In the last few days I have... a) visited a katana shokujin-san, aka a samurai-swordsmith! b) been to an ice sculpture display! c) seen a batmobile van! d) seen a chrome towtruck with a dolphin-mural! (hmmm... last feature questionable) and e) eaten Kobe beef! I'll post pictures of a) and b) eventually, but for now...

Continuing the tour of Irritable Ian we make our way to the north of Kyoto. On the advice of a 10 day travel-blog set up by www.japan-guide.com for the purpose of viewing autumn leaves I took a couple of trains to an obscure little station - the type so small that you step down from the platform onto the street. I was defeated by my vague map and was directed by a couple of old ladies towards my first objective, Enko-ji - "a small, tasteful, but unpretentious shrine sporting a nice garden" to paraphrase my online advice.

This window was on one of the old streets on the way. The rain was coming down and all I had was my 300 yen raincoat. I think I was almost cheerful though - my beserker fury had subsided and I was pretty philosophical by now... the sense of adventure was returning. (I know, I know... not exactly "extreme" sports we're talking here, but I'm easily excited.)

Like some ancient computer keyboard, these are some of the first printing blocks in Japan - over 400 years old. You wont find qwerty here. I think they're beautiful. They are housed inside Enko-ji.

Tucked at the end of a hallway was this amazing sumi-e screen painting. The economy and deftness with which the ink has been brushed on is incredible - so much detail implied. Well, to the real garden...

This is the approach to Enko-ji.

Once inside and past the indoor exhibits, you step out into the enclosed garden. For it's small size and the inclement weather (Clement had nicked off) there were a number of people here. Had to wait a while to get a clear shot. I wasn't thrilled by this garden but it was a nice place. It seemed very precise and deliberate. Each tree, rock and shrub seemed to be exactly as desired, which I suppose is what a garden is supposed to be... and yet it somehow lacked something for me. I'm sure I am being the equivalent of a Britney Spears fan critiquing Beethoven, but it's my blog so nerr.

A nice lady showed me some pics on her camera of the shrine she had visited that morning. It was on my list but I had ruled it out. It looked like an impressive place. Darn! That thought was to propel me to Kyoto the following Thursday for an early (and speedy!) mission before work. It all turned out well - weather ended up being brilliant - will post pics next post: Tofuku-ji.

Back to this day. It was raining persistently. And yet...

Surprisingly in this weather I took one of my favourite shots ever. I don't know why, but I always think of the planet from Alien where they find the eggs/facesucker/chestburster when I see this photo. That's not why I like the photo, but anyway...

My sister Penny has a nose for these things. (haha... ask her what I mean if you know her... sorry, Penny! muhaha)

This lantern is in the style of the late smurf rennaissance.

The lady who'd shown me her photos and I said goodbye, but when she saw I was leaving, she ran up and pushed 2 mandarins into my hand. "Japanese orange!" she said and then ran back to her husband. There are some really nice people, aren't there?

Well, next door was a graveyard being overlooked by a fiery tree.

Across the narrow road from the shrine's entrance, in stark comparison to Enko-ji's elegance, was this place. Sometimes the sacred places and the ordinary exist right next to each other. That's not lens-distortion, this house was bent with disrepair. For the mostpart Kyoto's quite a bustling city - an ordinary, ugly city amongst which lie pockets of tradition and beauty. They say Kyoto is the Paris of Japan - it's cultural heart. It's hard to argue against that, considering the myriad places there that reek of history and cultural refinement. It can just be surprising where you find them.

Well whattaya know? I thought, up until an hour ago, that I had been to a temple called Shisen-do. But I had, in fact, been to a shrine called Hachidai Jinja, just round the corner! Defeated by maps yet again, so it would seem. I never made it to Shisen-do and it's renowned azalea garden, but I was oh so close by! haha. I should have twigged at the time that I was of course not at a Buddhist temple (no Buddhas to be seen), but at a Shinto shrine (tell-tale zigzag paper hanging from sacred ropes). I didn't know that the "-do" suffix means temple. I forgot that I was looking for a garden! There was no garden. What a dork I am.

A famous samurai, Miyamoto Musashi, is enshrined near here.

He fought one of his most famous duels around this tree. I'm imagining Errol Flynn jumping up stairs and kicking over candelabras. Musashi won the day (i.e. the other guy got horribly sliced up).

I walked right near this mound - it was really hard to see. I shudder to think how it would have gone down if I'd put my foot through it! Anyone know what it represents? I'm told that a raked stone/sand garden represents the universe.

Heading back out now, there was some nice moss. There is a moss garden in Kyoto that has 120 varieties! I will put a link here to some great pics: http://www.phototravels.net/kyoto/zen-gardens-saiho-ji.html . The reason for the link is that I doubt you or I will ever get there... you have to copy out a Buddhist sutra before you enter, which takes over an hour - I'm not sure if that means an hour for a Japanese person or for a novice gaijin like me. Anyway, I'd like to see it, but the photos will do.

I started with a window and I'll finish with a window, just to imply that there is some very deep poetic insight to this blog entry... looking within worlds and without or something like that! Feel free to leave comments like:

Ian, you are so deep.

Stop writing so much and get some sleep, dork!

You couldn't navigate your way out of a paper bag.

Nice moss.