Preparing for New Year

New Year is coming, and I am getting into the Shougatsu spirit by decorating my house! This is a shimenawa, made from a rope of twisted straw; hanging these on or above the door is meant to keep out evil spirits.

Another traditional decoration for New Year is kadomatsu, which means 'gate-pine': it's customary to put out a pair of these, made with pine and bamboo, either side of your gate or main door. They're intended to attract the attention of the gods to invite them into your house; the idea is that bigger and more impressive kadomatsu will be more appealing.

It's not very practical to put anything outside my door, as it opens right next to the wall, and also giant pine thingos would be rather in the way. Instead I have gone for "small is beautiful", with these tiny but perfect plantpots that I found at the Kamigamo market. I found them irresistibly cute; hopefully the gods will too -- and won't mind coming in through the window! It's really a much nicer way in than the front door; just look at the view...

To market, to market!

The weather was still fairly fine today, so I decided to venture out to the Sunday market at Kamigamo Shrine. According to the Kyoto Kankou guide, this flea market is held every fourth Sunday, which this just happens to be, and Kamigamo Shrine, although "quite a trek from Downtown Kyoto", as Inside Kyoto says, is a fairly short bike ride -- just 3km according to Google Maps -- from the RIHN House.

Kankou's remarks are that "It will be held, rain or shine, but cancelled when a red alert is given." I wonder what a red alert is?  Still, it did not seem there was one in force today, as the market was in full swing. Most of the stores were selling hand-made craft items: jewellery, ceramic-ware, textiles, papers, carved wood.  There were also quite a few food stalls, which I enjoyed tasting my way around! Artisanal bakery goods seem to be a popular handicraft item, with everything from French pastries to soba cookies and "matcha-pan", small loaves of bread baked with a green-tea swirl. (These looked really tasty, but I didn't think I would eat a whole loaf on my own -- maybe next time I will buy one and take it to the office to share.)  One feature is that almost everything is packaged tiny-small and cute -- a single miniature slice of cake, perfectly wrapped; three cookies tied up in paper with a ribbon. It gives a sense of specialness to something so little.


The market extends all the way down by the canal. There's no apparent organisation of sections, which makes for more interesting browsing. A random selection of the quirky things I came across: beautiful wooden dragonfly and bee sculptures, carved and weighted to balance on the tip of a stand; smoked soy sauce and olive oil; blown-glass hanging ornaments which could be filled with water to put flowers or plants into -- or fish! a couple of them had tiny minnows with a sprig of water plant inside. I was tempted to get one but worried it was not really sustainable for the fish to survive; hanging lamps made from whisky, gin and beer bottles and mustard jars -- these were a really unusual and innovative idea; the Heineken bottles looked a bit tacky but the whisky and mustard ones would be great in some kind of underground bohemian bar.

I also enjoyed tasting five different kinds of tea made from the same plant: a black tea, from drying the leaves; a delicate green tea, made just from the tips; a 'full moon' green tea, from the shoots left to mature; and two roasted stem teas (houjicha), one a strong roast and the other quite mild. I reminded myself, though, that I am having a tea-buying moratorium for now.

Finally I thought I should have a quick look around the shrine itself, though I plan to come back on New Year's Day. Today it was much quieter than the market, with just a few people coming to pray, including some couples in full kimono. These two cones formed from sand stand in front of the building in the main courtyard -- I'm not sure what they are meant to represent, though!

I couldn't resist buying some pickles at only 100 yen a pack, having avoided the much-higher prices at the Nishiki market last week.  I also succumbed to the charm of a stall selling tiny bonsai cactus arrangements -- there were a few plant stalls, but only this one had such perfect miniature specimens.  These are now part of my New Year decorations, about which more soon!

After a good couple of hours wandering and browsing, I was cold all the way through and ready for some hot and hearty food in a warm place before heading home.  Although the teishoku promised by Google Maps (今井食堂) didn't seem to be there, an unassuming cafe a bit further up the road turned out to have just what I needed. It took me rather a long time to puzzle my way through the menu, but having done so, in the end I thought I knew what to expect -- and what arrived was actually what I expected! All for 580yen: ginger pork, karaage chicken, fried eggplant, and the accompaniments of miso soup, salad, rice and pickles; "gochi-so-sama-deshita" indeed!

A Boxing Day bike adventure in Higashiyama

So I thought, after painstakingly uploading all these photos via my phone Blogger interface, that it was so buggy that it just lost them when I switched apps, and was sufficiently frustrated and discouraged that I couldn't be bothered to repost them. But no, it just hid the draft post somewhere...

So here's what I did on a lovely clear day over the Christmas-New Year holiday that, according to the date on this pictures, appears to have been Boxing Day!  I headed out on my bike, down to the river, and got off at Demachiyanagi to go over to the Higashiyama area.  This is known for various temples and the Philosopher's Path, Tetsugaku-no-michi, a charming stretch down by the canal. 

This is going to be spectacular in cherry blossom season.




Before meandering down here, though, I went up to Ginkaku-ji, the "Silver Pavilion". It's not actually silver, just called that to distinguish it from Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion, on the other side of town. But it does have a beautifully laid out garden, and some wonderful views over the city.


I was initially puzzled by what looked like a large grey concrete mound labelled something about moon-viewing. This seemed like a very odd thing to feature in a Japanese garden, until I realised that its smooth, unblemished solid surface was actually formed from carefully swept-together and moulded sand!  In fact, there is an entire garden of sand, raked into carefully harmonious patterns. (I wonder what happens when it rains...



One day I'm going to figure out how to make Blogger reliably put photos side by side.  Til then, filling the empty space with pointless text it is!

Perfect reflections in the tranquil lake...

... and a view over the city to the west.

  

Here we have what I made out from the characters to be a "tea-spring", and a reflection of the pavilion itself. (Blogger, I do not understand how you work with photos and alignments. Don't tell me I'm going to have to start editing in HTML!)

So ok, Blogger phone interface apparently saved some of the photos and deleted the rest.  I'm going to post this before it changes its mind!  Part 2... later.

Boxing Day Bike Adventure, Part 2

After Ginkaku-Ji, it was time for a meander down the Philosopher's Path. This is a delightful area, with pathways leading up to hillside temples at every turn.







Reaching the end of the path, I turned off in search of lunch and found... okonomiyaki!

Refuelled, I continued on and found myself at the Great Gate of Nanzen-ji.

I chose not to go into the temple or climb the gate today, but instead parked my bike and wandered into the hills behind the temple, where I found this unexpected aqueduct.

Climbing up behind the aqueduct and following the water along, I came to a hill with a view over the city and... what is that enormous orange torii gate??

A statue of some dude who might have had something to do with building the Lake Biwa canal through the mountains, or maybe not.

The Biwa canal basin.  This canal, I was later to discover, runs all the way from Lake Biwa on the other side of the mountains, through a tunnel, and into the basin before entering the network of canals around the Okazaki Park area, supplying Kyoto with fresh water.

And here it is: the huge O-Torii of Heian-Jingu!  I had never seen this before, not having been out to the east side of the city on previous trips, and thus had no idea what it was when I saw it from the mountain-side. Now I have seen it, it's amazing that I didn't know it was there -- it really is massive.