Uji

Saturday my host mother and sister took me to a place outside of Kyoto called Uji. Uji figures prominently in the last ten chapters of the ‘Tale of Genji’ and is also famous for its tea. Our first stop was at a temple called Byodoin, a Buddhist temple that dates to the 11th century AD, and is a designated World Heritage Site. It’s also on the 10-yen coin. Because we were going to have to wait a full hour to walk through the building itself, we contented ourselves with looking at the outside of it, and then the museum, which has replicas and originals of several national treasures associated with the temple, including a host of bodhisattvas on clouds, each one playing a different instrument. After this we took a leisurely walk along the Uji River, bought the best green-tea ice cream that I’ve ever had, sampled some teas and looked into some tea stores. After that we caught a bus to another temple called Mimurotoji, which is famous for its flowers. The temple itself was up some very steep stairs to the back of the compound, but the focus everywhere was clearly on nature. The courtyard of the temple building was filled with urns of water, which I was told would all have blooming lotuses in them before long. The hillside by next to the temple was entirely covered in flowering bushes. The azaleas where almost all in bloom, though it was a bit early for them, and I was told that the hydrangeas that came next would also be extremely beautiful. We stopped at the little tea-stand in the middle of the garden to have some green-tea gelatine with red bean and whipped cream before heading back to the station. Unfortunately on the train ride back my host sister started to feel ill, so we stopped in at the station office for awhile to rest. The people there were really nice and attentive. We made it back in one piece and my host sister went straight to bed. On the train back I had the …opportunity? To speak English with a retired professor who spoke fluently but rather inside my comfort bubble. He seemed nice enough, I guess, but I was still glad to get off the train.
-Uji is very nice and very peaceful, which is apparently why a number of old aristocrats had summer houses there.
-Byodoin is actually famous for its wisteria, but a sign outside of the temple apologized that the wisteria this year was not up to par. It seemed fine to me, but I’m no wisteria expert.
-If I could retire from the world and spend my time thinking about profound things, Mimurotoji Temple would be a good choice of retreat.
-The station attendants take their jobs very seriously. When they heard that my host sister was ill they got one person to check out the situation, and then three people came with a wheel chair to convey her to the station office.
-I believe that I washed my hands with mouthwash at the station office. The bottle was by next to the sink, and was mostly soap-bottle shaped, but it had a distinct minty-freshness that I don’t usually find in hand soap.