Miko Part.2

The shrine is famous for its god of delivery of child, so a lot of people purchased the good "delivery" charms for their upcoming babies.
In very ancient time, there were a couple of small stones here.
The empress at that time who had a strong wish for a baby came to this shrine and strode them, and later she got pregnant. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a boy and he grew up healthy and became an emperor!
The stones had been replaced later, but still many married couples come here for getting the blessings from the sacred stones.
We Japanese, who have accomplished a certain level of economic success, still strongly believe in this sort of superstitious things like we always have been. Because we commonly believe sacredness dwells in natural objects.





This is a dancing stage. When people celebrate something, they dance here for the gods.



Aren't we all young?? Yes, only SINGLE & YOUNG women can become Miko.
Pureness is an important word for Shinto, so they don't have married or old Mikos.

In Japan, we pay visit to a shrine to celebrate the new year.
A lot of people do that in the midnight of the New Year's Day.
So that means we had to work overnight! We took two-hour nap every two hours..
and we had to stand outside under a tent!!!! It was sooo freakin' freezing!!!!
I think it was around 0℃ or something...


I purchased some good luck charms for me and my family. The bracelet above is mine with beads and a comma shaped stone. Comma shaped stone has been regarded as the emperor's treasures.
So it's very auspicious stuff! May this bring me a lot of happiness!!

.. and these are the gifts the family of the shrine gave us.

A bag of candies and a kind of hand towl with pictures of cow. (This year's Cow's year.)

..and they even treated us sushi!!!!!!

I've never had a more delicious lunch than this at my work!

The head shrine priest gave us some teachings during our duties. He was not preachy at all, , he was rather friendly & funny guy.

One of the impressive ones was "Please be a good mother, that will make your country better"

I will definately visit this shrine when I get married to wish for a baby!

But before that, I will have to come back here when the plum trees in their back garden will be in full bloom in March.

Happy New Year!!!!

How was your last year??
Well, I met so many people, maybe a lot more than ever in my life!!
It was very inspiring and fun! I should say..

At the end of the last year, I spent very memorable time at a local shrine.
Because I had a chance to work as MIKO around the New Year holidays..!!


Miko is a shrine maden, dressed in kimono and skirt!
I applied for the temporary Miko at a local shrine in November.
Because I wanted to know a lot more about Shintoism.

So this is the shrine I worked for..
The building on the left is a "temporary" main building.
Because there was recently repair work on the "regular" main building next to it.
It would be not safe for GODs who are enshrined there, so they moved them to the temporary one.

These are some of the mikos.. oh, there is me in the middle:)

We are selling good luck charms(on the desks),

and offering a little sake for visitors from the barrel on the left.

Real, or professional mikos do some purification rites as well.

But if you want to do that, you have to get a qualification by going to a Shinto college.

So temporary mikos end up being just a sales clerk:)

Often times why girls apply for temporary miko is that they simply want to wear

the traditional costumes. But of course among them there are some who are interested in Shintoism like me.

By the way I had some sips from the sake barrel too,,, wow,,, it was sooo good!

To be continued...

Shrine of Memoirs of Geisha

I would like to talk about Fushimi Inari Shrine..
(When I say [shrine], it basically refers to a Shinto shrine. Shinto is our own religion based on ancient animism. Shinto shrine is a place to enshrine the particular type(s) of god(s). Please don't mix with Buddhist temple.)

In October, I took my clients to a shrine called Fushimi Inari(伏見稲荷), one of the most popular shrines in Kyoto, also known as a place where [Memoirs of Geisha] was shot. Fushimi is the name of the area and Inari is the name of the god.


What's particular about the place is that thousands of torii gates (*) neatly alighned cover all over a mountain, all of which are said to be donated by the supporters who wish for the success in their business. (It is said that there are about 10,000 of small and large gates there.)

The custom of donation is said to have started in 17C.

Here is one photo with me & my clients from America..
... and this is just a part of the "tunnel of torii gate". It can take more than an hour to finish going through it...it is that endless.

It is impossible to see them in the photo, but there are names of the donators engraved on both sides of each gate. Every person can build a gate like this if you wish. (But the wish is basically limited to business as this shire worships the god of business.)

What I would like to stress here is,, it is best to go there at NIGHT TIME. It is a bit dangerous because there is not enough light. The atmosphere, though, is quite different than in the daytime. Look at the photo below.

These are the torii gates in daytime. It is OK, .. you can fully enjoy the place in daytime if you don't really care. But personally I prefer going there at night time because there are not too many people, thus it makes more authentic atmosphere. (but you can not find a cat like this when it's dark :p)

When I took my clients there in the evening, they really liked it. Also, this place in the first photo is very close to the spot they shot Memoirs of Geisha ( remember a girl is running thru the gate tunnel till she reaches the place to make wish? ) It is around the entrance area, so the gates are smaller. The deeper you go, the bigger torii gates get.

I can not think of any other shrine like this in Japan. If you want to experience authentic Japan, this is one of the places you should go.. I want to talk about the mysterious things about here, but it takes a day, so I will stop here!

Touring here in the early morning is also great, by the way! Please have a try if you ever visit Fushimi Inari Shrine!

* torii gate is a gate to a main building of a Shinto shrine. It can drive away evil spirits and also purify visitors when they go under it.

Mountain Blanketed in Snow

Hi, how are you?

It's been more than a month since last time I posted.
Sorry for being late!

Today, we had a sharp drop in temperature to 1℃ at coldest..
When I opened up the window in my room this morning, I was startled to catch the snowy scene out there!! (It was not a heavy snow, yet slightly snowing..) This is our first snow this winter!!

What is surprising about Kyoto is that we have two extreme climates.. very humid and hot air for summer and chilly and snowy(not a lot) climate for winter!!! Sometimes it even hits -1 or 2 here.
At this season, you can not live without down jackets...
If any of the readers comes to Japan around this time of the year, I strongly recommend that you wear them and dress more warmly than you think!!


..and this is the picture of Hiei-zan ( Mt. Hiei ) （比叡山）I took today blanketed in snow..

This mountain is famous as having a head temple of Buddhist religeon called Tendai-shu（天台宗）..

In ancient times, legend monks once studied here and established their own sectors that have still been widely supported in Japan. I imagined this mountain once was(or still is) the sacred mountain for those who would aim to be a great monk. There actually are still many monks in this mountain who are disciplining themselves.. The snow on top adds its magnificence as a sacred mountain.

I haven't climbed up there for a long time.. but I hope I will again very soon.

I almost had cold today bringing myself out to the cold breeze... I should go to bed early tonight..

See ya!!

Keiko

Pretty autumn red leaves!

Hi there!

Here I want to share more seasonal pictures with you. I went to 南禅寺(Nanzen-ji Temple) of eastern Kyoto notable for its beautiful autumn leaves.

What time do you think it was when I took this picture? It was 10 in the morning and it was already full of tourists!!

This is the water bridge built in the precinct more than 100 years ago when we tried hard to catch up with the Western technology. So it has the Western design. I think it was copied from Roman Empire aqua bridge. Water is still running at the top of it.

I always wonder why, at this time of the year I don't see foreigners even though it's the best time to view 紅葉( autumn red leaves ).. Maybe it's before X'mas and for most people, simply, it's not right time for travelling.

I walked into 天授院(Tenju-in), one of the branch temples there, and found a nice pond garden.

Here you can see the trees reflected perfectly clearly on the surface of the pond.

It looks better in photograph.Yeah!! They have bamboos too!"Feed me!!"

Now the temple is open to public. ( well you have to pay to enter )

In the past monks must have had training here.

There is a wooden house by there.. At the veranda, it has only a few pillars so that they don't ruin the scenery of the garden.

One purpose of gardens at Zen temples is to help you concentrated when meditating.

Everytime I go to this kind of place, I can feel relaxed.

Lastly, here is Picture of the Day!!

Have a great day!!!

Beautiful Temple at night & Green Tea Sweets!!

Hello, how are you everyone?

My name is Keiko, doing guiding in English for people from overseas.
I'm such a Kyoto lover that it made me move to Kyoto a year ago..

This is my first post!
I haven't really done blogging before, so this is like an adventure for me.

The purpose of the blog is to spread the beauty and attraction of Kyoto.

Kyoto is a very famous sightseeing spots for not only Japanese but people from all over the world. But still there are tons of good stuff that are not known to them.. that is what I would like to show here.

I will always try to have a sense of seeking a [good material] for this blog as I spend my life as a tour guide.
So people, if my blog makes you want to visit Japan, that is my dream come ture!

Today, I went to Entoku-in in Kyoto with my friend to enjoy viewing autumn leaves.
It's been getting colder here.. winter is right there, and it's going to be a peak time for autumn leaves(紅葉) soooon!!
The chinese charctar 紅 means RED while 葉 means LEAF. (I hope your PC can indicate them) At this time of the year Japanese people start to get crazy about viewing beautiful autumn leaves.



Here are some photos I took at Enco-in.











Some of the leaves here are still not at their peak, but very beautiful !
They give us even more serene atmosphere than in daytime.
Usually temples are not open in evening, but many of them do " lighting up" events so visitors can enjoy autumn leaves in the dark night!
It really is hard for me to choose which one to go!




Time for Sweets???

Later, when my friend and I got out of the temple, we came across a very famous cafe, Tsujiri, who has one of the best qualitied sweets in Kyoto and has been opened here recently.

Knowing it's 7 pm, time for dinner, still, we gave in to our desire....


The upper one is a parfait with matcha (green tea) cake and purple sweet potato paste on top(the purple is a natural color!)

The below that is what I had, an assortment of ice cream with dumplings and matcha flavored cake and jelly. What you see next to it is the matcha(抹茶), traditional style tea.

It ususally has no sugar in it, because it comes served with sweets. So after eating sweets,
we drink it. The food here is so good.. Well, I don't care eating here at dinner time. It is that good. Definately my favorite place.


I will try to keep posting as much as I can..

Hope my blog entertains you and you come back here.



See ya!