Day 6, August 16
Today we woke up a bit later due to the previous night’s exploits. We eventually made it out of the house and decided to check out the closest things to Miho’s house. The first stop was this café at top of a little mountain that you have to hike up to get to it. (and by hike we mean, stairs and an incline) Totally worth the "hike", the buildings all along the way and the paths were just beautiful, and the view from the café was just amazing. After coffee we went to a free art museum down the hill that is run through Miho’s church (her religion is called Reimei). Very nice, very old stuff. They had a tea room that had a circular window that perfectlly framed the mountain that was going to have the fires on it. So you could perfectly see the character and it was set up so you couldn't see any of the city. It was beautiful.
Later we made our way to my favorite site so far, the Ginkaju-ji temple, a UNESCO world heritage site. While a little small compared to some of the other things we’ve seen so far, the grounds are IMMACULATELY maintained (this despite the throngs of visitors, it is one of the most visited temples in Japan), including some amazing sand works and zen designs that are probably redone every day. The garden was just incredible.
After the temple we strolled a little bit down the way and decided to check out another garden, the one that belonged to a famous Japanese artist by the name of Hakusasanso Hashimoto. Another beautiful site, it was worth the 6 dollar entry fee to just escape the madness of the previous attraction in terms of number of people.
At the end of the day we finally played a little pachinko. It’s like a cross between a slot machine and a pinball machine. We lost and very quickly!
At around 7PM we met back up with Miho and finally met her father (he had been on a trip to a nearby mountain to do some nature photography). A very nice man! He was very appreciative that we had taken in Miho when she was travelling in America and didn’t have a place to stay. Anyways, after our meeting, we walked a few minutes to Miho’s family church where they were having a small party. And by family church, I really mean family church, she had a whole bunch of family there, and we got to meet a whole lot of friends too. It was really nice and we had some food and chatted for a bit. The reason for the party was part of the Obon festival , which actually isn’t observed by her church (her religion is relatively new and I’m not sure how big it is), but they still gathered to view the main attraction. What is the main attraction you ask? Well, some background. Many Japanese Buddhists believe that in mid-august spirits from the spirit realm can return to Earth for a few days and chill out with their family and friends. So families and temples light special fires so that the spirits can find their way. At the end of the festival, Kyoto lights these huge symbols on the sides of nearby mountains so that the spirits can find their way back to the spirit-realm. Its like a, “It was nice, but see you next year” type of thing.
It was really neat and we managed to take a few photos; you can see the fires, but not really the mountain that its on. After that we joined some of the congregation at a nearby park to light off some sparklers which was fun. A really neat experience!
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