Hey all it’s been a while since my last
blog entry and for a good reason, makes a change doesn’t it. This monkey has
been on a Journey for a little over a week with a good friend from the UK,
travelling around Japan and beyond. I’ll probably dedicate a few posts to our
little adventure as we managed to pack quite a bit in. So without further ado
I’ll start with the time we spent in Kyoto.
Our journey actually began in Osaka. We
checked into my old stomping ground, J-Hoppers. I’m a massive fan of this
hostel. I’m not sure if it’s the friendly atmosphere, the eccentric staff
(“It’s OK” followed by the best laugh I’ve ever heard) or its fantastic
location, the ominously named Fukushima district of Osaka. Either way something
about the place keeps me coming back and I’m sure I’ll find my way there again
at some point.
At the time we were travelling the Gion
Matsuri, one of Japan’s three biggest festivals, was taking place. It was only
natural that we wanted to check it out. The festival officially runs throughout
the entire month of July however the main event takes place on the 17th.
When I say main event I mean MAIN EVENT. The focus of the festival is the
parade of giant やまぼこ(festival floats)
and みこし(portable shrines) from
Yasaka Shrine in Gion, through the main high street and into the city centre. 
The floats were just incredible to watch. The
main carriage was nearly as big as a small bungalow, with an estimated weight
of nearly 12tonnes. Atop them are large poles, representative of spears used to
purify the streets of Kyoto during the original ceremony that the festival is
dedicated to, which reach upto 25 metres in height. As you can imagine it takes
a lot of grunt to haul these things along with around 30 – 40 burly foot people
tugging on their ropes.
Even more impressive was how these things
corner. Being so huge it was somewhat of a spectacle. First large sheets of
bamboo doused in water are laid under the front wheels (each about 2 metres in
diameter). The float is then pulled at a 90 degree angle in the direction it
needs to be turned and slides around over the bamboo.
In addition to the pullers there are also many
musicians sitting atop the floats playing drums, flutes and a variety of other
percussive instruments. On the underside are a few crazy souls whose job it is
to guide the wheels using small wooden paddles to keep the float moving in a
straight line. I’d say there must have been about 80 people total per float.
Pretty incredible.
There other floats that, whilst smaller, are
no less impressive. These were adorned with figures and dioramas of famous
people and past events in Kyoto city. Each one clearly crafted with care and
dedication that I’ve come to expect of Japanese Matsuris. A highlight for me
was a shrine with a large preying mantis puppet onto that was operated from
inside the shrine. It bowed and waved at the crowd as it moved by.
Sadly the heat of the day was extreme, it must
have been about 40 degrees, and the streets were incredibly crowded so we moved
away from the festival towards the centre of Gion. We took a turn into the
nishiki street market to ogle at the random food on sale and grab a quick
smoothie before carrying further on to try some Kyudo.
Alas the Kyudo instructor was out. The sign
said he was either to drunk to come in to work or he was teaching at a middle
school tournament, I like to think it was the former. Instead we went and had a
look at the manga museum. As would become a theme for the trip I got a little
more out of this than my friend since I can read Japanese.
The previous day we spent some time wandering
around the Arashiyama district in the northern part of Kyoto. It’s a little bit
out of the way but I thought it would be a nice place to wander around away
from the crowds.
Admittedly there isn’t so much in Arashiyama
if you are wanting to do some major sightseeing. It does make up for it in two
ways however. One it's a stunning place in terms of natural beauty, I don’t
recall seeing any buildings above two stories and it very much has a feel of
Japan in ‘the old days’. Secondly there is a massive river flowing through the
centre providing much needed cooling in the summer heat.
Our first stop was lunch. Options were a bit
limited but we found a nice little caf off the beaten track. One thing I
learned from this is that in Japan when you enter a restaurant check the age of
the people in the kitchen. As a rule of thumb if they look over 50 you are onto
a good thing.
With full bellies we made our way to the
riverside to see the Togetsu-kyo (moon crossing bridge). It was a little
underwhelming sadly due to the foot and tyre based traffic but I reckon it
would look really cool at night. Forging on over the bridge we made a short
trip up the nearby mountainside to arashiyama monkey park. 
This small mountain was home to roughly 200
Japanese Macaques. Whilst wild they were pretty used to having a human presence
and barely turned a bright red cheek at our approach. Normally I don’t go in
for animal stuff in Japan but these guys seemed to have it made. Plenty of food and space to chill provided they put on a little show every
couple of hours during the day. In fact during one such show there was a stage
invasion in the form of a wild boar, much to the crowds amusement.
Descending the mountain we headed towards
Tenryu-ji (Heavenly Dragon temple) one of the more famous Buddhist temples of
Kyoto. Entering it was clear to see why. If I’m honest the structure didn’t
impress me so much, it was fairly typical of temples of the time. The garden on
the other hand was amazing. Spreading out into the nearby mountain it covered
considerable ground and had one of the prettiest ponds I have yet seen in a
temple.
We wandered around the garden for a fair while
before heading out the northern entrance to wander through the bamboo forest
before turning back to the train station. Sadly we didn't manage to check out
Ukai (fishing with trained cormorants) that was happening later in the day but
there was always next time ey.
Right that's enough for this leg. Next Tokyo.
Mata ne.
