Kyoto's Kiyomizu Temple
...written on 2000-12-09, @ 08:47:09
Tales of Kim's Life in Japan
Sorry, I have been so busy, I'm a little behind. I expect to catch up in the next couple of days. In the meantime, here is a long one about my trip to Kyoto.
Sun December 4, 2000
Today I met Yasuyo and Manami at the Okgaki train station. We were going to take the train to Kyoto to see a temple or two.
We had to stand for a couple of stops, but the train cleared somewhat and we were finally able to sit down. After about an hour, we had to switch trains. It was at this stop that we ran into a co-worker. I had never met him before. His name was Yoshinobu Kitamura. He is an educational consultant specializing in Transactional Analysis (T.A). He was on his way to the wedding of one of his friends in Kyoto.
I was intriqued about how he got into T.A., so I asked him. Manami translated the tough parts. She said that he used to be a school teacher, but found himself often yelling at the kids. One day he went to a workshop on T.A. and things started changing for him when he applied the T.A. principles. He went on to study it more and then quit teaching school to become a consultant in T.A. He is hoping that more teachers will adopt the T.A. methodology. I told him I was very interested in the Japanese mind and asked him how he thought T.A. fit into the cultural scheme of things. I tried to compare the different levels in Japanese language and rank to the different levels in T.A., but my thoughts weren't too coherent I'm afraid. At any rate, the conversation was a refreshing change.
We got to Kyoto and said goodbye to Yoshinobu and boarded a bus bound for the Kiyomizu temple. We got off in front of a clothes shop and went in and browsed. There were some nifty looking things in there, but I maintained a tight grip on my Mastercard.
After that, we walked up the steep streets lined with shops of all kinds. There were people everywhere, blocking traffic, darting in and out of sweet shops, clothing stores, pottery houses, and restaurants.
The temple itself was crowded for a couple of reasons. One, this was the day of a special ceremony that only takes place every 33 years. Two, it is fall, and the Japanese maple trees are in their red-shirted glory. We all had cameras and would stop and pose with one another in front of the brilliant foilage.
Manami and Yasuyo stopped to pray at a couple of places. One had a trough of water with wooden dippers that you use to bring the water to your lips for a drink. You just wet your mouth with the water and then you spit it out. You clap your hands twice, bow your head and pray.
As we made our way around the temple grounds we came on other places to pray. There was a long line in front of one. The water was cascading down off a roof where devotees were trying to catch it in silver dippers and then drink it. If you drink of this water, it is said that you will recieve great things.
We came upon two big stones about 20 ft from each other. These were the "love stones". If you could close your eyes and make it from one stone to the other safely, you would have luck in love. I would have tried it, but there were so many people in the way I figured I'd get misdirected and fall off the temple platform to the valley below. I'm used to the luck I've
been having for the past decade now anyway, why startle my system now?
Behind the "love stones" I could see hundreds of wooden plaques about the size of my hand, hanging from a large display. I asked Manami what these were for. She said they were prayers. People buy the blank wood plaques and write what they most want.Then the temple priests get together and pray for each individual wooden plaque. There were so many. I wondered how often they changed them to allow room for new ones. Manami thought they probably burned the old ones. I saw plaques obviously asking for love. I didn't see any in English. I was tempted to make one, but we were getting hungry and decided to move on to the noodle shop below.
It was a chilly day, so the steaming bowls of noodles looked very inviting. We sat on our knees in the plastic covered space outside and waited for our food. I got the large white noodles instead of the thin purple ones. Manami also ordered tofu for us. It was delicious, warm and filling. It was also a great place to watch the passersby who looked longingly at the big noodles being slurped from bowls to mouths. I noticed looks of surprise when many Japanese saw that I was foreign. Non-Asian foreigners really stick out here. I saw many myself and would wonder where they were from, how long they'd been here, how long they were staying, etc. I did talk to one woman from California on the bus who said she was visiting with her Japanese friend of 30 years. That they had grown up together over the long distance and have kept in touch over the years visiting each other with their families.
Manami, Yasuyo and I stopped to pose for many pictures among the bright scarlet maple leaves for which Kyoto is famous.
We finally left the temple and headed down a different street to see all the shops. There were so many people. I wanted to get a souvenir for the people at the office, so Manami and I looked for a big box of sweets. Kyoto is famous for green tea and sweet bean cakes. We managed to find a sweet that combined both and had a cream filling.
As we were shopping on this street, we heard a commotion. There was a parade being led by seven men holding a dragon on sticks. They were blessing all the shops on the street. As they neared, people would clear the shop doorways so the men could lunge inside with the dragon, leaving blessings and good luck for the coming year.
We finally made it to the subway where we took a train to an artist workshop. We were going to paint cloth. We had different choices: handkerchief, coasters, handbags, tapestries, etc. We all chose to do the coasters. I got two indigo blue ones and painted a crescent moon on them. It was very simple and fun.
We left the artist workshop for Kyoto Station. This station has over 11 floors of shops, mostly clothes. Manami and Yasuyo went shopping for clothes and I went to the 8th floor to look at house decorating items. Christmas music was playing, decorations were up and there were soooooooo many people! It was like a small city.
We met up after 45 minutes and went to eat, then made our way back to Ogaki where Yasuyo and I said goodbye to Manami and got off. I invited Yasuyo to my apartment, but that's another story.