Kyoto's city bus system utilizes a green strategy I have never heard of before: at every bus stop and red light they turn off the engine. This amounts to only a few seconds sometimes, but I can imagine it adds up for the amount of time saved through this process. I don't know if this is a law or a policy of the company, but its very interesting.
Today I bussed my way to the Kinkakuji, the temple made of gold, and Ginkakuji, the temple not really made of silver, but still called something like that anyway. Actually, I visited them in reverse order, but I had to tell it like that to sound witty and smart. To get to Ginkakuji, I could have just taken the bus, but instead I went to Nansenji, a smaller temple amongst a slew of other temples (you can see them in my pictures, but I don't know all their names). I then took the scenic Philosopher's Walk to Ginkakuji. Along the way I stopped at a kimono store and bought my first yukata! That's a cotton kimono. Sorry, no pictures of that yet, I haven't taken it out yet and I'll probably keep it until I come home. I may have to make some presentations about this trip next year and if I go to an elementary school it will be cool for the kids if I'm wearing traditional Japanese clothing. Also I really wanted to get one. It's got dragons on it.
Anyway, Ginkakuji was beautiful, and those pictures are in that first album above. The gardens were all moss gardens, and my favorite part of the temple was the zen sand garden, which had a massive hill that was supposed to be Mount Fuji. It was all made of sand but it stood almost 6 feet tall.
I also met some new friends, who I hope can come over here to read this. They were a young couple (and I won't say their names because I don't know if it's okay with them), but they offered, in English, to take my photo in front of the main building, and then I took theirs. We spoke a little bit and they were surprised I knew Japanese, and we actually ran into each other later outside the temple grounds. It was then that I learned that they have both been to America, and in fact the guy was living here for months. They humbly said that they were no good at English, but frankly they did very well. It was the best English I have heard since arriving a week ago.
Yes, it has already been a week. Or, well, it will be tomorrow. The date change on my flight over screwed up the amount of time I've actually been here, so I really arrived on the 2nd even though for me the 1st was only about 16 hours long. Still, its gone by quickly and I've been trying to cram Kyoto into two days. It would be easy to get caught up in temples and miss other things. By the way, I'm not done in Kyoto, but the next time I go it will be for the Shinto Shrine, not the Buddhist temples. Also, it won't be tomorrow.
The second shrine I went to was Kinkakuji, which really was covered in gold. The top two stories of the building were covered in gold leaf. This was an extravagance engineered by Shogun Ashikaga, who used it as a summer home. The pool in front of it is called the mirror pool, and I got a great shot of the temple with its reflection.
At Kinkakuji, I met Matt and Sonya (Sonja? She spoke Ukranian so it could be a more traditional spelling). Matt lived in Japan and Sonya was visiting him. We spoke for a while about what I was doing, and I told him about Burakumin. I was surprised he hadn't heard the word before, but it makes an important point. He's been living in Japan, so he probably teaches English if I had to guess. So, he probably has learned Japanese and is interested in their culture. But Japanese people don't like to talk about the whole Burakumin thing. It's kind of embarrassing to some and rude to others. Thats why its so hard to solve problems like this, because people don't want to talk about it. That's why theres really only one museum in the entire country that acknowledges them.
Also at Kinkakuji, I was interviewed, in English, by a Japanese middle school student. Clearly, Kinkakuji is a tourist spot, because he came on his school trip equipped with a notebook in which he had written things he needed to ask someone in English. As he asked me things he checked them off in the book. I was glad to help him with his assignment, and the chaperone behind him was smirking the whole time he was talking to me. Afterwards, he asked to have his picture taken with me. I was exotic to him. It was either for a souvenir or for evidence that he saw a real, live American. So I let him and then his friend get their picture taken with the American. It isn't like I don't notice the staring and the sidelong glances as I ride the trains, and they don't really bother me either. I would get the same looks if I went to China, or Africa. The only reason we don't give them to Japanese who visit America is because we are a racially diverse nation and that sort of thing doesn't surprise us.
After Kinkakuji, I huffed it from the nearest bus stop (still about a mile away) to Kiyomizudera, another iconic temple in Kyoto. It was impressive, but what was more impressive was the cemetary right next door. It's not any sort of morbid curiosity, but I have never seen a Japanese cemetary before, and this was the mother of all cemetaries. Seriously it was huge. It was also kind of beautiful, in a way. It's hard to explain, but the multitude of stones, each with a place for burning incense, made the place majestic, much more so than any other cemetary I've been to, with the exception of perhaps Arlington. It really was something.
That's all for now, check out the second half of the pictures here. The first half is here if you missed it above.
Cory
Edit: Here are my new friends!
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