Mrs. Bunberry: Time Warp in Kyoto - Installment the second

So, yesterday was an improvment on those previous monosyllabic posts, but it had very little information in it. Today will be different. I'm going to show you some of the places we went in Kyoto. Lets start out with a little cultural lesson: In Japan, buildings must be at least five hundred before being considered old. If they want to be seen as having historical importance they should aim for one thousand. There's a loop hole in this guidline though, for Japanese architecture is really prone to fires. In fact, people point to it as proof that lighting does strike twice, or thrice, or five-ce. Okay, lets start with the inn we stayed at.

Nashinoki Ryokan

Merely a hundred years old, and run by the sweetest couple, this inn provived shelter, breakfast (you'll see that some other time), and bicylces. In the picture you can see our futons all rolled up. Like all good japanese houses, you took your shoes off before coming in, wore toilet slippers in the bathroom, and were offered the use of the ufon (the Japanese bath). With tatami mats, turkish toilets, and parperd doors, the cultural expectations of this traveler were quickly fulfilled.

The Kyoto Imperial Palace

This is one of those indomitable structures, with the tenacity of a dandilion. It was built back in 794, making it a little over a thousand years old, but it has been burned down so many times

that the current structures only date back a hundred and sixty years. These buildings are used mainly for show now, the capital was moved to Tokyo in 1869 and the Emporer has other places to dwell when he comes down to visit Kyoto.

The Omiya Imperial Palace

Enclosed by the same stone wall that surounds the Imperial palace above, this imperial compound is lush with greenery. It's referred to in the guidebook as the Sento palace, but there has been no Sento palace here since 1854, when the last one burned down. The Sento palace, now only history, used to house retired Emperors. The Omiya palace, as pictured, was for dowager Empresses. But, as with most of these houses, the real beauty is in the detailed landscape.

The Nijo-jo (Castle)

Funnily enough, I have been to this castle before, though it seems quite a number of years ago now. Cameras are band beyond a certain point, so the real beauty of the place - its ancient painted screens, exquisite wood carvings, and even its decorative nails - must be viewed in person. The coolest thing about Nijo though is not it's looks but it's sound. It is equipped with something known as a nightingale floor, a floor designed to alert it's owners to the presence of an enemy through the squeaks and chirps created when it's stepped on. Since most homeowners like their floors to be silent this invention is rarely found outside of Nijo.

The Katsura Imperial Villa

This Villa is, in my opinion, the cream of the crop. Located far enough from Kyoto that we had to take the train instead of out bikes, the villa was so perfect, so natural, so superior to the other palaces, that I even bought a pocket guide book. Luckily for those non-visual people, the ones who just hate seeing pictures of a place, who prefer to read about things instead, my camera's batteries were on the blink and I was constantly having to

turn the silly thing off to fool it into thinking it had enough power for just one more picture.The Katsura Villa was walled in with an impressive bamboo hedge known as the Katsura-gaki (literally - Katsura hedge, but lets pretend it has some obscurer meaning).

Within this hedge, and on the other side of a number of fences and gates, lay the garden and tea houses, pearls protected by their oyster shells. The Shokin-tei, the Shoka-tei, and the Shoi-ken are prime examples of dignity and subtly, mixed a romantic ruggedness. The Shokin-tei was my favorite of these tea houses, but even it was topped by the garden. The buildings of Katsura are all at the beck and call of the gi-normous pond which sprawls in their midst. Every window, doorway, tree, and stone seems placed with the pond in mind. It is under the bridges, around the islets, and idling on the stone shore of Katsura.