April 19

Of all the things we were doing in Japan, the thing that Erik was looking forward to the most was seeing wild monkeys. There is a mountain in the outskirts of Kyoto that is full of these monkeys, so that's the first place we went Monday morning. It was really neat. There were wild monkeys everywhere, and you could get very close to them:





At the top of the mountain there was a wooden building where you could purchase food to feed to the monkeys. The monkeys can't come inside the building, and the food can't come outside the building. The monkeys come up to the chain link window and put their arms inside when they want something to eat, like so:


It's a really smart system, because the monkeys learn that if they want treats, this is the way to get them - not by attacking human visitors outside of the building. Also, it's sure a lot of fun to feed them.


April is part of the birthing season for the monkeys so there were lots of babies about. One of them was just learning how to use the fence system.


He was a very picky eater. He would only eat the soft part of the apples and then throw away the skin. He couldn't figure out what to do with peanuts. You see that peanut he's holding? He's about to throw that one down on the dirt too. He made this really cute noise.. we pretty much wanted to feed all of our treats to him, but you know, you've got to be fair and all.

One guy held his bag of treats a little too close to the chain link, and a monkey snatched it and ran off. Ha ha! (a la The Simpsons).

More babies please:




There was a really neat view at the top, but no one seemed to want to use the binoculars. I wonder why.



After thoroughly cleaning our hands, we journeyed to the other side of Kyoto for a cooking class - possibly the thing that I was looking forward to the most in Japan. The class was run by Emi Hirayama, a Kyoto native, and the class takes place in her own home. The students consisted of me and a German couple: Helen & Sebastian. We made many delicious things, and my love affair with Japanese beef was further ignited. I also have a new favorite Kyoto food: baby bamboo shoots simmered in dashi... yummm...

Anyway, I was ditzy and didn't bring my camera and Helen has not yet sent me the pictures she took, so for now, check out Emi's website! There's a picture of us on her 4/11/2010 entry... also, I might just need to learn how to cook everything on her website... because they all kinda look amazingly delicious.

One thing I love about Japanese home cooking is that it is so seasonal. It's something I'd love to incorporate into my own cooking, because produce is always best when it's right in season! Also, I found another invention that NEEDS to make it's way to the United States. (Are you listening GE?) Emi's oven had a tiny little drawer with a grill in it. It basically grills the fish from the top and bottom at the same time. It's really important for an oven to have this in Japan, because they eat grilled fish on such a regular basis (Emi eats it every night). It's a tiny drawer - only big enough to fit about two tuna steaks I'd say - but it cooks fish very quickly and deliciously. Oh, and if any of you thinks that I am wrong, and they DO sell these in the United States? Please buy me one. Thank you.

April 17

Noting that Saturday was one of the few sunny days we had in Kyoto, and in an attempt to cram as much in as possible (brace yourselves), we took off early for the Heian Jingu shrine.


When we got there, we were approached by a Japanese girl who asked if we spoke English. She explained that she was a student at Kyoto University, studying English, and that she was part of a club that comes to the shrines and offers English speakers free tours as a way to practice her English. She was way cute and her explanations made the shrine much more interesting.


The cherry blossoms on these branches are actually paper - apparently you can pay a small fee to get a fortune at just about every temple/shrine, and according to our guide, if you get a good fortune you keep it in your wallet/someplace close to you. If you get a bad fortune, you should tie it to a tree at the temple and leave it there. During the spring, they use pink paper for the fortunes, so that the bad fortunes tied to the tree look like cherry blossoms.


These two trees are very interesting. One is a cherry tree and one is an evergreen fruit tree. The cherry tree, with its springtime sakura blossoms, symbolizes the ephemeral nature of mortal life. Just like the sakura blossom, it is only there for a short, beautiful time, then is gone. The evergreen tree, however, represents the eternal nature of the spirit. The two trees are at the entrance to the shrine itself.



The shrine itself has three parts, the outermost, the middle and the innermost. The outermost is available to the public most of the time. The middle section is only available to the public during certain ceremonies, such as the various coming of age ceremonies for children. The innermost section is for priests/shrine workers only.

Behind the shrine, there was a very beautiful stroll garden. Stroll gardens are gardens that are inteded to be walked through... the landscaping is such that as you walk around, certain things are revealed in a certain order for a certain effect. Not sure I'm explaining that well. In any case, there were still some sakura on these trees which was nice.



You can kind of see what I was talking about here... even though this is part of the same garden that couldn't have been on more than an acre of land, the landscaping along this part of the path makes you feel like you're walking through a forest.


This is called the "Dragon Bridge." According to our guide, the stones are supposed to look like a dragon, due to their wavelike placement. Due to the reflection of the sky in the water below, walking across the bridge is supposed to feel like riding a dragon across the sky.


This is a famous bridge. It is symetrically constructed, which symbolizes eternal life/nature. The pheonix statue atop the middle portion is said to protect the bridge from fire. The pheonix thing is interesting, because in western mythology, the pheonix also symbolizes eternal life/nature.



More pretty pictures:



After saying goodbye to our cute little guide, we took the Philosopher's Path from the Heian Jingu shrine to the Ginkaku Ji Buddist temple.


Apparently several famous Japanese philosophers liked to meander this riverside path, and there are supposed to be several famous land marks along the path. I didn't really know enough about Japanese historical figures/literature to recognize any of the landmarks. I did, however, notice Samurai Dog:


Pretty rad.


Apparently a lot of cats like to hang out on the path as well. There was a guy feeding them fishcake, so we got to see a bunch of them congregated. Made me miss my Selphie.


In any case, the Philosopher's path was very pretty.




Ginkaku-ji was constructed by Yoshimasa, a Japanese ruler of some sort, as a place of retirement, and included in his will that he wanted it to become a Buddhist temple after his death. It is known as the place where the "Higashiyama Culture" was founded and cultivated. Again, I'm not very pro on these types of things, but my understanding of Higashiyama Culture, is the traditional Japanese arts and aesthetic that embody Zen Buddist concepts. Examples would be the tea ceremony, simple architecture, rock gardens, subtle beauty, etc. Anyway, Ginkaku ji is said to embody this aesthetic.


You can see that it's much more subdued than other temples we've been to. Here's a rock garden.


It's said that in the moonlight, the white sand, as well as the roof tiles, look like silver, hence the name "Silver Pavillion."



This is an example of what is called "Borrowed scenery" in Japanese gardens. The tree covered mountain in the back there is not part of the garden itself, but the garden is crafted to include/feature the mountain.



The palace was nice, and we had a headset to explain things to us, but I didn't absorb the information as well as I would have it had been presented to me by a cute little Japanese girl. Just sayin. Also, we were a little unimpressed with this Yoshimasa guy, who essentially started this big war that destroyed most of Kyoto because he didn't want to rule... kind reminded us of this guy:

Only a few more hours of daylight left! Hurry! Rush to Kiyomizu Temple. This was a popular one.


This time we were approached by a whole set of schoolgirls wishing to assist us on a tour! Score!


They were a bit more shy, and would often argue about who was going to present next, which was really funny. In any case, time for a few anecdotes. This platform overlooks a ravine of sorts filled with lots of trees. Apparently it was a very popular place for suicides long ago (love suicides I believe?)... but the suicides were often unsuccessful because there were so many trees at the bottom of the ravine that they were just caught in the branches... D'oh!


These three fountains give you good luck in studies, wealth or love, depending on which one you drink. There was a long line though... so I guess wealth will just have to wait...


This was a very popular part of the shrine, as I believe it was dedicated to a goddess of love.



These stones are called "love stones."


You start at one stone and with your eyes closed walk to the other one. If you make it, your love life with your current partner will be very good. If you don't, then you've got bad times ahead. If someone assists you, your relationship with your current partner will be good with the assistance of that person. The area was very crowded, so I don't know how I would make it across without the assistance of many Japanese strangers. The implications that that would make about Erik and my relationship is... peculiar (Marriage saved by dozens of Japanese strangers!). One of our tour guides, however, told me, "Don't worry. You don't need that" and giggled, glancing at Erik. Apparently girl talk is a language that knows no boundaries.

Finally, we sprinted over to the Gion Kabujerno theater to see the Miyako Odori - a show put on by the geisha of Gion a few times a day for the month of April. Apparently the tradition was started by the mayor of Kyoto to boost the spirits of Kyoto citizens after it lost its status as the capital.


Here's the inside of the theater:


They didn't let us take any pictures of the actual performance, so please entertain yourself with this picture from the internet...


This is actually from the show we saw, so yeah, just pretend I took it.

April 16

So... far... behind... *hyperventilates*.

Upon arriving in Kyoto, we kind of realized that it would be raining most of the time we were there. We tried to stick it out and proceed with our original itinerary, but after looking around for our first destination in the rain for an hour, we found it a bit too miserable. So... we did the only indoor thing we could think of:

We went shopping!


We didn't take may pictures of the shopping itself, so this entry is, I supposed, destined to be pretty short. The place we went shopping is called Shin-Kyogoku and Kyogoku, and is a few very long streets, all of them covered and lined with shops. They had everything from the very traditional kimonos, to modern clothing shops, to goofy goods stores. We found this knock-off to be pretty humorous:


I actually can't tell if it is a knock-off or if the Japanese realized that no one is actually named Waldo. Also? Magnifying glass? Totally cheating.

Erik also had a pretty monumental day, as he achieved a life-long dream: meeting Col. Sanders.


Finally, when we saw this, we knew our search for a dinner location was over:


Shakeys??? So this is where you ran off to, leaving Modesto and the San Gabriel valley choking on the bitter tears of failed romance!! This Shakeys had a bit of a different approach than the Shakeys Erik and I had previously experienced: it was a buffet of pizza, noodles, potato wedges, curry, and salad... and no karaoke. And they put some weird crap on their pizza. Egg custard, anyone? We were more than slightly disappointed. Rest in peace, USA Shakeys. Rest in peace.