April 19, 2014

Our New Wakasa Hotel in Nara turned out to be surprisingly great,...it's all about customer service and the people were so friendly. We had a traditional Japanese breakfast with those tiny fish over rice and soup and tea and all kinds of small and strange delicacies...bit over it I must say. With some rice in my belly, we took to the streets of Nara. We walked to the 3 and5 tiered pagodas this morning. The 5 tiers stand for from the top to the bottom: sky, air/wind, water, wood, earth. We made our way up the path to the Kasuga Grand Shrine. All along the path are these beautiful moss covered stone lanterns. A couple times a year, Feb and August they light them...can't imagine how incredible it must be and beautiful!! There are over 3000 stone and metal lanterns at this shrine, but they start almost a mile before you get there leading you in up wooded paths. It is so spectacular, you cant help but take tons of pictures. We walked past parks and deer, Sam loving feeding the deer, as we made our way up to the shrine. There there was a bride in an ornate colorful traditional kimono, where there were many people fussing over her as they were taking wedding portraits there. There we many monks in traditional hats and robes attending to the shrine and offerings that were being made there. At the actual shrine there are many orange buildings and copper lanterns all around the grounds. LOVED it!!

We made our way out of the shrine and along a wooded path and cut over to the pond where Syd and Kendall and I rowed boats,.... It was peaceful except for the crying baby;) and reminded me of being there with the girls. We made our way back to the hotel after walking through parks for a couple hours. We grabbed our bags and headed out early from Nara, Since we saw the Todai-Ji Temple yesterday and Sam was dieing to get more candy from Kyoto and conveyor belt sushi. When we got to the Kyoto station we found the candy he loved- the little sugar star drops right across from the sushi joint- BINGO! After 4 plates, Sam had 9 I think, we caught an early Shinkansen/aka bullet train and got to Hiroshima early. We hit the town quickly and the three of us headed to the Peace Memorial Park. It was quite moving with the large memorial building, arch and flame that wont go out until all nuclear weapons are gone and then to the children' memorial where thousands of paper cranes have been made and are there to symbolize peace. A small girl that suffered from the affects of the A bomb hoped that is she made 1000 cranes she would live. She didn't live but it prompted a shrine for children that suffered from the affects and lost their lives due to the A bomb. It is a moving space. There is a bell you can ring there. Further past there is the Peace Bell that can be rung and reminding us of peace. There are remains of the A Bomb Dome, the only remaining building after the bomb went of. There is also a memorial mound where thousands were cremated after the bomb. It was a great reminder of the cost war and how important it is to promote peace. There was also a beautiful sculpture out front of the Memorial that depicted a mother protecting her children from the storm. It was moving.

It was dark when we finished walking the park and then headed for Italian food right across the way. It was nice to take a break from Japanese food for a moment. We scouted out for soft serve for Sam and then had to settle on hard ice cream. We walked through many convenience stores and funny to see the different kinds of "snacks" they had- many were packaged or canned fish products....not like America at all.

Hit the sack at our hotel conveniently located right by the park. We have a big day tomorrow. Read our scriptures tonight from the New Testament recounting Christ's resurrection and overcoming death after suffering for us and our sins and pains in the Garden and then on the cross. We said a family prayer giving thanks for our many blessings. We hope to go to an LDS Ward tomorrow near the train station. We will first go to the Memorial and then take a taxi to church and then head to Miyajimaguchi Island that has the floating Shinto Shrine and Gate. It looks very awesome.

April 18, 2014

We woke up at "The Joint" .... It wasn't a bad place, it just had bad energy. Sam woke up sick. We had breakfast served in our room and Nate dove into a bowl of tiny minnows, he said that tastes fishy. I don't think he saw that they were little fish,...hahaha. Sam feeling sick wasn't able to walk with us and see the Silver Pavilion, which isn't silver. It is an old pavilion built by a Shogun. It is an ancient structure with lovely winding gardens and interesting sand sculptures, which are just made out of small gravel and water. One is shaped to look like the moons refection. We winded through the gardens and then out onto the Philosophers Path. It is a beautiful walk along a stream lines with cherry trees. The Philosopher, who was relatively famous in Japan, would walk this path daily. Off the path were some other beautiful mossy gardens with sand scultpures  at the Honen Temple.

We met Sam at the end of the path and then headed to Chionin Gate. It is a HUGE gate that is so impressive and stairs go up to it and past it. The gate was featured in the Last Samurai film.

We made our way through huge crowds of students and other Japanese Tourists up the mountain to the Kiyomizu  Temple. It is over 1000 years old, made out of wood and the balconies have no nails in them, all wooden. There is a Buddha at this temple that is only revealed every 33 years. 33 is a special number in Buddhism. Off this large wooden porch you can see a beautiful orange pagoda in the distance. From this porch many have jumped when they have a problem. Only 80 have survived it. Sadly Sam had a problem on this balcony but he didn't jump off it, he threw up off it. After that, he was feeling better :) The curse of the old Inn had left us ;) Rather than drinking from the "pure" spring water there - which is said to give you eternal life- he went for some bottled water.

We waded through hundreds of students in their uniforms down the shopping paths where Sam found some tasty sugar candies that you can only get in Kyoto. They were delicious!

Sue, our guide, knew that it would be best to go to lunch somewhere safe so Sam could get his stomach back. We went to a buffet where we had a variety to pick from. When I was there I realized I had been there with Kendall and Sydney years ago and it is where we learned to cut our oranges so that you could peel the skin right off your bite! Great memory.

All of us fed and recovered, we headed to the Sangensando Temple, the longest wooden structure in the world. There are 33 panels between the large beams and houses 1001 golden wooden statues of Buddha. Each having 40 hands and 11 heads on top of their head- with different expressions. The 40 hands can each save 25 people and bring them to paradise, so each Buddha can save 1000 people - this symbolizes that there are enough Buddha to bring everyone to paradise. In the hands are all things that can help people from tools to medicine,... The building also has held competitions there for archery. There is a right of passage ceremony that happens there every year for women. It is for women that are coming of age and they perform archery there. The long straight building has made it a place where they had archery contests to see how many arrows could be shot in 24 hours and with the most accuracy. The records are kept there for those competitions.

After about an hour drive we arrived in Nara. We were immediately met by hundreds of deer. Deer are considered holy messengers. They are all over the park and grounds and you can buy cookies to feel the deer. They are very aggressive. They have been protected here for over 1000 years. They are thought to have brought holy messengers on their backs. Sam was loving taking photos of them on his phone. They were so aggressive it was really kind of funny. At one point there was a student that had his homework hanging out of his backpack and the deer at his homework!! Can't wait to hear what his teacher says ;)

We approached the immense wooden gate entrance to the Todai-ji Temple. This temple is the largest wooden building in the world with the largest bronze Buddha statue in the world. When you enter the temple you are struck by the size and it sits atop a large bronze lotus leaves. There are several protective gods that protest 4 corners of the temple and then a couple large golden Buddhas on either side. Sam and I both made a donation, like the brick fundraising program at schools, and bought a tile for the roof of the temple that they will put on the temple as the reconstruct it this summer. They should be good for 500 years! We put our names and dates and a wish on them. We both put Health, Wisdom and I added peace. Sam wrote his all in Japanese letters- thanks to Sue who helped him figure that out and wrote them with a quill pen and Japanese ink.

There is a pole that has a whole in it that is supposed to be the size of Buddha's nostril. If you fit through it you will make it to paradise. Sam fit through it, I did not... hahaha. He had to really twist through there. There was a group of Japanese women that all applauded when he made it through. We bought him a little buddha statue on the way out.

We are settled into our Japanse Inn tonight which is conveniently located right by the park, which we will wander around tomorrow and feed some more deer before we head to Hiroshima. Tonight we wore our Yukatas aka Kimonos to dinner. Rather hilarious dinner actually. At the end of the traditional Japanese dinner, with countless courses, they took us into the lobby and dressed us up and took a photo... new tradition? HILARIOUS!!! They put a fro on Nate and a princess tiara on me and then when Sam came down they put a fish head on him and yes, that is Mt. Fuji I am wearing. Laughed so hard as the photographer was saying SMILES!

April 17, 2014

We woke up at our leisure today- 7 a.m. We got packed up and grabbed a tasty breakfast downstairs. We hopped on the electric assist bikes again and all 3 of us went cruising down by the riverwalk. We headed around town and around Imperial Palace and then back over to Heian Jingu Shrine and its adjacent gardens. There is a huge orange Shinto gate that marks its entrance a couple blocks away and then you approach a huge courtyard and several beautiful old wooden orange buildlings. There were many trees tied with bad fortunes around the shrine. One tree had pink papers and I thought that it was a cherry blossom bush it was so covered. We all did the purification with the water in the left hand, then the right and then some back into the right hand that you touch your lips to and then a scoop and lift to rinse the handle.We made an offering, bowed, clapped and then made our wishes, said our prayers,...fun to do and then finish with a big bow. Shinto shrines worship many gods, they say over 8,000,000 gods- mostly of nature. To the side were some of my favorite gardens, still filled with weeping cherry blossoms. I had taken Kendall and Sydney before and felt nostalgic that here I was with Sam now and remember the girls excitiment about this garden and taking pictures in the same places that I took pictures of the girls.

I just couldn't get over how beautiful all the weeping blossoms were and the artistry of the garden. We came to the covered bridge by the pond and there was a  bride and groom all dressed in traditional wedding clothes. The bride looked just unbelievable with her white kimono and high sandals and beautiful flowers arranged on the whole right side of her hair and then a large white dome over her head- spectacular and SO elegant. We enjoyed watching them and the family in beautiful traditional kimonos.

Right by the park we went to the Traditional Handicraft Store. There Sam bought a Japenese Samurai sword in natural wood. He was excited about it and can add to his collection of knives and swords he has collected all over the world. Ibought abeautiful chime that I will hang from a tree in NH and will remind me of Sam and our trip with Nate.

After we checked out of the Ritz we took a cab to the traditional Ryokan that I had booked. It wasn't inexpensive by any stretch but it wasn't nearly what I had expected. Felt a little run down and anything after our unbelievable acommodations would have felt second rate. But we checked in and was a little set back. It was in a good neighborhood and we could walk everywhere from there, and that is what we did.  We dropped our bags and then wanted to get something to eat, so we went to "the joint" - Sam refers to it as, and ordered some Chinese food! Yes, starnge to be eating Mongolian Beef when you are eating it in Kyoto, Japan.

After lunch Nate went for a shave, most entertaining and apparently very relaxing. He shaved everything starting from his forehead! to his ears ;) Sam and I went exploring the beautiful back alleyways of the area. There are these little hidden roads with lanterns and large stones and they lead up to the Kodaiji Temple and the Yasaka Pagoda and the large Buddha WWII Memorial. We wandered through the park that was a War Memorial for the over 2,000,000 Japanese that died and for the over 45,000 Unknown American Soilders that died on Japanese soil. There were many little buildings that represented different groups. One was filled with thousands of small buddha like statues that were holding babies and with children at the skirtsof their robes. Behind the large Buddha you could enter inside and it had the statues that represented different zodiac horoscope signs. I am the year of the monkey and you could make donatoins to that Buddha. They had a huge platform that had the footprints of Buddha with large henna looking prints on the bottoms.

Nate met up with us and we wandered the streets outside- beautiful little winding streets with lovely small souvenir shops. We stopped and I met a gentleman that was making wood block prints. They were so carefully done on a thin two sided wood block he had carved and then swipes with paint and prints paint onto these small white cards. He was making a traditional Japanese woman and would start with the feet and then the head and kimono and sash- each a different print color and shape on his woodblock. Loved it. I purchase a few beacuase they were such small affordable works of art.

We wandered down to the Yasaka Pagoda- beautiful and very recognizable old wooden pagoda and meandered around back to our hotel. At the Inn we were taken to our room which is a series of screened off tatami matt covered rooms. It wasn't nearly as nice as the ones I had stayed with with my parents or we stayed at with the girls, but once you get inside and close the screens, they are all very much alike with 3 futons on the floor for us and a small table where they served us green tea. Sam had a little adjusting after coming from the Ritz ;) But, he collapsed on that mat after a day of walking and biking and was out cold this evening.

As the boys took a rest, I went back out and wandered the streets. I just love walking these hilly streets and exploring all the gardens and parks and shrines. I stopped in Maryuama Park and read for a bit before finding the boys and trying to locate a place for dinner. Funny, there were so many places that looked like we could do dinner while it was light out, but at night, they all close up and hard to tell what is an Inn or a home or a place to eat. We put our head into one place, it was a small counter and no one was in there but a chef. Looking very deserted we said arrigato and left. He came out after us. Oh no, we had offended him by looking in and then not staying. He said it was rude to step in and not stay and that these are Kyoto kitchens, that people come at this time for green tea ceremoy- well it looked like a sushi bar and couldn't imagine that we were up for more green tea- we were hungry. We apologized many times and then moved on quickly. We found it was impossible to identify restaurants and then we came upon a beautiful almost park with large lanters and an ENGLISH menu! It was clearly a restaurant with a very friendly host that led us through a garden to a tasty "Italian Restaurant" We were so tierd and really appreciated our first western dinner of the week.

Although so tierd after dinner we had to go to Kodaiji temple. It was literally advertised ALL over Kyoto for being open at night. We went to the temple up these beautifully lit stairs. It was so beautifully lit. I think these temples are as beautiful at night as they are in the day. We wandered through beautifully lit gardens and tea houses and an old home and up into the hills and through a bamboo forest that lit at night was just magical. I couldn't believe how lovely it was. Love how there are so many winding pathways, it really is so relaxing to walk with everythign designed to be aesthetically pleasing, telling you, this is zen... just meditative and peaceful to all the senses.

We made our way back to our Inn. Slipped off our shoes the door, slipped on slippers to go into our room and then slipped off the slippers to go onto our tatami mats and then basically right into bed. Tomorrow we see the last of the sights we can see, which there are nearly countless sights in Kyoto and head to Nara.