Kyoto-vision (Fri-Sun)

A quick blast from the past, here's the weekend update (even though it's Wednesday here):

The first evening in Kyoto I mentioned we went to a really awesome karaoke bar. It was a five story building completely filled with karaoke rooms! They had a phone book sized book full of foreign songs, mostly English, and it was only $30 for two people for two hours, plus drinks. I got a "lime sour," which is a lime flavored shochu highball. Shochu is potato liquor, I think. It was delicious. The place was called Super Jankara, or SUU-PA JAN-KALA, as we like to refer to it. (Rebecca would like me to note at this point that it is in fact only I who refer to it this way.) (Also note that this is how it is written/pronounced in Japanese katakana, so I'm not being super offensive, only mildly so.)

The next day we went on the "Kyoto Morning" tour, where we saw Nijo Castle, the Golden Pavilion Temple (we saw this instead of the Imperial palace because it was closed on weekends or something), and Kitano Tanmangu. Nijo Castle was really neat. It was where the shogun lived in the 1600's or so. (Rebecca's note: Nijo [not the castle] was Genji's secondary residence.) The neatest part about the castle was the "nightingale floor," aka security system against ninjas. The floor is nailed in so that the boards creak against the nails when someone walks along it. This sounds like birds chirping and alerts the shogun that there are freaking ninjas in the hallway and that there needs to be a smack-down. Also there are thicker tatami mats where the shogun sits so that ninjas cannot go under the floor and stab him from underneath. Damn ninjas, worse than roaches.

Then we went to the Golden Pavilion, which was gorgeous. We walked around a lot-- we've been doing a lot of that. The bones in my feet feel like they are about ready to break. (Also I have a poison ivy/oak/sumac/something rash on them-- I have no idea how I got it; we haven't been walking in any grass or anything.) Anyway, they recently renovated the Golden Pavilion, and it took three freaking kilos of gold. Wow. Then we went to Kitano Tanmangu, which is a shrine built to appease an angry bureaucrat. Rebecca and I are old hats by now at praying at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. The main difference is that you have to clap before praying at Shinto shrines to wake up the gods, but not at Buddhist temples, because the Buddha is always listening.

In the afternoon we went to Nara, which is a city near Kyoto. At Nara shrines and temples (there are a cluster of two there-- one shrine and one temple. One family built both, because most Japanese people consider themselves both Buddhist and Shinto. They're compatible because Shinto focuses more on this life, whereas Buddhism focuses more on the next) wild deer run around. They are protected because they are considered messengers of the gods. That and because tourists like them and like to buy little deer crackers to feed them and gaudy little deer-shaped baubles to take home. The first temple (I don't remember either of their names) I will refer to as Giant Freaking Buddha Statue place, because there was, as you may guess, a giant freaking Buddha statue. It is the largest indoor Buddha statue in the world. Also there was this little hole in one of the support beams and it was said that if you can fit through it, you can get into heaven, because it is the same size as Buddha's nostril (don't ask, Japanese people are weird). Well, I tried. And I failed. Because of my big ol' J-Lo ass. When I backed out of the hole, there was a group of tourists standing around either laughing or being very concerned, including a group of Spanish-speaking women laughing and saying "No paso! No paso!" Ha, ha, very funny. I'm sure you would fit much better, thirty-year-old pregnant lady.

The deer were pretty much awesome. They followed you around if they thought you had food (and apparently got angry if you didn't give them food that you had). The bucks kept nudging us gently with their antlers (and keeping some of the does and fawns from getting deer crackers) and one even started to eat my shirt and nip us in the butt! We got lots of pictures feeding, petting, and generally playing nice with the deer. They were really friendly and it was a lot of fun-- like petting zoos as a kid. Only deer are cuter than goats. Maybe.

The shrines and temples all have different focuses. One of them people went to in order to pray for smarts and passing tests. There was also a statue outside the building of Giant Freaking Buddha Statue temple that was supposed to represent one of the Buddha's students who was ADD or something and was banished. If you rubbed the statue and then touched the part that ailed you, you were supposed to feel better. (I touched my feet.) Also, there are big pots of burning incense whose smoke is also supposed to cure you/make you better, depending on where on yourself you wave the smoke to. Anyway, depending on the focus of the temple, you can buy little talismans and charms to protect and help you. Rebecca bought one for doing better in school, I got a general talisman for Tauruses, and I got a "recovery from illness" one for my cousin.

Since we have internet in the hotel here, I'll try to post about the last couple days, in Hiroshima and Miyajima.