The Japandamonium continues!

Hello all,

Just a quick update on the last couple of days. Days 3 and 4 in Japan have gone fast, the time is already flying by and we only have 3 more days before heading off to Tokyo. Yesterday we went to the Chion-ji temple to check out the local flea market. It wasn't so much of a flea market, more of a folk handicrafts & food market. It was so much fun, we were pretty much the only tourists and as usual, nobody spoke a lick of English. I'm really glad we did that rudimentary course last year, knowing a few phrases makes all the difference!! The temple setting was really nice, and we saw lots of traditional Japanese handcrafts, mostly involving making things out of printed textiles. The Japanese are very cutesy but moreso a very visual/aesthetic culture, as in everything has to look just right, neat & tidy, everything has to 'go' perfectly. Everything is just so cute, probably quaint is the word I'm looking for. Anyway I got a hairpin with 2 flowers made of red printed silk on it.

Oh, another interesting thing - every other shop (tourist-targeted and otherwise) sells squares of fabric, again, very beautiful to look at, nice Japanese prints involving cherry blossoms and cute animals. They're not handkerchiefs. They're called tenugui and furoshiki (depending on the size). The Japanese use them to fold carry bags, most often to wrap up their lunchboxes. The larger ones (furoshiki) can be folded several different ways into decent-sized handbags. Sugoi desu ne! I've been thinking about getting one but really, what do I need a square of fabric for?

After the market we went tp Ginkaku-ji, another pavilion/temple type thing (they're starting to all look the same, Kyoto has about 17 shrines/temples/pagodas per capita and you can't walk a block without tripping over one). Then we headed over to Kiyo-mizu area to do our maiko-hensin!! (Maiko dress up). Laura has posted some cool photos on her blog, I've put one below and one of my own. Later that night we went to Gion corner and saw some real-live Maiko on the streets! After being dressed up like that and having everyone stare at me (literally stopping in their tracks to stare open-mouthed, cameras poised), I have some sympathy for the real geisha and maiko that are just trying to do their jobs, and get hassles & followed on the streets by nosy tourists. there's an unobtrusive way to observe a local culture, then there's being a disrespectful tourist who runs after a geisha.

Tomorrow we're headed to Arashiyama, there's a bamboo forest and monkeys. Let's see how that goes :P Bedtime now, see yous later ow!