Day Eight

This, sadly, was our last day in Japan. It was hard to believe howquickly the time went by. We were busy, but it was the good kind of busy, and we were lucky to see as much as we could in the time we were in Japan.

First on the agenda for our last day of the trip was a tour of a sake brewery and museum just outside Kyoto. We had to take a train to get there, and it was an even more rural area than Kyoto. We were told that we were in really old Japan now, and you could tell. The streets were very narrow, there were little shops everywhere (and not one McDonalds or Seven Eleven in sight), and no english to be seen. The brewery and museum was only a few blocks from the train stop.

We were first shown a video on how they take rice, polish it down, press it, and ferment it to make sake. It's an age old process passed down throughout the generations going back hundreds of years. It's hard for me to describe the taste of sake. It definitely has a wine taste, yet there's also a hint of whiskey in there, and there's almost no burn as it goes down your throat. I had it quite a few times on the trip, and I must say I really like it. I did hear that the sake you get in the states is nothing like the sake in Japan, so that disappoints me. Ah well, just another reason to go back to Japan some day!

After the video, we were given a tour of the museum, which housed many of the tools the Japanese used to make sake hundreds of years ago. There were sake labels and bottles, old ads for sake, and we even got to taste the water they use in the brewing process. The quality of the water used to brew sake directly affects the taste, so the water each brewery uses must be as high quality as possible. I had a taste, and I must say it was very, very good. After a tour of the museum, we got to sample some of the brewery's sake. First up was some sake brewed in the 1960's, then some of their best-selling sake, and finally some plum wine that they also brew. The 1960's sake was definitely the best, followed by the plum wine. It was very sweet, and reminded me a lot of soda. It seemed a bit too easy to drink. Heh.

Once we left the brewery and museum, the rest of the day was ours to explore Kyoto. I headed straight to the Imperial Palace and national garden, just a few blocks down from our inn. Kyoto was actually the capitol of Japan until about 1869, when the capitol and Emperor's residence was moved to Tokyo. Although I couldn't get inside of the palace itself, I did get to check out the gates, and there were some very interesting wood carvings and gold designs on them. Apparently, you have to sign up for tours way ahead of time to actually get in. Ah well, next time! After checking out the gates, I walked all around the gardens surrounding the palace taking pictures. There were plenty of people all around having picnics and playing catch or riding their bikes. It was a really nice area, and it's apparently very busy during cherry blossom season. There are about 50 cherry blossom trees on the grounds, and people come from all over Japan to see them. I also stopped in a replica of a noble's residence. Back when the palace was active, there were over 20o nobles that lived on the grounds.

I then walked a few blocks down to a Buddhist temple that was the site of a hermitage in the 1200s by Shinran Shonin, the founder of Shin Buddhism. There is a apricot tree on the grounds of the temple that was actually planted by Shonin himself. After checking out the temple, I went next door to the Okazaki Shrine, one of Kyoto's most ancient shrines. Built in 794, it's believed to hold the god and goddess of easy childbirth. It is one of 4 shrines built on compass points around Kyoto, and these 4 shrines were used to dispel evil related to the four compass points to protect the Imperial court.

After snapping some pictures and reading up on the shrine, I walked a few more blocks over to Eikando Temple. This was another Buddhist temple nestled in the eastern hills of Kyoto. Built in 863, It's most famous for its maple trees and fall foliage, as well as a 30 inch high statue known as the "Turing Amida", a stunning figure made entirely out of gold. I walked throughout the entire temple and saw some magnificent old silk screen paintings and tea rooms, but the most impressive was the massive alter room near the top of the hill. Hanging from the roof were chandeliers made entirely out of gold with very intricate dragon designs, and the room had a faint smell of incense. Inside, I saw a monk chanting and praying while banging on a gourd and hitting a bell. It was extremely fascinating, and I just sat and watched for a long time, taking in every detail of the room before quietly exiting, Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take pictures inside the temple. After checking out the alter room, I walked up about 200 steps or so to the Pagoda, right on the side of the hill. Once I got to the top, the Pagoda offered some beautiful views of the Kyoto skyline. I just stood up there for a while, taking it all in while the sun was going down. I couldn't say as long as I wanted, however, because the temple was closing for the day. Good thing too, otherwise I would have missed our final dinner!

Our farewell dinner was at a tofu place in Kyoto, within walking distance from our inn. Tofu is very popular in Japan, and I was excited to get a chance to try it for myself. Our first course consisted of some cold tofu and vegetables, the second course was hot tofu with dipping sauces and vegetable tempura, and the final course was a bowl of white rice. Tofu has a very strange consistency. It's almost like mush, and it doesn't have much of a taste of its own. It really just takes on the taste of whatever you dip it in. I was a fan of the hot tofu. I dipped it in some soy sauce, and it was good, but it was also very hard to get over the consistency of it. Lot of people in our group really didn't care for it, but I thought it was pretty good. We wrapped up our dinner with some Japanese bean paste sweets, which is actually more tasty than it sounds. It was a great way to experience something Japanese at the end of a wonderful trip.

After dinner we had a wrap-up meeting before heading back to the inn for packing and sleep. We left the next morning at about 7am for a long day of traveling back to the states.