kyoto

I am in Kyoto right now, on a hostile computer. (If you like that clever pun, you will be pleased with the rest of this blog).
I`m on a hard-earned five-day vacation in Kyoto, Japan`s old capitol and home to an absurd number of temples and an even absurder number of tourists, most of them Japanese. The autumn is in full swing, and autumn colors are all the rage here in Kyoto, so much so that everyone in Japan has decided to come here with their cameras and children. But really, the scenery is gorgeous, and the trees surrounding the beautiful temples and lining the ponds full of fallen leaves are breathtaking. My breath has been stolen ruthlessly a number of times by countless trees.
I accomplished two things today that i wanted to accomplish in Japan. One--drink green tea in an old-fashioned teahouse. This morning in the middle of a stroll around a temple-filled area, i rested my weary feet in a teahouse that overlooks a small pond with colorful carp and a meticulously planned garden. I drank matcha (powdered green tea) from a bowl and ate wagashi (Japanese sweets) topped with kinako (a powdered sweet soybean topping that makes you gag painfully if you breathe too hard while biting). The other task was to eat at a good traditional vegetarian Japanese restaurant, which I did. The restaurant i ate at focused on yuba (the skin that boils off of soymilk), and the food came in many small bowls, each with a different yuba creation, all delicious. I plan on eating at a shojin ryori (literally--the cuisine of people who are on the difficult path to enlightenment) restaurant soon, which essentially in Japanese temple food created during Buddhist times for monks, and now enjoyed, though expensively, by people with a taste for the painful advancement of the soul into the plain of eternal light. Much like me.

Well, more later. I also visited some temples but to describe them would only diminish their beauty. I am saying this to avoid more lengthy descriptions. Perhaps i shall reconsider later.