Another brother is here! We went to Kyoto today, quite tired from a night of little sleep (and for some of us, long days of travel). First to Ryouanji, a famous rock garden and temple. It was a lot of fun figuring out how to get there and discovering a new little streetcar private train. How many little big things are tucked away in Kyoto? (The rocks were nice, too.)
Then to Nijo-Jo, a very historic castle of Japanese sorts. In place of turrets there were lots of tatami rooms, gold painted screens, paper sliding window doors, and a group of junior high school students interested in practicing their English with us for an amusing class assignment. I might have cheated by reading the scripted dialogue on their sheet to help them along. I also might have confused them by saying "tōka (ten days)" in Japanese rather than "tōku (far away)" when talking about their field trip from Tokyo to Kyoto. Hopefully their teacher will be understanding. Hopefully my good intention and linguistic blundering will karmically cancel one another out.
After that we went to the historic Gion district (because it's hard to find history in Kyoto), Kiyomizudera, and tea at the oldest tea cafe in Kyoto with my friend Nao. Tomorrow is my first day of chamber rehearsals with the concert master of the Philadelphia Orchestra as well as our chamber music concert at Switch Restaurant in Osaka, Umeda. Ben is planning to do some solo travel during my upcoming rehearsal days though I think he will have the benefit of some friendly company to help him steer the way. So good to have him here!
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| at Ryouanji's non-rock garden |
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| outside Nijo-Castle (no pictures allowed within) |
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| Garden at Nijo-Jo |
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| Kiyomizudera in summer |
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| backlit Ben (Kiyomizudera) |
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| Kiyomizudera |
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