Kiyomizudera-Ohanami

The history:  Kiyomizudera means pure water temple.  Opened in 778, as a Buddhist sect.  It is well known for it's wooden deck and fountain.  The fountain has 3 streams,  each for a different benefit:  long life, success in school and lucky in love.  To drink from all three is considered greedy.

We didn't drink of any fountain but our own bottled water.  The lines were incredibly long due to the season.  

The day started with church, Easter.  I used to go to this church when I lived here, so I knew where I was going.  Upon arrival they told us the translator was sick, lucky for my mom they had English bible and hymnal to read for ourself.  I tried following along the hiragana.  I was put off that they didn't think it necessary to print an English bulletin, especially seeing all the foreigners.  But they took the kids for Sunday school, so that what nice, they got real Easter eggs.  It was nice chatting with a family of 5 originally from Philly, currently in Hong Kong.

Afterwards we were in search of Mr. Donut!  Found!  Either too late in the day, this location or cherry blossom season, was the reason for few cruller varieties.  None the less we had donuts there and took Mr. Donuts for breakfast for the next day.  The sakura(cherry) donuts were chewier, pink and very yummy.  

We grabs McD's for lunch and headed home.  I ate two times at McD's and neither time ate food I could find at home.  I got my shaka shaka fries in nori(seaweed) flavor(you dump the fries and seasoning in a bag, shake and eat), and juicy shaka shaka chicken(you dump big chicken tender and seasoning in bag, shake and eat), and washed it down with either a macha(green tea) shake or macha blizzard!  Yum.

We were meeting Amy along with Corey and his family at the subway station.  Since the walk would be too much for my mom's feet and my in-laws we decided to take the bus closer, the walk was then to be 10 minutes up hill to Kiyomizudera.  It was so packed, I could do little shopping on the way up, hopping to get to it later.  Later never happened.  

Ohanami is cherry blossom season, during the night they even light up the cherry trees, so you can go through some temples at night during this season.  They do the same thing during the fall colors, it's called Omomiji.  It's a time to celebrate, little carnivals set up with street vendor games, trinkets and food.  

By the time we came out of Kiyomizudera, the sun was going down, they were closing for a half hour before they opened for the night viewing.  We were hungry and walked back the trail to Maruyama park and decided to eat there.  It was so cold I really wanted ramen or udon to warm us up.  We sat outside under the lit up cherry blossoms on platforms and little tabes on them.  You take your shoes off.  We ordered our food and some of it arrived, not in a timely manner.  Finally 40 minutes later, they came to tell us they no longer have udon!  I ate my now cold rice in tea with ume(plum) and seasonings.  We left.  What started out to be a fun experience ended up not so fun.  Espeacially since they charge 500yen($5usd) an adult to sit there.

Fushimiinari

This was number one on my list of we must do.  I've seen it before, many times.  But I can't stay away.  It is a shrine, the entrance is littered with all sorts of large orange buildings for them to do their stuff in.  I head right past all of that for the steps that lead to the trail of torri gates that goes up and around this lovely mountain covered with cedar trees.  Maybe it reminds me of being up in the UP?  It's so tranquil to be walking around under the shade of the trees on a hot summer day, listening to the birds singing. Or in the fall when the leaves turn colors matching the torri gates, though you do need to watch out for the spider webs.  This is not something Iiked.  But it was interesting to see all the shapes of the spider webs in Japan, the triangle, the 3-D intersecting webs with a large  legged spider hiding in the middle.  Yuck!

As we started to climb, it was just too much for the older and younger folks of our group.  Amy and I left them beside a rest stop at a pond, telling them it will be about an hour to find my favorite spot.  There were two other look out locations that I remember from past visits 7, 13 & 15 years ago coming here.  During all those years the trees grew and covered up both look out spots!  So they took the benches and carried them up higher to a rocky look out spot.  They would never have made it this high.

We found my favorite spot, where there is a secret nook in someones dear ones resting spot with running water.  The water falls into an old bucket, overflowing and combining with the water dripping down the moss of this secret nook and flows past stepping stones.  As Amy's Japanese is impeccable she read the water is medicinal.  Maybe that is why I stayed so healthy! 

The history:  Fushimi Inari Shrine  has ancient origins before the captial was moved to Kyoto in 794.  It is a shrine dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice.  Foxes are said to be the  messengers of gods.  The mountain goes up 233 meters above sea level.  

Konchi in Temple

Back to Keage to visit Konchi in Temple.  Just a short walk from the subway station, through a aquaduct sort of tunnel under the old train tracks and cherry trees.  

       At this time they did not provide color brochures, nor would they break change larger than 500 yen for the 400 yen entrance fee.  We tried to break a 1000 yen.  (When thinking of Japanese yen, move the decimal over two places.  So 1000 yen is like $10.00)  Must not get enough visitors here.  But I like the solitude to walk slowly and take pictures not cluttered with other people.  It has a nice mix of buildings, water with koi, trees and a large rock garden. 

     I didn't include the picture of the rock garden because it looked like a gravel parking lot.  You just couldn't see the detail of the raking in the picture.  I personally would rather sit and stare at the wind blowing over a field of wheat or the lake then sit and stare at rocks.  Why would you want to "meditate" you are climbing a tall mountain in the middle of rocks?  I would rather think about the refreshing lake water.  Guess I'm midwest through and through.

The history:  founded around 1400by Shogun Yoshimochi Ashikaga.  Restored around 1600.  The Crane and Turtle Garden are quite well-known.