Second Chance at Kyoto

Today, Christina and I packed a lunch and lazily headed out for Kyoto. On our way, we stopped at the store and the bakery to complete our fixins. While at the store, we decided that we would need some more cash for our trip. So I ran back to the apartment. Outside the apartment, I saw an ambulance and a small fire truck. A couple of motorcycles were parked off to the side of the road. I didn’t see an accident, and I didn’t look too closely, either. So far, so good.

Today also marks the first day I understood a Japanese word, besides thank you -arigato. We were in Kyoto. We got off a couple of stations before the end of the line and were wending our way through the streets. We had a couple of blocks to pass through on our way to Nijo Castle. We were getting close to a market street where there were very few foreigners, when we rounded a corner on a street that was about 7 feet wide. A little boy and girl walked by us and on the other side of the corner we ran into the mother taking another little girl out of the back seat of a bike. The little girl looked at us and said, “Gaijin!” Which means foreigner. I started to laugh. The mother laughed cautiously, too. Usually they say it when you do something wrong. The mom may have been a little embarrassed. Gaijin is not a complimentary word.

Nijo Castle is pretty cool! It is where the Shogun surrendered to the Emperor when Commodore Perry presented a force that the Shogun could not deal with.
Since then, Japan has been open to foreigners. It’s kind of appropriate that my first Japanese word was Gaijin when we were so close to the castle. The walls of the castle are 30 feet thick and surrounded by a moat. The rocks are about the size of a large dining room table. The corners of the castle slope up to the area where a watchtower would be. The original castle was built in the 1300s, but it has been rebuilt several times because of fire damage. The most recent castle was built in the 1850s. Inside the wall is the Shogun castle, there is also the Emperor's castle which sits within another castle wall and moat. All are inside the main castle walls. Trees grow on the walls now, but back in the days of the Shogun, it appears that there were houses and barracks on the walls.

We left the castle and headed for some more temples, this time north of the Gion district. We made it to Heian Temple just as they were closing, but we were able to walk in the front gate and back to the worship area before we had to leave. Christina and I are almost templed out for the time being. On the way back to the Gion district we passed several major temple complexes, which we wanted to see, but they were closed. One goes up the mountainside and has a large observatory deck (all made without nails!) that we want to see. But it is advised to go early in the morning as the climb up the stairs is difficult.

We made it back to the park we had visited a couple of nights ago and returned to the graveyard. It was just after sunset. Tonight, we hiked up into the center of the tomb markers. I can’t really call them tombstones, because I am sure that they have all been cremated. Their pedestals range from a couple of feet tall to six feet tall or so. The tombs are on the side of a hill, which is terraced. Some tombs tower over others.
A tomb area may be three feet on each side and most abut each other side to side. Rows lead people down the tombs and stairs lead you up the hill. There were people everywhere carrying placards, which resembled large bookmarks, with something written on them. They place them on the face of the markers. Many also carried buckets of water to wash the tombs. Many markers had incense burning on them. The tomb area was very much alive with activity. The tragedy of it all was, Christina forgot the camera again. I can honestly say, that I reminded her two or three hours before we left not to forget it. That should keep my good name in the clear. (FYI - Most of these pictures are from Claudia, taken the 1st day we went to Kyoto. The Nijo-jo Castle & bonfire pics are from the internet.)

When we left the hill, we walked into town and across the bridge over the Kamogawa River.
From the bridge we could see a couple of the large bonfires on the hills around Kyoto burning in the shape of various Chinese characters. The dead should have returned to where they reside. We made it home, too. Christina is safe. She didn’t see an accident. I might be safe. I don’t know if what I saw really qualifies as an accident. What do I know, though, I am a guyjin.