May 19

Kiyo Mizudera

Like I explained last week Saturdays are usually spent with ones home-stay family, but seeing as how my Okaasan works every Saturday, I instead choose to go on the optional excursions that Dr. Miller sets up for us. And boy, am I ever glad that I went to the one he set up today!

There are 2 destinations in Kyoto that almost all tourists go visit: Kinkakuji, and where I went today Kiyo Mizudera. Amongst the throngs of students visiting from other locations on school trips, other foreigners like ourselves, and native Japanese that were taking the day to look at the beautiful scenery nearby there were dozens of little shops that had the most amazing things in them. There were some beautiful pottery stands with home-crafted pottery that this part of town was known for, gorgeous hand-painted fans, and a Studio Ghibli shop (highlight of my day =P) that was hidden in an alleyway.

Once we broke away from the shops that dotted the hill leading up to Kiyo Mizudera, we made it to the actual Otera (remember, Buddhist), we took a few pictures, and were then accosted by throngs of students. These, however, were not junior high schoolers, but instead were students belonging to the ESS (English Speaking Society) of a nearby University that wanted to give us a free tour of the large temple complex and in exchange we would help them by speaking English with them along the way. Of course we accepted without hesitation!

The first thing they showed us was a building termed ‘The Womb of Buddha’s Mother’. You paid 100 yen to enter the sub-basement of a building with absolutely NO light. You grabbed onto large beads with your left hand and held onto them for your life as they guided you through a maze. In the center of the maze was a stone ball with some Sanskrit written on it with a small spotlight to illuminate it. Each visitor was supposed to spin the stone to become clean, and then continue on through the maze to the exit. Roller coaster created adrenaline had absolutely nothing on the adrenaline created from being in constant fear that you might hit your head on a low hanging beam that most Japanese regularly pass under with no problem. 10 minute adrenaline rush, haha…I’m not quite sure what to call it at that point, haha =P

After the womb, they showed us a few other structures, among which was an archway that only the emperor and his guards were allowed to pass through. The big draw of the Otera was the natural spring water at the end of the complex. The spring was piped in over the roof of a small stone building via 3 streams. Each visitor would take a long metal pole with a cup attached to the end and fill it up with one of the streams. If you drank from the one on the far right it was said that you would get luck in your career, the middle one granted you beauty, and the far left one would give you health for the next year. The Japanese college students also told us that if you drank from more than 1 stream that you would get bad luck for the entire year. Yikes!

After drinking from the beauty stream, we ended our day by meandering back through the shops on the hillside and getting some lunch. I then headed to the church with a friend and used the Wifi to catch up on 5 hours of TV that we missed over the past few weeks, haha. It was a fun day =P