Falk San

Guess what guess what guess what guess what?! I AM ENGAGED!!! Michael asked me to marry him and I said YES! I am over the moon about it! I had no idea this was coming! I mean, I knew we would get engaged eventually but I didn't anticipate him proposing to me in a beautiful Japanese garden in Kyoto! It was so romantic and beautiful I almost passed out from happiness. I am going to marry and spend the rest of my life with my best friend. I am getting all misty eyed just typing this. I am so full of joy. This feels like the most natural thing... we spend so much time together and get along like peas and carrots. When I am with him, I feel so completely at ease. I love that man so much and feel so blessed to have him in my life. AH! I am still freaking out with happiness about it! I keep looking at my ring (which is gorgeous by the way) and saying to myself "yup, still engaged."

I will get to the engagement part in a bit...

Yesterday morning we woke up at Ryokan Motonago and put on our yukata. The breakfast ritual began by the lady coming into our room and rapidly folding up our futon and blankets and stowing them behind the sliding doors. She then pulled out our low table and zabuton floor cushions. We were then served an excellent and artfully presented breakfast at the table in our room. It included a particularly interesting dish of bacon and egg in an earthenware tureen that contained a candle so the dish cooked as we sat and ate the other food she served. When we were finished she came into the room and cleared away the dishes. It is interesting how the traditionally dressed ryokan employees enter and exit a room in the traditional way of kneeling on the tatami.

I would have loved to stay in that room all day. I am definitely a fan of traditional Japanese ryokan. If you ever go to Japan, try and spend at least one night in a traditional ryokan. It is definitely worth it. At first the rituals may be a bit hard to get used to, but you get used to it quickly. Take your shoes off at the door and put on slippers. Don't put anything in the tokonoma area. Don't wear your slippers into the onsen and never on the fragile tatami mats, and remember to put the bathroom slippers on when you enter the water closet. Wrap your yukata to the left since it's only wrapped to the right at funerals. Leave your key at the door when you leave. Sit on the stool and wash your dirty gaijin body off before getting into the onsen. When you're taking a hot bath or out for the day, you can expect to come back to a pitcher of cool water or some hot green tea and traditional wagashi snacks. They put your futon out and put it away for you (and put little origami birds on the pillows.) And did I mention how beautiful it is? If you pulled back the paper screens, you could see a small garden below. The room and gilded screen was softly lit with paper lanterns. So beautiful.

I know I keep saying that things in Kyoto are beautiful, but they really are. As Tokyo is shocking and over the top, Kyoto is just beautiful. It is a precious jewel of a city. The whole time I have been here I have been gasping at all the beautiful things I am seeing.

After breakfast we began the day by walking through Gion, the neighborhood in which our ryokan was situated. This is the geisha district of the Kyoto. It is very old and historical and picturesque "world of shadows." The narrow streets are of stone and the buildings are wooden with paper screens. We did see a few geisha and one of them was talking on a cellphone!

We then toured the Kiyomizu-dera temple area. This impressive temple is situated on the side of a mountain, so you can see a rather impressive view of Kyoto. Kiyomizu means "pure water" and pilgrims drink from the waterfall, believing it to cure illness. We had a delicious udon noodle Buddhist food bowl here. Near the main temple is a small shrine area dedicated to Jishu-jinga, a god considered to be a powerful matchmaker. This area was full of giggling Japanese schoolgirls and young lovers. There are two "love stones" 59 feet apart and if you can walk between them with your eyes closed your love will materialize. I shut my eyes and walked between the stones. When I touched the end stone with my foot, I was met with applause. We then visited Sanjusangen-do. This is a temple filled with 1001 Kannon statues, 28 Buddhist guardian diety statues, and a 6 foot tall 1000 handed Kannon statue. It is absolutely awe inspiring. We wandered along Sannen-zaka and Ninen-zaka, two winding hilly streets that cause bad luck if tripped upon.

Somewhere along the way of our wandering through the temples and shrines of Eastern Kyoto we happened across the Shosei-en Garden. It's not as visited by tourists so we had the garden pretty much to ourselves. I was gazing at a small waterfall and thinking about how happy I was that spring was going to be coming soon when Michael asked me to sit on a rock near him. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes! The rest of the evening was a blur. I think at some point we had another onsen and ate at an 8-bit videogame themed restaurant?

Today was more temples, shrines, and gardens- particularly Nanzen-ji (Silver) Temple, Ginkaju-ji Temple (beautiful mossy garden,) Chion-in Temple (with the largest bell in Japan that requires 17 monks to ring,) Shoren-in Temple (which contained beautifully painted shoji screens,) Kohchi-in (Crane and Turtle Garden,) and Maruyama Park. Our favorite spots have been the gardens. If there is a heaven, I imagine it to look like a Japanese Buddhist temple garden in Kyoto.

There is so much to tell and I think the pictures we took may better tell the story about the temples and shrines. It is now very late and I am so tired I am beginning to doze off while writing this so I worry I am not making much sense with the extreme physical activity and hearing and reading Japanese nonstop. I think we've walked 10 million miles in the past week. I don't even know what day it is anymore. We just checked into our Western style hotel next to the Imperial Palace. It is weird to be sleeping on a bed off and have chairs you can sit on and not have to constantly do the shoe thing and be able to come and go as we please without bothering a nice Japanese innkeeper. And I am tired and my brain is oatmeal and my body an overcooked spaghetti noodle.

p.s. TOTALLY engaged now, guys.