Friday,
24 May 2024
I woke up at 4 am this morning and was out by 5.30 am to go
to the Tokyo Station to catch the first Shinkansen. It’s a good thing I arrived
early, because trying to get my reserved tickets was a challenge, I was given
the run around and had to wait in line at every counter (yes, there was already
a line at 6 am) and at the last correct counter I was told to get my reserved
tickets from the machine. Luckily I managed to figure it out considering that
it was a MACHINE and therefore not my friend.
And so this is what I realize about the Japanese. They are
good, polite, efficient people but they are very compartmentalised, in that
they only do what they are told to do, although no doubt they do it well. This
is a bit like Singaporeans but with much more humility. In other words, they
don’t seem to exercise any discretion for eg since JR is collaborating with
Shinkansen, I’m sure the officer at the JR counter could just as well have told
me to get the reserve tickets from the machine. But he did not. He told me to
go to the Shinkansen counter, because I am taking the Shinkansen, not a JR line
train.
Anyway, the lovely MACHINE decided to cooperate with me today
and I got all my reserve tickets at one go, yay! And then I sat in the
Shinkansen, Hikari line to Kyoto. I tried to look out for Fuji Mountain but
unfortunately I fell asleep.
At about 9 am I arrived in Kyoto, the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai
region of Honshu, with a population of about 1.5 million. Kyoto is one of the oldest municipalities in Japan, and was for a long
time the capital of Japan, having been chosen in 794 as the new seat of Japan's
imperial court by Emperor Kanmu (Japan’s 50th Emperor). In 1868,
Tokyo replaced Kyoto as the capital city.
In
Kyoto, I wanted to see
three things and as it was a rush as I had another Shinkansen to catch at about
12 pm, I took a cab to the Kiyomi-zudera temple at the Higashiyama District.
This temple is situated on a hill, so I was dropped off at the foothill. There
was a crowd. Crowds are really not good when one is rushing. As I walked up the
hill at a relatively fast pace, I had to zig-zag my way in between the numerous
tourists who were mingling about without a care in the world. Along the roads
there were many shops and restaurants, which had been catering to tourists and
pilgrims for centuries. These shops were selling various local specialties such
as pottery, sweets, pickles, souvenirs, etc. The souvenirs looked nice but I
had no time to stop and browse.
Then in about 10 minutes (slightly longer
due to the crowd), I reached the temple. Kiyomi-zudera literally means ‘Pure
Water’, and derives its name from the nearby Otowa waterfall where the temple
was constructed in about 780. One of the many charms of this temple is that it
was built without using a single nail in the entire structure. Unfortunately it
has been destroyed several times by fire, and rebuilt each time. Today, it is a
UNESCO World Heritage site.
Kiyomizudera
is best known for its wooden stage that juts out from its main hall,
13 m above the hillside. During the Edo period, there was a tradition that if one survived the 13-m jump from the stage, one’s
wish would be granted. About 234 jumps were recorded during this period, and of
the jumpers, 85.4% survived, until the practice was finally prohibited in 1872.
The
stage affords nice views of the numerous cherry and maple trees below that
erupt in a sea of colour in spring and fall, as well as of the city of Kyoto in
the distance.
The main hall
houses the temple’s primary object of worship, a small statue of the eleven
faced, thousand armed Kannon Bodhisattva, or the Goddess of Mercy. Large verandas and main halls were constructed at many popular sites
during the Edo period to accommodate large numbers of pilgrims.
The temple complex includes several other shrines, among them the
Jishu-jinja Shrine, dedicated to Okuninushi, a god of love and “good matches”.
This Shrine possesses a pair of “love stones” placed about 10 m
apart, which if one can walk from one stone to the other with one’s eyes
closed implies that one will find true love. Obviously I did not try this because I
have come to accept that God and true love are fictitious creations of
humanity.
Beneath the main hall is the Otowa waterfall, where three channels of
water fall into a pond. Visitors can catch and drink the water in tin cups,
which is believed to have wish-granting powers. Each stream’s water is said to
have a different benefit, namely to cause longevity, success at school and a
fortunate love life.
Then I made my way downhill among the throng of slow-moving visitors to
catch a taxi to my next destination, which is the Kyoto Imperial Palace. My
taxi driver was a cute old Japanese man who was very friendly and kept talking
to me in Japanese, although I told him I didn’t understand the language. However,
I did my best in trying to accommodate him and part of me wished I knew at
least basic conversational Japanese because he was a really nice, jovial, cute
old man. I also realise that people are much more friendly away from Tokyo. I
guess big cities have a nasty way of eating one up inside out and making one
serious and reserved.
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