Kyoto and Nara--Winter Break Part 1--(12/21-12/23)

First stop on the whirlwind tour of this area of Japan (the Kansai Area, as it's called) was Osaka, where I arrived on the ferry, then stored my bags in a locker and headed straight for the temple of To-ji,where I promptly joined the 8 AM crowds at theTo-ji monthly flea market (21st of every month at To-ji, south of Kyoto station.) To-ji is a second home to me of sorts because of its association with the Buddhist Shingon sect's patron saint and well-known Buddhist chief monk and scholar Kobo Daishi, whose pilgrimage I want to walk around Shikoku (the 88 temple pilgrimage.) Also, To-ji is famous for having the tallest pagoda (multi-layered tower) in Kyoto. I got a couple of shots of the pagoda while I was there. But first and foremost, shopping! Wandering through the stalls, I picked up some dried mango and delicious hand made rice and bean paste sweets, then scouted for some books and interesting Japanese memorabilia. I found a nice lady who showed me around to some of the hanging scroll tables (she was a calligrapher herself, and gave me a card to come see her exhibit the following day, but unfortunately I already had plans to go to Nara--see below) then met a guy who was trying to pass off a woodblock print as a genuine Hiroshige to some guys from Europe. I warned then in English that he was full of shit (a Hiroshige print is NOT going to cost the equivalent of 200 bucks USD at a flea market in Kyoto) and kept wandering... I finally picked up some Edo period yakimono, pottery, for my Aunt Terry and some books on Japanese art for myself.
After touring the market itself, which is on the grounds of the temple but not the inner part, I bought a ticket and let myself in to see the buildings. I did get a closer look at the pagoda, but I especially came in to get a peek into the main hall and the lecture hall, in which lies a mandala (cosmic world representation) composed of statues, supposedly set up by Kobo Daishi himself. It was exactly as impressive as I remembered. It was definitely worth the admission fee. Then, I took a break and had lunch by a pond... and a little egret was having lunch there as well, as I watched him hunt his prey, succesfully getting a fish lunch!
Well, after an exhausting day touring To-ji, it was time to head back to Osaka, where I got thoroughly lost trying to find my concert venue in the big city to go see Bloodthirsty Butchers and Shonen Knife..finally made it, good show! Then off to sleep in Osaka before pulling out early the next morning for Nara----
Day 2, Nara: arriving and just putting my bags down was a nice feeling, then pulling out the maps and getting situated was a whole different experience in itself. Somewhere in this sleepy town famous as the first capital of Japan, currently celebrating its 1300 year anniversary of becoming the first capital (next was Kyoto and finally, as we all know, Tokyo,) was the ryokan - traveller's inn- that I would be staying at that night. About a 25 minute walk, department store clerk's map, and phone call later, I was finally set on the right path to the ryokan--and yep, sure enough it was uphill with 3 bags in tow. Great. But, actually, it was! I dropped my bags off at the inn and headed out, and it was pretty centrally located! Yay! I walked up to Tofuku-ji temple and wandered into their Treasure Hall, checking out some of the oldest sculptural representations and temple memorabilia in all of Japan...then snapped some pictures of its fun Chinese building. Next was the giant Todai-ji temple, with the giant Buddha and the park of wandering deer fame. I got to feed biscuits to the deer, and its true! If you hold up the biscuits, they BOW for them! Smart deer! =) Then, inside the temple, they were selling new roof shingles, so sure enough I bought one and wrote my own message on it, for world peace (I know, how trite. But hey, gotta start somewhere! John and Yoko would be proud.) Then, met an American family from a military base in Japan, explained a couple of things about the temple to them. That felt pretty cool (oh yeah, I've been there before... no worries!)
Then, it was off to a slightly lesser visited temple, called Toshodaiji, on the outskirts of the city of Nara, to go see a temple established by a Chinese monk, and famous for its sculpture as well. I snapped this photo of a Thousand- Armed Kannon figure (the goddess of compassion) that actually has 1000 arms. Wow. And the grounds were really peaceful.. I got to talking to one of the guards, and he told me the time periods for the figures in the temple dated from samurai times. He was like "why are you interested in Buddhist art?" and I was like "Idk but I'd love to know myself." But he was impressed, I guess. Well, then it was back to spend the night in my lovely guest room overlooking the inner courtyard garden of a former geisha house. So serene! Next morning, it was off in the airport bus to Kansai Internaional Airport and, that afternoon, Shanghai...