Biking through Kyoto

We're in our hotel room taking an afternoon break and planning out our day trip to Osaka tomorrow. We are going to attempt to see a little of the national sumo tournament taking place there. I'm not sure if we'll be able to get in or not, but if we can't we'll just spend the day wandering around Osaka. It's apparently not as beautiful or fascinating as Tokyo but whatevs.

Today we rented bicyles from our hotel and spent our day biking around the temples and shrines of Northwestern Kyoto. I felt so free and fast biking down the dori (street), the sun on my face and the wind in my hair. We got around a lot faster and I don't feel as worn out right now. Kyoto is a very bike friendly city too. EVERYONE bikes here and the streets are relatively flat if you stay in the valley.

Today's experience was much different than yesterday... maybe because it is Sunday? I don't know, but all the sites we visited were absolutely thronged with visitors. It was rather jarring and made the experience of visiting normally calm places like Zen rock gardens feel wrong. We've figured out the key to seeing these places is to go very early in the morning. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) we've adjusted to the jet lag and sleep until about 7 instead of 4 am, so we don't get going as early as we did in Tokyo.

The day began quietly at Taizo-in and Kaishun-in. Holly (who is my Buddhist friend for you other readers,) I know you are reading my blogs and I have been thinking about you a lot while I have been visiting these major Buddhist areas. When I get back I will have a lot of questions for you about what I have been seeing and I am going to make you promise me that you'll visit Kyoto sometime in your life. I have seen so many monks and sat in on some Buddhist ceremonies and heard beautiful singing and chanting and waved the incense towards my face...and I wish I knew what it all meant. It fascinates me though.

We then biked to Ryoanji Temple. We were really shocked to see mass amounts of people there. All the places we had visited prior to this were almost empty so we were able to quietly meander through and sit and contemplate in silence.Let me tell you- something is lost when you're in a Zen dry garden listening to hundreds of people count out the 14 (or 15) stones out loud in 20 different languages. I can only imagine how much worse it is during the major tourist season. It made us feel rather sad.

It's not very easy to find vegetarian food in Japan, but we discovered that you can get some pretty good and relatively inexpensive Buddhist food outside the temples. There's usually a few small food stands selling things like udon and tofu soup for around 600 yen. If you ever find yourself in Kyoto and are tired of existing on unhealthy overpriced tourist food, go to the nearest major temple area and follow your nose.

Then we biked to Kinkaju Temple- or the Golden Pavilion. It was a rather breathtaking sight- a temple covered in gold! I can't wait to show you the pictures. After that we biked up to Daisen-in where there was a famous dry garden. Unfortunately the temple is being remodeled so there was scaffolding everywhere, including the garden. There was a sign outside the ticket office making this fact perfectly clear but we decided to pay and check it out anyways. It was still breathtaking regardless. An older male British tourist didn't agree though. He started yelling loudly how awful the construction was, how it ruined the gardens, how they shouldn't have charged him, and how they should close the temple. I felt sick watching him yell this at an elderly Japanese man running the ticket window and then yelling at a monk. The monk just laughed at him. Why did this British man have to act that way? Way to perpetuate the stupid rude gaijin tourist stereotype, jerkface.

After that unpleasant experience we biked to Nijo Castle. We got there about 20 minutes before it closed so we really rushed this one. The sites here usually close around 4:30. It was a pretty impressive castle with a sweet moat. Thar be dragons!

Time to wrap this blog up. We're taking a free Japanese lesson in the hotel lobby in 5 minutes. (Edit: No lesson tonight, ah well.)

p.s. I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged I'm engaged!!! HAHAHAHAAAAAA. Yes.