Another Day in Kyoto

Today was an exhausting day. I really overbooked myself with checking out cultural activities we might want to do as a group on the trip as well as one of the biggest/most arduous shrines. Oh, and I didn’t really have time to eat.

I started with Zen meditation in the morning at a local, out of the way temple. The monk was really not what I expected. He gave a mini-lecture on Buddhism and meditation. I suspect he had a background in psychology, as he spoke using a lot of psychological terms. We meditated for 20 minutes. It was actually quite relaxing. They gave us a brief tour of the temple and then served us some matcha (green tea).

Then I had a 10 minute walk to a place where I experienced the tea ceremony. A woman- a tea master- wearing a kimono first just chatted with us in a different room. She was very warm and friendly and spoke about her brother and her nieces in Colorado. She also served me a Japanese sweet, typical of something you do before the tea ceremony begins. The tea ceremony was in a separate room, and I happened to sit in the place of the “guest of honor,” meaning I was served first. It was surprisingly relaxing and beautiful. Every movement had a purpose. The tea was also the best matcha I’ve had in Japan. I also got to make a cup myself. I learned that matcha has about twice as much caffeine as coffee, but doesn’t make you feel anxious because it relaxes you at the same time. Having three cups of it definitely made me quite alert.

Next was the Samurai Kembu experience. I thought I would learn Kendo here, but it was more of a tourist trap. I love swords though, so I really enjoyed this. They showed me a few swings with the sword, dressed me up as a samurai and let me take lots of photos, and then taught me a few other moves. I missed my swordfighting class.

After that, I headed to Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine, made famous by the movie Memoirs of a Geisha. I remembered it was uphill, but forgot quite how long of a climb it was. It took about 1.5 hours to climb to the top and back (taking photos the whole way of course!) This is such a lovely shrine. The gates are beautiful and the foxes everywhere are just adorable! Lots more people there than I remember from 10 years ago though.

I followed that up with a visit to Gion Corner, where I saw a show that was designed to introduce you to a variety of Japanese cultural arts (like bunraku theater and Japanese court music). It was very touristy though and something that I think is definitely not worth it for the trip.

I am running low on cash again. Surprisingly, hardly any place takes credit card here. I’ll have to do a better job of budgeting next year.