A traveler - not a tourist.

Tonight we are in Kyoto.  Not far from Higashihongan-Ji.  I just got back from dinneｒ: sashimi (tuna) over a bed of seaweed and rice with miso soup.  For lunch I had some maacki and nigiri (squid, yellowtail, tuna, salmon, shrimp, and two other which I didn`t recognize)....it was delicious and I feel so spoiled here!  So much great sushi and the price is cheaper than what I would pay in the states.  Sybil asked earlier just how expensive the food was - and frankly I don:t know what everyone was talking about...deathly expensive food.  In Kyoto, at least, it is very comparable to the states.  YOu can go cheap, you can go what I would consider normal, or you can go expensive.  I pay on average for a dinner - around 10 bucks, which seems pretty good to me.  Now - maybe Tokyo is more expensive.  But I just got a sundae from McDonalds (the first McD`s I`ve had because I`d rather eat somewhere else...) however, the price was just the same.  SO really I don`t know what everyone was talking about.  If anything - it seems cheaper.

About the bikes - they do lock them up, it`s just not obvious.  I guess I got a little romantic there about nobody locking their bikes and isn`t that wonderful....yeah right.  They lock their bikes, and yes - people do steal them.  EVERYONE rides bikes.  It`s great.

Today we met with the Mayor of Kameoka - it was quite the formal experience and we all exchanged gifts and such.  They even put the American flag outside of their offices adjacent theirs just for our visit.  He was very gracious. 

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By the time we got to the hotel - my legs were busted.  My knees were begging me for a rest.  It had been a long day.  So I laid down while everyone else went out to find food.  That was fine with me.  I was ready for some solo time anyways.  After a few resting moments I wandered out.  I wasn`t hungry so I wandered the streets.  It was close to dusk...but just enough light for a few good photographs.  I took to the small streets - the side streets....the ones that only locals go down.  That`s how you experience a culture.  Get close to their homes, get close to their way of life...see how they live, where they live and who they are.  When you step into the regular, everyday life - that`s when you become a traveler...and are no longer a tourist (I never consider myself a tourist, however).    

It was so enjoyable.  Hearing the clank of dinner dishes leaving the cupboard and being placed in the table, a conversation coming from inside...a daughter calling for her father.  A young man rides by on a bike, smiling.  Three girls pass by.  A car pulls up - another one leaves.  A woman out hanging wet laundry, two men sharing conversation outside the front gate....incense fills a moment in time and the sun sets.  No longer able to take photographs, I put the camera away.  Everywhere there are signs of everyday life.

I love being a traveler.  Especially here in Kyoto.

I have been thinking more about Ryoan-ji and Kinkaku-ji.  They are very powerful gardens.  I know that Ryoan-ji is a Zen Buddhist garden...I think Kinkaku-ji is as well - it is a stroll garden, which usually means there a pond involved.  The rock groupings in Kinkaku-ji is something profound.  They were created in the 13th or 14th century, and if you listen and look - you can almost hear, see and feel the gardeners placing each rock in place so purposefully.  Rocks have spirits and rock placement is a very serious endeavor.  There is a power and spiritual intensity in the rocks.  I want to be in these places again.  I want to spend some real time there.  Just after a snowfall...during a light rainfall - a bright summer day or a cool Autumn morning.  I would love to experience these gardens through different moments in time.  Frankly I am too tired to write too much about my thoughts on these places right now.  It`s much better to talk about it over dinner or lunch - or just a chat sitting on the couch.  But I need more time here.  Yeah - I`ll be back.

About the 15 rocks in the rock garden at Ryoan-ji.  I was thinking that there is no place to sit in which you can see all 15 stones at one time (or, as they do say, if you can, you have gained enlightenment) - but the 15 are there nonetheless.  Sometimes we can`t see the whole picture in life.  In fact - I don`t think we ever do.  The Plan of the Lord is whole, is true, it`s there.  Sometimes we can see 11, 12, or 13 stones of it.  Sometimes we can see 14.  But never 15.  So we have faith - faith that because the Lord has told us there is a 15th stone, there really is and someday when we are taken up - we will see it all clearly and we will be happy we did not doubt.

Today I learned about the importance of the garden and architecture and how both are needed.  Tthey emphasize the beauty of each and stregthen each other.  The garden needs the architecture, the architecture needs the garden.  I do love architecture and admired and wondered over the varied architecture I enjoyed as I wandered the residential areas of Kyoto. 

A good handful of people were face masks here - Dr. Allen, you would totally fit in - except for your skin and hair color.  But hey - the mask may be a good enough disguise.

Sybil also asked if the people here are like Hey!  Americano!!!  No.  I think they really don`t care either way if I am here or not.  I don`t feel like a foriegner, except I can`t communicate.  But they do not react in a way that makes me feel out of place.  The young school boys have liked to shake our hands on rare occassion. 

Okay - time for a salty soak in the pleasantly deep tub.