Elizabeth's Post

Dear Iowa,

We’ve spent the past two days touring Kyoto. Yesterday morning started off at Kinkakuji, the golden temple which has been burned down twice, and then we bus’d over to the Zen garden Ryoanji, where the focus was on Buddhist aphorisms, mainly focusing on a Zen garden with fifteen stones arranged so that you can never see them all at the same time, representing reality and its reliance on perception. After an extremely delicious lunch, we went to Nijo castle, which had an amazing view of Kyoto.






That night we all went back to the hostel pretty tired from our first day of sightseeing. Lauren, Maddi, Gabby and I headed down to take a nice relaxing shower and Ofuro (very hot bath). However, when I was waiting to use Gabrielle’s towel because I forgot to grab one, one of the ladies staying in the Hostel came in. “Are you okay?” she asked me (I was leaning on a shelf with my head on my arms, just chillin’), and thus begun my first naked stranger conversation. Hopefully it won’t happen again.

Today’s schedule consisted of: Ginkakuji, Kyomizudera , and Sanjusangendo temples. Ginkakuji, the silver pavilion, was under restorations and preservations, which meant that it was both covered in scaffolding and significantly less crowded and noisy than Ginkakuji. The gardens at Ginkakuji were breathtaking. Although from the highest point of Ginkakuji you could see far across Kyoto, the real beauty was when you were closer to the earth and you couldn’t see the whole picture. Over 300 different varieties of moss grow in the gardens at Ginkakuji. Kyomizudera was a very different atmosphere, and was full of anecdotal tidbits. There was a leap of faith, with an 84% chance of getting your wish (you only get one if you survive), three fountains granting Health, Wisdom and Prosperity, but you could only choose two so as to not piss off the gods, and a path closed when it’s too rainy, because of a landslide near the turn of the century. Sanjusangendo, the site of a famous duel and incredibly impressive archery competitions, but the most powerful was the huge hall containing 1001 statues of the Buddha. Each statue had eighty-eight arms and thirteen heads. So everyone has had an opportunity to find a site that is the most powerful to them already.


Tonight after dinner at the Hostel, we went on a group trip to Karaoke, which is a much bigger pastime in Japan than in America. The Karaoke place where Julie Sensei always takes students was vacant and for lease, so we went an extra few blocks to another one. After a Karaoke session in which everyone sang at least one song (!), we had to “book it” back to the hostel so we could make it in before curfew. Lauren and Maddi both get prizes for their incredible running in heels, full out running. Currently in our room, two are sleeping, three are writing, and Sensei and her sister are doing important things.

Plz don’t miss us.

Love,
Elizabeth Matus