Japan Vacation: Kyoto Day 2

     On my second day in Kyoto, the first place I headed to was the Kiyomizu temple. There is a popular expression centered around the main building and its stage, "to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu". It is similar to when we say "take a leap of faith" in the states. There was an Edo period tradition that if one were to survive the 13m jump from the stage, one's wish would be granted. Two hundred thirty-four jumps were recorded in the Edo period and, of those, 85.4% survived (O_O). The practice is now prohibited.

Also at the temple is the Otowa waterfall, where three channels of water fall into a pond. Visitors are allowed to catch and drink the water, which is said to have wish-granting powers.

There are these two labeled rocks at a distance from one another that hold are said to hold powers of their own. It is said that if a person can walk from one rock to the other with their eyes closed, they will find their true love.

     Next, I headed to Ginkaku-ji, the "Temple of the Silver Pavilion".  It and its brother temple Kinkaku-ji, the "Temple of the Golden Pavilion", are two of the most popular Zen temples in Kyoto. Both were meant to serve as places of rest and solitude for the Shogun, or military dictator. They also were meant to be covered in Gold and Silver respectively, but it only happened with the Kinkaku-ji temple due to delays with the Ginkaku-ji temple. Even more popular than those two temples however is the Ryoan-ji temple, the "Temple of the Dragon at Peace". It houses the most famous Zen garden in all of Japan. 

Garden historian Gunter Nitschke wrote: "The garden at Ryoan-ji does not symbolize anything, or more precisely, to avoid any misunderstanding, the garden of Ryoan-ji does not symbolize, nor does it have the value of reproducing a natural beauty that one can find in the real or mythical world. I consider it to b an abstract composition of "natural" objects in a space, a composition whose function is to incite meditation."

     When night rolled around I headed to an evening show featuring Geisha. The show consisted of 7 different parts: Chado (Tea Ceremony), Koto (Japanese Harp), Kado (Flower Arrangement), Gagaku (Court Music), Kyogen (Ancient Comic Play), Kyomai (Kyoto Style Dance), and Bunraku (Puppet Play). It was an interesting show, with my favorite part being the Kyogen. The story was about a lord tying up his servants to prevent them from stealing his sake while he was away from home. The servants then engage in creative ways to steal the sake anyway, and are caught when the lord returns home. I caught on to this after I turned off the camera. :/ Below is a video with pictures and video clips from the different parts of the show. 

That was the last event of the day. 

After I was back at my hostel, I prepared for my day trip to Hiroshima!