Day 11 - Saturday, Oct. 26 - Kyoto (Part 2)

Ballasted by this delicious meal - surprisingly light yet filling - we reboard the bus, headed for the Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine.

       This was the treat at the top of my Kyoto wish list:  an alignment of over 1,000 orange torii gates in a beautiful forest.  The shrine complex was started in the year 816 but the main shrine structure was built in 1499.  (History goes back a long way in the Far East.)  These gates were put up by families to seek favor or thank Inari, the goddess of agriculture (i.e. rice).  On New Year’s Day, the Japanese come here to ask for good fortune for the coming year; today it’s mostly tourists walking under the torii, including many women in kimonos whom our guide says are really Chinese dressed and made up as Japanese (a fad among tourists).

       Passing through a torii is said to purify you.  Although we don’t have time (or energy?) to go to the very top of the hill and back, I’m surely purified of at least the miso soup.

       Up at the shrine level, as down below, are huge statues of foxes.  I’ve never known foxes to be guardians before, but here the fox is the messenger of the goddess Inari.  One fox holds in his mouth the key to the rice storehouse, in the other a rice bowl.

       For some reason, we are chased out of this Shinto temple like the heathens we are, so back down we go, in dribs and drabs.  With me taking photos among the torii, I’m trailing the others.  Then at the foot of the forest, a train crawls through the town, the crossing barriers come down, and I get cut off from the group.  By the time the train passes and I can cross, our group is out of sight.  Luckily I remember the way but I’m the last one back on the bus.  Close call.

Next stop:  the Sanjusangen-do Temple, which is Buddhist.  But the statues are not to Buddha but rather to the goddess of mercy.  There are 1,001 statues of her, all made of cypress, all gilded, but each with a slightly different expression, like China’s terra cotta warriors.  It is quite impressive and has been around since the 12th century.  On the outside of the long temple is where the famous all-day samurai archery contests were held, and a similar archery contest is still held in January.  Boy, I wish I could see that!

Kiyomizu-dera Temple

But it’s back on the bus for the last visit of the day:  the 17th century Kiyomizu-dera Temple, which is also Buddhist.  (There are 1,600 Buddhist and 300 Shinto temples in Kyoto.)  It’s on top of the eastern hill and, similar to Montmartre, it has tourist shops all along the street going up.  The whole hillside, with pine forest and cherry trees, belongs to the priests.  There are many people praying here, Japanese and “Europeans”, doing ablutions, ringing the gong - the most melodious one I’ve heard so far today.  A service is being held in one building; another is being renovated.  The main temple was built without a single nail, only wooden pegs.

       The kicker here is a natural spring, the Otowa, with “pure water that helps your health”.  It can also grant wishes.  It’s all so very picturesque that I decide to risk it.  After each use, the long-handled ladles are slipped back in some kind of wall cavity that glows bluish...  I guess UV light to purify the ladles from the previous contagious drinker.  Still, to limit my chances of catching leprosy - and having wet-wiped my hands while waiting in line - I fill my ladle up under one of the three cascades and pour some in my hand to drink.  It has a good clear chilled taste.  Fingers crossed.

       Then it’s back down through the greenery, past a tea house with “geishas”, past the tourist shops and by bus back to our starting point.  I manage to navigate the underground mall back to the hotel.  And later go to the food courts in the basement for a soba noodle and chicken soup dinner for only 850 yen ($8.50).  It’s been a long, tiring, delicious day.  And I’m ready for bed.