Page 6 of 10
Kyoto, Japan
All the saints up in heaven looking down at the leaf falling off the tree
A second page of Higashiyama slides start at Nanzen-ji, where orange leafed trees and ghost people do their best to frame the view.
As beautiful as Kyoto is (and it most certainly is beautiful), it's very easy to fall victim to temple fatigue. After a while, even perfect gardens and perfect buildings can start to feel like just more and more (and more) of the same thing. In the very short time that I was in Kyoto, I hit at least ten temples in Higashiyama, and would have hit them all if not thwarted by such trivial matters as time and a seemingly always setting sun. By the time I finally reached Ginkaku-ji (the last temple on my last day there), I was doing everything I could to forget all that I had seen and concentrate only on what I was seeing at that place, at that moment. A great strategy, or at least that's what I thought at the time. The problem is that after spending two days in Higashiyama visiting unforgettable temple after unforgettable temple, a strategy based on forgetting the unforgettable is fairly foolish at best, no matter how hard you try.
Kyoto is a busy place, and after spending the first part of my time in Japan in Nagoya and Inuyama and Kanazawa, it was almost startling to see that many western tourists again. You are rarely if ever physically alone, although even with others the temples and gardens somehow still feel secluded and special, almost as if you're the only person who is or ever was there, despite all of that strong evidence suggesting otherwise.
The busiest of all the temples in Kyoto In November has to be Eikan-do, primarily because it is known for it's fall foliage (a big deal in Japan) and (this is the big one) it is only open for a few weeks in November and closed the rest of the year. So while most of the western tourists hit all of the other big tourist guidebook sites, the locals (and me) flocked to Eikan-do, all jostling to get that perfect picture just as the light hits that red or orange tree just right.
The etiquette for visiting inside the temples is fairly standard. First take off your shoes and carry them with you in a nondescript plastic bag (don't worry, nondescript plastic bags are always provided). After that, it's nothing but (generally) respectful hushed tones inside, although anything else just wouldn't feel right anyway inside such spaces. When walking through the gardens the rules become more relaxed, after all you probably don't want to be walking on bridges and paths and up rather steep trails to overlooks without wearing some type of shoe. The ones who have it the worst are the groups of Japanese women dressed up for the day as geishas, women who normally dress, well, normally, but for their big day in Kyoto dress up like it's 1800 again. Sure it's easy enough for them to take their Zori (shoes) on and off, but their tightly wrapped pseudo silk kimonos make climbing stairs damn near impossible and, quite honestly, extraordinarily entertaining to watch.
My favorite temple from way back during my last visit to Japan in 1998 was still my favorite temple twelve long years later. Honen-in is harder to find (it's set back a bit) and was partially closed that late in November (temples keep odd seasonal hours), but even the front garden, with its raised sculpted sandbeds and its (literally) green roofed gate were once again as wonderful I had seen, as I had dreamed, as I had remembered.
My entire time in Japan was rushed before I even started. I knew that going in, there were real and immovable limitations based on when I could get my free first class flights (a guy's got to travel first class you know), as well as always limited time between work obligations and between an even stronger desire to be home before Thanksgiving, still my favorite holiday (take that, Christmas). So when I started planning all of the trip's details, I knew I wanted to see some places I had never been (Kanazawa and Inuyama) and spend some more time exploring Tokyo, but above all I planned on returning to Kyoto. On an all too short ten day trip, I made sure that I had at least two days in Kyoto, although honestly I could have done all ten there. So much to see, so much I still haven't seen yet, all in a place that is still deep in my memory even as it remains half a world away.
