Kyoto final part
(Taka San and his Sedan)
"A..M" said mr Taka our guide/driver on our last day in Kyoto. "A" (phonetically spoken as "aah" is the first letter of the Japanese alphabet and "M", phonetically "um" the last letter.) Since then we realized we had heard "A..M" before. The utterance stands for full understanding from start to end. Our questions were often replied to in that fashion.
He drove us and led us to destinations we had not seen yet. He started by bringing us to a small Buddhist temple where we got an education in Buddhism by demonstration and throughout the day more and more was clarified.
(Intricate floor design in the temple)
Buddhism like almost any religion has sects that divide its followers. Zen Buddishm in its highest form requires a certain level of economic independence as it requires its followers to concentrate day in day out on reaching the goal of Nirvana. The working classes do not have that luxury and require monks to help them reach the stage of "let me call it in our western lingo": heaven. So ordinary people visit temples and are registered as belonging to a certain temple. (The former rulers of Japan liked that too, as it was a good way of having a census count)
Our first temple, Komyo-in, had several rooms that all opened onto the garden, in which stone and moss invite one to meditate in order to reach a mental place of peace and quiet. We were shown by opening different sliding doors a "framed" view. Always one saw three stones, one large one being Buddha himself and two smaller stones representing trainees. The Komyo-in Temple was a teaching Temple for the preparation of future Buddhas.
We then visited Tofukuji temple and saw an annex to the main temple, where the monks all had their "daily constitutionals" after hours of contemplation. The temple benefitted by selling the manure to farmers, and the farmers benefitted because they believed that their crops were now blessed.
One finds on Buddist temple grounds often signs of Shinto symbolism, highlighting how interwoven both belief systems are for their followers.
(No photos were allowed so a poster shot will have to do.)
The Sanjusangendoh temple had the amazing Hall of the Lotus King, where the Buddha is surrounded by a thousand armed Kannon deities. 50 gold clad rows of them 10 deep on each side guarded by 28 fierce looking guard statues, the first one with his mouth open "A" and on the other side of the hall the last one with his mouth closed "M".
(The black hole indicates that I already took a bite from this box)
Lunch was Kaiseki Bento box style, beautifully presented in a closed wrapped box (I was so enamored in opening it up that I forgot to make a picture of it, so you will miss that and the top box that contained sashimi - I had wolfed it down before I remembered you guys were maybe interested in seeing it). Oops, sorry.
After lunch walking back to the car, Taka showed us a house with an unusually low floor above (2nd in the USA, 1st in Europe), and told us that high class people walking down the street would be highly offended if lower class people could be looking down on them by standing upright above them on a balcony or in front of a window. In order to correct this affront, the Emperor required all higher floors to be shortened, thereby forcing anyone looking out from the windows to be in a crouched position.
The final visit was to the Nijo castle, home of the shogun when he visited the Emperor in Kyoto. Here we walked the already mentioned Nightingale floors and saw wax people wearing their way too long pants (if they were from the not so to be trusted gang of opposing feudal lords) having an audience with the shogun seated on a high dias beside sliding doors decorated with giant tassels that supposedly had the royal guard behind them, ready to come to the aid of the shogun in case of an attack on him.
We were told that when the shogun visited the emperor, the emperor would of course be seated on the higher level.
As we entered the the castle and crossed the moat we looked down at the numerous Koi fish, who enjoy a lifespan of up to 10 years. We learned that Koi are revered because according to lore, when swimming upstream they will attempt to scale walls blocking their path. When succeeding they apparently become dragons. Thus children are encouraged to emulate the Koi and succeed in life by becoming dragons.
It was interesting to notice that the quarters of the wife and concubines had no squeaking floors, since I presume the shogun would have been the one "visiting" there.
Taka spoke fluent English, which he apparently learned when visiting London for one month, and since he liked to sing he listened to and sang along with English songs. He especially liked the Carpenters. At the end of the tour he surprised us singing a Japanese folk song in his beautiful voice.
I invite Taka who is now following the blog too, to correct me where I was wrong
Taka had way more details, but I will not bore you with those.
The next day the Shinkansen took us back to Narita airport for our Seoul Korea visit.
Lastly of note is the fact that taking the hotel shuttle bus to the airport we were stopped, before entering the airport area, by security forces doing a passport check on the bus, before allowing us to proceed to the airport. That procedure had happened the night before, when we exited the express train to the airport, when we were not allowed to enter the terminal area without a passport check. (We only wanted to see if we could get boarding passes the night before). This security check demonstrated that if you couldn't prove you where who you said you were, then you couldn't even have access to the airport.
Having a drink in the bar of the airport hotel taught us that prices are based on captivity. We had two beers and two glasses of wine each of them more than 15 bucks apiece. So for dinner that night we shared a nasi plate to average out the expense. One of my Dutch quirks, which thankfully Sandee smiles and embraces.
See you in Seoul.
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