4.11.09 Philosopher's Path

Some of the class went to the Philosopher's Path this weekend, a long path which connects a bunch of temples. More pictures coming soon.. Here's the people who went (thanks Don for the class pictures)

4.9.09 Uji

We visited the town of Uji, which is the tea capital of Japan, although we didn't drink any tea here... which is stupid but we were busy seeing the Pheonix Hall in Byodoin. We also moved to our "new digs" as Don calls them, they are very high tech. 

4.7.09 Katsura Detached Palace

Today we visited Katsura Detached Palace, the old Imperial Palace here in Kyoto. It was 70 degrees and sunny (finally) so it was a great day to go see it! We go in small tour groups, so it was just 4 of us from our class, and a bunch of senior citizen Asians - a great group! All the paths in these gardens are carefully planned, and frame certain views of the gardens. They were careful to place trees and other things in the way so that you couldn't experience the garden all at once in a single view - interesting technique! 

food for thought

"Thus in Buddhism there is a tendency to regard human life as basically a fluid phenomenon. However, when the idea of this flowing movement is expressed by the words shog yo mujo (all things are impermanent) it takes on a special nuance."

"The river never stops flowing, and the water is never the same. The bubbles that float in the pools, now disappearing, now coming into being, never last. So it is in the world with people and their dwellings... People die in the morning and are born in the evening, not knowing where they come from, nor where they are going, like bubbles on the water"

4.6.09 Sakura

yes, in this picture you can see Kyoto in the background

WAWA WEE WA!!! Cherry blossom trees (Sakura) + beer in the park = FunFun!

4.4.09 Imai-cho

Today Bianca and I visited this tiny tiny town called Imai-cho where they preserved about 10 Edo period houses. They were so wonderfully laid out - tatami mats and shoji screens everywhere, and the owners were so welcoming. This area is preserved by the government in Japan, so they do a lot of restoration projects. We ate lunch in one of the Edo houses which used to be a sake mill - we spent over an hour there just hanging out in these people's house eating soba noodles and red bean soup (yum!). We also stumbled into another house in which a bunch of old ladies proceeded to take our clothes off and dress us in kimonos and take our pictures. We will never forget that experience! They were playing with our hair and telling us we were beautiful - they were so excited it was so incredible! Enjoy the pictures - OH and it was raining really hard the whole time we were there which kind of added to the mystique, another dreamy place!

4.2.09 - Nara

We visited 3 temples today, another 12 hour trip. I am close to a zombie now, so I will write more words later but meanwhile here are pictures. Yes, the deer just roam around this city. Don compared them to annoying cats who just sit there and wait to be fed........ This was pretty true.

The buddha in the picture was 100 feet tall also. I was so astounded - this was one of my favorite things to see so far.