landscape of kyoto, shorenin

When visiting the temple in the pic, one of the biggest surprises was meeting the big camphor trees in the precinct. I met one of them in front of the main gate of Shorenin temple, located in the eastern part of Kyoto city. At the time, the tree made itself light orange-brown, maybe you can see the color of morning sun light being harmonious with the brown trunk in the pic, right.
It was a nice day without thick clouds bringing the chilly sleet just like the day before. I heard that the temple had a beautiful Japanese garden, but before going in, I knew it well.
Here was in front of Shorenin temple, Kyoto city, Japan.

landscape of kyoto, ninna-ji

I'm in Ninna-ji, kyoto, and seeing the silver shinning garden made by a myriad of small stones and short trees partly planted. The cloud in the light blue sky is coming from the north with bringing flakes of snow. The breeze may be cooler than ever in the year.
I pay 500 yen (JPN), about $4.5 (USD), to enter the part of the wooden structures consisting of Ninna-ji, old temple near in north ward of Kyoto city. When I enter the nearest Japanese construction from the main gate, I meet the silver garden. I just sit on the floor, and for a while just look at the garden, sky, and cloud without thinking anything.
Here is Ninna-ji, Kyoto.

walking around a small shopping arcade

The pic was not in Arashiyama area where I was looking for a tofu, but in the relatively southern part of Kyoto city, Fushimi ward. In the pic, I was walking through a small and local shopping arcade. What I want to say with this pic is that wherever I walked in Kyoto city, always I found and entered small alleys (including a shopping arcade) and streets that consisted of a quasi-spider-web-map.

Anyway, this arcade was totally for locals, so, you couldn't find any Gucci, PRADA and Chanel. Instead, you'll easily find a cheep Japanese wooden clogs, "geta". Looking at the left side of the pic, there is a wihte board showing in hand-writing Japanese that the shop would offer a good geta.

Here was Fushimi, Kyoto, Japan

looking for a famous tofu shop

As I mentioned in the previous blog, the main purpose of my visiting in Arashiyama was that I would buy a "tofu" , which was made by soy-milk, from a famous tofu shop around here. The tofu-shop was so-well known that the book I had read before, but forgot the tittle, mentioned that even the rich in Ashiya town(known as a fashionable suburb in Kobe city) drove her/his Mercedes to here to buy a tofu.

But as I said before, streets around here were just like a spider-web, so I had a certain difficulty to find a right street I should follow. I slightly remember that my guidebook mentioned about the temple near the tofu-shop, so I aimed at the temple, and somehow, I found the shop, which was not so larger than I expected.

I slightly remembered that on the front door or window of the shop, there was a menu-board. On the board, I found that a standard tofu was just US$1. Basically, a tofu was not so expensive one, and a standard tofu in an usual supermarket was just about 50 cents. So, I might say that this tofu in the shop was a little bit expensive. I bought a standard one, and later I ate it, and thought the taste was really good.

Anyway, the pic was a part of Tenryu-ji, a famous temple in Arashiyama area. Once I heard, inside the precinct of this temple, there was a restaurant that could offer a good boiled tofu. Of course, the tofu in the restaurant was from the famous tofu-shop. But I'm not still quite sure if the restaurant is really there.

Here was Arashiyama, Kyoto, Japan.

baked octopus

Walking around Arashiyama area for looking for a well-known famous "tofu" shop, I found a local supermarket. Around here, there were lots of small-alleys that looked like a spider's web, so I was not sure where I walked at the time. In other words, I might be lost.

In front of this supermarket, you can see the two girls waiting for something from the woman in a stall. She actually was making "takoyaki", which was baked-octopus-ball made by small diced octopuses, flour, egg and kind of leek, with oyster sauce and mayonnaise (if you like) on it. The girls eagerly looked how the takoyaki-chef could make small balls, and maybe they also enjoyed smelling the flavor of oyster sauce burning on an iron plate.
Here was Arashiyama, Kyoto, Japan.

the moon crossing a bridge

It was at the beginning of July, in early summer or already in mid-summer when I was in Arashiyama, Kyoto city, a former capital of this country. Around here, I felt accumulated flavors of historic afterglows people had saved from over 1200 years ago (It's very well-known in this country that Kyoto was build in 794).
In the pic, there was a bridge. Though the parapet of this bridge was made by "hinoki", a kind of cypress, the fundamental construction was maybe in reinforced concrete. So, this bridge was not the original one that was said to have been made over 1000 years ago, though I didn't know exactly when people had bridged the river at this place, or even I had totally no idea whether the original bridge was actually at this exact same place.
One certain thing I've known was its name. The bridge had been called "Togetu-kyou". In Japanese, "Togetu" is a literary phrase of saying "the moon crossing", and the latter "kyou" means just "bridge".
The moon was crossing a bridge.
The beautiful name had still remained over 1000 years ago.
Here was Arashiyama, Kyoto, Japan

main building

The current main building of Todai-ji temple is just like the pic. As I told in the previous blog, this isn't the original in 750, but the beautiful architecture made by craftsmen around 1700, which is in so-called "edo" period. The current building is said to be smaller than the original, but have a nice little roof in the facade that the original didn't have.

When going inside the building, I found its miniatures, one of which must be the original's around 750 (around 750 is known as "nara" period), and the other must be the current- edo period's. According to the guide board, I slightly remember that the miniatures exhibited were made by juveniles in a workhouse.

The last day of the last year in Nara was a really nice, beautiful day. The sky was so winter blue. The deers around the nara-park area (which may include the precinct of the Todai-ji temple) were hungry enough to aim at a special rice crackers, called "deer cracker", in a stall, as always were (tourists buy the crackers, and give them to deers, basically).

Here was Nara, Japan

south gate

At the end of last year, I was walking around Todai-ji, one of the oldest and famous Japanese temples. The winter sky was so far and so clean as if it inhaled the dust and heat from the earth.

In the precinct, I preferred to look around the great south gate (which is in the pic) rather than its main building. Its vermilion faded away always made a slight, but deepest nuance of the presence the gate made in a thousand years.

The original main structure was made around A.D.750, but damaged by the earthquake and lost completely by the fire of war around 1180. Since then, there were three reconstructions of buildings and one fire tragedy.

The present south gate was reconstructed in 1199, a little bit long after the first fire, and had been there since then. The gate is also well known by two beautiful wooden statues that were in the both sides. They were made by the group of artists lead by two legendary sculptors.

Here was Nara, Japan.

from far away

The sky was so blue high.
Walking through the red gate, I felt chilly wind came to my face, and my clothe went back.
Over there, I found the main temple called "kondo" which maybe meant "gold structure", but not looked gold.
Thinking about the statue and functions in this old, but re-newed structure was the only shortcut to find the clue of "gold".
Old, but re-newed.
The wooden structures were re-newed recently, except for the east tower.
But the oldest one is the "place" or, say, "sight", or "atmosphere" itself. The temple was just there as it was set in a far long time ago.
Here was Nara, Japan.
http://www.nara-yakushiji.com/index.html