September 09. 2004 23:54

The Crysanthemum Festival and other Arashiyama

It's a bit difficult to have an enjoyable shower when the water turns from cold to hot and then cold again. I haven't really gotten used to using the shower, so balansing it is kinda hard...

Today I went to Horinji temple in the Arashiyama area for Choyo-no-sechi-e, which means the Chrysanthemum festival. Quoting the Kyoto Visitor's Guide (recommended, by the way, free and comes every month): "According to Chinese mythology, drinking a special wine made from chrysanthemums could make you young forever. Inspired by this ancient legend, chrysanthemum-flavored sake is served at 13:30 at Horin-ji Temple." I woke up early to get going, but then I noticed I had forgotten to load the batteries in my camera last night, so I had to wait for it to load at least a bit. I finally left after 11, and that was not a bit too late, because the subway+bus trip took so long that I was almost late. When I came, they had the mass going. I didn't know there was actually going to be a mass, but of course that's natural in this kind of an event. I felt a little bad taking photos at a mass, but lots of other people were doing it too (most of them Japanese), so I thought it was okay. It was actually very interesting. I don't know how long it was in it's entirety because I missed the start, but the part I saw consisted of the monks chanting and playing musical instruments in front of the altar. There was also a puppet, which I ossumed was the deity, and lots of offerings in front of it. But the deity and it's table were in the side and the main thing was at the altar (also with offerings), and everyone was gathered around that.

The great thing about this festival was that after the mass ended, there was a Noh play. I don't understand Noh enough to pay loads of money to see it, but this free little performance was just great. I took two videos which I'll put up somewhere around here, when I can arrange it. I had an interesting place to look at the show: behind the musicants. It was actually quite a good place, despite the tiny leg space, because there was nobody in front of me. Besides the musicants, of course. (But they were part of the thing, so it didn't matter, and there was a nice little place in between them where I could watch.) There was just one actor and the "band". I can't tell if the characer was he or she, but the costume and the mask looked great. Lots of gold :P I can't really tell much about the contents of the performance because I really don't understand Noh that much. The only thing I could figure out was that the character was every now and then turning to the altar.

After the play there was the chrysanthemum sake. All the people there jumped right to the monk serving the sake as if it was going to run out in seconds! I waited for a while and even then it was difficult to get through the wall of only a few older ladies. These people were really determined to get the sake as soon as possible. Anyway, I got mine and it was good, even though the taste of alcohol was quite strong. After that I gave a coin to the deity and then lingered around until most of the people left, just to look at the temple room. The "head monk", who was the one who always spoke, had earlier delt out the flowers that were near the altar during the mass. Now he took the five that were on the altar and delt those out to the last people as well, and I took one for a memento. I don't know if that was such a good idea after all, though, since I had to carry it around all the day and now that it's on my table, it's almost dead. But it was a nice thing to get, anyway.

After that I started slowly walking towards Tenryuji temple, which is one of the world heritage spots. Along the way I spent so much time at a musical shop watching Studio Ghibli toys and at the souvenir shops (where I bought cards and souvenirs :) Would've bought a painting to my wall, but the one with the right colours was sold out) that the temple was already closed when I got there. I walked very thoroughly through the surroundings, though, and went to a couple of places I shouldn't have :P It was a nice place even though I couldn't get in. I better return later on...

I walked away a silly route as well, and I found a restaurant that looked very nice and expensive. If I was hungry and if I had the money, I would've surely eaten there. But as I wasn't and hadn't, I countinued on. Then I found this little shop, "Bruce, Lee's workshop". There was this very nice guy who spoke English and designed pencil cases in the shape of a man. I wish I was really rich, then I could buy things like them, because they were surely unique items and I would gladly suppord a small handicrafts boutique. But again as I'm not, I just talked to the owner for a while and asked if there were any good spots to see around there. He told me how to get to see the "famous view" from Okochi sanso for free by walking to the right spot, so I thought I might as well go there now. But the quickly darkening nights of Japan got me and I didn't dare go walking a path by a bamboo forest when there was no light. Suddenly I remebered all those warnings about rapes and stuff in the travel guide book... O_O Japan is not really that dangerous, but that was a really dark path. My heartbeat probably didn't slow down until I was at the main road.

After that the clock was already half past six. The bus trip downtown would take almost an hour, so when I would be near the shopping streets it would be almost eight and the stores would close at nine. I had paid 1200 yen for a whole-day bus/subway ticket, so I wanted to at least use it for what it's worth. So I decided to go to that Book-Off I never got to because it's a little off my way.

I had a little trouble with the train system, as some of them don't take the all-day card I was using. I decided to be lazy and took the Hankyuu Railways Kyoto Line for that one stop there was left between the bus stop and the shopping streets. Somehow I got in through the gate without any trouble, but when I was coming out at the next station, the gate stopped me. There was a nice older man who spoke English and came to me when I was looking around very worried. He took me to the officer who said that the card was not okay for this train and then let me out. In the end, I got to use the train for free, but I don't think anyone minded...

The shopping streets seem like a place where I really want to go. Shopping, you know. Shopping is fun. But I really need to take one day for that, so I could only walk through Shin-kyogoku. There were a lot of schoolgirls in uniforms there... I've gotten this habit of taking pictures of schoolgirls here :P (Sometimes I feel a little dirty... I still haven't dared ask anyone to pose and the pics are usually from back...) But I love school uniforms and I'm kinda trying to do "research" and collect as many different as I can. They're really hard to catch, though, especially when you're trying to take a picture so that they won't notice. The first few ones that I saw, and had real post-card setting for, too, always moved away before I could take the pic. A few days ago I even saw a couple of girls practicing some dance routine at the subway station, but walking out to them to take a picture would've seemed really wonky, so I didn't. Ehehe... I hope any of them won't misunderstand me.

The Book-Off (this one's the real thing, the other one I've been talking about is just some other used books store) was a wonderland. Again I had too little time to spell the names of the manga, so I just walked through the shelves in case something caught my eye... Didn't find Fruits Basket, but I did find Hikaru no go, which is on a friend's wish list. I just haven't asked him if used is okay. Then there was a packet of the first 25-or-so mangas of Inu-Yasha for about 1300 yen and I'm still wondering if I should've taken that... But I didn't, and instead I went upstairs to the CDs. I found the newest Every Little Thing album, but that was a bit too expensive. Instead I took Time to Destination, which is a bit older and cost only 250 yen (O_O). I only "browsed through it" a while ago, but it sounds great. Then I got the Best of Inu-Yasha, a collection of the openings and endings. That CD (or mainly the leaflet) is in poor shape, but I guess it's okay... I did choose to buy used, anyway. The last one I found was the CD for Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, which I took just to get that great never-ending song that's at the background on the menu of the DVD. Actually, that song wasn't on the CD :( But it's a fun CD to have, anyway. There's a 16 min drama track on it and along came a cute card with Miyuki on it. Actually, the whole CD is kinda cute with pics of Miyuki on it ^_^