Day 9: Sunday - Shimogamo ward, Kinkaku-ji and dinner with the Mizoguchi family

This morning we woke up and dressed early to get out the door for 10 am church in the Shimogamo ward. Sarah was thrilled to be reunited with many friends she had made while serving in this area last year. The ward members were impressed by how well her Japanese had improved from the time they last saw her.  Sarah was excited to find out that the two members who were baptized last year were still active in the ward. Unfortunately, we missed meeting them today but we were introduced to many other ward members and even received an invitation to a member's home for dinner tonight! It was fun to attend a Japanese ward and hear ward members bearing their testimonies in Japanese. The Spirit was so strong and was a powerful witness to the words spoken from each member's heart.

After church we walked around the corner to the Shimogamo Shrine. Sarah used to walk or ride her bike through the grounds on her way to church during the week.

 

There were two weddings here this afternoon - Bruce caught
a photo of one of the couples posing for their photographer!

This is the pathway that leads to the shrine through the woods next to the river,
it was so peaceful and beautiful here.

We walked over to the Kamo River which is the main river that divides the city.  Sarah rode her bike up and down this river frequently, it was a good way for her and her companion to stop and talk to people about the church.

From the Kamo River we took a bus across town to Kinkaku-ji - The Golden Temple. Here we joined many large groups of tourists as we made our way around the temple grounds.  We had to push our way to the front at times just to grab a family photo - even then some of the tourists would try to push us out of the way as they were trying to take their own photos! Kinkaku-ji was the retirement villa of a shogun who donated his home to become a Zen temple after his death in 1408. There is only one building left now of the once large estate.

Each floor is built in a different style - the first floor is built in the Shinden style which has natural wood pillars and white plaster walls- similar to other temples we have seen.  The second floor is a Bukke style which was used for samarai residences.  It is covered in gold leaf on the outside. The third floor is done in a Chinese Zen style and is painted in gold leaf on the outside and inside.  The building is topped with a bronze phoenix. Gold was used on the temple in order to purify any negative thoughts towards death.  The use of gold on the outside reflects the gold used on the inside - this temple combines many symbolic features of nature, death and religion.

We squeed in one good photo before we got moved out of the way - lol

So we moved to another side of the lake and grabbed a few pictures here!

I love this picture :)

and this one too!

A quick stop at Sarah's apartment where she lived while serving in Kyoto - the elders live here now as sister missionaries have been moved from this area.

Stopping for warm mochi on our way to dinner!  Oishii - so delicious - and yes, it is super cold today. It felt good to have a few warm bites of food.

Here we are at Kura sushi - one of Sarah's favorite sushi restaurants.  Behind us is a conveyor belt carrying all kinds of delicious 100 yen sushi - and each plate has two pieces - so that comes out to about 50 cents a piece - We are in sushi heaven!  The upper conveyor belt is for the special orders - the sushi comes to you on the express line and stops at your "window".  It was like the shinkansen of sushi!  We ate until we couldn't eat anymore and the grand total came to a mere $30!

  

Unfortunately we forgot to take any photos at the Mizoguchi home! We caught a bus back over to the east side of town and then we took a 20 min walk up the mountainside as there was no local bus that headed north up the mountain. Thank goodness there were streetlights so we weren't walking in complete darkness.  We met the elders biking up the mountain on their way to dinner with us, and we all walked together the last few minutes since the road was too steep at that point to ride their bikes. Mizoguchi shimai had been cooking all afternoon! She had made us tempura, yakisoba, curry, korokke (sweet potato covered in bread crumbs and deep fried- fabulous), fried chicken, salad and rice!  It was like Thanksgiving all over again.  We sat at the English table with the elders and Sarah sat at the Japanese table with the Mizoguchis and the one Japanese elder! After dinner Mizoguchi shimai was kind enough to drive us down the mountain to our bus stop to head home - it took 2 trips to get us all down but we were very grateful.  

Day 8: Kyoto, Nara and Kobe!

This morning Katie woke up with a really bad cold. Rather than trudging around all day in the cold we opted to have her stay home and rest, so the five gaijin are down to four today :(  Our first stop was the Toji pagoda. This is the tallest wooden tower in Japan built around the year 796. It stands about 54 meters or 177 feet tall. This is one of the more famous symbols of Kyoto. It is featured on many postcards and local works of art. The entrance fee was kind of pricey so we opted for the free version which included walking around the perimeter and taking photos of what we could see!

Next we headed to the southern end of Kyoto to see the Fushimi Inari Temple

Here we are standing at the main entrance to Fushimi Inari-taisha. This Shinto shrine sits at the base of Mount Inari, and there are trails from here that climb all the way to the top. However, the four gaijin decided that we would not climb up all the way today as we still had other adventures to pursue this afternoon. The Inari temple is the patron of business as well as the Shinto god of rice. This is an important temple to the Japanese people and government. In fact, it is one of the few temples supported by the government. Merchants and manufacturers come from all over to worship here. Each of the thousands of tori or red gates you see here have been donated by a Japanese business. Every year they continue to add new tori as they line the trail all the way to the top of the mountain. The first structure here was built in the year 816, but the main shrine was built in 1499.

Foxes or kitsune are regarded as Inari's messengers and
are found in all Inari shrines (there are over 32,000
Inari sub shrines throughout Japan). One attribute
the foxes have is that they hold the key to the rice
granary in their mouths.

Standing in front of the main building or Honden

The fox holding a bundle of rice in its mouth

Each of the tori has inscripted the name of the business and the year it was donated.
A small gate goes for about $4000 and a large gate upwards of a million dollars! 

We're standing in the low budget section - lol

 Making our way up the mountain!

Collection of foxes with written wishes/prayers

Taking a break from climbing stairs!

Map of our ascent up the mountain

Yotsutsugi intersection is about halfway up the mountain and has a beautiful view of Kyoto.
This is where the four gaijin decide to head back down the mountain!

A local spider - junior sized according to Sarah

Almost back down the mountain and jumping for joy!  Our calves are burning - lol

We now board the train and head south to Nara to find the deer park and Todai-ji.  Nara was Japan's first capital city established in the year 710.  Once we left the train station we walked down the main road towards the mountains to where the shrines and deer park were located.

The first shrine we walked through was Kofukuji, a shrine that was transferred from
Kyoto to Nara in  710. There used to be over 125 buildings as part of this shrine,
today there areabout a dozen.  One of them is the second tallest pagoda in Japan.
(see below)

We found the Sika deer in Nara-koen! Deer are considered by the Shinto religion
to be messengers of the gods.

These deer just walk right up to you waiting to be fed! 

There are various vendors in the park area selling

deer crackers or shika senbai - some of the deer 

politely bow for their cracker, others are more aggressive

and will chase you down!  There was more than one
terrified child running from a deer that afternoon - lol

They ate everything! This was grabbed out of someone's back pocket!

This is the main entrance to Todai-ji or Eastern Great Temple

View of the Daibutsuden or Great Hall where the Vairocana Buddha is housed. It is the world's largest wooden building!

There were so many people here today!  It's a Saturday afternoon and there are lots of school groups and tour groups here.  Many of the tour groups are Chinese.  In fact, quite a few times Sarah would go up to someone and ask them to take our photo and they would tell her they didn't speak Japanese!

Walking into the main hall the Great Buddha towers above you!  

According to the records more than 2 million people helped build the Great Buddha and the Hall in which the Buddha is housed.  The Buddha was constructed through eight castings over three years. The head and neck were casted separately and were last replaced about four hundred years ago. The statue was originally started in Shigaraki - where Trevor and Katie went yesterday - and continued in Nara. It was completed in 751 and nearly bankrupted Japan using almost all of the country's bronze for its completion. It stands at about 52 feet tall making it the largest bronze structure in Japan today.

The original shrine included two large pagodas on either side of the Great Hall which stood at over 300 feet each. They were destroyed in earthquakes and never rebuilt. The Great Hall has been rebuilt twice, the last time was in 1692 and is only 2/3 of the Hall's original size. The Buddha has also been recast a few times - both its head and hands have needed replacing after various earthquakes or fires.

 A large bodhisattva sits next to the Buddha - this is a being who has made a commitment
 to enlightenment by taking vows topractice the "six perfections." In Buddhism all are
encouraged to become bodhisattvas and to practice these "six perfections"
of giving, moral discipline, patience, effort, concentration, and wisdom.

One of the guardians of the Great Buddha

We found a willing Japanese tourist to take our photo!  It took a few tries, but this picture turned out great!

Bruce having fun with one of the deer

Walking by the pagoda at night on the way back to the train station to head to Kobe.

One of the best surprises of the day was running into Womack shimai and her parents
at the Kobe train station.  Her parents had come to pick her up today and they were on
their way out of Kobe as we arrived.  We literally grabbed this photo as the
train doors were shutting!

The Kobe Illuminari is a lightshow donated by the Italians after the Kobe earthquake in 1995. As we walked down the streets of downtown Kobe beautiful Italian Christmas music was playing.

The grand finale was walking into this light cathedral!  It was so amazing to be surrounded in 360 degrees
by walls of light and magic :)