Autumn & Kurama

Somehow I can't keep track of time here. Technically I know it's November, but it doesn't feel like that. What do you mean it's about one month to Christmas?! Unbelievable. It's the weather, I guess... The autumn foliage has only reached its beautiful peak here, and it's a bit difficult to truly believe that right now home in Finland it's the gloomiest time of the year... rain, sleet, barren trees, leaves turning to mud on the ground... November in Finland is manageable, I think, but it takes some effort. Or, at least it takes candles, good books, warm blankets, tea or hot chocolate, and no need to go out. Some rain is ok, too, gently tapping the window glass, the wet streets glistening in the lamplight, or even sleet and wind, howling behind the said  window, but then it is of utmost importance there is no need to go anywhere...

Well. Yes. Back to Japan. Here it's autumn, and a gorgeous autumn, what comes to that. One area that's famous of its autumn colors is Kurama, and I decided I simply have to go to check what ruska is like in Japan. It was quite easy too, for you can go to Kurama by the Eiden railway, which happens to be my local train. (For once it's easy to go somewhere from Shugakuin!!! xD) I made what should have been a perfect plan: I'd take train to Kibune (the previous stop before Kurama), check out the temple there, and then hike to Kurama, admiring the autumn colors on the way. The usual way is to do this hike the other way round, from Kurama to Kibune, but my goal was at the end of it to get to soak at the Kurama onsen. Perfect, right?

Well, it all started fine. Woke up early, caught the train I'd planned (!), arrived to Kibuneguchi. There's a bus service from the station to the town, operating in schedule with the trains, and though it's a very short walk, I figured I'd soon get to walk quite enough and too the bus. Arriving to Kibune I soon spotted the little red bridge from which I knew the hike would begin. Only, something seemed to be off...

Indeed.

I spent a moment swearing at the kami of nature who seem to be conniving against me (first the Jidai matsuri cancelled because of a typhoon, now this - I'd imagine paths don't just collapse and trees don't fall on their own, it takes rain or such to cause that...) In Kurama there was also a photo of the collapsed part.

できません。(◕︿◕)　(できますよ~！)

Oh well. So, after the useless rant against the powers of nature, I climbed up to see the Kifune temple. It is dedicated to kami of water, and there is water gushing pretty much everywhere around. Also, in the Heian times delegations were sent to this place to pray for rain or good weather. In the latter case, a white horse was offered to the shrine, in the case of rain, a black horse.

And then I ended up walking back to the Kibuneguchi station - which wasn't all bad, as it was a lovely road.

At Kurama you could follow the beginning of the hiking path up to the Kurama temple and the Reihoden museum. The starting point:

This Japanese cedar tree is about 800 years old and 53 meters high. (No wonder I couldn't make it fit in my photos.) If you pray to the tree with all your heart, your wish will come true. Remains to be seen.

 

Zooming in:

Up at Kurama dera:

I wasn't the only one disappointed....

You can ring the bell once to, again, make a wish...

Coming down from the temple I stopped to eat Buddhist vegetarian food at Yoshuji. Loved it (except the soup on the right side that didn't really taste of anything.) I took the first set on the right side of the menu.

And then, to the onsen! This was my first visit ever to a bath like this, and I loved it too. So relaxing, the hot water. At first I thought it's not that hot, really, but after a short moment I was very happy to have the cold wet hand towel to place on my head. A lovely place. Quite small, I think, but then again, I have nothing to compare it to. But that made it just more atmospheric. You couldn't take photos there, of course, but here's a few from the way. It was only a short walk away.

That's more than enough photos, I guess. Imagine how much I'd have if I'd been able to do the hike...  One more, though.

 My face, looking at the sign at Kibune. xD

Nara

Today was 文化の日, Culture Day, which is a national holiday - and this time we really had a day off, with no classes. (Yay.) I decided that this would be a suitable day for some culture, and jumped on a train to Nara. Well, to be exact... first I jumped on a bus to Kyoto station (and seriously, taking the bus there from Shugakuin takes as long - if not longer - as taking the train from there to Nara...) and then I jumped on the train. And only on the way back I realized that the more sensbile route would have been to take the local train to Tambabashi station and switch there to the Nara train, but whatever. Will do that next time. (And there will be a next time, most likely next times, as there are some events coming up in Nara I'm planning to go to see.)

The main reason I wanted to go to Nara now was The 69th Annual Exhibition of Shōsō-in Treasures at Nara National Museum. One of our lecturers had recommended it, and I definitely don't regret checking it out. Shōsō-in is the treasure house that belongs to the Tōdai-ji temple and, as you probably have now figured out, every year they exhibit some of its treasures. The exhibition is very short, this year from Oct 28 to Nov 13, so I either had to go there this weekend or the next - and as the weather forecast was quite promising, I decided to do it now.

Our lecturer had warned us that you might have to queue really long to get in, so I wasn't surprised to see that the estimated waiting time was one hour when I arrived there. Now, if I had (again) been sensible, I'd have first gone to see the temples and then to the museum, as the museum was open until 8 pm and the temples closed around 4:30... but I wasn't. And just guess what the estimated waiting time was around 5 pm? Five minutes. Typical. But then again, I'm sure it didn't take an hour, maybe more like half an hour. The greater problem was that it was kind of crowded inside, too, so at times you had to wait to get to see the more popular items.

Oh, and I almost screwed up right away. I might have mentioned before my non-existing powers of observation? When I came to the museum, the long line took all my attention, and so I marched straight to its end, right by the place where you buy tickets. Luckily there was a guy bellowing into a megaphone something about "if there are people who don't have tickets..." I didn't understand the end of the sentence, but what I did understand was enough to make me worried, and so I asked the other people in the line.... and went back to get my ticket, just being happy I'd realized this now and not after having queued for an hour. In the end I didn't even lose my place in the line, as there was a very friendly Japanese lady who took me back to my old place... she'd been next to me in line and she said she also hadn't had a ticket (that was pretty much all I understood of her chatting... ^^;) but I'm not exactly sure how it all worked out and where she popped up from at the ticket booth... (I didn't see her going there before me, and if she came after me, how could she be waiting for me after I got my ticket... well, whatever. She was really nice and friendly, that's the main point.)

The exhibition was worth facing the crowds. I wish I'd had a pen and paper to write down the things I enjoyed most as I have now forgotten all the details, but my favorite items were a badly damaged kugo harp (there was also a replica of what it most likely looked like), a gorgeous little penknife (seriously, they should sell replicas of it. I'd buy, no matter the price!), beautiful wood & mother-of-pearl game board (you'll see a replica in a video later in this post), and a Karura mask. All of them from 8th or 9th centuries.

A screen panel from the exhibition, said to have been a
personal possession of Emperor Shōmu (701-756).

The museum ticket also included entrance to the Buddhist sculpture hall, but at that point I was getting quite hungry and a bit tired of museums, so I must admit I ran it through quite quickly. But the image of Bishamenton remains with me - or at least the image of the oni he was trampling, with bulging, red-veined eyes...

After lunch I started gradually to make my way toward the temples of Nara (main goals being Tōdai-ji and Kōfuku-ji), but the deer kept on distracting me. According to the legends, Takemikazuchi-no-mikoto,  the first of Kasuga shrine’s four deities, arrived to the shrine riding a white deer, and so the deer of the area are sacred. This day they wander freely in the Nara park, sometimes straying also into the city. You can buy special deer crackers to feed them.

 Btw, this is where I ate. Had kitsune udon. Really good.

 Waiting for a bus....

Some of them were really cute...

 ....and some were kinda mean-looking....

But they all loved the cookies. 

 Gimme a cookie.

 Gimme.

 Gimme!

 Finally approaching Nandaimon, (the Great South Gate of Tōdai-ji).

But... a gate to a great temple has guardians, you know? Luckily I managed to bribe my way past him...

Well. Here are the real guardians. Not interested in deer crackers.

Although I kind of wish I had done my touring in Nara in different order, I must say that I arrived at an excellent moment at Tōdai-ji, right in time for this:

Someone kept on pushing at me in the beginning.... xD Anyway, at 2:24 there's a lady carrying a similar game board as I saw in the museum. Of course, you can't see the details here, so you just have to take my word on how beautiful it was. So detailed, with different types of wood and mother-of-pearl.

The Great Buddha Hall:

And the great Buddha:

 Didn't get too good photos there, as my cell phone camera couldn't deal with the lightning...

The construction of Tōdai-ji (and the Buddha statue) was begun in 729 and completed in 751. It has been rebuilt twice because of a fire, and the current building is from 1709. It is in fact smaller than the original, but even so it was the largest wooden building in the world for long... (apparently there are nowadays some modern buildings that are bigger (like some baseball stadium. Pffft. So doubleplusuncool.) ,Anyway, to give some dimensions, the Great Buddha is approximately 15 meters high.

This is Binzuru (Pindola Bharadvaja). According to belief, if you rub a part of Binzuru's body and then the corresponding part of your own body, whatever ailment you have there will disappear.

Annddd... then I had spent too much time trying to pet deer admiring Tōdai-ji, and didn't anymore have time to go elsewhere. Besides, it gets dark really suddenly here. I would have wanted to visit this shrine on the way but spotted it too late. Himuro shrine, where the kami of ice (!) is enshrined.

Oh well, next time. As I said, I'm sure to go to Nara again. I did miss Kōfuku-ji too this time, as it is. Too many distracting deer....

An attempt of a selfie with a deer who was not cooperating...