Our day with the Okis could not have been any more amazing! We started our morning at The Stone Garden at Ryoanji. It is amazing that such a peaceful Zen temple could exist inside of the bustling city of Kyoto (Boston's "sister city"). The only sounds you could hear were shoes crunching over the pebbles, water dripping from stone to stone, and the birds chirping from the trees. Inside of the rectangular garden, there were 15 stones of various sizes on top of a bed of perfectly raked gravel. The fascinating thing about this site was that viewers are only able to see 14 of the 15 stones no matter your location in the garden.
Next, we visited Kinkaku-ji Temple (the Golden Temple). The temple has three floors. The bottom floor houses relics of the Buddha, and the Phoenix rests on the top of the third floor. The mythical Phoenix represents fire, the sun, justice, obedience, and fidelity. It is the symbol of the imperial household, and can be found on the back of the 10,000 yen note.
Afterwards, we visited the Kyoto International Manga Museum. I didn’t know much about Manga before today, but I’ve since learned that it is a popular type of comic found all over the world. The Manga Industry is worth over 3 trillion yen! The type of Manga that is produced varies in product, audience (men, women, and children), and purpose. Although Manga was once something that was only published, it is now a media mix and is found in television, movies, music, games, and toys.
For lunch, we had an exquisite meal at the Kyoto Century Hotel. Although, I didn’t think lunch could get any better, it did when Aika came! Aikaa is an incoming 2nd grader at Lawrence, and she said she is ready to help the teachers during our unit on Japan next year.
With full stomachs, we headed to Heian Shrine. Yet again, our breath was taken away at the sight of the beautiful buildings. While at the shrine, we each bought an ema, which is a wooden plate that you write your wish on and hang in the shrine with the hope of it coming true. We also received omikujis, which are fortune-telling papers. According to Mr. Oki, my future is looking a little grim…Therefore, I tied the paper tightly around a tree branch, hoping that my bad fortune would be averted.
Although I didn’t think our day could get any better, we realized the Oki family saved the best for last! We began walking up the hillside by way of Teapoy Lane, which has shops and homes designed in ancient Japanese style. We then made our way up the hillside of Mount Otowa and entered the Kiyomizu-dera Temple. This amazing structure, that was made without any nails, provided an unbelievable view of Kyoto City. The juxtaposition of “the old and the new” in Kyoto was very evident from this Temple. With the hope of improving my spirits from my devastating fortune, the Oki’s ended our tour at the Jishu Shrine to walk between the “love stones”.