Horyuji visit with Junko

Sitting Bohdisattva

Sitting Bohdisattva

Gion at night

Pagoda at Horyuji

Entrance to Eastern Precinct of Horyuji

B and Junko at Horyuji

   

Saturday, March 23

San kan, shi on.  (Three cold days, four warm days: describes March weather in Kyoto.)

 We met our old friend Junko Inokuma in the morning.  She had come from Tokyo for a visit.  We set off for a trip to Nara to visit Horyuji Temple, founded in the 7th Century and considered the oldest wooden structure in Japan.  It's quite a vast complex, housing many national treasures from different periods.  It was a rather chilly day, but OK for walking around.  (I think Kyoto has at least 4 cold days each week in March.)  We had a special viewing of a food offering in one of the smaller temples -  a magnificent and colorful arrangement made by monks over a month's time.  It consisted of tall towers and mounds of artfully arranged rice cakes, oranges, persimmons, and other items and was quite remarkable.  Not far behind the Horyuji Temple is Chuguji Temple, a small, graceful temple probably built to be a nunnery.  It is especially famous for the Sitting Bodhisattva with One Leg Pendant.  It is described in the guide brochure as "one of the three smiling masterpieces of the world alongside the Sphinx and the Mona Lisa..." It represents the purity and grace of the Buddhist redemption of mankind.
     We went back to Kyoto and Junko took us out for a lovely Kaiseki meal in Gion.  (Restaurant Nishimura - one of those a westerner would never find).  The meal was delicious, with beautiful spring vegetables and seafood.  We had our own dining room and much good talk over sochu, plum wine and sake.  Waitresses wearing beautiful kimonos, and a table with a heated well for your legs completed the delight of the evening.
     We walked around Gion with its glowing street lights and red lanterns, and then parted for the night.

With love to all