Because Shopping is Cheaper Than a Psychiatrist

買物は生死に学者より安いだよ。

"Shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist."

Wise words printed on my shopping bag which I bought from the dollar store before I cam here. The plastic's slowly eroding off it, but this was the first bit of humor I successfully translated into Japanese. Situational humor aside, it can be a little difficult to make jokes in Japanese when it's not your native language. Sarcasm's out of the question, because, well, it doesn't really exist in Japanese. It's not that the Japanese always say what they mean; in fact, they have a tendency to circumvent. It's commonly described as "talking around" the subject. Takagi-sensei always drew spirals on the board to demonstrate this. But sarcasm, saying the exact opposite thing, is usually lost on Japanese. Best just to stay away from it--otherwise you may end up unintentionally insulting something or someone.

I had a battle plan for this day too...or at least a road map. My targets were mostly acquired from the Lonely Planet guidebook for Kyoto: stores selling traditional Kyoto (and Japanese in general) crafts. From Shijo-Karasuma station, the first stop were the Takaya stores. The first I stopped at specialized in traditional fabric crafts: noren, pillows--lots of pillows--tenugui,
and the like.

Found a couple of cute kitteny characters down an alley

Kitties!

After the first Tanakaya, I took my first pass through Nishiki Market, which eventually ends at the Teramachi and Shinkyougoku shopping arcades (which I have been through several times by now.) Nishiki Market is likewise a covered arcade, only the vendors specialize in food, rather than clothing, craft, and souvenir shops. Although while weaving through the market, I did find a couple of interesting shops selling traditional shoes, hand-painted paper fans, and little cat handbags. At this tiny hole-in-the-wall, I found the most beautiful fan with a graceful ink brush painting of koi. I really need to get back into practicing my brush painting.

The second Tanakaya store is on the opposite side of Nishiki Market, a few blocks southeast of the first shop, and specializes in all kinds of traditional Japanese dolls. After some admiring and gawking at the prices, I finished walking through the rest of Nishiki, and continued east through Teramachi. A couple of blocks further, near Kawaramachi-dori, I found Nijuusanya, a store which sells modern Japanese hair accessories and traditional carved wooden (and tortoiseshell, I believe) combs and hairpieces. Most of the items were a little on the expensive side, so I took a particular interest in the their less-expensive hair sticks. There were three different, gracefully carved designs, matsu needle, ginkgo leaf, and tsuru head, which came in the plain polished wood, or smooth painted black. I had a bit of a time choosing between the ginkgo and tsuru, but eventually went with the shop-lady's suggestion of the black crane. I also made a stop at Tsujikura to admire their small gallery of beautiful, high-quality paper wagasa and lanterns, before traveling north up Kawaramachi-dori to browse through the foreign (aka English) section of the Junkudou bookstore.

Strange things were afoot at the Circle K...The sign on the far left in the photo tells passersby that this was the site of Ryoma Sakamoto and Shintaro Nakaoka's assassinations in 1867. Sakamoto and his friend Nakaoka, who were very influential in the Meiji Restoration, were meeting at the Omiya soy sauce shop when they were murdered by
a group calling themselves "Totsugawa warrior." These days, a Circle K stands on the spot, and most people pass by without taking any notice of the sign. These two I caught in the picture happened to give it a glance, although that may have been because I was actually stopped in front of it, and standing in the middle of the sidewalk amidst fairly heavy pedestrian traffic in attempts to get a good shot of the site.

I made a pit-stop at Wonder Tower to play a couple rounds of much-needed DDR...

but I miss Kylie Minogue, and Breakdown!...

Lastly, I walked back down to Shijo-dori, and finally walked  north through Ponto-cho.

In olden days, Ponto-cho was Kyoto's red-light district...

Today, the street is lined with restaurants, teahouses, and bars.

I had a giggle when I passed a jazz bar called Hello Dolly.

Ponto-cho is supposed to be one of the particular places where geiko and maiko-sightings are fairly common--but this is usually during weekend evenings.

No geiko sightings for me tonight. I shall have to revisit

sometime on an actual weekend evening.

It was still a lovely, lantern-lit, and photographically fruitful evening stroll.

And I found this gorgeous hanging ornament outside one of the teahouses.

Room with a View

After classes Thursday, I took the Golden Dragon over the hill towards Kokusaikaikan Station, in search of nearby easterly temples or shrines. There was a fair amount of meandering circling throughout the day, since reading a map required me to actually stop my bike. First on my list was Entsuji, which I probably wouldn't have found except for my peeled eyes landing on the graveyard at the side of the next road over. And where there are graveyards, there are temples. More often than not.

Entsuji was originally Emperor Gomino's imperial villa, and is known for its lovely moss and stone garden, which appropriates Hiei-zan as a backdrop for its composition. An ideal spot for meditation.

 I then took the main road going south from Kokusaikaikan, through a tunnel under the mountain, then down, down, downhill. But I made a high-pitched screeching halt to climb the hillside graveyard...and while the supposedly-attached temple was nowhere to be seen in the immediate area, I did discover some impressive shots. A little ways past the south side of the graveyard, there's a great view over the Matsugasaki area.

After a short stop at the subway street entrance to check the local sightseeing map, I turned from the safety of the main road into the uncertainty of the tiny, winding residential streets at the foot of the mountain. Sometimes the city maps I have, even the details of certain areas, don't show the smaller shrines and such. Just past an elementary school, I found Yusenji. Not very much to the place...Judging by the playground right in the middle of the grounds, in olden days it was probably a small, local terakoya.

Further east was Shirakumo Inari Jinja, found just downhill of
Matsugasaki Daikokuten, a sub-temple of Myouenji.

Old, faded paintings on wood at Shirakumo

One of the guardians to the entrance of Matsugasaki Daikokuten

'

A statue of Daikokuten (left) and Ebisu (right)

 

A statue of either Kariteimo or the Koyasu Kannon or Mizuko Kuyo Kannon, child-bearing and motherhood goddesses. I'm not sure which one this is precisely because their iconography (as well as those of other similar goddesses) appears to have mostly merged...

 

I'm not sure if these are offerings, but the temple is clearly child-oriented...

besides being dedicated to Daikokuten.

 

I set out once more for the last shrine on the map, Shinkan Jinja.

Traversing the pedestrian/bicycle-only streets was quite the daunting task.

I mean, take a look at this S-bend. The path was about 3 ft across, or so, I think.

 

Shinkan Jinja, another small, quiet shrine set into the hills

 

Some invisible shrine staff--that is, I heard them scuttling around inside,

but never caught sight of them--had recently done a small ritual burning of some sort.

 

Another one of those painting on a wood panel...less eroded than the last ones,

you can actually see the figure of the lord or aristocrat or warrior, whichever he is.

Perhaps another child-bearing-mother-type Kannon, on the corner of a parking lot.

Interesting fact: When Christianity was outlawed during the Tokugawa period, the iconography of the Jibo Kannon was used to disguise their veneration of the Virgin Mary. These kinds of statues are appropriately called "Mariya Kannon."

This I came across rather unexpectedly on the way back to I-House. I was heading for the hills (haha), the steep hills from whence I came, when I saw this teeny shrine set up next to a teeny obaasan's house...That is, the obaasan was teeny. She and a couple of middle-aged men who passed on the road were trying to explain something about the shrine to me...I'm not sure what exactly. All I figured out pretty much was that if you go up the two flights of stairs which comprise the shrine, at the top you will find a large, flat stone, which I think is probably sacred. They did, however run get a print out of the Iwagami Jinja's website for me, which I will not attempt to translate myself into Japanese. But the link goes to the crappy Google translation, so you might get the general gist of the place.

 

This was interesting...I have never seen this kind of maneki neko. Calico is considered the luckiest color for maneki neko, and it's right paw is raised, to draw good fortune and money, but I've never seen one with a bowed head before...Not sure what the last bit means.

 

Soon I was perspiring my way back uphill, back past the graveyard,
under the bridge, and through the tunnel once more...

The restaurant which Ben took Gerry, Robert and myself to in March is just down the street from Myomanji, the temple with the Indian stupa replica. The sign says "Ogawaya"...I think is probably the surname of the gentleman who owns this lovely establishment. I absolutely love the decorations at this place...not to mention his homemade umeshuu.

This window is amazing. Absolutely gorgeous.