Day 8

Wow it was another wonderful day in the neighborhood. It dawned cold with a chance of rain, but we never saw any. We had Japanese breakfast today and I am starting not to mind although I mainly just eat the rice. There is one good side effect to eating all this Japanese food. Since they use a lot of ginger I haven’t had to take my motion sickness medication the whole time I have been here, and it is not for lack of traveling. Anyway after breakfast we hooked up with one of Susan’s friends and Janan and Caren. All of us went to the Golden Pavilion. It was so beautiful!!! The water of the pond that surrounds it is covered in symmetric patterns of water lilies and it was created in the 12th century. The whole area was so beautiful that I am going to come back sometime in the spring, especially to see all of the weeping cherry blossom trees. After the Golden Pavilion we took another bus to a zen rock garden. At first one has a hard time understand what is so great about the rock garden, but when you sit and really look at it, it is so tranquil and very deep (I know that sounds a bit silly). Well the one we saw was made in the 16th century. There are two main interpretations of it although you can read into it what you want. One was that the white sand was meant to be clouds and the rocks were the mountains rising up, and the second was that the white rocks were the sea and the big rocks are islands. I think I like the first interpretation better. There are 15 rocks and they are supposedly positioned so that you can’t see them all from any one angle. The white sand/gravel is raked into perfect lines that swirl around the rocks. We walked around the rest of the temple grounds which look so nice. After the rocks we made our way over to where this parade was going to happen. Now in America parade seems to mean something a little different. When I think of a parade there are sounds and bright costumes and maybe even a float or two. This parade was none of these things. For one it was quiet, the people watching and the people in it were all quiet. Although it was cool getting to see all these people in traditional dress that we were told went all the way back to 1000 AD. We left after 30 min. but I think that we got the main point. When we got back to the hotel we got together and folded cranes. We folded up until dinner but we still have a long way to go if we want to make 1,000. Dinner was so good! It was like fondue except it was made with boiling water in this huge pot. First you boiled vegs. Then you took thin strips of beef and cooked them for about 5 sec. that was enough to cook it medium well. After cooking you dipped it into a lemon soy sauce. It was so delicious and we even got grapefruit for dessert. Oh I almost forgot something about the Rock garden. There is this basin there from the 17th century that has an interesting saying on it “I learn only to be contented.” I just thought this was interesting. Well, until tomorrow.

To visit The Golden Pavilion online http://www.kinkaku-ji.or.jp
To visit Ryoanji Temple (where the rock garden it) http://www.kiis.or.jp/rekishi/kyoto/kyoto10-e.html