Serene Zen with back whacking on the way to Kyoto

Tuesday March 28
We set off for our next destination in a bus with our luggage and drove the half hour or so to the
Zen buddhist Manpukuji temple. A personal friend of Kano san (the Japanese photographer in our group with the local contacts) greeted us there. He is a Buddhist monk at another temple but shares our interest in photography. He did the introductions to the main monk at this particular Zen temple, where we got a guided tour. Zen is one of the forms of buddhism, and has very specific guidelines for all aspects of your daily life including the rituals on how to eat, sleep etc. We were taken to the inner workings of the temple and watched what can only be described as therapeutic back whacking. We first watched, Seth, one of or two lead photographers, sit in a lotus position meditating before he bent over and had the monk whack him hard on the back with a flat stick the length of a baseball bat. It looked agony but Seth said once you got over the initial sting it helped loosen your muscles and do away with your tension. We had eight more volunteers including Johnny, who sat in a row to partake in this particularly Zen exercise. Some said it was very spiritual. I worried about Johnny still recovering from his broken ribs as the monk really whacks HARD several times, but he avoids the spine and hits the side (i.e. ribs) and all felt better afterwards. Next time I might try it too!

We wandered the grounds with our friend the photographer-monk who very kindly posed everywhere for incredible photographs. He was the sweetest man with a twinkle in his eye who reminded us of my father. When we left in the coach he stood there saying good-bye and opened his fan like a handkerchief to wave adieu. We left with very dear memories of him.

As we were running late for our next rendez-vous we stopped by a 7-11 to buy some lunch to eat on the bus. Ours was a very nice tuna-rice dish they microwaved for us, so sipping beer and eating a lovely meal we arrived in Kyoto.
This city  has been the capital of Japan for over a thousand years from the 700's. It is surrounded by mountains except for the south side, protecting it from invaders. We had expected a small, pretty town but in fact it is very industrial, with huge skyscrapers and apartment blocks, and is the 7th largest city of Japan with 1.7 million inhabitants. Nintendo is based here and we drove by the giant headquarters. They still make games and cars which are known for their flowered pattern.
We drove by several pachinko halls, the upright standing pinball machines. Gambling is forbidden here but you can win chips in the game halls that are traded in for things like drinks and goods. They also gamble on motor boat and bicycle racing in a covert fashion.
We drove by the Arashima mountains which are known for their cherry blossom but unfortunately everything here is a few weeks late so nothing was flowering. Hotels are sold out, however, at this time of the year and really crank up the prices. We saw some tourists in rented kimono's strolling by, rickshaws and lots of bicycles.
We drove over  the Kasuragawa river through a pretty area to the Saihoji temple, also known as the moss shrine, in the west ward , Nishikyo, of Kyoto. The site was originally the villa of Prince Shotoku. In the Tempyo era (729-749AD) several temples were erected in the area including Saihoji dedicated to three images. In 1338 the shrine needed repair and the then priest of the nearby Shinto shrine asked  the distinguished Zen priest Must Kokushi to preside over Saihoji. He took up residence and designed the lovely moss garden surrounding the temple. It circles a lake that last year was full of koi, with lovely red leafed trees all around but much to the disappointment of our two leaders, who were here last year in November, the different time of the year made for a more barren landscape. It was still lovely walking through the moss, but no flowering trees or colourful maples, nor did we see more than one carp.

At the shrine we were greeted by a monk who took us in for some sutra writing. In lotus position (my knees are in agony!) we sat and composed our wishes on a slat of wood,with a brush and ink we made ourselves by mixing an ink block with water. We carried our slats up to the main shrine for the monks to burn at a later date, hopefully fulfilling all our prayers.
In Japan they like to say 90 percent of the population is Shinto and the other 90 percent is Buddhist meaning the faiths overlap and people like to hedge their bets and are superstitious so follow both. About one percent is Christian and the rest remaining 9 percent is a mix of other religions.

We went back to the centre of Kyoto where we checked in at the Kyoto Okura hotel. Our room is on the 15th floor with sweeping views of the city. It is a modern hotel, very large, so does not have the charm of the ancient Nara hotel, but it is comfortable and has some great restaurants.
In the evening they had arranged a ride out to the park by Hirano shrine for some cherry blossom viewing and to see the street stands for the cherry festival. Unfortunately it was drizzling, only one cherry tree was flowering and most of the stands were closed, so we cut short our photography there and returned to the hotel, coming by some interesting parts of town, including Kyoto university which is well known.
We had dinner in the French restaurant on the top floor with wonderful views and great food to match.

Tomorrow we are going to practice the ancient art of archery.

Nara, the Great Buddha and geishas

Monday March 27

After a lovely breakfast in the charming hotel we went back by bus to Nara park, this time heading for the great Buddha at the Todaiji temple.

Surrounded by deer we walked through the main gate before seeing the immense temple built in the Nara period (710-794 AD) which houses the Virocana Buddha made from cast bronze and originally covered in gold. Over the years, through fires, parts of it have been damaged and then replaced. The hands were made in the Momoyama period (1568-1615), whereas the head was replaced in the Edo period (1615-1867). The hall burnt down twice so the current building is third generation, built in the Edo period.

It is a third smaller than the original one but still ranks as the largest wooden structure in the world. It is beyond magnificent and seeing the Buddha provoked the same "oh wow" from all of us. As we got there really early we almost had the place to ourselves adding to the magic.

We were given four hours to roam the grounds walking to the big bell, several shinto shrines and past lovely stone lanterns. We walked the half mile back to last night's shinto shrine. People were milling around with many languages spoken around us illustrating how unique it was we had the shrine to ourselves with a priest and all those lanterns lit up. By day it was still lovely but no longer magical.

For lunch we went to central Nara, a big shopping mall, and sat in a sushi bar where the conveyor belt brings round plates of sushi. You take your own and as the plates are colour coded they just count your plates with a special scanner to figure out the bill. Very ingenious version of Japanese fast food. It was beyond delicious.

Walking through the shopping area, I found an antique shop selling a lovely antique lantern similar to the ones in the shinto shrine. Unfortunately they didn't ship, so we briefly contemplated hand carrying it home until we discovered how heavy it was!

In the afternoon we had an appointment at a small geisha house to watch two girls get ready for their work. There is a hierarchy within the house of geikos and meikos who are apprentice geisha/geiko. The word geiko is more polite than geisha as the latter has more of a call girl connotation whereas geikos and meikos only entertain. They are under the wings of an okasaan( mother). This house had five geikos and one meiko plus a few girls in pre-training to become meikos. Once you are a meiko it takes an additional 3 years to be promoted to a geiko.
We watched a twenty year old girl, who is in her second year of being a meiko, put on her make-up. She does not wear a wig and has her hair done up once a week and sleeps with a wooden pillow that supports her neck so as not to mess her hair up. We all circled around her taking photo's watching the white make-up go on with a sponge, and then the eye liner and lip liner. I loved the pattern on the nape of her neck which is intentionally not all filled in with white, to make her more alluring.
We then watched the geiko, who was older (45) put on her wig and kimono. They get pulled in very tightly at the waist which must make it even more uncomfortable than a corset, and there are multiple layers of clothing.
After trying their patience for a long time we left to freshen up at the hotel and then proceeded to the restaurant where the girls were going to perform. We watched a lovely dance by the geiko and meiko in turn, accompanied by a string instrument. Dinner was a fabulous meal of many courses, beautifully presented and accompanied by beer, sake or wine. The geishas served us and stopped to chat so we could ask them questions about their career. They were very sweet and fun once they relaxed and stepped out of their formal role. During dinner we took turns playing this game with them where you sit on the floor with a table between you on which rests a cup. To the rhythm of the music you take turns placing a flat palm on the cup or if the other had removed the cup you had to put a fist on the table. You could take the cup away three times in a row. It sounds silly but was actually really good fun. All in all a very pleasant and interesting evening with the restaurant to ourselves and the girls being very forthcoming and patient.

meiko putting flowers in her hair and doing make-up

geiko getting dressed and putting wig on