KYOTO, JAPAN: A Day of Leisure, from the Memoir of Aunt Carolyn

Vegetable stall, Japanese market

My husband's Aunt, Carolyn T. Arnold, traveled to Japan in the 1960's and 70's as the leader of a tour group. Here is her description of a leisure day with her group in Kyoto.
Leisure days in any country call for a good deal of resourcefulness on the part of the tour director to keep everyone satisfied and to plan for something that was not a part of the schedule. Seldom did anyone use those days purely for leisure, so I work harder on those days.

In Kyoto my favorite leisure day activity is a stroll along a pedestrian shopping street. There are hundreds of little shops open to the mall. The fish market man proudly displayed his largest fish. At another stall, vegetables are colorfully and artistically arranged. Most people gasp at the size of the white radishes, two to three feet long. The “home folks” slice and pickle these to make a tasty relish. Once I ventured into a noodle factory where large sheets of pasta were taken out of pots of boiling water and hung up to dry, then on to the girls who measured, cut, and tied them into bundles. The girl at the corner was frying bean paste cookies; I bought a few. They were crisp and tasted a bit like chocolate.

We were amazed at the variety of things for sale. Mechanical toys might be beside mannequins featuring ready-to-wear, mostly Western styles.  One of the many delights of Japan is the food. It’s hard to forget the rice, green tea, sake (rice wine), chop sticks, and even green tea ice cream. Dick, the clown of the group, kept everyone roaring as he attempted to pick up a green pea with his chopstick.

Window display of plastic replicas of dishes on the menu in a Japanese restaurant

We tried various types of dinners. Mongolian barbecue was a favorite. A waitress grilled small pieces of chicken, beef, shrimp, and vegetables over a charcoal grill sunken in the center of the table. Then, she daintily picked up each piece, dipped it into a bowl of soy sauce, and placed it before us. A thimble-size cup of sake completed the meal.

Perhaps the original intrepid tourist was Carolyn Arnold, my husband’s aunt.  A single school teacher in Des Moines, she began traveling abroad when she was in her forties, beginning with a bicycling trip through Ireland in 1950.  She went on from there to spend a year as a Fulbright Exchange Teacher in Wales, to more trips to Europe and beyond, and eventually became a tour leader, taking all her nieces and nephews (including Art) on her travels.  When she retired from teaching, she wrote of her experiences in a memoir called Up and Down and Around the World with Carrie.  Today, as I read of her travels and look at her photos, I marvel at her spirit of adventure at a time when women did not have the independence they do today.

KYOTO, JAPAN: 1000 Shrines and Temples

Heian Shrine, Kyoto

In July of 1995, I accompanied Art to Kyoto, Japan, where he was attending a conference. Kyoto is renowned for its beautiful shrines and temples and on our first afternoon we did a walking tour of several of them.  We first went to the Heian Shrine, famous for its gardens.  On our way out, two uniformed school girls stopped us and asked if they could interview us–obviously an English class assignment.  One question was, “Do you know any Japanese words?” and they giggled when Art rattled off the few phrases that he knew.

Bamboo.  Path to Shoren-in Temple

We continued southward until the street narrowed and we came to the Shoren-in Temple, surrounded by enormous one thousand year old camphor trees and a beautiful ancient garden covered in moss.  By the time we reached the next stop–Chion-in Temple–it was 5:00 and the temple was closed.  The “walking tour”, described on the map as taking 50 minutes, was clearly much longer as we were not even half way to the Kiyomizu Temple at the end.

The next afternoon I took a bus to the Golden Temple (Kinkakuji).  By the time I got there the sky was overcast and as I walked in I could hear thunder.  I walked around the paths, which were shaded by a canopy of beautiful large maple trees, and arrived at the lake where the temple, covered on the top two floors with gold leaf, stood like a shining island.

Offerings at Kiyomizu Temple

Another day Art and I caught a bus to the Kiyomizu Temple–one of the most famous in Kyoto.  One walks up a narrow road–called Teapot Lane because of many pottery shops–past all kinds of tourist shops, many of them selling bean paste candies.  We bought some small round cakes–like pancakes with sweet bean paste in the center.  They are cooked on a machine in which metal rings about three inches across move around a griddle and are then filled and flipped before the cakes slide down a chute to be packaged.  We ate our picnic lunch at the entrance to the shrine–under a huge orange Tori gate.  The temple is perched on the side of a hill and is supported by huge interlocking timbers–no nails.  Unlike at other temples, we were allowed to take off our shoes and walk inside the building.

Water cups at Kiyomizu Temple

We then walked along a path to a small pagoda on the other side of the hill and then down past a small waterfall where people held out long bamboo sticks with cups on the end.  (The water was meant for cleansing the mouth, not drinking.)  As at the other temples, we saw rows of paddles with writing on them and white paper “wishes”.  Monks from the temple, wearing long black robes covered by a sort of overcoat, walked around the temple grounds in wooden clogs.
Kyoto claims to have more than 1000 shrines and temples.  We only saw a few, but found each one different and interesting and in harmony with nature.

Stepping Stones at the Heian Shrine

KYOTO, JAPAN: Gion Festival, Tea Ceremony, and Flower Arranging

Kyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan

In July of 1995, I accompanied Art to Kyoto, Japan, where he was attending a conference. Kyoto is famous for its festivals and its beautiful shrines and temples. While Art was at his meetings, I toured the city (on foot and by bus and subway) and joined several activities provided by the conference for accompanying people like me. One of these activities was an introduction to the traditional Japanese tea ceremony and to the art of flower arranging.

Models of Gion Festival Carts

The Tea Ceremony
The tea ceremony was held in a traditional tea house near the conference center.  We took off our shoes and sat on a rug around the tatami mats while an American man who was an expert in the tea ceremony narrated what was happening while a Japanese woman dressed in a pink kimono made the tea.  Another woman helped her serve it.  Each of us was first served a “sweet” on a square of paper along with a small stick cut into a crude knife for slicing it.  The “sweet” was a gelatinous white bar with a red bean in the center (symbolic of the Japanese flag.) It was slightly slippery and moderately sweet tasting.  Its purpose was to provide an antidote to the bitter taste of the tea that followed.  The tea is made from green leaves that have been crushed into a fine powder and then whisked with hot (not boiling) water until frothy and then served in a large, cereal sized ceramic bowl.  One turns the bowl in the left palm before drinking so that the “front” of the bowl faces the host as a sign of deference to him or her. The tea definitely had a strong, bitter taste. What we experienced was only the last 20 minutes of a tea ceremony, which normally takes about four and a half hours and includes a full course meal!

Flower Arranging Class

Flower Arranging
Our group then proceeded to the flower arranging room where we each were provided with a shallow bowl in which there was a “frog” for securing the stems, and three tall purple flowers, three long-stemmed pink roses, and two ferns.  The goal of the arrangement was to create “harmony” between all the elements.  Not so easy!  In the end, when my arrangement was critiqued, it was deemed to be good except that I had left too many leaves on the bottom of the stems.

Gion Festival cart under construction

Gion Festival
Our stay in Kyoto coincided with the preparation for the annual Gion Festival.  This festival originated as part of a purification ritual to appease the gods thought to cause fire, floods and earthquakes. (Our trip was just six months after the devastating earthquake in Kobe, Japan, on January 16, 1995.) As we walked the city streets we passed some of the Gion wagons, nearly finished and ready for the parade.  They were surrounded by rows of paper lanterns and tables where you could buy maps of the parade route.  For the parade, teams of young men would pull the wagons through the streets of Kyoto. The Gion festival is a highlight of the year in Kyoto.  We would miss it because we would be leaving the next day for Tokyo on the express train (Shinkansen).