My hotel was already filled before I made my reservations, for the night of April 10, so I decided to go to Mt. Koya and stay in a temple overnight. I admit I did this without proper research. My primary concern had been for a western toilet; I can’t squat. I never thought about how cold it could be on top of a mountain, until earlier in the week.

Mt. Koya is a special place, one of the holiest mountains in Japan; filled with very old religious structures, temples and cedar trees. The temples are a business; the trees are what get to me. They seem to penetrate my very being. I came here in 2007 but didn’t stay overnight. This time I would make up for it.

My temple for the night

I arrived in the afternoon and checked in to my temple. At first, I couldn’t figure out how to do this. Everything seemed closed up and no one was around. Then one of the sliding panels opened. Three men were sitting on the floor at very low desks in a tiny room, lined with shelves and filled with papers and cartons of papers. As someone who lives with a perpetual mess I was delighted to see that even greater messes could be created by someone else. However, it sort of ruined my concept of Buddhism as filled with peace and order.

After getting my room and instructions about dinnertime I went for a walk in Okunoin, the cemetery with the amazing trees. This is the place on Mt. Koya that moved me the most and the only place I cared to revisit.

My room was lovely and orderly, as you can see and overlooked a garden that was probably wonderful in late spring and summer. Dinner was the special shojin ryori, Buddhist vegan cuisine, which is supposed to have five flavors, five cooking methods and five colors, a grilled dish, a deep fried dish, a pickled dish, a tofu dish and a soup dish. I don’t remember what was grilled, if anything was, the deep fried dish was vegetable tempura, there were several kinds of pickles and at least three kinds of tofu: freeze-dried tofu, regular tofu, and the best one, tofu boiled with sesame seeds. I liked that so much, I might try to do it at home.

My room was warm, in fact I had to cool it down, but every place else in the temple was cold. I read for awhile then tried to go to sleep. Unlike the other times I have slept on futons, I did not have a good night. I added another futon and that helped, but I never felt comfortable. I was up before six and went to the morning service at 6:30. I enjoyed the chanting and the periodic ringing sound that went with it. There was also a sermon or lesson given at the same time by one of the priests.

After a not so interesting breakfast I gathered my few belongings but my plan to go for another walk in Okunoin was instantly scrapped by the snow and very cold wind. I decided the best thing was to leave.

I am trying to get caught up with these posts. I’ve been too tired in the evenings to write, so each was written the following morning until yesterday when I had 2 days worth to write. After I write this post and finish packing I am going on another short trip; just one night, but I have a feeling I’ll come back 2 days behind again. In any case, I’ll probably be absent for a day.

Getting back to yesterday, it was another beautiful day and I took myself off to revisit Taizo-in, another of my favorite gardens. I arrived to find traffic cops in front of the temple complex: not a good sign. Temples are usually quiet, sleepy places in no need of traffic direction. Taizo-in was having a special opening to show off its cherry blossoms and I arrived with what seemed like hundreds of Japanese all armed with cameras. I’m not about to tell you cameras are bad, but all these people needed to take pictures of their wives/girlfriends in front of the weeping cherry just as you enter. Made for quite a backup.

I wandered through, more than a little disappointed with the crowds and suddenly they abated and I was able to sit and enjoy most of the garden. The cherry blossoms focus attention to different viewpoints than did the red maple leaves.

Sento Palace is part of the Kyoto Imperial Palace. Tours have to be arranged in advance, which I did on Monday. You don’t get to see inside the palace, which was created for retired emperors. The tour took us around the garden, not as great as the garden inside the Imperial Palace walls, but very nice, indeed. There were about 50 of us on the tour and we had a guide who spoke only in Japanese, so I was able to ignore her, and a keeper who remained at the back of the group to make sure no one stayed behind. At one point we had to cross a small stream by walking on rocks and I couldn’t do it. He saw my distress and motioned me to wait, then helped me get across. Very nice.

After all that I got on a bus and went to the main shopping area, to another of those covered arcades, Nishiki Market, filled with food shops. Most of it did not interest me: too much preserved, pickled and salty stuff. One place was selling salads and prepared foods. I thought I saw brussel sprouts and got very excited. I bought a small container and also a piece of eggplant. The eggplant was OK; more sauce on it than I like, but the brussel sprouts weren’t. I don’t know what they were, but they weren’t vegetables. Something made into small balls and covered with another unidentifiable green sauce. Sometimes I don’t see so well, or maybe it was because I wanted them to be vegetable.

The hotel offers free Japanese language lessons 2 evenings a week and I’ve been taking them. I am not learning many new words, but I’ve been able to ask questions about many of the mystery things. I found out, for instance, the green stuff I’ve been eating is not spinach, but a different green called komastuna, which has similar properties to spinach and can be eaten raw or cooked. Now I can look for it raw, which I would prefer.

I don’t have time to add pictures this morning. I have to get out of here, but I’ll get back to it later. Now I am off to Koyasan, a mountain filled with Buddhist temples, where I will sleep on the floor again and have two, entirely vegetarian meals.

Beautiful sunshine and cool; just the way I like it. I still haven’t made a real plan for Kyoto, and maybe never will. Just doing whatever comes to mind. So I decided to go to Rengeji, a temple that’s almost into the mountains north of Kyoto. I took two buses and a train, then started walking. This was another one of these ‘on faith’ trips. A sign at the train station said it was 350 meters across the bridge. It never said which fork in the road. I asked five people about the temple before I found someone who knew it. Not a good sign.

I was going there because my artist friend, Jacqueline, told me about it and sent me a wonderful video with pictures of the garden. Frommer’s said it was small, but elegant. It was small and maybe I don’t understand what elegant means. I have to look at the video again. Maybe I was in the wrong place, or maybe pictures do lie.

Going to the train station I noticed a large temple with interesting trees showing above the walls. I decided to walk back that way when I returned. As I was walking I passed the Falafel Garden, a genuine Israeli restaurant here in Kyoto. Lunch was a wonderful, vegan experience. Then on to the temple, but I never found an entrance. However, they are supposed to have a crafts market next week. I’ll try again.

Back on the bus this time to Shokoku-ji. Visitors could go to their museum and three of their other buildings, but the garden with the wall around it was closed. Thoroughly disappointed I walked back to the Imperial Palace and sat and watched other people picnicing under the cherry blossoms. Then I arranged for a tour of the Sento Palace garden (next post).

After a nice rest back at the hotel I went foraging for dinner: inari sushi again and some salad.

On a day of warmth and sunshine I started out for three temples, all located at the foot of the mountains on the northern border of Kyoto. As none of these temples are well known or well publicized they were peaceful and wonderful with only a few other people visiting with me. At the first, Genko-an, I was welcomed with  lovely incense indoors and the fragrance of the blossoms outdoors. The temple is noted for its two windows, one square, the Window of Delusion, implying confusion, ignorance and immaturity; a life of human suffering; and one round, implying Zen maturity, completeness and enlightenment.

Koetsu-ji is a special temple built on land owned by the family of Hon-ami Koetsu, a famous calligrapher, who created an artist and craftsman’s village on surrounding land during the 17th century. Several tea houses are on the grounds along with monuments for the Hon-ami family. Another lovely, peaceful visit with the fragrance of the blossoms stirring my consciousness.

Josho-ji, connected to the Hom-ami family, was also welcoming with peace, quiet, lovely incense and fragrant blossoms and a large, beautiful garden.

Since it was early afternoon I got on the bus and went to Kinkakuji, the golden temple. It was a miserable experience when I was there in 2007 because of the hordes of people visiting with me. I had not intended to return, but I have been reading Yukio Mishima’s, 1959 book, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, I found in the library here in the hotel. I guess that was the motivation. It was another miserable experience; more people and I am five years older and tire and lose patience more easily. I should have known better.