Today was a nice blend of traditional Japanese cultural experiences in the morning and free exploration in the afternoon. We visited two temples in the morning, and participated in two special activities to immerse ourselves in the culture more thoroughly.
The first place we visited was the Shōrin-ji temple, a sub-temple where meditation known as zazen is performed and taught by a single monk. We got the chance to do this meditation for two fifteen minute intervals, though it personally wasn’t very relaxing. We had to keep our backs straight the entire time, fold our feet into a criss cross position and breathe as you count to ten over and over again. If you began to find it difficult to focus or get sleepy, you can bow over and have the monk smack your back with a wooden stick to refocus you. While the whole experience was a bit more exhausting than relaxing for me, it was really cool to get a glimpse into the deeper workings of Japanese religion. I couldn’t imagine doing zazen for six to eight hours a day like the monks do.
The second temple we visited was the Rengeo-in temple, home to a national treasure of Japan. Within the main building of the temple are a thousand statues of Buddha (and a few other statues of various Buddhist gods). We were not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the temple, but there was a beautiful garden and some gates that we were allowed to take photos of.
The other cultural experience that we had today was the opportunity to take a class about tea ceremonies, and participate in one of our own. Formal tea ceremonies can last as long as four hours, but ours was only 40 minutes – a very nice woman gave some background information and a demonstration and then we were allowed to mix our own tea.
I personally have never had matcha before today and the matcha tea that we made was a bit too bitter for my tastes. On the other hand, the small jelly candies called “wagashi” that we ate before making the tea were positively delicious!
As we waited for the other half of the class to participate in their own tea ceremony, we had the chance to explore some more of the area around the Kiyomizu-dera shrine that I mentioned yesterday. We were able to find some really nice photo ops, visit a shrine that featured some colorful decorations to celebrate the monkey deities, and my first (and possibly only) Pokemon manhole cover in Japan. There are many of them spread throughout the country, but we only have the chance to see 2 or maybe 3 at most with where we are visiting.
To finish our time with the tour guide that we’ve spent the last two days with (shout out to Yuko for being fantastic in every way), we were dropped off outside the Nishiki market, a very popular food market in Kyoto. While most of the food featured in the market is fish-related, I found an incredible beef skewer stand that I then convinced nearly half the class to buy rib skewers from (and nobody complained). We would pass by this market again later at night as we were heading back to the hotel, and seeing it deserted after being packed into the small street like sardines just hours before was a weird feeling.
After a failed attempt at getting into the Pokemon Center Kyoto, we headed back to the hotel to recharge before a night of bowling with some KCG students at Round1 Stadium. While I wasn’t initially excited to go bowling (especially when I found out that Japan doesn’t have bumpers as an option— like what’s up with that??) I ended up doing a LOT better than expected and even won a game! We then stayed there a bit too late playing various rhythm games in the arcade section of the building, and didn’t make it back to the hotel until nearly 11 o’clock. Since we have to be up and at ‘em at 7 am tomorrow to jump on a train to Hiroshima, I’ll definitely be spending my commute catching some extra Z’s.
One response
This is fantastic! Thank you so much for detailing this amazing adventure!