Day 3 Kyoto

From Yes to Noh

The day started with a visit to the Sanjusangendo Buddhist Temple. This very old wooden Temple from the 11th century is centered around 1001 wooden carved statues of the god Kannon, who represents compassion in the Buddhist religion.
The statues appear to be about 5 feet tall, made of wood and arranged in tiers like an army, 500 strong on each side of one final giant wooden depiction of Kannon. It is an amazing temple.

From there we went to Gallery-Gallery modern textiles, from many designers. We then walked down the street to one of Kyoto’s famous department stores and a walk through the fabulous food court. An amazing variety of food, for sale, all incredibly displayed.

We then went to a great designer of clothing, Saito San. Cathy and I ordered some clothes which will eventually be made and shipped to us.

We took a subway ride to us to Gallery Kei where we looked at antique textiles - mainly from Okinawa. We are heading to the Okinawa islands by train and boat tomorrow.

We then went to a Noh theater. It was a fabulous experience. We didn’t see a full production, but rather a special seminar where they explained the history, the costumes, the masks, the singing, music and dancing (or at least as much as we could absorb). It is an extremely stylized performance. Men play all the roles. They sing in a chanting style while wearing amazing costumes and masks. It was a real treat to be taken behind the scenes of a production.

Subway back towards the hotel, then Cathy and I went for a walk. Back to the hotel, cocktail time (actually Sake Time) and packing. After deciding what clothes to take to Okinawa, which is South and tropical from where we are now, we shipped the rest of our clothes to Tokyo, where they will be awaiting us in our hotel room when we arrive. Japan is amazingly efficient, and safe, and this is an easy thing to do.

After packing, and more Sake we headed out to a 10 course Japanese dinner, every course of which was made from Crab.

Up early tomorrow heading to Okinawa.