A Short Trip To Japan by Lynn Larrow

The Shinto shrine above is one from a picture I took through the crystal clear glass window of  a Sunrise tour bus.  It was not part of the tour, but its simple beauty appealed to me.  In Kyoto, there are over 1600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines!   For a student of Eastern Philosophy, e.g., Taoism and Zen Buddhism, Kyoto was truly a Disneyland for the Mind.

I have always been fascinated with Japanese history and culture: art,  haiku, geishas, Akira Kurosawa, Godzilla, and Japanese Animation (Anime).  My first exposure to Japanese Culture was through the Hollywood satire "Teahouse of the August Moon", which I saw when I was very young with mother.  I didn't realize it at the time, but the original author,  Vernon J. Sneider is from my hometown of Monroe, MI, which is probably we went to see it in the first place.  Although I was not impressed with Glenn Ford, I was struck even back then by the delicate beauty of a traditional Japanese woman in kimono.  When I was in college, I worked in a vegetarian restaurant where I became hooked on such Japanese delicacies as miso soup, tamari, Udon noodles, tempura and umeboshi plums.

So after a lot of research, finding a decent travel agent Klara's Travel and getting the Lonely Planet's "Japan",  I decided to go to Japan in October 1999.   [Note: If you are planning a trip to Japan, check out Today's Japan.]

Day 1 – Three Green Lights

The first day was nearly all travel, an airport shuttle to SFO, a long non-stop, cramped, claustrophobic United air flight to Osaka, and limousine bus to Kyoto. When I arrived in Osaka, to my surprise, the airport was very nice and not crowed at all. Immigration and Customs were a breeze. I could have smuggled in a bunch of diamonds, because the Customs check was very limited. On the limousine bus ride to Kyoto, I noticed that all the trucks had three green lights on the front of the cab. I wondered what that was all about, and I would get the answer later from the Queen of Japanese statistics on my tour of Nara.

After what seemed like two hours, I arrived at Kyoto Station and was very spaced out. I   I felt a little confused like Chiyo from "Memoirs of Geisha".  I tried to look at the map to determine where the Righa Royal Hotel could be. I decided I would take a taxi, my fear is that it would cost me a bundle cause I have heard all of the $300 taxi rides from Narita airport in Tokyo. The taxi was cleanest I've ever been in with white lace covering the seats. As It turns out, I paid $6.50 for a 3 block cab ride.  The good news was that the driver refused my tip, and I found out that tipping is not a Japanese custom!

The Righa Royal Hotel turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. The service and room were outstanding and cost about $120 a day including tax. Hotels in Japan provide many amenities including the following: toothbrush, toothpaste, razors, brushes, combs, shampoo, tea and a hot water bottle for making tea.  The staff of the hotel were all Japanese including the maid, who looked a little like Lum from Urusei Yatsura.

At about 9:00 PM, I took a short walk looking for a place to buy a beer and get a little dinner. During my walk, I noticed that Kyoto is filled with young people riding bicycles on the sidewalks. I wondered how many people get zapped by bikes, but at least I wasn’t one of the statistics. I walked to the train station and back without finding any place to eat or drink except a Lawson’s party store, Japan's second-largest convenience store. I remember seeing a Lawson’s party store in Toledo, Ohio. I wondered am I really in Japan?. I picked up some yogurt and almonds and went back to my hotel and slugged down a $6.00 beer from the Hotel refrigerator. I fell asleep watching CNN international, which was not hard considering how boring CNN is.

Day 2 – Nightingale Floor

I awoke in a haze and had a cup Constant Comment tea. The next thing I know I’m standing in my socks at Nijo Castle. It was cold and cloudy, and I had lost my Sunrise tour guide. I finally caught up to them before we entered Nijo Castle. Nijo Castle was the official residence of the first Tokugawa Shogun Ieyasu in 1603.

Entrance to Nijo Castle

Ninomaru Palace

Ninomaru Palace is made entirely of cypress wood. The ceilings and sliding walls are beautifully painted by artists of the Kano School. The floors are all covered in tatami mats. The most incredible part of Ninomaru Palace was the Nightingale floors, which when you walked over them they made a bird-like sound of the Nightingale. I thought how wonderfully creative that they would make the floors in such a way. However, I found out that it was not for art purposes that the floors made such sounds, but to warn the Shogun if Ninjas might be trying to sneak in and assassinate him in the middle of the night! (Shogun Chamber Scanned from castle handout) Unfortunately, I could not take any pictures of the Shogun, his ministers or his guests because they did not allow pictures inside. In the First and Second Grand Chambers of Ninomaru Palace were life size Shogun figures all dressed in period style. It was really quite impressive. The guide explained that the more important figures were closer to the Shogun, but just in case anyone got out of line there was a group of fully armed soldiers behind the sliding doors ready to pounce on any would be assassin.

Beautiful pond and waterfall at Ninomaru castle.

Golden Pavillion

The Golden Pavilion or Kinkaku-ji is a Zen Buddhist Temple that was donated by the 3rd Shogun of Ashikaga in the early 15th century.  The second and third floors of the building are covered with gold leaf on Japanese lacquer.  The pond surrounding Kinkantu, which is the name of the main building, is called the Mirror Pond.  The Mirror Pond is full of brightly colored carp.  Carp in the Mirror Pond

Golden Pavilion in all its splendor

In the rear pond of the site, there is an island called "the mound in the memory of the snake" and the mound is this simple small pagoda, which drew my attention for its simplicity. As I walked around the ponds, I noticed these women who were sweeping the leaves and sticks off the hillside. Woman sweeping Kyoto School Girls taken by Matt Crawford

Small Pagoda on island

During the morning tour, I found a tour buddy that was a WWII veteran named Matt Crawford, who is the president of the 494th Bomb Group.  Matt was visiting Japan with a GI buddy and his friend's wife.  Matt's GI friend, who was also in the 494th, was shot down in Japan in July of 1945 just before the war ended.  Matt was kind enough to take my picture with the Kyoto High School girls (above).  Besides Kyoto, Matt and his friends had visited Hiroshima and you could tell this made quite an impression on Matt.   One of the high school girls gave me a what I thought was a paper dinosaur.   Matt told me it was really a paper crane.  He then told me the story of the Children's Monument in Hiroshima dedicated to a young girl named Sakato that had died of leukemia as a result of the Atomic bomb and that this young girl had made several hundred of these paper cranes before she died.   There is an old Japanese saying: "If you fold a thousand paper cranes, they will protect you from illness."  Sakato and her paper cranes, I later found out, are a great inspiration for World Peace, see Sadako Story for more information.   During WWII, Kyoto was on the list of potential atomic bomb targets.

Countryside Ride to Nara and The Queen of Japanese Statistics

After a buffet lunch provided by the tour, I was put on different Bus for the afternoon trip to Nara.  The ride to Nara was very relaxing. I got to see the neatly harvested rice fields and farm houses. I also noticed that the trees looked like they had yellowish thin trunks and I looked harder and sure enough these were bamboo trees. The guide pointed out that during the major growing season that these trees can grow a meter and a half in a single day.

The tour guide for my trip to Nara was the  "Queen of Japanese Statistics". This small woman was like a walking talking census report on Japan.

• There are 1600 Buddhist Temples and 400 Shinto Shrines in the Kyoto area.
• She explained that the three green lights on the trucks indicated the speed range at which the truck was traveling, e.g. , 0-20 one green light, etc.
• Kyoto Sister Cities include Paris, Florence, Boston, Cologne, Kiev, Guadalahara, Prague, Zagreb and Xian.  If fact, Kyoto was designed to be just like Xian, China.
• The price of houses in Kyoto had dropped from an average of $600,000 a few years ago to $200,000 today and that 70% of the people in Kyoto owned their homes contrasted with Tokyo where 70% of the people rented.
• That the average age of a Geisha was about 60 years of age and that there was not many new young girls, pursuing this ancient profession as Maikos or geisha trainees. Kyoto has a section of town called Gion where the Geishas can still be found.
• That the Japanese will not sleep with their heads facing North, because it is a bad omen.
• That since companies have been laying off middle-aged men, the incidence of suicide has risen for this group.
• That the rates of cancer have risen do to a change in the Japanese diet, which has lead to major reduction in rice consumption and an increase fatty and fast foods.
• That the age of a woman for her first marriage has risen sharply in recent years.

Todaiji Temple – The Great Buddha Hall

The Todaiji Temple and surrounding parks is a very beautiful place indeed. I only regret that we did not have more time to spend here. The walkway leading to the temple is in the great Nara park also referred to as Deer Park.  As you enter the park approaching the Great Buddha Hall,you first run into vendors selling what appear to be a stack of cookies. These flat fortune cookies are used to feed the very tame deer which beg or steal these cookies from you. After I fed a few deer and tried to walk away, one of the deer grabbed my coat pocket with his mouth and demanded more cookies, which I was more than happy to provide. After leaving the temple, two of these pesky deer were "chasing" a very pretty young woman until they cornered her. It was very funny to see. The walkway finally leads to the Toaiji temple, which is the world’s largest wooden building. On the second story of the building is a large door, which is opened once a year to show the huge face of the largest bronze statue in world of the great Buddha. This temple is the headquarters of the Kegon school of Buddhism, which was founded in the Nara period (724-749 AD). For more on Japanese Buddhism, Japanese Buddism. Inside the great temple, which to me had feel of a massive wooden barn, I was in awe of the huge "Great Buddha of Nara" (right).  The building was like a huge barn and contained many statues and sculptures.  Unfortunately, I forgot my flash for my camera.  Outside the temple was the Medicine Buddha, where one can get medical help by touching the spot of the Buddha, where your affliction is also located.  Since my feet were sore, I tried the Buddha's feet.  I guess my karma was bad, because my feet still hurt. Medicine Buddha

Toaiji temple Great Buddha

Kasuga Shrine

As I limped  up the hill to Kasuga Shrine, I was impressed by the 3,000 stone lanterns (right) which let up a path to the actual Shinto Shrine.  I imagined how enchanting it would be being there at night with all the lanterns lighted.  If you look at the stone lanterns you will notice that there are many prayers or wishes on paper tied to the trees.   This is a common practice at Shinto Shrines. Below is stone carving of a lion that I found very impressive and to the lower right is a hallway between the main shrine and the adjacent building that is lined with many lanterns.  Also notice the bright orange color of the building on the left.   Bright orange is the identifying color of Shinto Shrine.

The great lion

Kasuga Shrine

Copyright Notice: Copyright (c) Lynn D. Larrow 1999.
Date of last update 04/28/03.

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