Kyoto
Kyoto
I made a short trip to Kyoto from Wednesday, July 24 – to – Friday, July 26, 2019. It was only my second time visiting Kyoto. My first visit was in March 1993 when my parents came to Japan to see their new granddaughter. I wanted to go back and see the same places I saw then for old time’s sake - to see them again before I die. I mostly did that, and more besides. I also just wanted to get out and see stuff. Most of my life unfolds in central Tokyo. That’s fine, because Tokyo is a great city. I know that famous places look pretty much like pictures of them that you can see in books, film, or on the Internet, but I’d also like to have my own pictures - pictures to my own taste that I can use and manipulate as it pleases me.
It is exceedingly easy to travel around Japan on bullet trains, or “shinkansen” super express trains. They are as common as buses. Each stop is only momentary as passengers quickly get off and new passengers quickly board before the doors close. I noticed that when passengers got off they carried off their own garbage - food wrappers and packaging and such - without leaving it for the staff.
Kyoto was the capital of Japan for more than a thousand years, until 1867 when the military dictatorship, or Shoganate, of the Tokugawa family (based in Tokyo) collapsed, political power was returned to the Emperor, and the capital was moved to Tokyo. In 1867 the Emperor took up residence in Tokyo, formerly called “Edo.” In the Second World War Kyoto was spared from bombing, which means that the city (about 1.4 million today) abounds with antique and traditional architecture, temples, shrines and palaces.
As such, Kyoto today is a tourist magnet. Most of the sites I visited were not crowded. They are not the premier attractions. Also, most of the sites I visited had no admission charge. How does a temple or shrine survive if it charges no admission? In Japan, people always make a cash offering when they pray. Throw - literally throw - coins into the offertory box, ring the bell to attract the Shinto gods’ attention, clap hands, and pray. Shrines and temples also sell a wide variety of good luck charms (religion in Asia is closely related with good luck and good fortune), plus they enjoy donations from devotees. Temples and shrines are capitalist, revenue-generating operations.
Kyoto is not only much smaller than Tokyo, it is also much lower, shorter, closer to the ground. Tokyo throws up skyscrapers like mushrooms - businesses and condominiums. There is none of that in Kyoto. At 131-meters, Kyoto Tower (opened in December 1964) is by far the tallest structure. It looked to me like few buildings exceed ten storeys. When I ascended Kyoto Tower for a bird’s-eye view of the city a couple things were immediately apparent. First, the city sits in a bowl, surrounded by low mountains, a horseshoe-shaped bowl, open at the bottom (the south). Nearby Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan, cannot be seen because it is on the other side of the close mountains. The land is open and flat to the south, and downtown Osaka, on the sea, is clearly visible about 47 kilometers away. Second, the ancient capital with all its shrines, temples and palaces, was small and squat. Temples that look huge from the ground look tiny from the air, and somewhat dispersed, spread out. A temple here, a shrine there, a castle and a palace with a lot of distance between them sort of dampens in my mind the city’s reputation for greatness. It was never a large, great city in the European or American model of size and reputation. It’s quality of greatness was other. What occupied that space in ancient times? Well, it was a commercial city filled with neighbourhoods, laid out very geometrically with straight north-south avenues crossed by straight east-west streets. The modern city still adheres to that pattern, contrasting with Tokyo’s meandering streets. Kyoto was a planned city, deliberately laid out geometrically. Tokyo was not planned. Edo was a small town surrounded by other small, rural towns, and over time all these towns grew in population and size, and merged, fused together. Their rural lanes retained their winding courses. In ancient times Kyoto was a commercial city surrounded by agricultural land. Some of today’s temples and shrines would have been squarely outside the city in the rural countryside in ancient times. It was not a walled city in the European manner. Certainly, the palaces, castles and temples were and still are walled. But the city itself was way to big to be walled.
Some tourists enjoy the Gion district adjacent to the Kamo River, famous for Geisha and their apprentices, called “Maiko.” I still haven’t seen the Gion district. Maybe on a future trip. Maiko girls are teenagers - 15-to-20-year-olds embarked on years of training to become professional Geisha. Geisha are not prostitutes, they are traditional entertainers. Geisha today are businesswoman who own their own restaurants/tea houses where they entertain clients with traditional skills like dance and song, conversation and service. I don’t understand what would motivate a 15-year-old girl to enter that profession. Some do, though. The number of Geisha has dwindled over the years, but they’re still with us. Geisha and Maiko wear a fortune on their backs in the form of expensive, hand-crafted silk kimonos. A kimono is not just a robe. It’s a work of art, and geisha and maiko need a wardrobe full of them. That’s a lot of money. Anyway, maybe some day I will return and visit the Gion neighbourhood.
Wednesday, July 24, 2019.
Nijo Castle - ¥500 admission
Thursday, July 25
Kyoto Imperial Palace (“Gosho”) - no admission
Heian Shrine and gardens - no admission
Friday, July 26
To-ji Temple - no admission
Higashi Honganji Temple - no admission
Kyoto Tower - ¥700 admission
Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine - no admission
Sanjusangendo Buddhist Hall - no admission
Kiyomizu Temple - no admission
Kyoto is so much smaller than Tokyo, it’s fairly easy to get around. There are only two subway lines - the Karasuma Line and the Tozai Line - that form a big cross. (By contrast, Tokyo is a veritable ants’ nest of surface and underground lines.) My hotel was near one of them, Karasuma-Oike Station at the intersection of two main streets, Karasuma dori and Oike dori. On the advice of the English-speaking lady at the Tourist Information office at Kyoto Station I took the subway from Kyoto Station three stops north to my hotel rather than taking a taxi cab, like I intended. I was right. I ought to have taken the taxi. When I exited the appropriate subway station I quickly got lost because the hotel was not where I expected it to be. I asked a policeman on the street, “Excuse me! I’m lost!” Of course, I said it in Japanese, which I hoped made him more sympathetic, or impressed him, or helped put him at ease dealing with a foreign tourist. It turned out I wasn’t too far off. I had walked right past the hotel without noticing it.
(1) My first day I walked everywhere. I walked until my feet and legs hurt. My forearms and neck were noticeably sunburned. Enough of that! After that, I used the subway to get around. Easy-piecey! Touring Nijo Castle on the first day it was so hot I fanned myself so furiously with my folding paper fan, my “sensu” (a fan I always keep on hand in the summer time) that it literally disintegrated in my hands. I was forced to buy a more expensive replacement from the castle’s gift shop. In addition, around 4:00 p.m., while still walking around, it began to rain fiercely with heavy raindrops. I was forced to buy an umbrella from a convenience store. I opted for the more expensive, larger umbrella because I expected to be outside for some time yet. When I left on Friday I just abandoned that good umbrella in my hotel room. Oh, well.
(2) On the second day, the Heian Shrine gardens were a sanctuary of pleasant, cool silence in the middle of the city. Heian Shrine is an enormous, elaborate facility. The Kyoto Imperial Palace - the Emperor’s former residence - is still occasionally used for state occasions and imperial rituals. It is owned and operated by the Imperial Household Agency (“kunaicho”), a Cabinet-level government office. Admission is free, but there is a security inspection of all bags at the entrance, and the armed and armoured police guarding the place looked like pit bulls prepared for battle. Don’t mess with them. You should never mess with Japanese police anyway, because there is no habeus corpus law here, and once the police have you in custody for any infraction whatsoever, they can detain you indefinitely.
(3) On the third and final day, I checked out of my hotel early. I thought that I might return to Kyoto Station the way I came, by subway. But I gave up that idea and asked the front desk staff to call me a taxi. That was the right decision. At the station I stashed my suitcase in a storage locker for the day while I went out walking about before I was due to join an English-language bus tour at 1:30 p.m. There are many worthy sites within easy walking distance of the station. I was particularly interested in revisiting To-ji Temple on the south side. To-ji Temple boasts the tallest pagoda in Japan and some of the oldest extant wooden buildings in the world. But the pagoda was the prize. Wouldn’t you know it? After hauling my ass there, I discovered the pagoda was complete encased in scaffolding. Rats!
Tower was an easy treat. I was able to take some birds-eye view photos of the city below. After that I had to decide: go to the south side and find the tour bus meeting spot, or visit one more site - the large Higashi Hongaji Temple just over there! I decided to visit the temple. It was worth it.
The bus tour, Sunrise Tours, originated in Osaka. Most of the passengers were American tourists who boarded in Osaka and were doing exhausting one-day whirlwind tour of the sites. I boarded in Kyoto with a smaller contingent of people who were only doing the afternoon leg to see three sites in this order:
1) the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine;
2) the Sanjusangendo Buddhist Hall;
3) Kiyomizu Temple, on a hill overlooking the entire city.
Numbers one and three are premier tourist attractions, so crowded it wasn’t funny. And downright unenjoyable, too. The second, Sanjusangendo, which I visited in 1993, is a monastery. We were forbidden to take pictures, and talking was supposed to be quiet and minimal. And shoes off to enter the site, of course. I don’t like taking my shoes off because it’s uncomfortable and inconvenient, but …
Here is an important thing to remember about the antiquity of Kyoto: the antiquity, while sometimes genuine, is often largely a fiction. Not always, but largely. Remember that in Japan appearance and presentation are far more important than substance. Almost every one of the great sites I saw is a 19th century reconstruction of an earlier structure that burned to the ground several times over the centuries. It disappoints me because I feel deceived. So, pay attention. The guide or the guide pamphlet will say, “This temple was founded 1,300 years ago. It burned in the fire of 1091, and was destroyed again in the earthquake of 1410. After being abandoned for 100 years it was rebuilt in 1675. Then the current structure was erected in 1857 after the fire of 1855. Fire is one of the great disasters of Japan (earthquakes, typhoons, tsunamis, fires, volcanoes, floods and landslides). Traditionally, buildings were made of wood and paper, so misfortune or careless use of fire could be and was easily disastrous.
The antiquity of Kyoto, while sometimes genuine, is often largely a fiction.
Here is something to remember about Japanese Emperors. In ancient times and during the Edo Period (1603 – 1867) the Emperor resided in his palace in Kyoto, never leaving. During the Edo Period the Tokugawa family of hereditary Shoguns, or military dictators, controlled all political and military power in the country, and the Emperor was just a figurehead. Basically, the Emperor was a prisoner in a gilded prison, manipulated by the Shoguns for their purposes. The Emperor was supposed to be divine, but that had little currency in the world of Tokugawa realpolitik. Occasionally, the emperors fell into such poverty that they survived by selling their poetry and imperial heirlooms. At the Kyoto Imperial Palace no one talks about this side of things. Instead, attention is devoted to the magnificence of the grounds and its buildings, and the history behind it the utility of the facility.
It might be a false memory, but I seem to recall from my 1993 visit that I was angry that a plethora of overhead utility wires spoiled the view in Kyoto, obstructing photography. I did not have that impression this time.
One last thing about Kyoto is to remember that it is in the Kansai region of Japan. Kansai is the flat coastal plain dominated by Osaka. I come from Tokyo in the Kanto region, the Kanto coastal plain in the east. Kansai Japanese is a slightly different dialect than Kanto Japanese. The vocabulary and accent are slightly different. As soon as I spoke, people in Kyoto could probably tell from my voice and words that I come from Tokyo. Personally, I didn’t notice any language difference because my ear isn’t attuned to it. I know that there is one, but that’s as far as it went with me. I was more observant of Kyoto people’s behaviour. On the sidewalks, on stairs and escalators they seemed to be walking and standing on the right-hand side, like Americans and Canadians, the opposite of Tokyo, where we stand and walk on the left. I asked an English-speaking woman at my hotel’s front desk about this walking on the other side thing, and she said “We don’t care.” So, maybe it was just my imagination.