Divyam is a Frenchman married to Yasuko, his Japanese wife. He tells us he was once a commodities trader, but had lived in Japan for 35 years and feels that the best parts of Japan are the food and the baths. We have a public bath near the house, with a ladies' and men's section, and it is open until 11 at night, but with the heat, I am not inclined to bathe in hot water. He claims there is a cooler bath as well, and that there is a sauna that is 95 degrees celsius, which I do not believe. I think he is disappointed that we do not bathe in the public baths, but I prefer a cool shower in the morning. He also seems disappointed that we do not follow his directions to the letter. He had high hopes for us the first day when he sent us to the silver pavilion, but the restaurant he referred us to was closed and we saw just the one temple. I would have been happy to see more temples and shrines, but temples close by 5 and we did see a shrine or two, but the heat was simply too much for us the past two days. It was again intolerable today.
The bus ride to Arashiyama was 45 minutes, out to the western side of Kyoto. Tenruji temple was first on our agenda. Eric wanted to spend longer in the temple admiring the pond and rock formations, but there were too many other visitors, and one has to have great skill to shut out the crowds and find the peace one might discover if successful. I found the Zen lunch we had on the temple grounds more enjoyable. We had a room to ourselves, and sat cross-legged on the tatami mats, and were served an entirely vegetarian Zen meal, designed by the local priest at the temple. The various foods were meant to blend together nutritionally and meditatively. I thought they were delicious, although I had no idea what many of the choices were. There was a soft tofu combination, pickled vegetables, an eggplant concoction which was delicious, but I don't know what was in it, a chrysanthemum salad, rice, and more vegetables, soup, and melon for dessert. It was surprisingly filling and satisfying.
Leaving our wonderful meal, which happened to be in a cool and comfortable place, plunged us back into the stifling heat, less humid than yesterday, but higher in temperature. Nathan had eaten little of our Zen meal, so was cooling off with ice cream. Our next destination was the bamboo forest behind the temple, and for a while, under the shade of the high bamboo stalks, we were cool and happy, but unfortunately we decided to go to the monkey forest, which turned out to be much further than imagined. We have learned that our maps are not always to scale, and each time we search for something, we find that the distances are much further than anticipated. We followed an indirect course, and the heat became unbearable. Finally, when reaching the river, and realizing that the monkeys were much further than we hoped, we turned around and sought out shade and cool drinks.
Finding our bus back took more effort and time, so when finally close to Gion, where we had a planned dinner at a restaurant with a friend of Emily, we decided to find shelter from the heat in the Kyoto handicraft Center, where we shopped, cooled off, relaxed, and were able to reconstitute for another bus ride to the Gion shrine. We were able to find our restaurant very quickly with google maps. The signs in front of the restaurants are all in Japanese and often it is not clear what are restaurants and what are not. We entered a chocolate shop on the way. I was hoping again for a glimpse of a geisha, but no luck tonight.
Dinner was again delicious. Eric and I shared again, and had again soft tofu, soup which was not typical miso soup, sashimi, rice, fried/battered fish, grilled fish, pickled vegetables, and green tea ice-cream and bean jelly for dessert. I found everything tasty and interesting, and also found that sharing a meal was more than satisfying for both of us. The colours, the tastes, the combinations, the sauces; everything was so very good. Emily's friend Tomoko had studied with Emily in Baltimore, her husband had studied biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins as well, and had recently started a job as a professor in Nara. Tomoko was working in Tokyo, so they have a long distance relationship and travel back and forth between the two places. It seems that they both miss Baltimore. They were wonderful hosts, and ordered sake as well. I am not a beer drinker and am happy to cool off with water, but the sake was excellent.
We took the bus back to the BnB, not wanting another messy taxi ride, and it was easy and straightforward. We found that the buses with many tourists have both signs in English and explanations in English, while the routes traveled by locals, may or may not have the English version announced, but always have it written under the Japanese written announcement. Within a few days, I imagine that bus travel throughout the town would be easy. When I came here 40 years ago, I do not remember ANY English signs at all. I was surrounded by Japanese everywhere, and had to learn to understand very quickly to survive. This time, I am finding everything so well organized and straightforward, and I appreciate that.
Our time in Kyoto is too short. There is so much more to see and do, and we have not had the time and the heat has limited us significantly. I must return, but not in the heat of summer, and with Maya and Tara.
The bus ride to Arashiyama was 45 minutes, out to the western side of Kyoto. Tenruji temple was first on our agenda. Eric wanted to spend longer in the temple admiring the pond and rock formations, but there were too many other visitors, and one has to have great skill to shut out the crowds and find the peace one might discover if successful. I found the Zen lunch we had on the temple grounds more enjoyable. We had a room to ourselves, and sat cross-legged on the tatami mats, and were served an entirely vegetarian Zen meal, designed by the local priest at the temple. The various foods were meant to blend together nutritionally and meditatively. I thought they were delicious, although I had no idea what many of the choices were. There was a soft tofu combination, pickled vegetables, an eggplant concoction which was delicious, but I don't know what was in it, a chrysanthemum salad, rice, and more vegetables, soup, and melon for dessert. It was surprisingly filling and satisfying.
Leaving our wonderful meal, which happened to be in a cool and comfortable place, plunged us back into the stifling heat, less humid than yesterday, but higher in temperature. Nathan had eaten little of our Zen meal, so was cooling off with ice cream. Our next destination was the bamboo forest behind the temple, and for a while, under the shade of the high bamboo stalks, we were cool and happy, but unfortunately we decided to go to the monkey forest, which turned out to be much further than imagined. We have learned that our maps are not always to scale, and each time we search for something, we find that the distances are much further than anticipated. We followed an indirect course, and the heat became unbearable. Finally, when reaching the river, and realizing that the monkeys were much further than we hoped, we turned around and sought out shade and cool drinks.
Finding our bus back took more effort and time, so when finally close to Gion, where we had a planned dinner at a restaurant with a friend of Emily, we decided to find shelter from the heat in the Kyoto handicraft Center, where we shopped, cooled off, relaxed, and were able to reconstitute for another bus ride to the Gion shrine. We were able to find our restaurant very quickly with google maps. The signs in front of the restaurants are all in Japanese and often it is not clear what are restaurants and what are not. We entered a chocolate shop on the way. I was hoping again for a glimpse of a geisha, but no luck tonight.
Dinner was again delicious. Eric and I shared again, and had again soft tofu, soup which was not typical miso soup, sashimi, rice, fried/battered fish, grilled fish, pickled vegetables, and green tea ice-cream and bean jelly for dessert. I found everything tasty and interesting, and also found that sharing a meal was more than satisfying for both of us. The colours, the tastes, the combinations, the sauces; everything was so very good. Emily's friend Tomoko had studied with Emily in Baltimore, her husband had studied biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins as well, and had recently started a job as a professor in Nara. Tomoko was working in Tokyo, so they have a long distance relationship and travel back and forth between the two places. It seems that they both miss Baltimore. They were wonderful hosts, and ordered sake as well. I am not a beer drinker and am happy to cool off with water, but the sake was excellent.
We took the bus back to the BnB, not wanting another messy taxi ride, and it was easy and straightforward. We found that the buses with many tourists have both signs in English and explanations in English, while the routes traveled by locals, may or may not have the English version announced, but always have it written under the Japanese written announcement. Within a few days, I imagine that bus travel throughout the town would be easy. When I came here 40 years ago, I do not remember ANY English signs at all. I was surrounded by Japanese everywhere, and had to learn to understand very quickly to survive. This time, I am finding everything so well organized and straightforward, and I appreciate that.
Our time in Kyoto is too short. There is so much more to see and do, and we have not had the time and the heat has limited us significantly. I must return, but not in the heat of summer, and with Maya and Tara.
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