Like this,
I miss Gion so much.
Even when I am lying at night,
I hear the sound of stream in Gion. (Isamu Yoshii, poet who stayed at Shiraume)
I didn’t know that coming to Kyoto, to Gion, would be the fulfilment of a dream because I didn’t know I had this dream. Being here feels so comfortable, so right, that I have to wonder why I never wanted to go to Japan.
Here I am, sitting on the floor of our room, much like a Buddha. I have just displaced a ton of water in the cedar bath…enough for two small Japanese persons. I feel like Mrs. Gulliver. We have just finished a platter of sushi, enough for a family of four….squid, eel, salmon, shrimp and various unidentified swimming objects…it was Japanese take-out, from the restaurant down the street.
Our ryokan is directly on the Shirakawa stream- we have to cross a bridge to get to it- and takes its name from the shiraume, which means white plum flower and which blooms in early spring.
It was started in the late Edo period, 19th century, as an ochaya or place where maiko lived together with a female manager and worked. After WWII it was reborn as the Siraume Ryokan.
It still has a female manager, and we are beginning to feel, if not like geishas, definitely a bit Asian. When we arrived at the ryokan, and Bibi saw we could either eat or sleep in our room, she declared, “I mach nimmer mit!” (I don’t want to play anymore!)
Our ryokan is directly on the Shirakawa stream- we have to cross a bridge to get to it- and takes its name from the shiraume, which means white plum flower and which blooms in early spring.
It was started in the late Edo period, 19th century, as an ochaya or place where maiko lived together with a female manager and worked. After WWII it was reborn as the Siraume Ryokan.
We have gone for 36 hours without sleep, flew from Angkor Wat to Saigon, had 10 hours Saigon, then on to Tokyo. Arrival in Japan was with sunrise in the east
and Mt Fuji in the west.
and Mt Fuji in the west.
We then took the 3 hour express train to Kyoto. Many black suits and unsmiling faces. It did not help that I lost one of the many train tickets we had received for this trip, and needed to replace it. Until we came here to Gion, most of Japan was beginning to look like the former East Germany, which I always experienced under similar grey skies.
The sky was blue in Kyoto, which I took to be a positive omen.
2 comments:
One of my most amazing journeys was to Japan. I will never forget it.
Heidi and Bibi,I've been following your journey across the oceans....great pictures, but the one of Bibi captures her feelings perfectly. This would be me after this marathon! Thanks for letting us follow you round the globe.
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