Advertisement
Published: October 4th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Hozugawa River
In the Edo period the Hozugawa was cleared of rocks in order to transport commercial goods from the Tanba Region to Kyoto. It became the major transportation route at the time. Now it's just known as a popular tourist attraction. Day 2:
On Saturday I was planning on going to some of the other major temples in Kyoto, like Nijo, but the huge crowds of foreign and Japanese tourists kind of put me off. Instead I decided to hop a train to Kameoke and then take a boat cruise down the Hozugawa river to Arashiyama (another good site for temples).
After stepping off the train in Kameoke, I consulted my guide book, quickly realized that it was useless, and then just decided to go left (away from the town center). I passed some fields of brightly colored wild flowers, walked up a hill and into a small cafe that advertised coffee. Once I'd had a cup of coffee, I got up the nerve to try asking directions in Japanese. Funny how pointing to a picture of a boat and asking "Where?" can be all you need. The waitress followed me outside, pointed towards the boat dock, and I was on my way.
I don't think many foreigners take this boat trip... I got even more stares and giggles than usual! Thankfully one of the women who worked there spoke a little bit of English, so she filled out
Boats
One guy steers, one guy rows, one guy pushes with the pole.. and all three chatter away simultaneously! my form and told me they'd call my name when it was my time to board.
About 20 minutes later I heard "America, Arissa" over the loud speaker, and made my way to the boats with about 20 other people (all Japanese of course). The two-hour trip took us over rapids, under bridges, and through a gorge. Three men powered the craft and also managed to provide a lively, and I'm sure very informative, narrative. Unfortunately I couldn't understand a single word.. so I just sat and enjoyed the scenery and turned my head to look when everyone else did. We landed in the town of Arashiyama with only a couple hours of daylight left so I headed off to Seiryo-ji temple.
Seiryo-ji, also known as Saga Syakado, houses one of the most sacred images of Buddha that exists in Japan. The original was made in India when Budda was about 37 years old and then carried across the Himalayas to China. Around 985 AD, a Japanese abbot brought a model of the statue back to Japan and founded the Seiryo-ji temple. In 1953 silk objects shaped like human organs were actually discovered inside the statue. They think
My view
Though I am considered to be tall over here, it's not that bad- I held the camera over my head to take this. ;) the organs were made by five Chinese nuns and put into the statue before it left China.
I walked around the town for a while after the temple closed and managed to stumble across some bamboo forests. Absolutely amazing! I didn't even know bamboo could get that big!
Day 3:
I got up super early, checked out of my ryokan, and rented a locker at the train station to keep my stuff in while I went in search of Sanjusangen-do, my flatmate Amy's favorite temple in Kyoto. What makes this one special is the 1001 statues of the Buddhist diety, Juichimen-senju-sengen Kanzeon, also known as "Kannon". These statues, made in the 12th and 13th century, surround one incredibly large, seated diety. Then there are twenty-eight statues of other various guardian deities (like the "Thunder God") placed in a straight line in front of them. All in all, quite an amazing site! Too bad you can't take pictures! So I bought some postcards in case anyone wants to see what they look like. 😉
On my way back from the temple I ran into an interesting procession. People were chanting and carrying these ornately decorated float-type
Seiryo-ji Temple
A view from the front entrance things (pallets?)... It made me think of a smaller version of the Danjiri Festival, but I have no real idea what it was about. I took plenty of pictures though!
And that about sums up my long weekend. Right now I'm busy teaching and continuing to sort things out. One good bit of news- I'm going to be teaching at a college! Starting next Tuesday I will be teaching a pronunciation class and a video class at a vocational college in Osaka. Guess what we do in the video class.. That's right- we watch movies! I get paid to watch
Anastasia,
Babe,
Bridget Jones's Diary, and
Wallace and Grommit and then discuss them. So yeah, so far this teaching thing is going pretty well. 😊
That's all for now! A big special hug to one of the most giving and amazing people I know- my Rosie's in the process of donating bone marrow to help save the life of a 10 year old boy. I can't even imagine how hard it must be.. Just know that I love you and I'll be giving you a call next week to check on you!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.364s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 17; qc: 88; dbt: 0.2478s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Hazzard
non-member comment
Weridness!
I remember hanging around that Kyoto station asking directions, what seems a life ago. Haven't thought of it since, and for some reason seeing it again feels....weird.