No update yesterday, because we went to Nara, about an hour away by train, and hurried out to get an early start. Thursday was a light day, anyway– the highlights were a visit to Nijo Jinya, which is a preserved Edo-period inn for feudal lords visiting Kyoto, and includes a number of slightly over-the-top security features for their protection. It’s open by appointment only, and the tour is conducted in Japanese, but our hotel arranged a translator for us. Actually, there were two translators and a half translators, because there was another pair of foreigners on the tour, who had also brought a translator. The half is because one of those two was translating the English translation into some Eastern European sounding language for the other.
After that, we made a quick pass through the Nijo castle, which features squeaky floors, dioramas, and wall screens and gardens that are nice, but not spectacular. In the afternoon, we had lunch in Pontocho, then Kate went back to the hotel to rest up, and I went through the National Museum, which is across the street from our hotel.
For dinner, we went to a preposterously expensive (seriously– I get pangs of liberal guilt when I think about the price..) kaiseki restaurant. This is the ultra-gourmet traditional Japanese cuisine, which consists of lots of little seasonally appropriate dishes, presented in an elegant and refined manner. We had a private room with tatami mats, and a view over the garden, and two waitresses in kimonos who bowed a lot. The restaurant in question has been in operation for three hundred years, and it feels that way.
It was fascinating, and did I mention expensive? I thought the food was excellent, but it wasn’t really to Kate’s taste, which is a shame.
Friday, we made the trip down to Nara, which was the capital of Japan in the 700’s, before Kyoto, and has a wealth of really old temples and statues. This was much more about buildings and statues than gardens, which was different than the previous few days. It turns out, though, that absent a religious connection or a background in art history, one Buddha statue starts to look pretty much like another after a bit. There were a few that had real personality, but they kind of blend together.
On a different note, Nara has deer like other places have squirrels. Apparently, there’s some religious connotation– deer serve as messengers for some Shinto deity or another– but mostly, they wander around in packs, posing for pictures and mooshing food from tourists. You’d think divine messengers would have more dignity.
Anyway, we’re off to see the famous gardens in the northwest part of Kyoto today, and then tomorrow, we’re heading out for Yokohama. Hard to believe it’s going so fast…
Mata ne.