, the view of the pond area and the islands are supposed to look like the entire island of Japan. We hiked the trail around the temple grounds and saw different views of the temple, all of the beautiful!
Check back later for more details of our day in Kyoto!!
To be continued...
[And here is the next part!]
Hello again! Sorry it has taken me a few days to get this last post up! I wasn’t feeling very well when I wrote the first part of my blog.
So, Nijo Castle! That was our third stop of the day in Kyoto. I must admit that my favorite part of the castle was the Nightingale floor. That was way cool to walk across the floor and make it sound like birds. The way this works is by nails in the floor that rub against the wood underneath the floor that creates noise that sounds like birds chirping.
Unfortunately pictures on the inside of the castle were prohibited, so I will try to explain what we saw as best I can! The castle itself isn’t just made up of one big structure. It consists of a few structures that are connected together. If I remember correctly, this was supposed to help confuse anyone who came into the castle with intentions of assassination because they had to try and find their way around. The Nightingale floor also plays a role in this too because if there were intruders the floor would make noise and the Shogun would be warned.
For some reason I couldn’t help but think of the movie “The Last Samurai” as we walked through the castle. The time the castle would have been in use was around the same time that the movie takes place. It really was neat to see!
Our last stop of the day (with our guide Toyo) was the temple called Kiyomizu-dera Temple. The walk up to the temple was pretty cool. The street leading up to it has many shops full of traditional Japanese stuff. From fans and tea cups to kimonos and vases selling for over 30 thousand dollars. Crazy cool! The temple grounds actually had multiple structures. The main temple was neat because it overlooked the hillside and the city of Kyoto (as did the other structures). It was different because the gathering was more of a stage. Thank goodness for the guard rails or it would have been pretty easy for someone to fall off the stage if they weren’t looking where they were going! This temple is also important because it has a washing/purification area that has water come directly from the mountain. It is said to be very pure and good if you drink the water form it. The line to do so was ridiculously long, so we all decided that a picture was good enough!
Today was definitely full of lots of culture and history as well as amazing sights and fun shopping!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Hakone-Day 2
Hi! -Raeann
Today was day two in Hakone. First on our agenda was the Hakone Ropeway. We took the ropeway, which offered us amazing views of the towns below as well as the mountainside, to Owakudani, "The Immense Simmering Valley." The valley was formed by a volcano and has white steam rising from different pockets along its slope that give the valley a very strong stench of sulfur. While touring the summit, we climbed toward the top to purchase black boiled eggs. Their shells are black due to the minerals present in the sulfur springs in which they are boiled. Legend has it that eating just one egg will add seven years to a person's life. A few in our group took part in the legend; others were not so adventurous, myself included. However, those who did eat said the eggs were good. Our group was very lucky in that we got to see spectacular views of Mt. Fuji while at the summit as well as later, when riding "pirate ships" and traveling back to our starting point by use of the ropeway.
After viewing the summit, we went down the mountain to Lake Ashi where we rode pirate ships that ferried us around the lake. Our destination was Moto-Hakone where we headed to Hakone Shrine. The first Torii gate for this shrine stands in the water. An interesting aspect of this shrine is the dragon at the purification station that has water coming from its mouth. After climbing the many steps to the top of the shrine, we were again lucky enough to view a bride and groom after their wedding. Walking behind the wedding party and front building revealed the area where offerings are made. This shrine even had a bell at the front of the station that is used as part of the offering ritual of clapping and bowing. To the left of this area hung many many wooden plaques. They were tied on a bulletin board-like stand and on them, people had written wishes. Languages from all over the world are represented on these tablets.
Before returning to the guest house, we again got to see Mt. Fuji, even more spectacular than before. The clouds had cleared, and we were all able to get photos of the dormant volcano. Once back at the guest house, we were able to use the onsen, hot spring, to bathe, soak, and relax. The onsen is very peaceful and feels almost like a hot tub. We were even fortunate enough to have both an indoor and outdoor onsen to use.
Tomorrow we leave for Kyoto were we will tour temples and Nijo Castle, and we will even get to meet a maiko, a geisha in training!
Today was day two in Hakone. First on our agenda was the Hakone Ropeway. We took the ropeway, which offered us amazing views of the towns below as well as the mountainside, to Owakudani, "The Immense Simmering Valley." The valley was formed by a volcano and has white steam rising from different pockets along its slope that give the valley a very strong stench of sulfur. While touring the summit, we climbed toward the top to purchase black boiled eggs. Their shells are black due to the minerals present in the sulfur springs in which they are boiled. Legend has it that eating just one egg will add seven years to a person's life. A few in our group took part in the legend; others were not so adventurous, myself included. However, those who did eat said the eggs were good. Our group was very lucky in that we got to see spectacular views of Mt. Fuji while at the summit as well as later, when riding "pirate ships" and traveling back to our starting point by use of the ropeway.
After viewing the summit, we went down the mountain to Lake Ashi where we rode pirate ships that ferried us around the lake. Our destination was Moto-Hakone where we headed to Hakone Shrine. The first Torii gate for this shrine stands in the water. An interesting aspect of this shrine is the dragon at the purification station that has water coming from its mouth. After climbing the many steps to the top of the shrine, we were again lucky enough to view a bride and groom after their wedding. Walking behind the wedding party and front building revealed the area where offerings are made. This shrine even had a bell at the front of the station that is used as part of the offering ritual of clapping and bowing. To the left of this area hung many many wooden plaques. They were tied on a bulletin board-like stand and on them, people had written wishes. Languages from all over the world are represented on these tablets.
Before returning to the guest house, we again got to see Mt. Fuji, even more spectacular than before. The clouds had cleared, and we were all able to get photos of the dormant volcano. Once back at the guest house, we were able to use the onsen, hot spring, to bathe, soak, and relax. The onsen is very peaceful and feels almost like a hot tub. We were even fortunate enough to have both an indoor and outdoor onsen to use.
Tomorrow we leave for Kyoto were we will tour temples and Nijo Castle, and we will even get to meet a maiko, a geisha in training!
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