Kyoto (9th to 17th January)

Kyoto is a serene and magical place - the storehouse of most of Japan’s traditional culture. There are 17 Unesco World Heritage sites in Kyoto alone (not that we were able to see them all) and there are more than 1600 Buddhist temples and over 400 Shintō shrines (which we definitely did not see all of). It is where the Japan that we all think of in our imaginations (unless we are immediately drawn to the bright lights of Tokyo). There are raked pebble zen gardens, gorgeous bamboo forests, trees that in winter whistle in the breeze and in the autumn burst into a kaleidoscope of oranges and bronzes, whilst in the spring they come alive with pink cherry blossom. There are hidden temples, flowing streams, wooded mountains, striking geisha tottering in wooden slippers and a sure sense of peace in the air. As a town itself it is a delight, where the people are as friendly as can be and the food as delicious as possible. There is plenty to do in the centre, with excellent shopping and a few sites, as well as the incredible old districts where Geisha spotting is all in an evening’s entertainment. They are truly incredible to see, like something out of a movie. There are only about 800 modern day Geisha in the country left, so spotting not one, but three was a thrill for me. It sounds silly to get so excited about seeing one but when you think about their lives and the work that goes into looking the way that they do, it is really quite something. They spend years learning how to be the perfect companions (now for business men though once for Samuri and generals) learning to dance, sing, tell jokes, serve tea and alcohol is a graceful way We spent several early evenings in the old district of Gion just wandering up and down amid the bamboo fronted teahouses (ochaya), restaurants and traditional residences (machiya) dating from the late Edo period (around the 1800’s) to see if we could spot any geisha or maiko (apprentice geisha).

We had over a week in Kyoto but used it as a base to visit some nearby cities as well such as Hiroshima, Osaka, Nara and Hikone, as well as return to Tokyo for the Sumo! Bosh! In that time we stayed in three different place, first off was a little youth hostel in a dorm, then the rather more upmarket Westin Kyoto (where all the dignatories stay when they are in town) and then finally to a small hotel with Japanese style rooms and shared bathrooms, which I still just love!

We started off with a days’s bussing and walking to take in some of the closer sights including the Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavillion) and Daitokuji Temple (Zen Gardens). The Kinkakuji Temple was truly a site to behold, especially on such a sunny day when the glorious gold building was reflected in the silvery waters of the pond. Everything is so serene and delicate and a world away form the craziness of Tokyo. This is the Japan I dreamed of (minus the cherry blossom - oh well we can always come back!) Everything has its place, everything is perfectly created and positioned with peace and simplicity in mind. The Daitokuji Temple and Zen Gardens was another haven of tranquility amongst a huge complex of temples. The gardens were painstakingly perfect, raked everyday, with rocks and stones positioned with accuracy for specific meanings. One of the walkways around the main central room was what is called a Nightingale Floor, which has been created to “sing” (basically squeak) specifically when you walk in certain places in order to prevent intruders. Apparantly a few important old Japanese buildings such as castles and temples would have these as well as secret hideouts where Samuri could jump out of the ceiling to attack intruders.

Our next day, we moved to the Westin and headed out on a walk to wherever! We started off trudging in the rain up to the hotel’s garden viewpoint which was pretty spectacular over the city and countryside and then simply headed into the woods, where we walked without seeing anyone, through the rain and in and amongst temples and shrines. We headed further towards the mountains and in true us form walked massively further than we ever intended getting utterly lost but finding Buddhist schools, observatories and baseball teams in training along the way. We ended up walking for about 8 hours as we just couldn’t get distances correct and people kept giving us a million different directions. We wanted to end the day at the famous Fushimi Inari, and the walk there took us past numerous other temples and shrines and famous houses as well as the loveliest and cheapest little sushi place (which we would never refind as we were totally lost!) After literally hours of walking and threats to turn back we finally found it and were relieved to see that it was totally worth the crazy walk to get there.
Fushimi Inari Shrine is the most famous of several thousands of shrines dedicated to Inari throughout Japan. We had read that it had lots of Torri (entrance gates to holy areas) but were simply unprepared for just how many there were - literally thousands of orange and black gates to walk through, winding past smaller temples and shrines. Inari is the Shinto god of rice, and foxes are thought to be his messengers, therefore there were countless fox statues amongst the shrines. We must have walked for about two hours through the gates, though we in no way passed through all the Toriis as they were scattered in all directions. After all that walking, if ever we deserved a delicious noodle dinner and warm communal bath, tonight was the night! Thank goodness we seem to be lucking out with always getting the bathrooms to ourselves.

Next day it was off to Nara, the ancient capital of Japan from 710 to 784. We had come here to see some of the old town, walk through the countryside and enjoy the tame deer that rome through the town and park but we didn’t expect quite the amount of deer that there were or just how tame they were! According to the legendary history of Kasuga Shrine, a mythological god Takemikazuchi arrived in Nara on a white deer to guard the newly built capital of Heijo-kyo. Since then the deer were regarded as heavenly animal to protect the city and the country and now they are great fun, nudging you for food and roaming at free around the district. Nara is home to some incredible temple and shrine complexes. The Kasuga Shrine has hundreds of lanterns surrounding it which when lit up would like mind blowing; the Kōfuku-ji temple is home to a giant bronze Buddha and the Nigatsudo Temple afforded us breathtaking sunset views over the district.

After Nara we spent a day in nearby Hikone, taking in one of the country’s best preserved castles. Built over almost 20 years from 1603 to 1622 it escaped demolishion at the start of the Meiji period in 1868, only at the hands of the emperor himself, who ordered it to be kept intact, making it one of the oldest original-construction castles in Japan. There isn’t much inside of it - no old furnishings or such but as a structure it is quite magnificent and Stuart and I have noted a few design points for the house one day we will build! Walking around the old town we also stumbled across a lovely newly built area that Stuart fell in love with. So whilst he snapped away at the new buildings I found myself a couple of vintage kimonos to send home and then we bought some rather dubious sweets to try including what turned out to be jellyfied sweet beans and another green sticky gooey something or other!

Kyoto is just an hour or so away from Hiroshima and so we visited for a day to take in the museum and commemorative sites. As a city it is an energetic and happy place that doesn’t forget its past but which has moved on quickly and progressively. It also serves up one of our favourite dishes - okonomiyaki. Apparantly the city is home to over 2,000 okonomiyaki restaurants. The specialty is prepared by spreading a mixture of flour and water onto a griddle and adding bean sprouts, sliced cabbage, meat, egg, and noodles in to the thin pancake. Delicious! Of course though, no visit to the city is a visit if you do not get an understanding of the atomic bomb that decimated the city in 1945. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum was an incredibly moving experience and one that I would not want to revisit. It wasn’t a museum that went on a rant against the USA it simply told the story of what happened and implored everyone to fight against any future atomic and nuclear bombs. The images, displays and stories were incredibly hard to look at and read and visiting the other sites including the Children’s Memorial (after a girl who subsequently fought and lost her battle with Lukemia as a result of the bomb) and the A Bomb Domb, were also very hard to visit but it gets you thinking pretty hard about what happened and about what is happening right now. It is terrifying to think of the damage that can be done with bombs we are creating in this day and age.

But on to happier visits we enjoyed whilst staying in Kyoto...Sumo - bosh bosh bosh! What an awesome day and well worth the six hour return train journey we took to get there! I was a little bit worried that i really wasn’t going to be that interested or that after a short while I would be thoroughly bored. However, it was awesome and we both loved every second of it and have well and truly become sumo officianos. The day starts quite quietly in terms of the audience as there are hundreds of bouts between junior wrestlers (junior in rank not in age) which meant that we were able to get up close an personal to all the action, in fact at a could of points we had to duck out of the way before being flattened by these hundred stone men - ok not quite a hundred stone but these are huge men. Not that their size makes them any less athletic than the likes of me and you - in fact the moves they were making and the flexing of their legs suggests extreme fitness and agility - something you don’t really expect when witnessing giant men in what look like nappies with slicked back perfectly quiffed hair. As the day went on and the better known “celeb” wrestlers came on the crowds were huge, raucous and beer fuelled! All great fun and such a laugh to see the usually quiet and demure Japanese going well and truly at it - little old ladies and all!

We also had time to spend an afternoon in nearby Osaka and were lucky enough to go for the Naked Man Festival - ooh la la !!! no such luck ladies - the men actually wear loincloths - not that it always covered everything!! Trust me though girls - it’s not the best site in the world seeing hundreds of skinny and freezing cold Japanese teens and men marching around, chanting and getting water thrown on them!!!! The even started with hundred of little school children, of about 3 or 4 years old, marching to the temple in teeny little shorts and T’s for the girls (no top for the boys) - bear in mind this is January in Japan and we were wrapped in gloves, jackets, thermals and hats! They were so darned cute though as they chanted and stormed up to the temple - great fun! After two lots of school kids did their stuff, next came the (almost) naked men - chanting and stomping, with gritted teeth, absolutely freezing up to the temple. Once there the leader gives a speech and the water is thrown all over the poor lads who then clamber all over each other reaching for prayers or wishes that are thrown from the temples eaves. We have never seen anything like this - absolutely hilarious! Dating back over 1200 years, the festival - known as the Hadaka Matsuri takes place at several locations throughout Japan. Its origins lie in a decree issued by Emperor Shotoko in 767, which ordered the nation to offer prayers in order to dispel a plague. It is a brilliant site to behold - the Japanese are totally crazy - no wonder they love Tashiki’s castle so much - they are all absolute nutters. It’s just hilarious to see the two differnt sides of the nation’s people - the quite, peacfeul, demure and respectable side and the loud, raucous, naked, laughing side - later fuelled with ciggies and alcohol in the city bars! Brilliant!!!