ridiculously long update!

and, as would be expected after not updating for over a week, a lot has happened! actually, i've tried to update twice since then (and even have notepad files of the entries to prove it!) but the internets wouldn't hold up long enough for me to actually post anything. we'll see how it goes this time, though. (c'mon, crappy interets!)

in any case, have done a whole lot of temple and shrine visiting in the past week. there was Byoudoin on Thursday, Toudaiji on Saturday, Kumano-jinja and Nanni-ji on Sunday, and Yasuikonpira-gu and Imamiya-jinja on Tuesday. and tomorrow--if the group's not meeting--i'm planning on going to the Seimei shrine. (because Abe no Seimei is one of my top five favorite historical figures!) but yes: a lot of temples and shrines. i really wish i had the time to go into each of them in depth, because they were all pretty amazing, but the internets usually die around midnight, which gives me less than an hour, and as you guys surely know by now: i am ridiculously long-winded.

so, i guess i'll start with Byoudoin, as it's probably one of my favorites thus far. in comparison to, say, Toudaiji, it's not immensely big or particularly impressive, but it is one of the oldest existing wooden structures: having only survived so long because there's a pond/moat that surrounds it that protected it from all the fires that destroyed everything else in the surrounding area. (looking back on the history of some of the places we've visited, you can usually find they've burned down at least three times. Nanzenji--the temple we researched last Tuesday--burned down four times, for example.) in any case, Byoudoin was built by this super rich noble family way back in the day (around 1020?) to house this huge Kannon statue (Kannon is the Goddess/Bodhisattva of Mercy in Buddhist canon) that was also made out of wood. there are 20 or so smaller bodhisattva statues hanging on the walls surrounding Kannon--each of them is different and involved in some unique action (most are playing instruments). the room itself is pretty small, but the feeling you get just standing there is just indescribable. it's like you can feel just how old everything is around you--like you're breathing in history. there was no AC in the building, so it was really hot and humid and musty, but you had to take off your shoes to enter, so you're standing there either in socks or barefoot on cool tatami and smelling really, really old wood smell and are surrounded on all sides by dark walls that have just the slightest trace of paint left--every now and then you can make out a tree or a face, and then a landscape'll start to appear...and then of course there's Kannon-sama who (until you've been to Toudaiji) is really big and impressive and kind of humbles you to think that people had been praying to it for at least a thousand years.

so, needless to say, i freakin' loved the place. and that was just the inside: the outside building and gardens of Byoudoin are also some of the most gorgeous i've seen. the building is referred to as the Pheonix Hall because the left and right wing of the building look like the outstretched wings of a phoenix (also there are two phoenix statues on the roof...). and then there's also a museum you can go into to view the pieces of the statue they've had to take down (the golden wooden halo and backdrop) as well as replicas of the smaller boddhisattvas. i just really enjoyed the whole thing. (random trivia: Byoudoin is also the building on the back of the 10 Yen coin. Izuno-san pointed that out to me. XD)

but that was Thursday...Byoudoin was in Uji, so we had to ride a train there and back. (i love riding trains! so much fun!) on Saturday we all met early to ride the train to Nara (the old capital). Williams-sensei had declared the day an okay-to-speak-English day, so we all really enjoyed being able to speak English in his prescence without getting fined. (did i ever tell you guys i got fined? it was...last Monday, i think. i was talking to Adam at the bus stop and happened to look over and see Sara. i couldn't remember if it was still Konnichiwa time or if it had moved to Konbanwa time, so i just waved and said "Hi!" she gave me some weird look, which tipped me off and i turned to find Williams-sensei standing right behind me, grinning his evil I-just-caught-you-speaking-English grin and Adam swears up and down that i jumped, i was so startled. so i totally got charged 500 Yen for saying "hi." definitely not a high point of the trip.) anyway, crazy tangent.

so we went to Nara. i love Nara. there are wild deer that roam Nara that are practically domesticated: they come right up to you wanting to be fed. heck, the stupid things will follow you about, nipping at your clothes and bags if they think you have food. they've even been trained to bow after you give 'em something to eat. i had bought a tiny bunch of deer crackers to feed them, and as soon as i opened the package i was swarmed by three to them that kept following me about, butting me with their heads and biting at me until i was virtually throwing the crackers at them to keep them away. Tessa and Drew (Tessa had my camera and was video taping the whole thing) got the biggest kick out of me running away from the deer. i'd have Tessa yelling, "Becky, they're just deer, they're not going to hurt you!" on one side and Drew yelling "Becky you're backing into a fence! They're gonna corner you!" on the other. but i am here today to tell you that those things are frickin' scary when they mob you, i don't care how cute and harmless they seem.

so. post deer, we stopped for lunch and then headed on to Toudaiji, where there were more deer. also deer poo shaped chocolate candies. (that was a huge WTF Japan moment.) but, ah, Toudaiji. not gonna do the same history lesson thing i did with Byoudoin because Toudaiji didn't interest me as much: it had too much TOURIST ATTRACTION feel to it to be truely awesome. at any rate, Toudaiji is very big. it was like some kind of storehouse or dropoff for the silk road, and so the stone path leading up to it is made of stone from all over the world. (that was pretty cool.) and inside is the biggest Buddha i have seen in my life: it put even Byoudoin's Kannon-sama to shame. the Buddha was so big, in fact, that it's possible for you to climb through its nostril. how do i know this? because there was a pillar inside Toudaiji with a hole carved into it that was roughly the size of Buddha's nostril. people were crawling through it. (it's supposed to make you enlightened or just really smart or something.) even Williams-sensei climbed through it. (that was pretty awesome--all the Japanese bystanders cheered for him. XD) i didn't crawl through it though, as i am, unfortunately, not a tiny Japanese person who could fit into Buddha's nose.

but you were allowed to take pictures of these Buddhas, so i took plenty. and afterwards we went shopping for a bit and happened to walk by a mochi shop right when they were making mochi (one of the coolest things ever). Williams-sensei had bought everyone some from that very shop earlier that day, so i knew it was good, good mochi, but i didn't have the time or money to buy any. (it was like 10-15 bucks for six of the things!) that was about it for Nara, though. i think we're going back there again later, so maybe i'll have the chance to buy some mochi then. (wee, mochi!)

as for Sunday, a few of us had been planning on meeting to visit five temples in one day and get our shu-in books stamped. (it was Blake's idea originally, but i heartily seconded it.) we were going to meet at 8:30 by Kumano-jinja (a 5-10 minute walk from where i live) but Sara needed to use my computer so i was going to meet her at the university at noon. luckily, Corey (who is in Sara's group) was going with us, so i was just going to return with him. so. got to the bus stop on time but couldn't find Blake anywhere. Corey waved me down, though, and after waiting for Blake for a while, we decided to just go on into Kumano-jinja (Izuno-san had told me about it the night before and i was really curious to go see it!) most jinja (shrines) have orange tori (those gate things i mentioned back at the climbing-the-mountain post) because orange is representative of the fox, which is the most common messenger of the kami ("gods/deities/ancestral spirits"). foxes are everywhere at jinja--they're practically a marker for them. Kumano-jinja, however, had white tori. my host mother told me this was because the messenger of the kami at Kumano-jinja was the crow instead of the fox. and sure enough, when Corey and i were exploring the shrine, we found plenty of crow designs and pictures. i thought this was especially cool, because crows and ravens are all over the place where i live. in fact, crows cawing is what wakes me up every morning. they're supposed to be this really bad sign here, but i feel lucky/comforted every time i see one. it's probably the most bizarre thing Japan has done to me, honestly.

in any case, we eventually found Blake and grabbed a bus to some unknown part of Kyoto, only to then proceed to walk ridiculously far distances and get lost, and walk a whole bunch more, and get even more lost... by some stroke of luck or magic or random teleportation, we ended up near Kinkakuji and Ryoanji--only about a 20 minute walk from where we were trying to get to. so. we walked some more. ended up at Ninna-ji, which was pretty cool in it's own right. it was really big and full of small temples and shrines, but only one or two of them were open for you to go inside. it was about 10:30 then, and Blake was rushing cuz he was still determined to go to 4 other temples, so we ended up missing about half of Ninna-ji, which really pissed me off later when i was looking at the brouchure and realized how much of it we hadn't seen. anyway, Corey and i headed back after that, meeting Sara at the daigaku at noon, like we had planned, and proceeded to do presentation work for the rest of the evening.

that's about it as far as interesting places go, though. the two i visiting on Monday weren't that amazing. they were really pretty, of course, and the lady at Yasuikonpira-gu was really, really sweet and took us on a tour of the place, but they don't really stand up to the others. also i'm getting sleepy and don't feel like talking about them. the only other major thing i've done in the past week happened yesterday, when i got to meet Sara's host family and even spend the night at their house--which is ridiculously huge, by the way; they have five stories and a private indoor elevator. went to school with Sara and Corey this morning (Corey lives in the same area Sara does) and got to ride the train again. however, morning-trains are totally different from afternoon-trains: they are not cool. in fact, as i was getting on this morning the doors started to close on me. Sara and some other lady had to grab them and hold them open for me to get on the bus--freaked Sara out a lot more than it did me, though. (only cuz i kept thinking they'd open the doors eventually...) we both thought it was pretty hilarious later, though. i'm just glad i don't have to take Sara's route to school. i ride a bus for 10-15 minutes or take a 30-45 minute walk and i'm at school. Sara has to (everyday) walk 15 minutes from her house to the station, fight to get on the train and ride 15 minutes to downtown Kyoto, where she then grabs bus #5, which is the most ridiculously crowded bus in the whole city, and rides it for 30 minutes until she gets to school. i think i'd go crazy if i had to ride that bus twice every day; doing it once or twice a week is more than enough for me. in fact, i go out of my way to either walk or find another bus to take so i can avoid 5-bus. (the thing is like Satan on wheels, or something.)

guess that's about it, though. i'm kind of scared to see how long this entry is...err... (also it's magically 12:30 now--i told you i was long-winded!) we've got some cool things coming up though--this Friday is firelight Noh! i'm so excited for it, which is silly, because Noh has to be the most boring thing ever. but still: yay, Noh! also gotta hit the bank tomorrow, because i have no money left--gotta get some traveler's cheques exchanged. that's not really a cool thing that's coming up, but i just remembered it as i was typing so i shared.

will update again soon, hopefully! take care, everyone!

(also: Hi, Grandma! XD)