The night was short though … not that much, but with the time difference, the wake up is really hard. At least for me, as Lo woke up fresh as a roach at dawn.
I had the impression of floating for a good part of the day, trying to get rid of that cold feeling that haunts me. Traditional house are pretty, but they are real heat strainer and air stream nests.
We went to do some shopping at the “kombini” the corner for shopping for future breakfast, then went to attack the Kyoto temples.
To begin, we visited the temple Shamigamo, large Shinto shrine of the ancient capital of Japan.
It shows all of the fountains to purify themselves before going to pray to the kami. The rite of Shinto greeting was taken by our aikido school. It is strange to find these gestures outside the context where we are accustomed to seeing them. Yet this is the “original context”.
A very amazing thing is the number of cables suspended in the streets. I think that because of seismic risk, bury them would not be functional at all, but it’s still a guess.
We also took the metro and a local train, and it’s clean. I do not say that it smells the rose and jasmine flowers fall from the ceiling, but it is very clean (compared to Paris that looks like unhealthy slums next door) and it does not stink. The metro and train are comfortable and the seats are heated (!).
We ate “steam-donuts-thingy” at noon, which was good, but I was a little ashamed because it is considered unpolite to eat while walking in the street, and I do not want that they take me for a barbarian.
We visited a Buddhist temple in the afternoon, Ginkakuji Temple, a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, with its Zen garden.
Obviously, being a Saturday, it was invaded by Japanese. What I liked most was the foam pad which was held under the trees, in an atmosphere that reminded me of “Princess Mononoke”. I still floated at that time…
Then we had to run to the cooking class, but that’s another story.
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