Temple of Love
Today I enthusiastically launched myself into temple-hopping, starting off at Teapot Hill for the walk up to the Kiyomizu Temple then onto Kodaiji Temple and the Yasaka Shrine.
Kyoto is filled with so many little streets lined with traditional wooden shopfronts and restaurants, which provide tantalising eyecandy for the window-shopper and temple-hopper alike. So many fan shops! So many teapot shops! So many ornament shops selling the dinkiest trinkets in the shapes of owls, raccoons, rabbits and other woodland creatures. In the alleyways I spotted two geisha: each had a tiny hair decoration like a silver waterfall hanging to their cheekbone, and their rich kimonos of gold-edged red and green reminded me of Christmas.
One thing I adored about all the temples/shrines that I've seen so far is that they're surrounded by lush woodland that vibrates with the perpetual percussion of cicada. Here and there on the pebbled grounds one would find the iridiscent glitter of a crushed cicada wing. The gardens around the temples offer many beautiful quiet places: ponds of koi fish, pebbled zen gardens, bamboo groves, little arched bridges, stones forming the shape of cranes, mossy rocks. Cemetries abound in the area and I wandered peacefully through the pillared headstones decorated with wooden prayer tablets and flowers.
Temple-hopping is an extreme sport in this extreme humidity. Every Japanese person has a thin towel slung around their necks to wipe away the sweat. My umbrella, hat and shades did not prevent my face and neck being slaked with salty moisture. So many steps to climb! But thank goodness for all those green-tea icecream stalls that line the way to the temples. Crushed ice drizzled with green tea is a must if one wants to survive a round of temple-madness.
Tomorrow I'm off to the Heian Shrine (some may have seen this in "Lost in Translation") and the Path of Philosophy Walk.
Kyoto is filled with so many little streets lined with traditional wooden shopfronts and restaurants, which provide tantalising eyecandy for the window-shopper and temple-hopper alike. So many fan shops! So many teapot shops! So many ornament shops selling the dinkiest trinkets in the shapes of owls, raccoons, rabbits and other woodland creatures. In the alleyways I spotted two geisha: each had a tiny hair decoration like a silver waterfall hanging to their cheekbone, and their rich kimonos of gold-edged red and green reminded me of Christmas.
One thing I adored about all the temples/shrines that I've seen so far is that they're surrounded by lush woodland that vibrates with the perpetual percussion of cicada. Here and there on the pebbled grounds one would find the iridiscent glitter of a crushed cicada wing. The gardens around the temples offer many beautiful quiet places: ponds of koi fish, pebbled zen gardens, bamboo groves, little arched bridges, stones forming the shape of cranes, mossy rocks. Cemetries abound in the area and I wandered peacefully through the pillared headstones decorated with wooden prayer tablets and flowers.
Temple-hopping is an extreme sport in this extreme humidity. Every Japanese person has a thin towel slung around their necks to wipe away the sweat. My umbrella, hat and shades did not prevent my face and neck being slaked with salty moisture. So many steps to climb! But thank goodness for all those green-tea icecream stalls that line the way to the temples. Crushed ice drizzled with green tea is a must if one wants to survive a round of temple-madness.
Tomorrow I'm off to the Heian Shrine (some may have seen this in "Lost in Translation") and the Path of Philosophy Walk.
posted by Miss Ember at 6:56 pm
2 Comments:
Teapot Hill. A great name!
What is it that a dripping-with-sweat Stephen Fry says in Cold Comfort Farm -- something about "dripping with Nature's fecunditity'?!
green tea ice cream *yum*
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