Catchin’ Up, Catchin’ Up!

(RE the title of this bog: I wish this was a Neil Young Song but unfortunately I just imposed my own words on an as-of-yet-known NY melody. Gomen ne!!)

***I just took a seat on the JR (Japan Railway) train to Nara and thought it might be nice to jot a few notes before some of my memories slip away effortlessly like the sound of the shrill meditation bell that vibrates my ear drum each morning. In lieu of a blow-by-blow (hey, I’m pretty exhausted!) report of my activities I think a highlight reel will do.

I forgot to even mention how great Myōshinji is. Once the temple of important landholders (daimyō) in medieval Japan, the facility is decked out with clever security measures, including a hiding spot for ninjas, and secret weapon stashes.

Sept. 1

• Shokokuji: a beautifully appointed (ahem, money!) Zen temple complex of crisp white Edo buildings. Toured a Zen painting exhibition that was quite masterfully organized and arranged. Saw the famous ten oxherding pictures (!!!) and marveled at their cement rendition of a stone garden – it looked real. 

• Lunch in an old café where radicals used to gather (and perhaps still do!). The owner is a well-known photographer and was very involved with helping Korean-Japanese people when the government was fingerprinting them back in the 70’s. He made us vegetable curry and I imagined the wooden room crowded with smoke and revolutionary ideas from time past.

• Journey through sterile subway stations full of muted suits and school uniforms softened only by two lovely women in pale blue kimono on the way to a remote mountain shrine on the outskirts of Kyoto. Hiked up mountain, snapping shots of beautiful flowers and warning signs cautioning passersby about monkeys, wild boars, and chikan (male gropers) along the way, and then down the other side – fearless leader Lindsey (aka nabi-gyaru [“Navigation Gal”])! – toward Nanzenji, yet another extremely important Zen complex. Saw spiders and frogs while following ancient path markers (people have been using the same trail since at least the 500’s). Passed a cave and continued through groves of day-glo ferns and vines and more ferns and then around a tiny waterfarll, where the late afternoon sunlight filtered through the trees and across a striking vermilion bridge. I felt high. The trail winded down past a crowded cemetery full of shiny stone memorials and Buddha statues to the Kyoto aqueduct, a Meiji construction of brick that felt sorely out of place in the otherwise quintessential Japanese environment. The sun bestowed upon us the most beautiful soft light I had ever seen, creating a golden glow that was impossibly wonderful.

• Sunset snack along canal facing out towards the Heian Shrine gate (HUGE concrete torii) at a small French café. Drank red wine and ate salmon pate and foie gras (my first time, I’ll have you know) with crusty bread. I took small bites of the rich delicacies and sat up very tall, envisioning myself as an aristocratic French woman with impeccable taste.

• Toured my future house (I hope!), an old machiya with a terribly malfunctioning door that maintains the time-of-yore spirit fully and only rents out to scholars. Yes, please!

Sept. 2

• Continued my nascent meditation practice and was actually able to let go a little. Great feeling.

• Hopped on a bike and peddled through hoards of directionless school kids to pick up a big bottle of fresh soy milk – it had literally been pressed that morning.

• Absolutely delicious breakfast at Daishin’in with perfectly poached egg, rice, seaweed, pickles, etc.

• Tōji: a walk through one of Kyoto’s poorer areas, which has been known as such since Kyoto was first established, to one of Kyoto’s most important temples. Huge lecture hall (kōdō) full of mandalized (based on the Benevolent Kings Sutra, an important text for state protection) Vajrayana Buddhist images of the like you will see nowhere else. Except for five Edo reconstructions, they are all Heian period originals. And although the hall burned down several times since its initial construction (even today there are rows of red water buckets ready for duty), the layout remains exactly as it was. Crystal eyes of the imposing statues inlaid with gold stared penetratingly at each who entered the building, provoking a bit of discomfort and self reflection. The statues represented both the active (scary and mean) and passive (light and airy) sides of compassion and flank a large Dainichi Nyorai (center of the cosmos Buddha). Adjacent to the lecture hall was the Hall of Light (kondō). A musty smell permeated the dark interior, and it took my eyes several minutes to adjust fully to the dim light. When I did I saw a huge Yakushi Nyorai (medicine Buddha) accompanied by the sun and moon light bodhisattvas (Nikkō and Gakkō). Tall, slender (but still enormous) gilded lotus pedestals framed the entire scene. The overwhelming stillness was unfortunately interrupted by a loud group of school kids passing through, feet shuffling and cell phone straps jingling, led by an impeccably dressed woman in a button hat who waved a red flag. That only momentarily distracted me from the beauty of dust on gold and the refreshing feeling of circulating breeze on my hot skin.

• Byōdōin: This place struck a chord in my heart of hearts, and I truly did not want to leave. The Pure Splendor of this Pure Land realization is beyond description. All I could do was sit beneath the out-of-season wisteria canopy (I might have passed out had the beautiful flowers been in full purple bloom!) and gaze out over the pond and aged hall, with its rusty orange pillars and painted doors (each representing the descent/ascent of Amida Buddha to people of varying classes and births). The recently restored Amida sits inside the main hall, forever meditating on the setting sun. The temple began as an 11th century vision of the Essentials of Salvation (Ōjōyōshū) come to life – the text describes the descent of Amida to meet the dying, riding down on clouds with music, golden rays of light, bodhisattvas (including Kannon with open arms full of blessings and sublimity). And although the once-colorful masterpiece of intricate designs and 52 bodhisattvas flying on clouds has faded to the naked eye, if you really look (with your third eye) the colors are as magnificent as ever.

• True to habit, we closed the day with cold beer (and the most delicious lightly pickled cucumbers I’d ever eaten) and reflected on the day before heading to the mountains of Shigaraki for another fantastic adventure

• Shigaraki (信楽 these characters mean belief/trust and joy – how great!): this gorgeous mountainous region lies north and slightly west of Kyoto near Lake Biwa. We met Tetsuya-san, one of Cynthea’s potter friends, at the train station. He saw us, the only foreigners, from afar and waved his hands as wide and tall as they would reach to grab our attention. We piled into his large van, aptly named Living Saloon, and drove into the night. A quick stop at a fancy sake store for a big bottle of namazake (fresh sake – can’t find it in the States!) and we hit the road, up windy mountain roads to their house. Momoko and their three little girls (Hana [flower], Fū [wind], and Midori [green]) were waiting at their masterful open-air wood house preparing dinner. Momoko’s parents came over from next door (it is very common in Japan to live near your parents…I wish!) and we ate such a feast and drank that whole bottle of sake. The little girls pretended to be shy as they munched on salted chicken wings, but I always caught them watching me with smiles when I wasn’t looking. Of all the delicious food I’d have to say that my favorite, and certainly the most memorable, was the year old fermented rice ball with little sardine-like fish inside. May sound awful to many Americans, but that with sake and beer is a real tasty treat (as it were, I’m so happy to be an adventurous eater. How boring otherwise!!). Drunk on food, spirits, and (most importantly) great company I drifted away in a hot bath, slipped on a crisp yukata (had forgotten all other clothes), and crashed into a soft cotton futon, not to be awaken till Hana peaked her head in to say goodbye before heading to school, looking so adorable in her uniform.

• Miho Museum: Beautiful museum set in the mountains, away from it all, funded by some super secret new religious group that no one can seem to get much information about. What is obvious is that they have TONS of money. The buildings were designed by I.M. Pei, a famous architect, into the hillsides (80% of the buildings are underground), and no expense was spared inside or outside. All the employees were members of the sect, and they wore slightly creepy pale blue suits and had a strange glint in their eye. One was a young blonde American who somehow reminded me of Dr. Evil. Oh, and they buzzed around in silent electric cars. Interesting… The museum collection was astounding, and along with Japanese pieces they had old Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, etc. We were most interested in the Jakuchū (Edo period painter) exhibit, which I quite enjoyed.

• Still in Shigaraki, Momoko and Tetsuya took us down an extremely narrow mountain road to a lovely old farmhouse turned noodle house. While waiting for my food I jotted down a few notes: “I sat on tatami and watched crisp white curtains dance in the breeze through the double layered frosted glass with mountain scenes. A lotus-shaped record player sat in the corner, and a family with a newborn sat behind us. I listened to them slurp their noodles. We ate anago (a type of eel) tempura dipped in green tea salt to begin with, and then dined on assorted soba (in both noodle and dough form [which comes in a bowl of hot broth]) combinations. A quick jaunt even further into the mountains to buy fresh green tea, and a short stop back at the Ōtani house (I stood up out the sunroof of their car to photograph the amazing fields of abundant rice) to make our final ceramic selections, watch Tetsuya turn out a beautiful bowl in no time at all, and enjoy tea and sweets, and we headed to the bus stop. I liked this day (although I was wearing the same clothes from the day before and was extremely exhausted!)

***I wrote some of this from small a izakaya while eating fresh tomato, cold tofu topped with bonito negi seaweed, ginger, drinking beer listening to the white noise of urusai Japanese television in the background.