Gion Matsuri

Gion Matsuri is a big carnival in Kyoto during the first few weeks of July in Kyoto. Everything becomes compact and precarious, but who cares, it's a carnival!!



The Kyoto citizens living in the middle section of Kyoto (nakagyoku) bring out these big floats and musicians sit in them and play all night (my bro-in-law Yoshi did it for years) while people walk amongst the different festival stands in their yukata. I hope to take my daughter there someday.



The music is the most important part of Gion Matsuri, as is is played throughout July, even as you walk along Kawamachi Street.



So many years I had to drag my wife (who was born in Kyoto) to Gion Matsuri, because she's the type that gets bored quickly. But the whole event is always a kick in the ass.

タル占い Fortune-telling barrel

Near where I used to live in beautiful Arashiyama, Kyoto was a medium-sized Jinja (shrine) by the name of Matsuo. It's one of the oldest shrines in Kyoto, and originates when a major samurai of the Emperor of the time (I think it was Kammu) stopped under a waterfall and noticed a turtle resting at the base of the falls. Well, this was about the time the capital of Japan was being shifted from Nagaoka-Tenjin to Kyoto, nearly 1300 years ago.

The purity of the water was remarkable (as it is everywhere else in Kyoto), so the samurai immediately recommended a shrine be built there to commend the pure spirit inherent in the water. Matsuo Taisha (or large shrine) was built and it remains a place of blessing to local miso and sake producers.




ALL SAKE (I especially like the barrel of Hanshin Tigers sake over there on the right, second row.



There is sake everywhere, and the most fun comes during Hatsumode (the first shrine visit of the year) when they bring out a mixed liquor filled with gold leaf.　This is the shrine to the god of Japanese sake.



One interesting thing about Matsuo Taisha is that there is a "barrel fortune-telling" yatai (stand) during Hatsumode.





You basically take a cumbersome arrow and shoot it at a barrel with all but a small circle cut out and a gong behind it. If you hit the edge of the barrel, you get a "kichi" charm (good luck), but if you hit the very middle and the gong, you get a special "daikichi" (very good luck) charm that also serves as a cell phone strap. My wife and I both shot it - my wife got kichi and I got daikichi. My wife lovingly looked in my eyes that day and told me I was a "yareba dekiru otoko" (a guy who can stand up and do it). Now I wonder if I'm that same guy, there isn't a Taru-uranai (fortune telling barrel) to tell her so!

My rant: Kinkakuji vs. Ginkakuji

Ok, I'm gonna say it. Kinkakuji sucks. It's overcrowded, it's not that impressive, it's too far from the middle of Kyoto, and tourists miss some of the great stuff in the Kawaramachi area going all the way up Nishiooji Road to Kinkakuji. Here is Kinkakuji:



When it snows, which is almost never in Kyoto, Kinkakuji is really beautiful. Otherwise, the gaudiness makes it look like it should be an Osaka/Tokyo monument and not a Kyoto one.

It's one of those weird quirks of Kyoto architecture that doesn't belong in Kyoto, like Kyoto Tower.



Ginkakuji, on the other hand, is not only at the base of Daimonji mountain and at the top of Nenenomichi (which goes from Ginkakuji to Tetsugaku no Michi to Maruyama Park to Kiyomisu), but is much more subtle and beautiful.



If you're planning a trip to Kyoto, skip Kinkakuji and take the walk from Ginkakuji to Kiyomizu Temple instead. You'll get a lot more sightseeing done for the same price and time spent.

Weird food from Kyoto

Well, now that I finished a few more pages of my master's thesis, I can relax and tell you the tale of two weird foods from Kyoto: Yakisuzume and yakiayu.

Yaki- (焼き-) is the prefix for anything grilled, and if you connect that to suzume (雀) - sparrow - or ayu (鮎) - sweetfish - you get some weird looking food.

What especially disgusted me was my own realization that those cute birds that populated the Arashiyama Station I left to work from every morning could be so delicious...and so damn bony!

Anyway enjoy the following equation:

+焼き＝

Yikes. This delectable treat can be found a bit south of Kyoto in the Fushimi Area, home of one of the most beautiful shrines in Kyoto: Fushimi-Inari Jinja. Somehow this place ALWAYS gets passed over for a mediocre tour through Kiyomizu and Kinkakuji. For those of you that can't conceptualize the awesomeness of the 2-3 mile hike through the Fushimi-Inari Shrine (complete with $3 can cokes at the top), here are some good pictures:



The fox god of Fushimi loves two things: Inarizushi (rice with sweet agedofu) and expensive donations to the shrine - usually anywhere from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth depending on the location.



Notice each torii has the name of the company written on it.

The other scrumptious dish only comes in the June-August season. Yakiayu, or charcoaled sweetfish. If you've never eaten a fish like a hotdog, you gotta try it.



The interesting thing about ayu is the way they are fished. Some fisherman use the traditional bait and hook method, but the ass-biting method works better. Ayu are fiercely territorial and bite the ass (or fin) of any fish that comes in the area. Fishermen use a lure that looks like another ayu, and the fish bite the back of the lure and are thus hooked by their own instinctive territorial natures.



I would have fished in Katsura river too - if it wasn't for the 15000 yen ($150) species-specific fishing license.

Places where eels sleep

Kyoto (where I lived for two years) is a very cramped place, especially the middle part and the eastern part (中京区、左京区). The main part of Kyoto lies somewhere around Shijo (四条) and Kawaramachi-doori　(河原町通), and if you walk a few streets toward Kamo River (鴨川), you'll hit Kiyamachi (木屋町) - where liquor was taken up to the imperial palace from the Fushimi area years ago - and Pontocho (先斗町) - where all the maiko (geisha) are. Even thought these places are very busy, they are also extremely compact, and the tight, confining streets that interlace the area are called Unagi no nedokoro or "Places where eels sleep" (鰻のねどころ) as eels are very slender (and delicious) and therefore can sleep in a very narrow, confining place.

Pontocho:


Unagi no nedokoro:


Gosh I miss Kyoto now and my former home in the Kurotani-dera area...