After our week-long stay in Nara, it was time to bid goodbye to my favorite city and so we boarded the train at the JR (Japan Railways) Nara Station and rode the Kintetsu Kyoto Line for a little under an hour before arriving at Kyoto Station. From this point, things get slightly hazy. For someone seeing it for the first time, Kyoto Station is almost as confusing as Shinjuku and is one of the largest stations in the country. I doubt I could retrace the exact steps after disembarking from the train as I simply followed our herd of foreigners as we were shepherded by our professor to the busses out front of the station.
We would not be getting into our hostel until much later that evening and our itinerary called for a rather full day of sight-seeing. While Nara most certainly has my heart, Kyoto is by no means a second-rate city. Kyoto is a city steeped in a rich cultural history and is probably the most popular tourist destination, second, perhaps, to Tokyo. My professor, Martin Holman, who had lived in Kyoto for nearly a decade, said, "You could live in Kyoto for 10 years, as I have, and still not have seen all there is to see or do all there is to do."
After spending a week living in the city and visiting Kyoto multiple times throughout my tenure in Japan, I couldn't agree more with my professor's assessment. I still have quite an extensive list of places to visit in Kyoto that I don't know if I'll ever be able to complete it. My professor has lived in Japan off and on for 30-plus years and if he is any indication, Kyoto might just be too big a city to ever conquer completely.
Our first stop in Kyoto was a visit to Kinkakuji on the North side of the city. Also known as the "Temple of the Golden Pavilion," Kinkakuji is a Zen Buddhist temple founded in 1397. The current temple, the entire structure of which shines in gilded radiance, is actually a reconstruction of the original built in 1955. The original temple was burned to the ground in 1950 by a mentally-addled novice monk, who then unsuccessfully attempted suicide on the hill behind the temple. The gilded leaves that cover the temple stem from the Muromachi period as a symbol to ward off pollution and negativity. Words cannot express the beauty that has been captured on the grounds of the Kinkakuji complex. The Temple sits on a small, picturesque pond dotted with islands and trees in the middle of a Buddhist garden.
After completely exploring the temple grounds, or at least as far as we were able, we left Kinkakuji and boarded the bus bound for our next sight-seeing spot, the Zen Buddhist temple, Ryoanji. While both places are famous Zen sites, Ryoanji is particularly famous for its painstakingly cultivated garden and the rock meditation garden in the center of the complex. As we did, one could spend hours taking in the elegance and serenity of the garden. We followed the lead of other Japanese people we saw in the temple and spoke only in a hushed whisper so as not to disturb the halcyon scene. I felt, as did many of my companions, a real sense of inner-peace as we were afforded the opportunity to meditate in the temple and explore the grounds.
While Kinkakuji and Ryoanji should most certainly be on the top of everyone's list of places to see while in Kyoto, these two stops were only the first half our first day in Kyoto. In next week's post I will share with you one of Japan's greatest treasures for the food-savvy, as well as share the horror story that was our first visit to the Fushimi Inari Shrine, popularized by the movie Memoirs of a Geisha.
Useful phrase in this week's post:
Kinkakuji - きんかくじ - 金閣寺
meaning: Temple of the Golden Pavilion
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Friday, November 29, 2013
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
The Yamanobe-no-Michi: The Worst "Greatest Decision Ever" Part II
Continuing from where we left off, my traveling companions, John, Peter, Kristin, Steven and I left the lake in the early hours of dusk with renewed spirits, unaware our journey was barely half over. Our path skirted the mountains for a bit and then turned into the foothills. This was a part of the trip that truly encapsulated the essence of hiking. Shortly into the forest, the trees quickly turned to bamboo and we quickly found ourselves in the setting of an samurai movie, with the take lining the path seemed to give off a glow that had us in awe. It was the second most beautiful scene we would have on this experience.
After we left the bamboo forest, we found ourself at someone's home that also served as a rather grande local shrine. We saw a monk tending to the shrine and we approached him to ask for directions as we were quite sure we were lost at this point. We hadn't seen a sign or trail marking for quite some time and were basically following what could have been any mountain path leading away from that lake. We spoke in very broken Japanese that we were trying to get to Nara to our hostel. When he heard Nara, he said in English, "Ooh, very far." Not exactly the most encouraging thing to hear after several hours of hiking.
The monk was able to give us directions to get back to the correct trail and wished us luck as he sent us on our way. At this point, it became less of a mountain trail and was more of walking on paved roads past rice paddy upon rice paddy seeing only the occasional local tending the field. We kept along the roads and followed signs we managed to make out were for the Yamanobe-no-Michi. After close to another hour of walking, we saw a train station and debated on hopping on the rails and getting back to Nara station. We must have been delirious at this point because we reasoned that we were so close to Nara and backing out now would delegitimize our accomplishment.
We had agreed that despite our struggles, we would never let our other program members know. As far as they were concerned, this was the greatest decision ever and we regret nothing. And so we sojourned on, continuing along seemingly endless fields of rice until we finally saw the fringes of the city on the horizon. We prematurely started celebrating the close-at-hand end of our travels. I say prematurely because once we reached the city limits, we encountered a sign saying it would be another four kilometers to the side of the city that our hostel was in. At this point we were stopped by a passerby biker asking us the standard 'where are you from? what are you doing? where are you going?' questions. And again, much to our chagrin, he answered us with "ooh, very far." We were polite in conveying our disappointment and after thanking the biker for his inquiry, we parted ways and continued on.
Shortly we finally reached the oasis, an open Lawson's convenience store. Myself being particularly low on money at the time, Kristin being the generous person that she is agreed to split her gallon of water with me. I nearly cried tears of joy when my thirst was quenched as I had ran out of water much earlier than anticipated on the trip. Between the two of us we quickly downed nearly three-fourths of the bottle almost instantly. At this point we all had to focus on ignoring the throbbing in our feet and exhaustion in the rest of our bodies and soldiered on to the other side of the city.
We started to reach areas of town that looked somewhat familiar and finally stumbled upon signs leading to Nara station, aka our landmark to find our hostel. We arrived at our hostel shortly before 9 p.m. and had to stop ourselves from completely collapsing in heaps on the floor. The first thing we all did was relax in the bath and then we gathered in the cafeteria to feast on our bread reserves and down a couple cold beers before calling it a night. We regaled our fellow students with tales of our travels, of course embellishing a bit so that they would be green with envy. Our exhaustion quickly got the better of us though and we retired to our futons right around 10 p.m., quickly passing out for the day.
Useful phrase in this week's post:
take - たけ - 竹
meaning: bamboo
After we left the bamboo forest, we found ourself at someone's home that also served as a rather grande local shrine. We saw a monk tending to the shrine and we approached him to ask for directions as we were quite sure we were lost at this point. We hadn't seen a sign or trail marking for quite some time and were basically following what could have been any mountain path leading away from that lake. We spoke in very broken Japanese that we were trying to get to Nara to our hostel. When he heard Nara, he said in English, "Ooh, very far." Not exactly the most encouraging thing to hear after several hours of hiking.
The monk was able to give us directions to get back to the correct trail and wished us luck as he sent us on our way. At this point, it became less of a mountain trail and was more of walking on paved roads past rice paddy upon rice paddy seeing only the occasional local tending the field. We kept along the roads and followed signs we managed to make out were for the Yamanobe-no-Michi. After close to another hour of walking, we saw a train station and debated on hopping on the rails and getting back to Nara station. We must have been delirious at this point because we reasoned that we were so close to Nara and backing out now would delegitimize our accomplishment.
We had agreed that despite our struggles, we would never let our other program members know. As far as they were concerned, this was the greatest decision ever and we regret nothing. And so we sojourned on, continuing along seemingly endless fields of rice until we finally saw the fringes of the city on the horizon. We prematurely started celebrating the close-at-hand end of our travels. I say prematurely because once we reached the city limits, we encountered a sign saying it would be another four kilometers to the side of the city that our hostel was in. At this point we were stopped by a passerby biker asking us the standard 'where are you from? what are you doing? where are you going?' questions. And again, much to our chagrin, he answered us with "ooh, very far." We were polite in conveying our disappointment and after thanking the biker for his inquiry, we parted ways and continued on.
Shortly we finally reached the oasis, an open Lawson's convenience store. Myself being particularly low on money at the time, Kristin being the generous person that she is agreed to split her gallon of water with me. I nearly cried tears of joy when my thirst was quenched as I had ran out of water much earlier than anticipated on the trip. Between the two of us we quickly downed nearly three-fourths of the bottle almost instantly. At this point we all had to focus on ignoring the throbbing in our feet and exhaustion in the rest of our bodies and soldiered on to the other side of the city.
We started to reach areas of town that looked somewhat familiar and finally stumbled upon signs leading to Nara station, aka our landmark to find our hostel. We arrived at our hostel shortly before 9 p.m. and had to stop ourselves from completely collapsing in heaps on the floor. The first thing we all did was relax in the bath and then we gathered in the cafeteria to feast on our bread reserves and down a couple cold beers before calling it a night. We regaled our fellow students with tales of our travels, of course embellishing a bit so that they would be green with envy. Our exhaustion quickly got the better of us though and we retired to our futons right around 10 p.m., quickly passing out for the day.
Useful phrase in this week's post:
take - たけ - 竹
meaning: bamboo
Friday, November 8, 2013
The Yamanobe-no-Michi: The Worst "Greatest Decision Ever" Part I
About midway through our stay in Nara, it was part of the program that we travel to Tenri, a nearby city about 15 kilometers away from Nara. We not only traveled to Tenri, but several other small towns in the countryside visiting various Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. To be honest, the names of the shrines themselves escape me at the moment, but what I remember most is that the last shrine we visited that day in Tenri was nearly overrun with ondori, an important symbol for that shrine.
After we visited this last shrine, our program activities for the day were over and we had the option to ride the train back to Nara with our professor or some of us had asked that we be allowed to hike back to Nara down the famous Yamanobe-no-Michi. This was a hiking trail through the Nara mountainside stretching the entire 15 kilometer distance back to our hostel.
Again, our estimation of distance sorely betrayed us as we failed to realize how far away 15 kilometers really was. We also overestimated just how well this trail was marked. Our professor had said that it would be fairly easy to find our way, however he could not have been more wrong. Myself, John, Peter, Steven and Kristin were the only ones who elected to attempt the hike back to Nara. After we said our goodbyes to the other students and our professor, we set off on what we thought was going to be an easy afternoon hike.
I sorely suspect we were directed down the wrong path to begin with, as the path we started down weren't very well kept and was denoted with a single lamp stone statue. We could not have been more than 15 minutes down the trail when we reached our first crossroads, one trail seemed to lead deeper into the heart of the mountains while the other seemed to skirt around. John, Kristin, Steven and I voted that we should take the mountainside path, but Peter obstinately insisted that we try the overgrown path, challenging our sense of adventure. Really we were just being rational. As we quickly came to the conclusion this was the wrong way when the path died at a stagnant pond.
This would not be the last time Peter attempted to lead us astray, as we will see in the next installment of this story. We backtracked and chose the trail that led around the side of the mountain, which also seemed to run parallel to the highway from Tenri to Nara. We were hiking before we came to what I consider the highlight of the whole day, a pristine lake nestled right in the foothills of the mountain.
We were in luck as the weather that day was particularly perfect, sunny with a few clouds and light breeze rolling across the water. Something about the halcyon scene really stuck with me and to this day I can remember the indescribable feeling I had as I looked out across the water. For me, it was transcendental; here I was, exhausted from our hike and running low on water, but something about the light rippling of the water's surface and the mountains reflected across its depths seemed to bring on a moment of clarity as we all sat in silence on the lake's bank, just taking it all in. The momentary respite and glory of nature rejuvenated us and we set off to finish our journey home, unaware that our trials were far from over and our hostel further still.
Useful phrase in this week's post:
ondori - おんどり - 雄鳥
meaning: rooster
After we visited this last shrine, our program activities for the day were over and we had the option to ride the train back to Nara with our professor or some of us had asked that we be allowed to hike back to Nara down the famous Yamanobe-no-Michi. This was a hiking trail through the Nara mountainside stretching the entire 15 kilometer distance back to our hostel.
Again, our estimation of distance sorely betrayed us as we failed to realize how far away 15 kilometers really was. We also overestimated just how well this trail was marked. Our professor had said that it would be fairly easy to find our way, however he could not have been more wrong. Myself, John, Peter, Steven and Kristin were the only ones who elected to attempt the hike back to Nara. After we said our goodbyes to the other students and our professor, we set off on what we thought was going to be an easy afternoon hike.
I sorely suspect we were directed down the wrong path to begin with, as the path we started down weren't very well kept and was denoted with a single lamp stone statue. We could not have been more than 15 minutes down the trail when we reached our first crossroads, one trail seemed to lead deeper into the heart of the mountains while the other seemed to skirt around. John, Kristin, Steven and I voted that we should take the mountainside path, but Peter obstinately insisted that we try the overgrown path, challenging our sense of adventure. Really we were just being rational. As we quickly came to the conclusion this was the wrong way when the path died at a stagnant pond.
This would not be the last time Peter attempted to lead us astray, as we will see in the next installment of this story. We backtracked and chose the trail that led around the side of the mountain, which also seemed to run parallel to the highway from Tenri to Nara. We were hiking before we came to what I consider the highlight of the whole day, a pristine lake nestled right in the foothills of the mountain.
We were in luck as the weather that day was particularly perfect, sunny with a few clouds and light breeze rolling across the water. Something about the halcyon scene really stuck with me and to this day I can remember the indescribable feeling I had as I looked out across the water. For me, it was transcendental; here I was, exhausted from our hike and running low on water, but something about the light rippling of the water's surface and the mountains reflected across its depths seemed to bring on a moment of clarity as we all sat in silence on the lake's bank, just taking it all in. The momentary respite and glory of nature rejuvenated us and we set off to finish our journey home, unaware that our trials were far from over and our hostel further still.
Useful phrase in this week's post:
ondori - おんどり - 雄鳥
meaning: rooster
Friday, November 1, 2013
Feeding the Deer in Nara
On June 6, 2012, my summer program with the University of Missouri began in the cafeteria common area of the Nara Seishonen-Kaikan youth hostel with 10 of my fellow Mizzou students, our student leader, Christian, and our program leader, Professor Martin Holman, the head of the Japanese department at MU. We held a short program meeting to go over the itinerary for the remainder of our summer, a preliminary one at least, detailing how long we would be on the move and when we would finally settle down with our host families in Iida of Nagano prefecture, on June 25.
My companions and I had arrived in Nara about a day prior to the start of the program and needless to say that we were still so charged with the excitement of being in a new country that we didn't sit idly by while we waited for our sensei to arrive. After our first order of business being to locate our food source, the Lawson's convenience center just down the street past a middle school, and our cash reserves, the international ATM at the 7-11 in downtown Nara, we explored the myriad of cultural landmarks that dot the city of Nara. Little did we know that we would later be repeating our adventures as many of the sites we visited, we would see again as part of the program, and then I would later visit these shrines a third time in my tenure at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities.
Chief among the shrines in Nara is the Buddhist Todai-ji, the Eastern Great Temple, the largest wooden structure in the world despite the fact that it is now a fraction of it's former size. Besides it's vast dimensions, another reason this stands as the most popular spot in the city is that it is also home to the Daibutsu, or Great Buddha. It is the largest bronze statue of the Buddha in the world and stands at a towering 49 feet tall. Originally the temple had two 100-meter-tall pagodas, who in their prime rivaled the pyramids of Egypt as the tallest structures in the world.
While Nara is home to a host of important cultural landmarks, perhaps what the city is most famous for is the shika deer. The deer, regarded as messengers of the gods in the Shinto religion, roam temple grounds freely. It is quite the attraction to be able to pet and feed the deer with specialty cookies sold from countless vendors around the temple. Although all the deer have their antlers removed by city workers, it is not surprising to see the deer mobbing visitors and biting at pockets for food. In fact, when it's not happening to you it is one of the funniest sites to see.
After visiting the primary temples in Nara, our program activities were concluded for the day and we were free to return to the hostel, but a few of us, myself, John and our friend Kristin, were feeling adventurous and decided to go on a three kilometer hike around the mountain to the top of Wakayama hill. We underestimated what three kilometers up a mountain actually was and I had neglected to bring water, so we spent the better part of the afternoon and evening making it to the top of this mountain.
But man, was it worth it. We reached the top, an overlook we later found out we could've drove to, the fact none of us could drive was moot, right at twilight. The view of Nara at this time is when I started to fall in love with the city. It was transcendentally beautiful with the rosy hue of the setting sun stretched out over the contrasting dark mountains causing the city to glow.
Useful phrase in this week's post:
Daibutsu - だいぶつ - 大仏
meaning: Great Buddha
My companions and I had arrived in Nara about a day prior to the start of the program and needless to say that we were still so charged with the excitement of being in a new country that we didn't sit idly by while we waited for our sensei to arrive. After our first order of business being to locate our food source, the Lawson's convenience center just down the street past a middle school, and our cash reserves, the international ATM at the 7-11 in downtown Nara, we explored the myriad of cultural landmarks that dot the city of Nara. Little did we know that we would later be repeating our adventures as many of the sites we visited, we would see again as part of the program, and then I would later visit these shrines a third time in my tenure at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities.
Chief among the shrines in Nara is the Buddhist Todai-ji, the Eastern Great Temple, the largest wooden structure in the world despite the fact that it is now a fraction of it's former size. Besides it's vast dimensions, another reason this stands as the most popular spot in the city is that it is also home to the Daibutsu, or Great Buddha. It is the largest bronze statue of the Buddha in the world and stands at a towering 49 feet tall. Originally the temple had two 100-meter-tall pagodas, who in their prime rivaled the pyramids of Egypt as the tallest structures in the world.
While Nara is home to a host of important cultural landmarks, perhaps what the city is most famous for is the shika deer. The deer, regarded as messengers of the gods in the Shinto religion, roam temple grounds freely. It is quite the attraction to be able to pet and feed the deer with specialty cookies sold from countless vendors around the temple. Although all the deer have their antlers removed by city workers, it is not surprising to see the deer mobbing visitors and biting at pockets for food. In fact, when it's not happening to you it is one of the funniest sites to see.
After visiting the primary temples in Nara, our program activities were concluded for the day and we were free to return to the hostel, but a few of us, myself, John and our friend Kristin, were feeling adventurous and decided to go on a three kilometer hike around the mountain to the top of Wakayama hill. We underestimated what three kilometers up a mountain actually was and I had neglected to bring water, so we spent the better part of the afternoon and evening making it to the top of this mountain.
But man, was it worth it. We reached the top, an overlook we later found out we could've drove to, the fact none of us could drive was moot, right at twilight. The view of Nara at this time is when I started to fall in love with the city. It was transcendentally beautiful with the rosy hue of the setting sun stretched out over the contrasting dark mountains causing the city to glow.
Useful phrase in this week's post:
Daibutsu - だいぶつ - 大仏
meaning: Great Buddha
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