Remember the shrine I was talking about yesterday with the boar statues?  Dr. H ended up bringing us there this morning!  The reason why there are boars guarding the shrine is a story about a deity there.  The deity enshrined there (Lord Wake no Kiyomaru) had saved the imperial throne from an evil plot, but he was exiled by an evil Dokyo. On his way to exile, he was ambushed by the Dokyo's men and was wounded in the leg. Along the journey, 300 boars came out of nowhere and protected him up to Usa Hachiman Shrine, where is leg was miraculously healed.  We were told this was a good shrine for back and leg healing, so I bought Dad a charm for his back.  The shrine also had a collection of small boar toys and statues, which was cute.


Our next stop was the Kyoto Imperial Palace (there's another one in Tokyo).  It was really incredible.  We even got a tour, which was even better!  Dr. H said we are the first of his classes who have been able to do this.  We weren't allowed to go inside, but we learned a lot just from walking around the grounds.  Now I'm just going to spew facts I remember: 

The tiger waiting room

There are three rooms to wait in when visiting the emperor.  The first is for the lower class and is painted with cherry blossoms, with red "taping" on the floor (I don't know what else to call it).  The second is for the middle class and is painted with cranes, with white "taping" on the floor.  The last room is for the upper class and is painted with tigers, with white "taping."  The red is only for the middle class.  Like most of the shrines and temples we've seen, the palace is natural.  The only paint seen was on the pillars of the gate, which were orange.  This idea was borrowed from China, where things painted red is for luck.  In Japan, orange is supposed to drive away evil spirits.  South is a lucky direction, so the emperor's room always faces south.  Northeast is an unlucky direction and, in fact, the northeastern corners of Japanese maps are usually cut out.  In front of the emperor's room (where ceremonies are held) there are two trees, one on either side.  On the left side (facing the palace) is an orange tree, symbolizing longevity.  On the right side is a cherry blossom tree, symbolizing loyalty.  At another area of the grounds is a large empty lot.  There used to be many buildings there, but they were moved to different areas in case of bombings during WWII and they were never moved back.  There is also a small courtyard where people would gather dressed in kimonos to play futball (or soccer).  It was described to us as an elegant sport in which there were no winners or losers.

After our tour, we went tot the Kyoto Gyoen, National Garden.  All day there was on and off flurries, even though it was warm in the sun, so it was kind of cool seeing it with the snow falling.  It didn't accumulate, though.  We also saw Tofuku-ji Temple and Tofuku-ji's Hojo Garden, which was basically another rock garden.  I liked this one the best.

Next we went to a large shrine dedicated tot the deity of rice.  This is an important shrine to the Japanese because rice is an important crop to them.  The shrine is guarded by fox statues, another unusual guardian choice.  The Japanese see foxes as being very mysterious because they can be mischievous, but they can also be good.  We started to follow a walkway of orange torii that people had donated money toward.  You're surrounded by orange.  We had been walking for awhile and I was wondering where we were going.  Then we had to climb a lot of stairs.  This was kind of a problem for me because I am out of shape and my knee has been bothering me for the past month, but I kept up.  Eventually Youlin asked Dr H how much further we had and he had no idea.  I don't think he had even broken a sweat!  Meanwhile, as I'm climbing stairs gasping for breath, there are girls walking up in high heels like it's their job, old men passing me looking like they're casually taking an afternoon stroll, and students that looked like they were on a sports team running by me!  I even saw young children walking up!  Anyway, we decided we must be at least halfway up, so we should continue on.  When we were relatively close to the top, we did finally get a good view of the city, even though it was cloudy.  I was the sixth person to reach the top, out of ten.  Prof B and Ellen stopped a little past halfway.  I was sore and exhausted when I made it, but I'm glad I did it - my knee, not so much.  Kristen, Becky and I decided to start back down before everyone else and just backtrack.  When we finally got back, everyone else was already there!  They had found a faster way down.


I called my parents via Skype phone tonight.  They were excited tot hear from me and it was nice to talk to them.