Yesterday was amazing – just wow! It was a jam packed day of the most incredible sights. We headed off in the bus at 7am for drive to Kyoto. The weather here is much hotter than I expected – 28 C yesterday.
Our wonderful tour guide, Matsako, gave us a commentary the whole time we drove about the history of the area and of the Shogun whose castle we were going to visit. He was the Shogun that the well known book and movie was based on – Tokugawa shogun. His castle at Kyoto, Nijo castle, was not his main one – but it certainly was impressive! It was built in 1603 as his official residence. (click here for history & great pics of Nijo Castle)
We walked in over the moat to the first courtyard,
then through a beautifully painted main gate into the second courtyard. It was huge and it’s easy to imagine hundreds of samurai lined up there.
The roof of the gates are beautifully decorated with timber and gold.
We were only able to visit one part of the castle as the rest is being restored. The section we saw consisted of about 30 partitioned rooms used for visitors, the rooms used by the shogun and some of those of his concubines. Unfortunately we were not able to take photos inside.
Each room is decorated in beautiful paintings with scenes chosen depending on who would use each room and what impression they wanted to make. It seems that nothing in Japan is just decorative, every image is chosen because it means something specific. Rooms where negotiations were conducted with ‘unfriendly’ visitors were decorated with scenes of strength such as fierce tigers whereas rooms for allies had scenes of flowers or nature. Every room we saw was different and only the allies or friends were permitted in to the most central rooms. In the room where the shogun did most of his business there were two hidden doors where two samurai guards could leap out if any one approached him.
Around the outside of the rooms is the famous nightingale floor. I had read about this in a novel but nothing prepares you for how amazing it is in real life! It was designed so that the wood ‘squeaks’ when walk on it, so that intruders could not sneak inside. . The best I could liken it to is when you are in the mountains and the bellbirds are all singing. As there were lots of people inside when we visited it just sounded like lots of birds.
Then we were off to the Golden Pavilion. This was originally owned by another shogun, but in his will he gave it to the Buddhists’ to be converted to a temple. The top two stories are covered in gold leaf from the Kanazawa region we visited yesterday. Just beautiful!
Visitors are not allowed inside but we walked around the grounds and saw the workers sweeping the moss clean and also gently sweeping the top of a small stream with handmade brooms. Its easy to imagine how tranquil it would have been before tourists.
Next up was another Japanese lunch which was really nice. This time we ate with chopsticks and mine was beautifully prepared.
There were no problems with the gluten free and I had a nice big sign with my name and gluten free written on it stuck to the back of my chair so I knew where to sit. I am really impressed with the trouble Princess has gone to to make sure I’m looked after.
After a lovely lunch we visited a Shinto shrine.The shrine was impressive! There are no statues as Shinto is about honouring the divine in nature, not about a ‘god’ type figure, but there were some beautiful buildings around a large central courtyard and huge gates.
We happened to be there when a baby was having a ceremony for ‘long life’ – probably the equivalent of our baptism service. It is held when the child is one month old. So we were able to watch part of that which was really lovely to see.
As we were leaving a young couple came in dressed in their traditional clothing including a beautiful kimono, ready to receive a ‘blessing’ from the Shinto priest. The last stop of the day was another shopping trip and then a 2 hour bus trip back to the ship. We arrived back just after five, happily exhausted. The ship was farewelled from the port by Japanese drummers – just amazing!
After dinner we sat out on deck and enjoyed watching the behind the beautiful mountains of Japan go by till the sun went down.
