Kyoto

I missed a day "blogging" and thus need to catch up.  Yesterday, we checked out of the Ibis Styles Hotel but left our luggage at reception.  In Japan, the storage method is to leave the bags in the hotel lobby and throw a fishing net over it until one returns to pick it up.  We walked a short distance to small  restaurant and got breakfast.  Betsy had toast, hard boiled egg and a salad; I tried something that looked like an omelet.  It was a scrambled egg laid on top of fried rice.  I also had a salad.  We next wallked to the Toji Temple, which is comprised of several large, old buildings.  We first toured (sans shoes) the Kondo or Main Hall.  It was originally built in the 8th century, burned down in 1486 and reconstructed in 1603.  It combines a Japanese double roof "irimoya" style and the Indian "tenjuku" style into one building.  It encloses three large Buddhists gods - Medicine, Sun and Moon.  

The next building is the Kodo or Lecture Hall.  It was built in around 835, damaged by typhoons and earthquakes and the present building dates to 1491.  It contains a variety of Buddas and other statues (21 in all), those that have reached enlightment, those that have put enlightment off to save people with mercy, the Wisdom Kings who lead people with austerity and ten "guardians," who protect the first 3 categories of gods.  We walked around the back side of the statues in this building, something we have never done before.  By the way, they are all carved wood, then gold leaf covered.

The last significant building on the grounds is the Five-Storied Pagoda, the highest pagoda in Japan at 187 feet.  It has burned down 4 times (being struck by lightning) but has never been damaged by earthquakes.  The interlocking pieces absorb the energy, dampening it in a motion known as the "snake dance."  The current pagoda was built in 1644.

We walked back to train station to check out the food courts in a large department store - Aeon.  Like in London, they are in the basements.  On B2 it is more like a grocery store and food court (where we bought some snacks for "elevenies") and on B1, they sell the fancy little gift boxes with all manner of stuff.  It is tradition in Japan that all travelers must bring a small gift home for all friends and family.  As we wondering the train station looking for a place to eat our snacks we ran into Donna and Ralph, two of our Kumano Kodo hiking pilgrams.  Imagine meeting them among 10,000 people at the station.  We  planned to get together with them for drinks and dinner later that night. 

We next retrived our luggage and taxied to the Hyatt.  We checked in to a very nice room with a lot more space.

We had a couple of hours and thought we would go across the street to the Kyoto National Museum.  It is closed for renovation and only has an exhibition going on, which had a 90 minute queue.  So we wnet back across the stree and visited the Sanjusangendo Temple.  It is the "longest" wooden building in Japan at 120 meters.  It has thrity-three bays (between columns) and houses 1001 Budda statues of the deity known as Kannon.  There is a large Budda in the centered and 28 deities placed in the front of the Kannon statues,  The Thunder God and Wind God anchor each end of the line.  The Kannon statues were made in the 12th and 13th centuries.  We got to walk a back hall back to the entry point, learning about the construction of the hall, and about an archery competition developed, which is carried on.  It intially involved shooting arrows for 24-hours the length of the building at a target, counting the number of arrows shot and the number that hit the target.

We cleaned up for dinner, walked about 4 blocks to a subway stop, figured out how much a ticket was and which stop to get off on, and journeyed to meet up with our new friends Donna and Ralph, who were at the Ritz Carlton.  We had drinks at the hotel then went for dinner at place that specializes in pork cutlets and all the cabbage slaw you can eat.  It was fun to talk about our recent adventure on the trail.  We hope to meet up with them in the Bay area sometime in the future.