Kyoto, Japan - March 14, 2012

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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

We received our luggage earlier this morning. What a relief, we have fresh clothes to change into.

Today was a very exciting day for us. We visited the city of Kyoto, Japan and stopped at the Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion), Nijo Castle and attending a tea ceremony.

We all woke up about 7:00 am this morning. What a view from our 26^th floor hotel room. Not only were the shutters to the windows incredible, the Osaka City view was even better. The window shutters were typical of what you would find in a traditional Japanese home. The view of Osaka was excellent. The city looks so vibrant and metropolitan.

We ate breakfast at the hotel this morning; surprisingly it was free, possibly because of my Hilton status. In my eyes this breakfast was much better than the Courtyard by Marriott. The breakfast still had a great mix of food, however leaned more to the Japanese flavor. I tried the Milo Soup again, yum, but also tried the steamed shrimp dumpling and Cantonese Sui Masi. These were tasty.

We left the hotel and boarded the express rail to Kyoto, Japan. Our train ride was a short 30 minutes. When we arrived in Kyoto, our hotel concierge recommended us to purchase a day pass on the city bus. We boarded the city bus and drove about 45 minutes to our first stop, Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion). The city bus was jammed packed with locals and tourists. We did notice that most passengers on the bus were probably Japanese; it appeared there were very few westerners.

Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion)

This was our second visit to the Golden Pavilion. We first visited here in March 2002 when the kids were very young. We have vivid memories of this site and the beautiful photos we took. We had a picture of the kids in front of the Golden Pavilion displayed in our homes.

According to all travel books, the Golden Pavilion is one Kyoto’s best known attractions. It was constructed in the 1390’s as a retirement villa for Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and features a three-story pavilion covered golf leaf and topped with bronze phoenix on the roof. According to Fodor’s, the retired shogun lived in shameless luxury while the rest of the nation suffered from famine, earthquakes, and plague. As a visitor to the Golden Pavilion, it is hard to explain the feelings of seeing this site. In my eyes, the Golden Pavilion is about one of the most impressive made structures I have ever seen. The Great Pyramids come in second. We spent a significant amount of time taking photos with our family in between trying to maneuver around the tourists.

I was so excited to visit here because of the memories we had here 10 years ago. Our plans are to put the two photos next to each other and display at our new home. We attached multiple photos to our blog.

Nijo Castle

Our trip here 10 years ago also included a stop at the Nijo Castle. We also have vivid memories of this spot because of two things; the squeaky floors when walking barefoot and not able to take photos in the castle.

A little history about this Castle, according to Fodor’s, this was the Tokugawa shogun’s Kyoto home and is in stark contrast to Japans other remaining castles, which were constructed purely for defense. Fodor further states, built by the first shogun, leyasu, Nijo Castle is considered the quintessence of Momoyama architecture, built almost entirely of Japanese cypress and boasting delicate transom wood carvings and painting by the Kamo School on sliding doors.

One of the main gates, inside the castle complex was under reconstruction; however there are so many more beautiful sites here. We attached a few exterior photos for you to see. The most incredible part our visit is in the interior of the castle, which photos are not allowed. Before entering the interior of the castle, you must remove your shoes and either walk with socks or where slippers provided. Because it was so cold today, slippers were recommended. As Fodor’s describes, the interior is beautifully decorated with hard crafted wood and paintings. This castle has not changed at all from our visit 10 years ago. The neatest part of our visit is the squeaky floors when you walk. This reason for the squeaky floors is to alert the shogun if there are intruders or unwelcome visitors to his castle. This is so incredible and definitely a memory maker.

When we finished visiting the Nijo Castle, it was 2:45 pm and we still had not had lunch. We could not find a quick place to eat, so we located a Circle K (American owned convenience store chain). In the store that did have a very small variety of lunch sandwiches. I had a packaged hot dog with cheese and Cindy and Jenny split a ham sandwich. Michael thinks he had tuna, but not for sure. They even had Pringles. One thing we learned later in the day, from a Polish student studying in Kyoto that is it rude to walk around town eating food. It is the Japanese culture to sit at the location you buy your food and eat it there. This makes sense since there were chairs outside the store.

Tea Ceremony

What an experience and one that is memory maker forever. We found this location in advance and made reservations. It was difficult to find, however Michael is our expert navigator and was able to locate the business for the tea ceremony. From the attached photo, the front of this building was very simple. Once you enter the business, the whole atmosphere transforms into a Japanese home. On the left there was appeared to be a well covered with bamboo. We were not able to touch. We later learned that this well was for the residences of this home drink water. There was another well in the rear of the home which was sacred and was only for the gods and no humans were allowed to touch. Once inside, the host asked us to remove our shoes and step up into one of the rooms. We were greeted by our house which was a Polish Student studying for her Masters and living and working at this Japanese townhome. She gave us a very detailed tour of the home explaining all the different parts of the home and its significance to the family. The home was two stories. The first floor was a business second floor living quarters.

After our tour, we went to a room where we had the tea ceremony. We sat on small pads benches. In front of us were our host and the lady preparing our tea. Here is some information about the significance of Tea Ceremonies.

The Japanese tea ceremony, also called the Way of Tea, is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha, powdered green tea. In Japanese, it is called chanoyu (茶の湯茶道; also pronounced sadō^?お手前; お点前^?Zen Buddhism was a primary influence in the development of the tea ceremony.

Tea gatherings are classified as chakai (茶会^?茶事^?薄茶, usucha^?), and perhaps a light meal. A chaji is a much more formal gathering, usually including a full-course kaiseki meal followed by confections, thick tea (濃茶, koicha^?), and thin tea. A chaji can last up to four hours.

We were given two small sugary pastries. The first person, Michael, ate his first pastry, and then was given his green tea. He had to hold the tea cup in his left palm and turn the cup two in a half times with his right hand and then three large sips and then one large sip with a slurp sound. The slurp sound is a respectful thing to do which lets the host know the tea was great. After you finish drink the tea, Michael ate the last pastry and then took his napkin and wiped the rim of the tea cup and handed it back to the host. We also did the same thing for each of us.

For dinner this evening, we went to an American favorite, Hard Rock Café. At the beginning of the meal, the service was great, however towards to the end, the service was painfully slow. We were back at the hotel by 10:30 pm.

A couple of things we have observed since being here in Japan. Most businesses only take cash. Thank goodness for ATM machines. There are a lot of people wearing masks. Our host at the tea ceremony told us what the Japanese people do when they are sick. They do not want to share their colds. We also learned that it is considered rude to blow your nose in public (had heard this before arriving).

Thursday we are taking the train to Hiroshima.

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