And it just keeps getting better…

Spent this morning in now sunny Kiso and learned a little more about the history of the town. When the samurai and other travelers were on the road and proceeding through these post towns, they had to check in with a passport office that would permit them passage to their next destination. Travel by women was particularly controlled — they had to have special permission or they would be sent back home (apparently they frequently ran away from their husbands). 

We visited the old passport office in Kiso and saw the rooms where these travelers were processed. Also on display was a variety of weaponry (swords, guns and other scary metal and wooden objects) and travel documents.

From the passport office, we walked several of the old stone alleys and roads that have survived centuries of footsteps. Along the way, we stopped to soak our feet in one of the many public foot-baths that are common in Japan. Just take off your shoes and socks, open the wooden lid, sit down and put your feet into the hot water.

This is a lovely shop with gorgeous woodcrafts where we stopped for a morning “cake set” — a choice of drink and a slice of cake. We both had lattes, and I ate the best matcha chiffon on the planet. We also bought some train snacks at a different bakery that is said to be the home of the original Japanese milk bread. Original or not, the buns were excellent.

Here we are just after checking out of our ryokan and before boarding the train. And below is the bullet train that we took from Nagoya to Kyoto — a distance that would have taken 2 hours by car that we covered in 30 minutes at 300 miles per hour. Hannah noted that riding the bullet train is so smooth and so fast that it feels closer to flying on a jet than riding on a rail.

This last set of pix are from our first evening in Kyoto, in a part of town called Gion. Here, we attended an “Illumination” of the Chion-In Temple, gardens and cherry trees. The temple is tremendously large, as it is the head temple of the Jodo sect of Buddhism, one of the most popular in Japan with millions of followers. The illumination may have been one of the most beautiful visions I have ever seen. Although no photos were allowed inside, we attended a brief worship service, too. Of course, we didn’t understand any of the sermon, but I found the incense, the chanting and the drumming on the wooden fish-shaped drum called a mokugyo to be mesmerizing. It was an honor to be allowed to participate. Hannah thought the service was boring but her excellent photography nonetheless displayed an appreciation for the beauty and elegance of the experience.