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| A painting we caught a glimpse of in a building within the Imperial Palace grounds |
Thursday, 29 May: our
third day in
Kyōto ( part II )
Well, we walked from the bus stop into the grounds of the Kyōto Imperial Palace. It was park-like landscaping, not formal gardens. When we got to the buildings of the Palace complex, the whole place seemed desolate and deserted, perhaps dead, even though there were lots of tourists there for the guided tour. (There wasn’t any other way of seeing the place.)
Once we got going on the tour, the imperial sixteen-petaled chrysanthemum kamon was everywhere, as you see in the pictures of the first row, to the left.
I suppose I’m not supposed to complain, but the place seemed very bare. Why not even have some potted greenery out here? The assocated garden was lovely, but I found the sterility here repellent. Mark and I were not at all impressed.
The gardens were very beautiful, but for some reason I don’t have very many pictures of them. The two in the upper row in the block to the right and the big one below are all that I culled from my dozen or so pictures taken then. I don’t know how I got the pictures of the wonderful painting after our visit to the garden, but that’s the way it was. Since all the paintings we saw were some distance away, illuminated by daylight only, and set well into their rooms, none of the pictures I took of them do them justice.
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| Unparalleled Japanese taste. The Emperor must be pleased. (larger version). |
We left the Palace and seem to have spent an hour traveling to a different part of greater Kyōto to get to the Kinkaku-ji, the “Golden Pavilion”. Like all the sights we visited this day, with the exception of the Imperial Palace, this was jammed with Japanese tourists. And we could see why, when we got there.
The Golden Pavilion is truly amazing: the whole thing is covered in gold leaf over a layer of varnish. What we see is a restoration dating from 1955, because the previous building was lost to arson in 1950. The earlier building was perhaps not quite so precious. Precious or not, it has to be seen. I think Mark’s picture #58 on his page is the best photo, but I have two below that I also like.
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I did like the glow on the under-
side of the roof
(big image, small).
The images above were taken from across the pond. From there, I thought that the Pavilion was on an island, but it’s actually on a sort of peninsula. One walks around the pond to get a view from the other side, and this is not nearly as romantic.
The fern picture is the last-but-one of the snapshots of this day. From here on, I’ll quote from my journal.
The journal picks up «…the Golden Pavilion, quite a sight, and thence by yet another bus, a walk, and a subway back to Kyōto Station, where we had a meal. I ordered a plate of conger sushi, and was disappointed in it, while M chose the same, and was perfectly well satisfied. Finished up with coffee & ice cream.
And if you care to, you can get a larger version.
«On this day we and the others were repeatedly accosted by groups of kids, trying out their English and asking us to stand with them for a photograph. It was loads of silly fun. On another occasion, on the way to the Golden Pavilion, I was surrounded by a bunch of school-girls, and Mark pulled a snap (or several) that he thought would be very amusing. At one point in this process, one of the girls, thinking that M was photographing them, made a V with fingers 2 & 3, apparently something they do when being photographed. Then M pointed to me in their midst, and the girl who had made the sign got giggly and embarrassed. Very amusing to M & me.»
I close this day’s account with a characteristically Japanese picture, to the right, and a story. “Calpis” is a Japanese soft drink, and according to my brother, it tastes fine. He had two tours in Japan when he was in the Air Force, mid sixties and early seventies. He said that the people at Asahi Soft Drinks were interested in marketing the drink in the United States, and called in some American consultants who might suggest what their strategy ought to be. The report said that the drink was delicious, and could probably succeed in the States, but they recommended strongly that it be sold under a different name. The powers-that-be at ASD were horrified at this suggestion, and canceled the project.