Kyoto and the 15th Rock

Kyoto was no less than a dream come true. It abounds with castles, temples, gardens, old style houses, covered plazas, original and classic foods, etc., etc., and of course, the treasured Japanese Maple tree, the pride and joy of the city. Upon arrival, the trees were just beginning to share their gift for color. Japanese Maples bring back fond memories of my childhood in Pennsylvania.
My company was Steve Delp, who is in from Boulder vacationing for a few weeks here. We met up at the Kyoto Station and headed off to the first of many wonderful meals, this one being an assortment of incredible edibles served in stacked boxes. The Kyoto Imperial Palace was our first stop, and while inside the palace walls, we stopped to sample treats, from pink pound cake to salty seaweed squares being handed out under a mini-market of tents. The palace grounds were huge, but it was hard to make an impression beyond that; we came too late in the day to get inside the inner walls and have a look at the actual palace itself.
No cause for alarm, however, we got our fill of castles and temples. We traveled to the largest temple, Nanzenji, which was Steve's favorite, and strolled around the gigantic complex of gardens and buildings, finally to find ourselves at the top of the tallest temple just in time to catch the sun setting behind the distant mountains. It looked like an egg yolk suspended, then disappearing gently into a mound of white batter. All along the crowded banister there was not a sound the moment the yolk touched the floury mixture.
We traveled to nearly all corners of the city, walking the Philosopher's Path in the east--we didn't see any philosophers--to the Arashiyama area with its famous zen rock garden on the western end.
I especially liked the zen gardens. We saw two, the first of which was made with only raked pebbles and fifteen large rocks. It is said that one can only see fourteen of the rocks at one time when looking out from the meditation hall, no matter the angle from which they are viewed. After viewing, moving and viewing again, I found the legend of the invisible fifteenth rock to be true. It is also said that the garden will reveal its meaning to the mind given the proper view and time. I only sat with it for twenty minutes or so, but I got a small tidbit revealed to me. As vast as the mind can see, there is always a component that is hidden from conscious thought, an ineffable beauty to life. That is what the fifteenth rock told me ;)
The other rock garden was spread throughout a lovely scene, set amongst trees and shrubs, mossy slopes and reflected by a lake. The rocks stood like quiet mountains, hardly saddened at all by the swarms of loud tourists chattering and chirping all around.
Kinkakuji Temple, or the Golden Pavilion, was to good to be true. This is a temple that is covered with a sheet of gold. It stands over a glimmering lake, in which its reflection shines brilliantly. I tried to imagine being there in front of the temple alone; I wanted to feel its religious inspiration, to soak it its beauty, to stay with it until the sun changed it from yellow to gold to glowing, but there were people in every direction. Hundreds, it seemed like thousands of tourists were endlessly snapping pictures. So I snapped my picture and weaved my way through the crowd to the other end of the path.
Earlier that day, on the advice of Steve's Lonely Planet Japan, we visited the Daikakuji Temple, also towards the west end of Kyoto. This temple was my dream come true. It was not huge or overrun by tourists, the trees were all colors and to me, the temple eminated tranquility. It was the only structure where I witnessed zen monks--three of them, apparently on their daily routine, walking out to begin a circle around a large pond. I wanted to stay at Daikakuji all day. Back on the bus, looking at the map, we realized the guidebook had actually directed us to Daitokuji Temple, not Daikakuji, and that neither of our books mentioned the one we had seen, explaining the lack of crowds and perhaps the less flamboyant appearance. I was thrilled at our accidental discovery.
Kyoto's night life seems to be filled with prostitutes, "gentlemen's 'snack' bars", and drunks from what I could see. Yet, they might be hard to spot if you are not used to seeing prostitutes in gowns with gloves and diamond earrings, and drunks in suits who never seem to cause a commotion. I, fortunately, decided against visiting the inside of a 'snack' bar.
Nightlife aside, I found Kyoto to be enchanting and every bit the dream I had imagined. There were several points during the trip when I said aloud, 'I could live here.'
It would be interesting to hear Steve's viewpoint of the trip because I'm sure he remembers things that I've already forgotten. Maybe I can post some of his thoughts.
Since returning, I've already had another six classes at elementary school(I'm desperately trying to get my schedule changed to less classes on elementary days) and (today) started at Arao #2 Middle School. Life goes on at the speed of life.