京都

今日京都行ったよ～！すっごく楽しかった！ホストファミリーとホストファミリの友達ヒダさんとヒダさんの留学生ブライアンと一緒に行った。一宮から京都まで三時間ぐらいかかりました．遠～いね！　あそこでいっぱい神社と神宮とお寺があって本物れきしを見られた。妹と母に何かをかって帰った時上げましょう！永観堂禅林寺「えいかんどうぜんりんでら」をみたり銀閣寺をみたりライッタプをみたりしました。永観堂禅林寺は一O八二年に出来たお寺です。すごい～ね！あそこにスゴイぎょうぜんがあったよ！銀閣寺で西沢さんの豊浜（と思う！どこか東京の上に）で住んでいる娘がいた！７時ごろ帰りました。
　　　So basically I went to Kyoto today! Which was awesome in all regards. I left with Mr.nMrs.Nishizawa around 6:30am to head out to Nagoya station where we met up with Brian and his host mom to hop on a bus to Kyoto. It was cold waiting for the bus and when we finally boarded it took us about 3 hours to get there. We stopped at three places over the course of the day and we were driven to all of them and fed lunch as arranged by the tour. We stopped first at Ginkaku Temple which was crowded with people, and for good reason. The views there were fantastic and there were plenty of shopping options. There was a constant mix in the city of Buddhist and Shinto Shrines and Temples. These two types of building styles and religions seemed to be freely mixed together in Kyoto and no one seemed to mind. The buildings themselves have been in Kyoto for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years because is was spared from the allied bombing catastrophe of the Second World War. If you want to experience just what it must have been like in old Japan, I suggest Kyoto. Given, it is a modernized metropolis in many parts, and the construction companies are now doing to Kyoto what the war did to other parts of Japan, I firmly believe that the people of Japan will not allow such treasures as the temples, shrines, or even the small winding roads that define Kyoto to disappear.
Funny story, as we left the second, most impressive of Temple/Shrines Eikando Zenrin Temple, one of the few local workers dressed in traditional Japanese summer-wear noticed me and promptly gave me a surprised "Hello!" while I snacked on a Takoyaki-flavored senbei cracker. Needless to say I was a little taken aback but I responded and he seemed satisfied to have made an attempt to make me feel a little comfortable in the bustling street. (Ok I lied it was after the first Temple, Ginkakuji) I forgot to mention the the first temple's name implies that it is silver. You can see from the pictures though that it is not at all silver. The story goes that the at night, when the moon shines on it just right, the temple lights up in a fushiki (mysterious) silvery color. Yeah, sure....but the surrounding gardens were definitely a sight.
The second temple, Eikando Zenrin, was really the most impressive of all the stops and I definitely recommend it to anyone that goes to Japan. It was impressively huge and build around the year 1080. It looms on the hilltop in Kyoto and is a stylish (albeit confusing) mix of Buddhism and Shintoism. The Buddhist aspects are easily identifiable by their red/orange coloration, and of course...Buddha. It was at this spot that I saw an おぼうさん that was (excuse me) たくはつing. It was quite a sight with his large straw hat and warazori. Basically an Obousan is a kind of Shinto (or Buddhist) "priest-in-training", as it was described to me, whose job today was to stand in one spot all day with a little basket while praying for alms (たくはつ=
takuhatsu=praying for alms). I dished out 百五円 for 'im. The rooms in the shrine were huge! They were many tatami mats in length and width and the wall paintings were of the most intricate and delicate of design. Then there were multiple prayer areas, a half a dozen Buddha's, and hundreds of stone figurines of the faithful sprouted out of the shadows like mushrooms that I have to eat here everyday. Then there was a small waterfall that they called "holy" which attracted many a tourist and believer alike...and for a nominal fee you could get in line to wash your hands and face or even drink some of it. I'll pass.
The last place that we stopped at was 南禅寺 or Nanzen Temple where I took off my shoes and climbed up an into one of the main temple structures for a look over Kyoto and of the setting sun over the surrounding mountain range.　美しい. That's about the time I ran out of batteries in my camera!
Then we headed to where we would see the special "Light Up" event. With all of the trees finally changing color and the Japanese people's love for the ephemeral, you can guess that this place was packed yesterday. Really, it was for good reason. The reds were SO RED! The yellows were SO YELLOW! And those trees with green on them were still SO GREEN! So imagine all of those colors and all of them in between lit up under an orange crescent moon on a cool autumn night. It really was the perfect day to go!
There is so much that Kyoto has to offer; I can't wait to return some day!

For more pictures, click here!