First glimpse of Kyoto

Today I went to Kyoto with a tour organized by the school. I met with my speaking partner just before the tour and I thought we'd be together, but instead they separated us and assigned us other Japanese students. So William, April, and I went to Kyoto with three Japanese girls we just met. I'll try to upload pictures of the whole thing later.

We walked to a bus stop near Kansai Gaidai's campus, then took a bus to the train station. We rode the express train from Hirakatashi Station to Kyoto, and walked from there to Yasaka Jinja. There we all (including the Japanese girls, who apparently had never done it before) learned how to do the ritual washing before entering. You hold the water dipper in your right hand and pour water over your left hand, then you do the opposite. Next you put some more water in your left hand and put it to your mouth. (Are you supposed to drink? I don't know. Anyone know the answer?) Then you rinse your left hand again, and you're good to go. It was very cool.

We walked all around the shrine and talked to the merchants, which was cool. Also, I got to go to the main area and do the standard prayer procedure. You throw a coin into the offering place, and pull on this big cord that rings a bell. You clap your hands twice, bow twice, silently make your petition, and then bow again. It was pretty cool.

After that we walked 3 kilometers to Kiyomizudera. The name means basically "Clear water temple," and it was gorgeous. You have to walk up this busy touristy street to get to the temple high up the mountain. It was like the Short North or Bardstown Road just happened to have an ancient temple at one end. I bought a few souveniers for people. The views were spectacular, and it was much cooler and less humid that high up the mountain. Very comfortable.

My favorite thing there was the spring that you can drink from. There were these three little almost gutter-like chutes that shot out this great water (hence the temple's name). They provided cups on the end of poles, and you could reach out and collect the water and drink it for good fortune. Very, very cool. At that point I was super thirsty, too, so the timing was great.

After Kiyomizudera, we walked a bit around the Higashiyama district and got a little lost. After two buses and two trains, though, we were home safely. Kyoto was absolutely amazing, and I want to go back soon. The mix of modern and traditional was really cool. We saw a couple of maiko (apprentice geisha). I have this great picture of a woman in kimono making her way across the street without getting hit by cars. Very neat place.

I'm totally wiped out from the day, so I've got to call it quits now. But I'll work on uploading the pictures at a time that I'm not falling asleep on you.