March 9 On the Steps of the Palace

March 9, 2018

One of the things Kyoto is famous for is it's weaving. In the Nishijin district, they still hand spin,  hand weave, and hand paint fabric - often from silk or wool they hand raised from egg or lamb. 

We got to watch a weaver work - three presses of the loom, followed by 1 gold thread, woven carefully with a pair of tweezers. She had a mirror underneath the loom so she could see what she was creating. 

At the next table was the painter. With his fine point brush and his sheet of gold leaf, he created a scene of wonder on the fabric. 

Foolishly, I forgot the take photos. 

We were there in time for a kimono fashion show, though.  Several models showing off some of the handspun/woven/made/painted outfits.  

As we wandered through town, we saw yet another shrine

- this time with an awesome Guardian statue.

How to do a non--derpy lion

Onto the original Imperial Palace 

There are different Gates to enter, depending on your importance. 

Visitors enter through what used to be the Servants' Gate. 

The Emperor always enters from the South, 

so they built a carriage house specifically for him closer to his gate.  

Until 1915, he still had to park with the common high up muckety-mucks. 

They loved his carriage so much that, even today, the manhole cover are modeled after the hubcaps. 

 It's very SPQR.

The Emperor (still) sits upon the Chrysanthemum Throne, so this  crest is seen as a gigantic -and very attractive-  *No Trespassing*  sign. 

If the Empress or Imperial family visit without His Imperial Majesty, she's only allowed through the Empresses' gate, which enters from the Southeast.

Outside (one of) the (many) ceremony halls, there has always been one red (pink)cherry tree and one white plum tree. 

The cherry symbolizes that life is fleeting and yet continuous,  the plum symbolizes protection from evil in the midst of mortality. 

Boop your nose and say something confident. 

If the Emperor cannot reach the sea, you build a sea inside the castle grounds for the Emperor. 

Behind us is the stream that empties into the "sea". 

The nobility would have poetry races in which they'd set a glass of sake in regatta boats at the top of the stream. You could only drink the sake if you came up with a poem before it reached the sea. 

Not pictured: 

Our photographer is standing in the hacky-sack courtyard. 

The Chrysanthemum Throne

Emperor Akhito will be abdicating on April 30, and Crown Prince Naruhito will be enthroned at the current Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

The Throne will be moved to Tokyo for the Enthronement ceremony.

After this, we rushed to the Tea Museum. No photos are allowed, but they have a traditional tea ceremony as well as an exhibit of Edo Period (17th- mid-19th Century) tea paraphernalia.

A) Plum onijiri is not the biggest hit among some people.

B) Matcha tea was described as tasting "like what burned rubber smells like."  

However, the exhibits were pretty fun. I particularly liked the early frothers. Starbucks had nothing on them.  And the traveling tea kits so resembled Mass kits - it's quite clear how integral tea is to their cultural and religious life. 

Irene wasn't up to another 2 mile walk, so we decided to take a bus across town.  

The bus was.... remarkable.  I would have taken a photo, but physically could not move enough to lift my camera.  Or my arms.  At every stop, the doors would open, people would actually fall out of the doors, shove their way back in, be shoved in more by other people getting on the bus, would fall into the driver (that was Susan's lot), and have the door closed upon arms, legs, and bags.  

We fell out at the Cathedral of St Francis Xavier (or, as they call it most places, Catholic Catholic Church.) 

Though I understood very little of it, it was surprisingly more rhythmically similar to English masses than many other languages we've been to.  

The Communion song was not "One Bread, One Body" but the closing song was "O Sacred Head Surrounded."  We sang it quietly in English as the community sang in Japanese.  Truly a universal Church!! 

As usual, we were a novelty and people stopped to talk to us.  In a linguistic mash-up, the young lady we met spoke some English, her mother spoke German, and her mother's best friend spoke Italian.  And, gosh darn it, I managed it!

It was both incredible and headache-inducing. 

Thankfully, you can share email addresses in Roman characters.

Chain restaurant ramen for dinner, ordered from a vending machine.

Today's step count is actually the same as yesterday's - 9.5 miles