Otera to tabemono

Today we spent touring the temple area of eastern Kyoto. You can follow along with our photos. First we walked along the Kamogawa river, then eastward to the Gion district, where (apparently) all the geisha hang out. It was morning, though, so I guess they were all sleeping. The first site we saw was the Yasaka pagoda at Hokanji temple. This tower is 150 feet tall and was originally built in 589 AD, apparently the oldest temple in Kyoto. It has burned down and been rebuilt several times since, most recently in 1440. We were able to enter the pagoda and see a buddha and bodhisattva statues, as well as some decaying but intricate wall paintings. We could also go up to the second floor and look at the structure of the pagoda, which was even more interesting.

From there, we wandered up through narrow, tourist-choked streets to Kiyomizu temple, one of the most popular in Kyoto. It was pretty crowded, which makes me wonder just how unpleasant it is when cherry blossoms are actually out. (They're just starting to bud now, we're hopeful we'll see some before we leave.) First we payed 100 yen to go down into a pitch black hallway and feel our way to a wishing stone, where we wished for enlightenment. In the temple itself there were some interesting paintings, and lots of sake offerings to some god or other. The rest of the temple was mainly an overlook to the valley below, and it was very crowded, so we didn't spend too long.

We once again wandered down with the rest of the tourist, past the souvenirs shops (but pausing briefly at the donut robot stand). We saw several geisha types, although it was hard to tell which were authentic and which were pretend. Michelle detected some falsities with the hair; at one point, however, a group of geisha passed in hand-drawn carts, and they seemed to be the real article. Everyone took pictures, Japanese and foreigner alike, so we didn't feel too dumb.

It was lunch time at this point, and Michelle looked in our "Old Kyoto" book and discovered an interesting restaurant nearby, but off the beaten path. It's called "Ikkyu-an", a restaurant serving Chinese-style Zen cuisine (fucha ryori). The "menu" (there's only one choice) consists of an eight-course vegetarian meal, including black sesame tofu, vegetables in a sweet sauce, tempura, grilled eggplant with miso (even Eric liked it), rice, miso soup, and a few other things. The meal was served in a traditional tatami-mat room with a view of the garden and mountains. We felt very peaceful afterwards, and were ready for a nice siesta in the sun.

Nevertheless, we set off in search of more temples. We were off our planned route at this point, so we weren't entirely sure where we went, but we found a nice (uncrowded) temple on a hill, possibly Choraku-ji temple. After that we wandered through Maruyama Park, which was quite pleasant, and we saw the big unblossoming weeping cherry tree. At the far end of the park were some more (touristy) temples, but they were closing for the day, so we were unable to enter.

We continued our trek north along the mountains' edge to the museum area, where we went into the Heian shrine. There were some nice gardens here, but it was near closing so we didn't go in. The shrine itself was very expansive, and I found a cool print of the Suzaku deity, the namesake of the X-ray satellite. I'm taking it back to MIT to hang in the hallway. We walked back to the hotel along the canal, passing an early 20th century hydroelectric dam capable of 300 kW output. Get those hair dryers ready!

For dinner, the "Old Kyoto" book suggested a kushikatsu restaurant across the street from the hotel. This is a form of kushiage cuisine, where kushi = skewered and katsu = fried stuff. We sat at the counter and ordered a set course of 20 skewers (and the necessary beer and chuuhai). Behind the counter, two chefs prepared the food, one breading various items while the other worked the fryer. The latter would then bring us the skewers, each containing a breaded and fried meat or vegetable which we could dip in sauce or salt. We ate things like chicken, shrimp (head and all, yum!), fish, scallop, pork with asparagus, pork with butter (mmm), pork with pork, lotus root, you get the idea. Some fruit and green tea rounded out the meal.

In all, it was a day filled with delicious and interesting food and sites.