At the prayer rituals' end, I was lucky enough to find myself ushered into a tea room for an impromptu tea with assorted strangers. Take was nowhere to be found, but the folks around me were very interesting - an Australian woman Sally who'd lived in Kyoto for 10 years and was currently revising parts of the Rough Guide To Japan; an Italian cooking school chef soon to be honeymooning in Tasmania; the head of the order and his wife; the charming young fire-stocker from the ceremony; some Japanse guests who I didn't have a chance to speak with, an older Italian nun who occasionally offered me pearls of Buddhist wisdom; and a Swiss monk who offered plenty of opinions and some very concentrated tea.
Take found us toward the end of the occasion. Any of the packaged cakes and Hersheys Kisses we hadn't eaten were wrapped for us to take with us.
We walked around the beautiful abbot garden
in precarious Japanese high-heel thongs - they're NOT made for off-road.
Then we headed out for a big day of sightseeing in Kouya-san - beautiful, historic, and an easily navigable and fascinating tourist destination for visitors to Japan.
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1 comment:
josh loves the roller coaster and we've watched it copious amounts. He wants to know if you will go to astro's house whilst in japan. love em
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