Sunday Kuniko and I went into Kyoto to go to one of Kuniko’s favorite shrines. She has been going there and making wishes since she was in college, and each time her wish comes true she goes back and makes another one. We made the journey on the Hankyu train and got there around nine in the morning.
There was already a line forming of people that wanted to walk through the shrine. Part of the walkthrough is a lecture from the priest, and since we didn’t want to hear that, Kuniko went directly to the shrine window and bought a couple of charms. The priest there gave her a little crap for not listening to the lecture, but she was able to buy them and get out of there. We made our wishes and prayed, and then hit the trail.
Kuniko was a little put off by the priest’s attitude – the idea of religion as a business has been around for a long time, but when something like this happens it becomes all the more apparent.
Next stop was a little shrine in town that was having a mini-festival. It wasn’t really a festival – more of a gathering. The shrine is known for making sweet sake, and they were giving it away for free, so we each had a hot cup of sake and enjoyed the warming sunshine. We also walked through the gardens, but they weren’t as impressive as I had hoped. The plum blossoms were just starting to bloom, but I think it won’t be in full bloom for another couple of weeks.
From there we took a two kilometer walk to Arashiyama, a famous part of Kyoto situated in the mountains next to a wide river. The walk was really refreshing. We got a lot of exercise, and it gave us a chance to chat with each other and talk about some of the big picture things that we’ve been struggling with lately – jobs, houses, kids, etc.
We walked into Arashiyama, and then visited some of the shops there. I bought omiyage for my teachers, and we had lunch in a small restaurant just as some rainshowers came through. It was really nice to see the people running around outside getting rained on while we sat in front of steaming bowls of rice, egg, and fried pork.
By the time we finished lunch the rain had stopped, so we did just a little more shopping and I picked up some famous sakura mochi to take home. Then we walked back to the train station and headed home.
On the Hankyu trains, the first car and the last car of the trains are “no cellphone” cars. They ask that you power off your cellphones. I guess it is for people with pacemakers to ride in safety, but it might also be a manners thing. Anyway, on the ride to Kyoto we noticed a couple of people using cellphones in those cars, despite the signs everywhere and the announcements of the conductors.
On the way back home a guy was sitting right next to us typing away at his cellphone, when suddenly a lady suddenly shrieked at him to shut off the power. He calmly did while everyone else looked at her incredulously. She started to chat with some ladies sitting across from us, and they got so scared that they got off the train at the next stop. The crazy lady was following them as our train pulled away. Weird.
That evening Kuniko made up some really good yakisoba, and then after dinner we caught the late show of “Shiawase no chikara” or in English, “The Pursuit Of Happyness”. It was a pretty depressing movie, despite the relatively happy ending. It made us very appreciative of the roof over our heads that night.
