Uji Trip

As planned, today I got up early and went to Uji. The commute there was really nice, actually. It was a cool, overcast fall day, and very pleasant. At the bus stop in front of the library I had a really nice conversation with an older woman who was also waiting for the bus. I did really well understanding her, at least by my standards. She was very nice.

I was traveling alone. I like going places in groups, of course, but today I wanted time to explore on my own. I go at a weird pace because I take pictures of lots of strange things like mossy stones and caterpillars, and I often skim over the really important bits of places. I'm not the best traveling companion unless you're a very patient or very eccentric person. ^_^ But Uji is nearby, and the directions were clear, so I was happy to go alone. Also, it allowed me to interact more with the Japanese people around me than I would have in a group of foreigners. They are much more willing to approach me, and I them, if I'm not surrounded by a buffer of six other Americans.

The bus arrived, and at the next stop this Sweet Lolita girl and a woman who seemed to be her mother boarded the bus. I wanted to take a picture of the girl; she was really cute, though of course very over-the-top. She was wearing a white lace headband, a puffy light pink dress, lacy knee socks, white patent leather shoes, and carrying a white patent leather purse with a big bow on it, as well as a delicate white lace parasol. Most interesting, though, were her fingernails. I have never seen a more inconvenient set of nails in my life, and I have been shopping at Winn-Dixie, thank you very much, where three-inch-long neon nails seemed to be all the rage among the checkout ladies in the 1990s. She had what looked like those little sugar cake decorations pasted onto each fingernail. Smiley faces, pink pearls, little cupcakes--all miniature statues, about a centimeter high, right there on her fingernails. They made her very clumsy, but I guess it's all part of the look; not my thing, but it was cool to see. I wonder where they were going.

Anyway, I got on the train just fine and reached Uji without incident. It's funny, it only cost me 340yen to get to Uji, but it cost almost six times as much to get to Himeji last week; I wonder why. Uji is closer, but really, not all that much closer. Oh well, who am I to complain about a good deal?

After coming out of the train station, I had to cross a really long bridge. The bridge is very important historically and culturally, apparently. It's one of the three oldest bridges in the country, and various websites seem to put its original construction at 646CE. It seems to have been the site of some battles, too, I think. But now it's just a really nice, wide bridge. The sidewalks are very safe, and the view is lovely. Check out the pictures to come.

After crossing the bridge I realized that this sightseeing trip was going to be different from my earlier trips; all the other tourists were Japanese. There were still some signs in English, but for the most part, Uji seems to be geared toward Japanese visitors. Really, this makes a lot of sense; Uji is most famous for being the setting of the final chapters of The Tale of Genji. This is a classic of world literature, often called the world's first novel, although it seems that not many people outside of Japan have read it, or even heard about it. It's ridiculously long--think two Count of Monte Cristos put together, with about four times the number of characters. This, at least is what I hear; I haven't actually read it. In any case, it's a very important book to Japan, so many Japanese people visit the Uji locations mentioned in it. Not many foreigners care. Hence, Uji is a city for local tourism.

At the far end of the bride was a really neat statue of Murasaki Shikibu, the author of Genji. There was a group of Japanese tourists hearing about it from a guide, and I kinda tried to listen in, but I couldn't understand anything. Then I tried to use the water fountain in front of the statue and failed miserable. I shot myself up the nose with water, and the nearby tour group laughed at me. It was pretty hilarious, and at that point I could do nothing but laugh along with them. Oops.

To reach Byodo-in, my first destination, I had to walk up a long street lined with shops selling tea leaves, hot tea, tea candy, tea ice cream, noodles in tea, tea rice, tea bowls, tea stirrers, etc. Uji, in addition to being known for Genji, is also famous for its production of tea. Again, this is something that the Japanese seem to be interested in, but foreigners not so much. Japanese tea is a very, very--how should I say it?--different beverage. It's an acquired taste, and I haven't acquired it. Another reason Uji is geared toward Japanese, I think.

I arrived at Byodo-in and paid my admission, and rather pretended that I understood more of the Japanese language instructions from the ticket lady than I actually did. But I gathered that my admission fee got me into the museum and the main grounds, although I'd have to pay extra to enter the famous Ho-o-do, or Phoenix Hall.

I entered the complex, and first took a left to a simple building that I thought had nothing in it, until I happened to wander around the back and discovered that it was a lovely little temple. Inside were two small replicas of the Phoenix Hall and a really beautiful wooden statue of some buddha or bodhisattva dating from the Heian Period (794-1185). I'm really terrible with my Buddhist iconography; I wish I could have figured out who it was. Photography wasn't allowed in the room, either, so I can't show you a picture. But it was a very moving statue, maybe four feet high, up on a platform. I liked it a lot.

Next I moved on to the path around the Phoenix Hall. It's a magnificent symmetrical building with a large reflecting pond in the front. Lots of great photo opportunities! I even used keigo (polite sentence constructions) to ask an old man to take my picture. It was pretty exciting. After walking around the outside, I went into the museum that houses a lot of the artifacts from the site. They didn't allow photos, unfortunately. But I watched a short informational film with English subtitles about the Phoenix Hall, and got to see some of the wood statues from the buildings, as well as a really cool temple bell. There was a replica of the same bell outside, so check out the pictures to see it. Also included were some of the statues of the 52 bodhisattvas who surround Amida Buddha in the Pure Land. Those were really cool. They were wall hangings, basically. Each bodhisattva carried a different musical instrument or attribute, and they were placed around the walls of the main room in the Phoenix Hall. Very, very cool.

After the museum portion, I visited some small shrine areas in the complex. I'm not sure if shrine is the right word; that implies Shinto, and Byodo-in is a Buddhist temple. But the lines blur easily between the two systems here, so I'm not sure it matters. In any case, there were some cool little things to look at. One building in particular housed a bunch of small stone statues, and had a brilliantly painted ceiling decorated with a dragon. It was really cool, but you weren't allowed to take pictures. For being a World Heritage Site, it sure seems that they don't want photos of this place to get out. I'm sure the flash would just damage the pigments or something, but still....

It was only noon at that point, and I had all day. So I decided I'd buy the extra ticket to enter the Phoenix Hall. But the next available time wasn't until 1:10 and I didn't want to hang around that long, so I decided to just skip it. Oh well. I'm not too disappointed. It would have been cool, but there had been a few reconstructions in the museum, so I got the gist of it.

I then left the Byodo-in and decided to do some souvenir shopping. I found a really cool shop that had a bunch of handmade textiles painted with scenes from Genji, and I bought a nice framed one. I like it a lot; it's the first souvenir I've bought for myself here. Kind of expensive--about $25--but definitely worth it. It's beautiful. I also bought a nice Kiyomizu-yaki tea cup for David, because he likes tea. Genji and tea, two Uji things. I did well, souvenir-wise. But I spent a little too much, and realized that if I was to make it home by train, I didn't have the money for lunch. Oops. Luckily I had brought some Oreos with me, so I munched on those to tide me over.

I walked up and down the Uji riverside, which is really pretty. I just love the mountains around there; it feels so secluded and peaceful. Earlier in the month, too, they had a cormorant fishing festival, and there were some photos up from that. It looks very cool; I wish I could have seen it. The river was very picturesque, with lots of little tour barges floating long with the current.

I found the tourist information center right next to the river, and there bought a ticket to the Municipal Tea House next door. I think it's so cool that Uji has a government-run tea house! How cool! So I got to sit through a proper tea ceremony. It was pretty interesting, although it went way over my head. I was there with a group of two other Americans, an older Japanese man and woman and their granddaughter, and a middle aged man in a suit. We chatted in English and Japanese beforehand, and it turns out that Suit is a politician. I didn't catch his name, but from the reactions of the people around me he is at least moderately important. He talked a bit to the other Americans (both poli-sci majors, they said) about politics, and said that he wants to become the Japanese Obama, because they're the same age. ^_^ I thought that was cool. He was very...politiciany. A bit overly-smiley, but pleasantly chatty. It was kinda cool. Granddaughter was a lot of fun to be in the room with, too. She was about nine years old, probably, and kinda wiggly. She kept whispering to me and fiddling around during the ceremony. It made me feel a little more relaxed. We spoke a little in English, which was fun. Her grandmother was the only one who really seemed to get into the cermonial aspects of the ceremony; she and the tea master chatted nicely, and I tried to follow her lead since she knew what she was doing. The grandfather was nondescript. The Americans were a little loud, but very nice, and their Japanese was good. It was a nice mix. I don't think I looked like a fool, at least.

After we were seated, the tea master brought us some little sweets made from tea. They were these little green squares of a consistency somewhere between Jello and fruit chewies, and you cut them into fourths with this sharp pointy stick, stabbed the pieces, and ate them. Like the other Japanese sweets I've had, it was pretty bland. Not at all bad, though. After the snack, the tea master's helper came out and bustled around doing something. He was probably about 17 years old, and totally adorable. He was wearing kimono and hakama, which I think is really cute on guys. ^_^ It made me smile. As he did some fiddling around with the various tea tools, the tea master served us. She was really cool, an older lady who seemed very gentle. She brought us the tea in bowls that you hold in your left hand and drink from. The tea itself is not what we think of as tea in America; it's the color of pea soup, and about that consistency. It was very, very hot and bitter, but I liked it much better than the tea I had at Crane House over the summer. Probably just a different kind. After the tea, the tea master removed the bowls and we chatted a little about the scroll on the wall. Then it was over. There was much bowing throughout the whole process. I think I said "arigatou gozaimasu" ("thank you") about forty times. It was pretty cool. Like I said, way over my head, but I still had fun.

Then I crossed the river to see if I could find some of the shrines I had heard about. On the way, I stumbled across a little temple called Hashi-dera, or Bridge Temple. It was built to ensure the safety of the bridge, and the sign said it held some of the oldest architectural stone fragments in Japan, from the original bridge. I went into the temple grounds, but I didn't see it. There were, however, some interesting little prayer areas. There was no signage in English, but it seems that the temple is used a lot for prayers for children. Check out the pictures; there were several statues surrounded by children's toys. I thought it was very funny, at first, to see a bodhisattva with a Winnie the Pooh at his feet. But then I thought about it and realized that we do the exact same thing in America; when a child dies we leave stuffed animals at the grave. It's the same thing. At this temple I also found another really big caterpillar, and I struck up a conversation with a woman and her young son about it. Again, she was so excited to see that I speak a little Japanese. I just can't get over how thrilled people are here that I can say anything. It's very encouraging!

After that temple, I continued up the road, passing a small shrine called Matafuri, I think. Something about a vengeful spirit in the story behind that one; I'm not really sure. I just stumbled upon it. Further up the road was yet another shrine, this one called Uji-jinja. It was fairly standard, but I was the only person there, which was kinda cool. Right next door to Uji-jinja is Ujigami-jinja, another World Heritage Site, so more crowded than Uji-jinja. The main hall of Ujigami-jinja is the oldest surviving Shinto worship hall. Pretty cool. The inside reminded me of an old American one room schoolhouse, actually. I enjoyed one of the surrounding sub-shrines much better, though. It seemed to have a bit of an animal theme. It was really secluded a bit up the hill, and there were these fox and cat statues around it. It was very, very peaceful and cool there. I sat for quite a while just resting. At that point I was ready leave.

I walked along the Uji riverside back to the train station, where I made my way home. On the way to Chushojima I wound up sitting across the aisle from the woman and her son I met at Hashi-dera, which was funny. By the time I got back home it was 4PM and I had 230yen on me--about $2. Cutting it close, right? I guess it was a very good thing I didn't pay the 300yen to go into the Phoenix Hall!

I was wiped out and hungry at that point, so I heated up some pizza toast that ended up being pretty bad, heated up some hash browns that ended up being pretty bad, and made some potstickers that also ended up being slightly burnt and pretty bad. Oh well. Lunch/supper of champions, right? Then I napped, showered, and wrote this ungodly long post. Can I go now? I really should probably include more detail for my own future benefit, but I'm tired and I'm sure you're bored with all my minutiae. So goodnight.