Classroom Kyoto Day 1

So last weekend I went to Kyoto on both Saturday and Sunday for two different classes. Let's be chronological about this and start with Saturday.

For my Japanese Art class, we went to the Kyoto National Museum. I really did not want to go that day. I was tired, but dragged myself out of bed and forced myself to leave my house on time. Turns out there were train delays, my drawstring broke once (it fell onto an old man's foot - he had an oxygen tank by the way - so I picked it up and tied the string in a new way), it broke again (the corner connecting a string to the bag itself just ripped off), and it would later rip in another way (thus adding to all the little rips it has accumulated), I missed a subway by second because I thought "hey, if I walk down the escalator, it'll be faster" but someone was just standing in the middle, and I was about 40 minutes late to the meet up. Overall, I was not a happy camper during the morning.

However, there was a pick-me-up that helped kick-start the change of mood for the day. I turned the wrong direction when I exited the bus and started to cross a bridge. I was excited to see a heron, and started getting out my telephoto lens. Then I noticed there was a second one! And a third one! Wait, FOUR? Four herons? And a white egret? What is this??? It was amazing! The herons also seemed to be of various ages due to their differences in coloring and some seemed spotted, others more gray, and two were taller than the others. It was so neat. I even saw one fly
at another for no obvious reason. They were both at opposite ends of the embankment, when one just kind of started crouching and flew over, and started flapping its wings and snapping its beak. The other one got away as quickly as possible.

I also noticed the white egret was very polite. It was sticking close to a taller heron (so maybe it wasn't an egret, just a young heron?) and it started to walk away. I, of course, had my lens focused on it, and got to see its excrement. But what was neat was it walked away from the heron to do so and then walked back. So polite.

Seeing them flying around, so graceful and with their magnificent wingspans and necks helped calm me. Then, I met my class...where did they go? Oh, you mean only three other students showed up? Oh okay, that makes sense. Yes, out of a group of about twenty people in the class who said they would come, a total of four students showed up (one other also had ridiculous train problems and was even later than I).

But, finally, I got to see some beautiful art. I could only take pictures of two room dividers on display in the front (one of which had a variety of animals often not seen in Japanese paintings such as tigers, leopards, weasels, black deer, boars, rabbits, and possibly tanuki as well as actually textured clouds), but here are some of the things I saw:

• A giant Dainichi Nyorai statue which excited me since I compared two Dainichi Nyorai (or Mahavairocana/Vairocana) statues for my final in the art class. It was even using the duality mudra that my sample pieces used.
• Another huge statue, a Fudo Myoo. Very colorful flames with firebird faces in the flickering flames BUT they looked like the faces of the creepy red puppets from The Labyrinth. Also, he was so big, rather than using string or carving it, they gave him an actual rope in one hand and created actual jewelry that were attached to his carved collar.
• The two statues mentioned above were on display only because a temple in Osaka is under construction - I am very grateful.
• There was a small portable shrine set with a 1000 little Jizo Buddha statues carved on it surrounding a main Buddha, an assistant, and a deity guardian of the underworld (I would say literally 1000 but apparently 6 or so have broken off throughout the years...but nearly a 1000 tiny little engraved figures - it was stunning).
• Well preserved and detailed Buddha statues with various icons, some a medicine jar, others a sacred gem (looks like a peach), and so on.
• Special exhibit of swords and I LEARNED SOMETHING: sometimes you will see Japanese swords displayed with sharp edge facing up and sometimes facing down. This is based off of the sword itself. Katana and short-swords are displayed facing down because they were used primarily for thrusting and, when thrust, they would be used with blade pointing down. Other blades, like the longer ones, were slashing weapons and so the blade is displayed facing up. Super interesting.
• A room of letters and calligraphy. Although I know they are art in and of themselves, I am never particularly fascinated by these pieces. However, my teacher pointed out something he noticed. All the letters written by men and male emperors had lots of kanji while the one by an empress used primarily hiragana alphabet. Of course we learned how hiragana was more of a women's alphabet at first in history, but it is different to actually see it. Also, we saw a huge long scroll and wondered "Is this how they wrote, is this supposed to be emotional and beautiful, or did people look at this person's handwriting and go "wow this sucks"?" I guess we will never know.
• Illustrated scrolls depicting various bodhisattvas, buddhas, and heavenly kings/guardians as well as how they are represented and should be drawn/scuplted
• Illustrated scrolls depicting the tale of a man going through many fantastic adventures like fighting a giant centipede (drawn like a dragon), fighting people and demons, and so on - very vivid colors
• Monochrome ink paintings and room dividers
• Dotaku!!! Ancient bells! I love them!
• Bronze Mirrors!!! Also ancient and awesome and I love them! There was also a hands-on activity where we could hold a replica. They are relatively heavy, extremely smooth on the bottom side that we never see, and (I felt blind that I never noticed) there are holes in the bump in the middle of the mirror through which a rope would be threaded. I never knew this!
• Jomon pottery, Yayoi swords now green, sacred jewels, burial jars, porcelain, and more.
• Another hands-on activity showed us how the eyes are put in Buddha statues. There is the gem itself put on the inside, then thin pieces of paper (the color of which determining what type of buddha/bodhisattva/heavenly king it is - blue for buddha and wisdom, red for rage and Myoo, and so on), then more paper, then wood, then more paper, then wood, and wooden pegs to hold that wood in place. It was very interesting. Also, the whorl of hair (what we assume to be a symbol of the third eye) sometimes seems like a colored gem but it is the same clear-ish gem that is used for the eyes. It is more of a peg shape and the peg hole is painted with a color so that once the crystal is placed inside, it looks like that color. Very neat!

We took a break after going through together, talking about our favorite pieces, and we ate at the museum cafe (after getting UV stamps in the shape of the museum building, invisible, on our wrists). A friend and I had delicious club sandwiches while the rest had various curries. It was so nice talking
with people from different backgrounds, one of which who speaks 4 languages and has spent half their life in Nicaragua and half in  Sweden, as well as learning more about and connecting with our awesome teacher. At one point, we thought he left to use the bathroom, but when we got ready to leave, we found out he had payed for our lunch. It was so nice of him! He admitted though that he was happy to do it but could only do it because we were such a small group and would definitely not be able to do it the next field trip day.

Then, we all went our separate ways but three of us stuck together, seeing parts of the museum we had to rush through or didn't see then exploring Pontocho, a famous section of Kyoto. It was a large shopping district but had random shrines and temples here and there and many informational signs.

One was pink and was a traditional "women's temple." Another, on the inside, was full of the smell of incense, the glow of candles, small statues, and gold. It had a hand washing station with a dragon (not uncommon) but what was neat was the little orange orb in the dragon's mouth. (I couldn't help but think of the famous Dragon Ball Z as well as a book series Eon).

There were so many shops! A hedgehog cafe, a store just for umbrellas, two filled with electric guitars and bass (had to pull myself away), two stores full of gems and rocks and crystals (lot of will power), and just tons of random stores (at one of which I finally was able to get my hands on some souvenirs for people I haven't gotten anything for yet as well as a Karuta set!!! One of the things I really wanted to buy while here!!!).

We also had matcha ice cream and my first plain red bean taiyaki. I've had various types of taiyaki while here, but this was my first plain original one. It was very delicious.

Then, after our birthday friend got the rose quartz bracelet we had set our hunt out for and we started thinking about taking the long train ride home, a massive storm hit. The day had been nice and sunny and a bit hot all day and suddenly it was pouring rain, whipping wind, thundering and lightning. Thankfully, most shopping districts here in Japan are like outdoor malls with these long halls of buildings with a tunnel-like roof covering the passageways. This kept us out of the rain while we searching for a subway/train station (which was still under the roof thankfully).

After only one or two stops, we were out of the rain and could see a massive dark cloud and combination of mist and fog behind us.

I made it in time for dinner and we ate outside for the first time! It was so lovely! Though, despite our use of an incense to keep mosquitos away, I got six new bites. But the karaage and rice was so good and the atmosphere felt so nice. Listening to the cicadas was interesting, though I was scared when they all suddenly stopped at once. But apparently that's just a normal thing here.



I was exhausted. Thankfully I had studied on the train ride there, but threw in a bit more between anime and then succumbed to an early sleeping schedule.

Fun story, while studying kanji, I use my fingers to spell out the kanji. I was doing this on the train and a middle or high school student standing near me (it was a very packed train) stopped her conversation with her friend, kind of nudged her friend, pointed at me, and started moving her finger and giggling. So, I made eye contact and she just kind of froze. I smiled and said "Sorry. It's a bit weird, but I have a final." And she was kind of surprised and a probably a little scared and just was like "Is that so?" (In Japanese that's not a sassy phrase). I then said "Yeah, kanji can be so hard, you know?" and she replied "Yeah, I know. It really can be. You are studying Japanese" "yes." And we just kind of faded out of the conversation, and she and her friend started talking again. I bet she used to do this when she was learning kanji, albeit she was probably like 6 but we all start somewhere. It was an interesting experience.

Anyway, before moving onto day 2, here are some pictures of Kyoto and tucked away temples and shrines: