Chasing the Sun: Kyoto to Miyajima Island

Chasing the Sun: Kyoto to Miyajima Island

In Kyoto I stayed, along with Leslie Rose, my co-tour manger, 4 nights at the Hotel Okura, located near restaurants and shopping along side a slow river where you could jog or walk. The daily lectures covered “The Introduction to Buddhism in Japan” (Helen Hardacre, Harvard), and “Buddhist Temples” (Mimi Yiengprukasawan, (Yale).  These prepared our group for the sightseeing trips to the largest and oldest temples in Kyoto.

Nijo Castle was first and very impressive! Built in 1603 (the first time) it has floors that squeak in the most lyrical way called “nightingale” floors. Designed to keep out intruders.

Next was the Kinkaku-ji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion). Lovely!

Final stop this day was to Ryoan-ji’s Zen rock garden. 

The weather was warm and sunny and I escorted the Kyoto cusine & crafts group.  I enjoyed this very much as I learned how to make some traditional Japanese dishes and to write my name in Kanji.

Next day we checked out of the hotel, made sure we had everyone’s luggage loaded onto trucks and headed for Nara where we visited two sites, Todai-ji  and Horyu-ji, Japan’s oldest surviving Buddhist temple and the world’s oldest wooden structure.

Todai-jji is home to a huge Buddha, so I enjoyed taking quite a few photos of this monolithic structure.

I never made it into the Horyu-ji temple because one of our travelers tripped and fell, so I helped out with some clean up and bandages.

Finally we boarded our ship, The Caledonian Sky in the port of Kobe.

We were welcomed by a troup of drummers/dancers from a local high school and welcomed aboard by the staff with a ceremony from the Port officials who presented a plaque to the Captain. The Crew welcomed Leslie Rose, my co-tour manager with a Port of Kobe Hat and bouquet of flowers.

We dressed for the Captains dinner and enjoyed a very pleasant evening.

Hiroshima

We cruised all night in the inland Sea to Hiroshima where we docked for the whole day & overnight.

Lectures began at 9am: “Memorials of War and Peace” (H. Hardacre,Harvard) and “The Atomic Bomb in Popular Culture” (Constantine Valporis, Princeton). I think everyone was looking forward to the Peace Memorial Park and Museum, even though it was raining a steady gentle downpour. As part of our tour manger role, Leslie presented a briefing with slides about where we would be walking and how to get back via public transit if guests wanted to stay in town for the afternoon.

Instead of visiting the Peace Memorial Park I escorted the guest who had fallen, and his wife to a clinic and then to the Emergency room to have some further examinations and tests done for him. This was very interesting for me, never having been in a Japanese medical setting before.  I observed that the nationalized medical care system moves very slowly here. The ship’s doctor (from Odessa, Ukraine) was with us and we also had our transportation and translators provided by the ground based support team. Communication was fair, but because it was not exactly clear for everyone, it took longer to come to agreement on how best to proceed.

Finally my guest’s tests came back with good results so we finally returned to the ship at 10pm after about 7 hours in clinics and hospitals.

Miyajima

Zodiac rides to the island of Miyajima were easy and fun.  We toured the town and watched the ceremonial Bugaku (dance) and Gagaku (orchestral ensemble) in a special viewing area arranged for us by Criterion Travel.

Miyajima Shinto Gate

 Bugaku

Back on board our ship