Gardens

It was drizzly again this morning, but Dave, John and I walked down to the Imperial Palace grounds again. After breakfast, we left to visit Arashiyama, which is a western suburb of Kyoto. Our goal was to walk in the Tenryuji Temple gardens, but we had an added bonus as today was a celebration day for the temple and there were many people attending the ceremony in formal wear. Some of the kimono clad ladies had special raincoats over their kimonos (see photo) - it was very colorful. The gardens were wet, but lovely, but the best in my opinion was the walk through the bamboo forest (see photo). There was a high wind and you could hear the rustling of the leaves as the slender trees swayed in the breeze. It was magical! We came out of the forest and visited another garden. This one was planned by a former movie actor in Japan. He was in both silent and "talky" films and was most famous for his character, "The One-Eyed Samurai". We stopped at the tea house for a small refreshment before walking the garden paths. His villa was high on the mountain overlooking the city and was laid out so that as you turned a corner you had a new vista in front of you and could no longer see where you had just been. There were many rock paths (some of the rocks were lovely shades of red and green) and we were able to stroll around the gardens and at one point came to his villa. The grounds are now open to the public for a small fee. We took the local train and subway back to the hotel. Unbelievably, we saw Aoi, the girl from City Hall that we met yesterday, on the same subway car that we were on! What are the chances of that happening?! She was on her way to an English language class. I jammed my little toe when stepping over the rim of the tall tub to get into the shower this morning and I was definitely feeling it on the walk. Back at the hotel, I took off my shoe and sock and found that my little toe was all purple so am guessing that I broke it. I figure there is nothing to be done about it so will dose up with Advil and go on. It doesn't hurt too badly unless I flex the foot so I will just have to be careful. Dave decided to nap this afternoon, but I went with a small group to visit Okazaki Park where there is a garden at the Heian Shrine. Fortunately the rain had quit and although it was not super sunny, at least it wasn't soggy! We were so lucky as again we saw children coming for the blessings and we also saw a bride and groom. The bride wore a traditional black with embroidered flowers kimono - she was very attractive. Junko would say that the couple were "hot-hot". That is there expression for passion. I think it is very cute. The garden was lovely - one of the best features was a long wooden bridge over the pond (see photo). I had been feeling badly that our trip occurred during the peak season of Fall back home, but I was able to catch a little color in the garden here to remind me of home (see photo of fall in Japan). We then walked over to the Museum of Traditional Craft and saw lots of lovely craft work from lacquer ware to brocade material to bamboo weaving. It was a lovely museum and I really enjoyed it. There were a few craft people who were working and demonstrating in the museum. One of them was painting on the lacquer ware and then sprinkling gold dust on what he had painted. He had a very steady hand. As in most museums, we ended our tour in the gift shop. We saw some lovely hand painted tee shirts and embroidered blouses, but the large size looked quite a bit smaller than our large. I asked a clerk if they had anything larger and she showed us a blouse with "F" on the label. I jokingly told Lana that stood for Full Figure or maybe Fat. The sales clerk, with great seriousness said that it stood for Fine! I just love how gracious the people are here. Across the hall from the museum, they were having an exhibition of high school student work. I was quite impressed - especially with the photography exhibit. It was hard to believe that students had taken such lovely pictures - they looked professional. They were all in black and white which sometimes creates an artistic effect. We are going out to our farewell dinner tonight to say goodbye (boo-foo) to the eight people who are not continuing on to Hiroshima. I will get back to the blog after dinner to let you know how it was. Well, I keep thinking that eventually we will get a normal dinner, but each is more elaborate and beautiful than the next. We ate downtown in a lovely restaurant where there are hot plates built into the table for us to cook on. One drink was included with the dinner and the majority of the party chose sake - I think our group is enjoying it. The appetizer was served in a small rectangular lacquer box with three beautiful small dishes. On one of the dishes was persimmon and mushroom salad with sesame paste dressing, another had tofu and soy sauce and the third had a small piece of white fish, cooked chrysanthemum leaf and turnip. We then got a bowl of rice and a small dish of pickles followed by a tempura basket (without mayo, thank God!) with two shrimp, potato, pepper, mushroom and a piece of fish. The waitress came to the table and set a large heavy metal pan on the burner and filled it with warm beef broth. She then put in a variety of vegetables: onions, mushrooms, tofu dumplings, Chinese cabbage, sticky rice cakes, and a thin piece of rolled soy milk product (I didn't catch the name of it). These boiled merrily away and we pulled them out with our chopsticks when they were done. I was full about two courses ago, but the beef was next to come. It was very thin slices of beef that you swish through the boiling broth to cook (this happens very quickly). It is called shabu-shabu and that is the sound it (supposedly) makes as you swish it back and forth. Accompanying this was a small dish of things you could add to either the soy/citrus or the sesame sauce. They were lime, dikon radish with chili powder and ginger. The shabu-shabu was very good, but I couldn't finish what I was given. Finally, came the tea and a small three-legged triangular dish of vanilla ice cream topped with a tiny heart shaped mint leaf. Wow! Junko gave us each a gift as this was the last time the whole group would be together. There was a package of origami paper, a lovely card, a small kimono doll and a cloth that can be framed. That was really a very nice gesture on her part. She said that when we got home, to look up when there was a full moon. If we can see the rabbit on the moon, we will think of our trip to Japan. Apparently, they have a rabbit on the moon over here, while we see the man in the moon - we will have to look for the rabbit when we get home. Speaking of rabbits, they are all over in the gift stores in all shapes and sizes and on everything imaginable as next year is the year of the rabbit. We got back to the hotel and did our last minute goodbyes and hugs. We will be leaving at 9:30 tomorrow morning to take the bullet train to Hiroshima.