On Friday, October 3, I had no class, so I went to see 平等院 Byodoin Temple in Uji, to the south of Kyoto. I had asked Otoosan where I should go to and he recommended this.
Byodoin was constructed in 1052, during the Heian Period, by a member of the Fujiwara clan, which means it had very strong financial backing at the time. At the time that I went to see it, I did not particularly know what to look for in Buddhist sculpture or temple architecture. At that point, I went to see it pretty much blindly, but, nonetheless, its frontal beauty, accessible even if you do not know anything about Buddhist sculpture or Heian Period architecture, is easily visible in these photos.
The reflection pond in front of the Phoenix Hall.
A view of Phoenix Hall from the Southeast. You can see the very readily kept trees. I asked a worker at the temple if there was anything special about the grooming of the trees. Nothing in particular--it is done to keep everything from overgrowing, to keep it pretty, and also for the trees' health. But notice the way that the branches spread--I have never seen that in the West.
Roofs.
My favorite shot, but what part of the temple it is, I do not remember.
From Byodoin, I moved on over the bridges across the 宇治川 Uji River.
On the other side of the river was the Uji Jinja. The God said to reside here is a God of education--students who are about to take College Entrance exams, for example, come here to pray for success. This is the torii gate at the entrance to the jinja.
I continued on a road that ran next to the river and came to Kooshooji Temple, a temple of the Soto Zen school of Buddhism. I still do not quite know what the defining characteristics of this school are, in comparison with others. On the path to the temple, I ran into two people who were looking at the rocks on either side of the walkway, which are carved and cleaved in a very strong and powerful way, making an interesting mold between the trees and mold that grow on and out of them, the modern day road that runs between them, and the water flowing naturally through man-made ditches on either side of the road.
The temple was extremely quiet. I only ran into three other people on the temple grounds while I was there. One of them expressed his sorrow for a sakura tree that had been cut down twenty or so years ago in the courtyard. The one tall tree that remained on the other side of the walkway was now lonely, he said.
I continued to walk along the riverside, and for the first time since I was in Japan, finally felt relaxed and among nature in the way that I do at home. I could see no buildings, no urban landscape. This road, this path, felt like a tunnel of trees, mountains--nature--surrounding me. The picture is of the other side of the river.
A small shrine.
Uji is very famous for the green tea grown there, and, by extension, the tea ceremony experience that you can have there. I decided not to get any tea, but I did buy minazuki, a dessert made with macha (a type of green tea), and brought it home to my host family as a souvenir.
During dinner, my host older brother, who comes for dinner every Friday, taught me some Kansai ben (West Country Speech) expressions. After dinner, I played some piano and learned some vocabulary pertaining to music and singing from Okaasan.
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