Vacation Day 2!

On the second day of vacation, Sara and I stayed in Kyoto and continued to look around.  We met up with Ai, a friend we met at ISU while she was an exchange student there.  We spent the day walking around a few Buddhist temples, then to a bamboo forest.  After that, Ai took us to Kobe for a few hours so we could have dinner and drinks at the restaurant she works at!  It was really good, and we had a ton of fun!  It was great to catch up with a friend that we hadn't seen in awhile.

We started out our day at Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion.  Like before, I was really thrown off by how much different this temple and the surrounding gardens were when compared to the rest of Japan's very modest, subdued culture.  These places were clearly built to make a lasting impression and to show off the power and resources of their builders.

 

When we first met up, we went straight to have lunch.
I don't recall what I had or what it was called, but it
was really good!  It was at a fairly traditional Japanese
restaurant.  Then we went straight to Kinkakuji.  This is
the three of us at the signpost right out side of the temple. 

 

The area around Kinkakuji and this part of Kyoto
are very traditional and Ai said it was pretty normal
for people to walk around in the traditional kimonos.
While we were there, we saw a few groups and couples
wearing them, which was cool.  The view from outside
the temple grounds really didn't hint at what was to
come at all...

  

So, as you might guess when it was named "Golden
Pavilion," it was literally golden.  As in, the exterior
of the temple is covered with gold leaf.  While absolutely
beautiful, it is so in-congruent with Japanese and
Buddhist culture that it's really hard to imagine what
prompted its construction.  Both the Japanese
people and Buddhist philosophy promote beauty
in simplicity and nature, and being modest.

 

Kinkakuji and the surrounding gardens are anything but
modest.  The grounds are immaculately kept, and the
temple itself is very nearly gaudy.  It's hard to argue the
beauty of any of it, but it is also very difficult to
reconcile it with the rest of the country and culture.

 

After Kinkakuji, we went to Ryoanji, another
Buddhist temple.  This one was a Zen temple that
has one of the highest rated Zen rock gardens in
the country.  This was much more akin to the
Japanese culture I was expecting.

 

As with all of these ancient Japanese landmarks,
the gardens were amazing.  The whole site really
embodied a traditional aspect of Japanese art, called
"wabi-sabi."  It is the feeling of beautiful emptiness.
It is a sort of strange philosophy to westerners,
but it is a very deeply rooted part of Japan's culture.
Taking enjoyment in the things that other cultures
would find full of despair is uniquely Japanese.

  

The bamboo forest was beautiful in much the same
way as the gardens.  The area reminded me of the
little tourist towns along the "Down East" region
of Maine back in the States, though.  Lots of little
shops with all kinds of things in them.  Lots of
little restaurants, too.

The rest of the night was spent with Ai in Kobe at the place she works, which is a yakitori place.  Which means that it serves lots of grill fried meats.  They served mostly chicken stuff, but had beef and pork as well.  I tried some things I never would have back home, like chicken sashimi.  Yes, for those of you that know what sashimi is, it's exactly that.  It's raw strips of chicken breast meat.  It was actually really good!  For whatever reason, salmonella is nonexistent here, so it's all safe to eat.  Raw poultry is pretty common all over.  Ai's boss spent a little time talking to us, too.  As it turns out, he's descended from the Tokugawa clan, which I thought was awesome!  He ended up giving us a few things for free, including a bottle of really good sake which Ai and I drank most of.  Ai introduced me to a local sake variety that I plan to find a bottle of to take home with me.  It's called Kasumizuru, and is really sweet, but still has a good robust alcohol flavor.  I really liked it!

I'll post more pictures of the food from the trip in a separate post later, since I think they'll make the most sense if I keep them in the same place to talk about them.  In the meantime, I'm going to call it a night for now.  We have a field trip for the school tomorrow, so that'll be even more stuff I have pictures of to post later!  That's about it for now.  As always, if you have any questions, or suggestions for topics, let me know!