December 22, 2009
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Serenity in Arashiyama
Boo and boo. I had a post ready to go, and my hotel reset my internet connection (it happens every 24 hours), and I lost all my work. Phooey.
Well, brief recap. First up we headed to Nishiki Market, a great big expanse of covered street market space. So many things to be found here: meats, veggies, snacks, fruit, and some other goods like chopsticks and flowers. Really interesting and awesome walk. With a shrine at the end. There are lots of shrines around Kyoto, to say the least.
Our next intended destination was Nijo-jo, home of one of the aristocrats who rivaled the shogun and the imperial family for power. However, Aaron is fired from being my tour guide: he neglected to check the hours, and they're closed on Tuesdays in December. Phooey! Well, we'll go tomorrow, our last full day here.
Instead, we boarded a nearby train and headed to Arashiyama, an area towards the northwest mountains, and probably my favorite area of Kyoto so far, other than the walk downtown along the canals. Our specific destination was to see Tenryu-ji, a temple founded by a priest who had a vision of a dragon rising from the nearby rivier, hence the name "heavenly dragon."
The shrines are nice, but it's the gardens that draw you in. They're "strolling gardens" for walking in and around, and we came at a sort of in-between time: too late for the fall colors, but too early for the snow. Nonetheless, what color was there, the mosses and bamboo, and the occasional red and orange, stood out against the starness of the bare branches and blue sky.
Finally, we walked over Togetso-kyo, a bridge that spans a southern branch of the Hozu river (the river from which the priest saw the dragon rise in his vision), and it really was like going to another world. We walked down a riverside path, with little traffic, and the whole sense of that pace and peace you get when you follow any river that's flowing down a quiet, less bustling passage. I've been along a few sections of rivers that felt like that -- parts of the Suwanee, the Jordan, probably Twain's Mississippi -- where there's nothing much really happening in the way of commerce or urgency. Just the slow unwinding of life around the flow.
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