OSAKA
Our next stop was Osaka, where we arrived on my birthday to be greeted by my dear friend Yoko whom I hadn't seen in a long time! On the night we arrived, she had organized a birthday dinner in one of her favorite Japanese restaurant, and it was oh so delicious! During the next few days, Yoko would show us around her city, and we also went to Nara and Kyoto.
Osaka is a pretty awesome city, a little more manageable in size compared to Tokyo, and still has so much to offer! And I want to move there too.
We were lucky enough to find ourselves in Osaka during the Sumo Tournament, and it was quite amazing to see! The Sumo tournament goes on for two weeks, and starts in the early am to finish up at 6pm. And like everything else orderly and on schedule in this country, it was really over by 6:01. We went for the last couple of hours to watch the fat man in diapers push themselves around. It was pretty cool!
We got a clear glimpse of Mt Fuji in the train from Tokyo to Osaka - Famous Glico man in Osaka - My birthday dinner - Sumo!
NARA
Nara, Japan’s most ancient capital, is celebrating its 1300th anniversary this year. The city is filled with ancient goodness and amazing temples. And there are deer everywhere!
The Sika deer are regarded as messengers of the gods in the Shinto religion, they are somewhat sacred and are allowed to roam the grounds freely. They are seen as protectors of the city and country. They are everywhere, it’s pretty surreal, but they are very pushy and they will get to your deer biscuits.
In Nara, we visited Todai-ji, a Buddhist temple complex listed as a World Heritage Site. The Great Buddha Hall is apparently the largest wooden building in the world (bottom top row left) and houses the world’s largest bronze statue of the Great Buddha, called the Daibutsu, which stands at 15 meters high (picture left). We were in Nara in time to catch a glimpse of the Omizutori Ceremony, which is held every year in the first two weeks of March at the Nigatsu-do hall of Tōdai-ji temple.
This festival is a collection of Buddhist rituals and has been held every year for over 1250 years, making it the one of the oldest reoccurring Buddhist events in Japan. Ancientness.
Just after sunset on every night for the first two weeks of March, giant torches, ranging in length from six to eight meters, are carried up to Nigatsu-do's balcony and held over the crowd. The burning embers (big chunks of them) that shower down from the balcony onto the spectators below are thought to give the spectators a safe year and good luck. The ceremony also marks the end of winter and the start of warmer spring weather. The Nigatsu-do hall is a giant wood structure, I would think fire and wood are the perfect combination for a catastrophe, and the structure did burn down during this ceremony a few hundred years ago, but there were no major incidents in this one.
We went on the 12th of March, the final rite in observance of the two week-long ceremony, the longest and the most crowded night of the festival. The crowd was quite impressive and was orchestrated by a team of police officers guiding the slow moving queue of onlookers through the temple grounds so that they could get a view of the fire ceremony. The wait was long, but the ceremony was quite spectacular and the crowd was as orderly as could be.
KYOTO
Kyoto is the classically traditional Ying to Tokyo’s hyper-modern Yang. It’s traditional Japan as you imagined it, filled with beautiful and very Japanese architecture, gorgeous temples and shrines, bamboo forests, geishas, delicious foods and lots of culture to experience. Kyoto was spared from the bombing of WWII, making it one of the best preserved cities in Japan. Very delightful for the eyes. We spent 2 days here walking around the city, exploring the Kamo river, Kiyomizudera temple and Nanzen-ji Temple, a small sample of what Kyoto has to offer.
We also indulged in some fancy dinner while here at Toriyasa, along the Kamo River. This traditional Japanese restaurant was established in the 1780's and apparently still appears as it did when it first opened. At Toriyasa, the meal lasts a few hours, and a hostess/geisha comes in and out of your private dining room (with proper geisha etiquette, entering and exiting on her knees through the sliding door - picture bottom right, ect!) bringing different courses, and to attend to the hot pot, adding ingredients, and serving. She also would normally stay in and entertain with various conversations, but this was a little difficult and awkward with 3 of us not speaking Japanese, Yoko acting as a translator, and the hostess not speaking English…Beautiful food, gorgeous restaurant with lots of history, steep prices and a little uncomfortable, but an experience.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment