Day 9, October 3, A Full and Glorious Day!
[NOTE TO READERS: We were so tired at the end of yesterday’s, October 3rd’s, tour, that this is actually being written on the morning of October 4. Got to know your limits!]
Today was our longest day of touring thus far. We began the day heading to see the Golden Pavilion; we ended the day with a farewell dinner. So much to talk about in between. We had our best night of sleep yet. We went to bed and immediately fell asleep about 11:15pm. Doug slept through the night uninterrupted. Patrise awakened about 2:30, but she returned to sleep not long thereafter. We woke up about 6:55am. We lay in bed and did Wordle; then we got up, got cleaned up, dressed and headed out for a full day’s tour. We would not be returning to the hotel until sometime tonight.
After breakfast, we loaded buses – Joyce for Bus A (our group) and Barbra for Bus B (the other half). As per her usually quality, Joyce immediately set about telling us what the day’s activities would consist of and then started informing us about aspects of Japanese life. The morning’s subject was education. She shared with us the fact that many children wear uniforms, especially in private school throughout their K-12 tenure. Children in public school wear uniforms from K-middle school; then for high school, they can typically wear their own clothes. They are required to buy standard issue backpacks, which have multiple purposes, including serving as flotation devices when they learn to swim and serving as location devices, should they go lost or missing. There are colors which tend to distinguish younger children’s uniforms from older children’s uniforms. School is compulsory until age 15. Once a child turns 15 years old, he, she and/or their families can decide whether they want to continue to high school with university in mind, or whether they want to begin learning a skilled trade: welder, mechanic, technician, geisha. Yes, geisha! More about that later, because it is NOT what we in America have been miseducated, misinformed to understand. Since this tour group was principally made up of lawyers and judges, someone asked about Japan’s legal system. Joyce said she would explain more about that later in the day.
Then she began telling us about our first stop, The Golden Pavilion. The Golden Pavilion, Kinkaku-ji, is a Buddhist temple and a major attraction in Kyoto. One more of Kyoto’s many world heritage sites. Its official name is Rokuon-ji. It did not start its existence as a temple, but rather the villa or castle of a shogun, Shogun Yashimitsu. The pavilion building is the center piece of a much larger estate, with gardens and other functionary buildings, including a shrine and a tea house. When Yashimitsu died, the building was turned into a temple and its oversight, along with the grounds, turned over to an order of Zen Buddhist monks. In 1950, the temple was burned down by a novice monk, who was later determined to be mentally ill. He was captured and imprisoned, after an unsuccessful suicide attempt. The temple was rebuilt into its original form. The temple is a three story building, with the upper two stories covered in gold leaf – about 22kg or just under 50 pounds. It is an amazingly stunning building to look at. Due to its unique and precious nature, visitors can only see it from a distance, along a designed path. Here are several photos of it. After those photos are pictures of other aspects of the grounds, including a 600+ year-old pine tree, the tea house, and one of the shrines on the property.
After visiting the Golden Pavilion, our bus drive took about 30-40 minutes, heading to the Arashiyama region, which hosts the Sagano Bamboo Forest and the Togetsukyo Bridge. After getting an overview from Joyce, we headed to the Bamboo Forest. The number of visitors walking through the tiny streets of the town was incredible. We were like fish in a too-small stream, slipping past and through each other in both directions, moving quickly to one side or the other, when cars and rickshaws were coming through. Yes, you read that right – rickshaws.
We reached the entrance to the bamboo forest through an alleyway, even more narrow than the streets, and pedestrian traffic was very heavy and moving in both directions. There were rickshaws on the path at the entrance, but then they diverted to a special path made for them. (Good transportation planning principle: separate the modes of travel from one another, for reasons of safety and efficiency.) We walked through the forest of bamboo. For the two of us, it brought to mind the backyard of our previous house at 335 Glennhurst Lane. Somehow, bamboo was introduced back there, and geez did it spread, despite our best efforts to eradicate it.) There are other bamboo forested areas in Japan, but none with this “pedigree” and history. Bamboo is the fastest growing plant in nature, shooting up at the rate of 1-4 inches per day (for most species), to as much as 47 inches per day in the fastest growing species. It was quite a sight to see.
The people watching was almost as interesting. There were a lot of young Japanese in traditional kimonos or yukatas. There was a young woman taking wedding photos. (We assumed these were pre-wedding photos, since there was no groom hanging around.) Of course, there were tourists from seemingly all parts of the world, based on the languages spoken around us, except for a noticeable scarcity of Africans from sub-Saharan, east or west African countries, as well as a scarcity of other African Americans, besides the members of our group.
Having completed the tour of the Sagano Bamboo Forest, Patrise and I headed to lunch, joined by two of the fellow travelers she were more acquainted with – Allyson Pitts and Yolvondra Martin-Brown. Allyson is a municipal court judge for the city of Atlanta, and Yolvondra is a bankruptcy attorney. We traced the path we had come, back toward our bus’ parking lot, but stopped to eat lunch at a restaurant, Patrise had spotted on our way to the forest. Except for Allyson, we had an enjoyable ramen-based meal; Allyson had a matcha float (sweet, cold matcha tea with matcha ice cream). We all enjoyed our conversation covering a wide range of topics. After we finished eating, we still had the better part of an hour to use, before needing to return to the bus.
Several of the travel troupe had decided to cross the Togetsukyo Bridge, traversing the Katsura River, in order to see the local monkeys. From descriptions and pictures, the monkeys are not caged nor chained. They are however fed, and so they tend to stay in the area, providing visitors a close-up view. The four of us had decided to forego the bridge crossing, monkey-viewing experience. We worked our way back toward the bus, Allyson and Yolvondra looking for something for Allyson to eat (pescatarian) and Patrise and I looking for some additional souvenirs. We found a good shop on the periphery of the parking lot, and they had a specific souvenir Patrise had been looking for. They also had a unique one that we thought would be great for one of our grand nephews. We purchased our souvenirs, walked back to the bus, then waited for everyone else to return.
We departed from this area, heading to our last tour spot of the day, the Gion Geisha District. Actually, Gion is the district, but it is famous for having the places where the geishas and maikos train, live, and perform. “Maiko”: what is that? A maiko is actually a geisha apprentice. A young woman who wants to become a geisha, starts at the age of 15 as a maiko. Her training continues until she reaches the age of 21, at which time, should she wish to continue, she becomes a full-fledged geisha. Geishas are not prostitutes, but rather they are entertainers: singers, dancers and musicians who practice the ancient style of Japanese entertainment. We were fortunate enough to be able to get tickets to a Geisha performance and observe this ancient craft. Here are some photos taken in the geisha district, but we were not allowed to take photos inside teh museum nor the theater.
After the show, we met everyone in the group at the restaurant for our Group Farewell Dinner. The dinner was at Gion Gyuzen, and it was a traditional Japanese shabu-shabu, a hot pot meal in which the meats are boiled in a pot along with vegetables. We both ate our fill of the watery meats. There was still a long time to go for our bus to depart, so Patrise, Allyson and I went outside, caught an Uber to head back to the hotel. Having returned to the hotel, the two of us got ice cream to round out our dining experience.
This is our last night in this hotel before we head to Osaka in the morning. We finished our packing and headed to bed. This phase of the trip is a wrap. We depart our time with Gate City. Now, on to phase 2 with Kennington Tours!
Comments