We went for a walk this morning down by the river. We saw a group of junior high school age boys dressed in their bright green P.E. uniforms running, with their teacher in a suit jogging behind them. They smiled and waved as we stopped to take their picture and yelled, "Good Morning!" We saw a number of ducks and herons in the river. We did walk through a few scattered sprinkles, but it soon cleared up. It did turn out to be a lovely day, but cold for a change. It was in the 40's this morning, but warmed up quickly especially if we were standing in the sun. Our first stop after breakfast was to the Daitokuji Monastery where we enjoyed a tea ceremony (the Japanese prefer to call these formal tea gatherings). We knelt on the floor (some of the less flexible sat on stools) and watched as a monk performed the ritual of making the tea. We then were served a bowl of tea with two rice cookies and took our cues from Junko for how to perform each of the steps involved. After tea, we moved to a different room for a lesson in meditation. This was performed while in the cross-legged position. I think I failed, as all I could think about was my hips stretching and my feet falling asleep. I wasn't certain I could get up afterwards, but I managed. The gardens outside of the meditation building were lovely. Shaped bushes and small trees surrounded by white pebbles which had been raked into patterns resembling currents of water (see bottom photo). It was a very nice experience. We got back on the bus and went to visit the Golden Pavilion. The pavilion is covered in gold leaf and is set on the side of a large pond and magnificent gardens (see middle photo). We enjoyed walking around and taking multiple photos of the various features in the garden - really quite beautiful. We ran into a group of junior high school students on a field trip and took their picture. We asked them what their favorite subject was in school and they replied, "P.E." - kids are the same everywhere! On our way out of the park, we were stopped by a small group of younger children (sixth grade) accompanied by their teacher. One of them asked me if I had a dime and I explained that I didn't have any American coins with me. Kelly told me later that he asked if I had the TIME to talk. I got a good laugh out of that faux-pas! At any rate, we did chat with them for a bit. They had a composition book with prepared questions, such as Where do you live? Do you like Japan? What is your favorite city? Some of them were quite shy and consulted the book carefully before asking the question and others were a bit bolder. One boy had a small world map in his pocket and I pointed out Connecticut and Kelly showed them Florida. They were all very proud to be practicing their English. We then went to Kyoto University for lunch. The cafe was French and we had a lovely lunch of swordfish. Dessert was a small piece of spice cake with champagne sorbet. After lunch, we went to visit Nijo Castle - another UNESCO World Heritage Site. The castle was built is 1603 as the official Kyoto residence of the first Shogun. When the fifteenth and last Shogun returned sovereignty to the Emperor in 1867, the ceremony took place in this same castle. Each of the walls in the many rooms was painted on gold leaf. There are over 300o paintings in the whole castle. I can't imagine how many tatami mats there are! The rooms were lovely and the paintings were of tigers, leopards, pine trees, cranes, chrysanthemums, etc. The floors of the hallways sing as you walk. This was done intentionally so that the Shogun's protectors would know if anyone was sneaking up on him. They call this the Nightingale walk as it does sound like birds as you walk along. Usually you want the floor not to squeak, but it does make sense in this setting. The gardens around the palace were again quite lovely. Our next stop was to the Temple of 1000 Buddhas. The building is 319 feet long and technically there is only one Buddha statue and 1000 Kannon (the almost-Buddha figures with 20 arms on each side and one in the front and eleven heads - one large one and 10 additional small ones on top pointing in all different directions. No photos were allowed in either the Palace or the Temple. Again there was a small but lovely garden outside of the temple (see top photo). Our last stop of the day was to the train station we came in on yesterday. It is a totally amazing modern building. It is very hard to describe, but it is tall and open with many reflecting surfaces. We took a series of escalators up to the sky walk and then came down the other side. Bad news - they have a decorated Christmas tree up already and it is not yet Halloween! We had wonderful views of the city from the sky walk including the Kyoto Tower which looked great against the darkening sky. When we came down the other side, we could see a lighted pavilion that is frequently the site of brides and grooms for picture taking after the ceremony. There is a large bell nearby that they ring. We unloaded our cameras etc. in the room when we got back to the hotel and walked a couple of blocks to a mall where we had wonderful pizzas in an Italian restaurant. Dinner was on our own tonight so it was just the five of us, but two other couples from our tour group came in as we were finishing and we gave them hints on which pizzas were the best. We did a quick tour of the mall to see if we could find a sweatshirt for Kelly as she nearly froze today, but no luck! Maybe she will find something tomorrow. She opted not to go on the optional tour and will spend the day exploring the city on her own. John and Lana and Dave and I will go on the tour. I did a load of wash when we got back from dinner and am waiting for it to dry so I can hop into bed.
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