In the last post I talked about how I was at the Imperial Palace before it was moved to Edo (Tokyo). I was so struck by the sheer amazing feeling I had gotten that I hardly noticed my feet were killing me and that it was so cold, it was snowing. But I did notice when we saw the middle schoolers running around the entire length of the palace a few laps for gym class and the random people playing baseball on a baseball field on the grounds. That was amusing. My friend wanted to run and play with them, but I wasn't wearing good shoes and was too embarrassed. My friend asked, "WHEN ELSE COULD YOU SAY YOU PLAYED BASEBALL IN KYOTO ON THE PALACE GROUNDS?!" She's right, but I was way too shy. They were already staring.
So here are the remaining pictures:
The map of the palace and its surrounding gardens. The area where the buildings are mostly concentrated is the actual palace. The large white walkway around the palace was where I walked.
Just thinking of what happened here so long ago and who stood on that path...
RUN MIDDLE SCHOOLERS! RUN! HAHAHAHA!(Actually, at one point, my friend joined them and ran with them. The boys she ran alongside gave her the most shocked and scared face ever and ran faster. Those behind her laughed.)
One of the entrances to the palace. There were, I believe, four. One at every cardinal point.
The area in which I walked around. It was so quiet. You'd never know it was smack dab in the middle of the city. And just imagining the carriages that used to roll through here carrying important people, people who ruled the country at one time, is just inspiring.
Okay, so background cultural note on this. This is called a "Dai", or rather, that's how you pronounce that Kanji. It means big and once a year during a certain festival, the residents of Kyoto watch as this Dai and many others carved into the mountains are set aflame. Now just the area engraved into the ground are on fire, none of the surrounding flames. It's a terribly important aspect of Japanese culture and very famous.
Another one of the entrances. Man...the detail of these places...just amazes me...
Baseball at the Kyoto Imperial Grounds. I wonder how the old emperors would've felt about this. Haha.
A pathway in the middle of the garden. There were many of these, but this one just seemed so magical. I can't even imagine who took walks around here. Some famous ladies that tended to the princess' or the Empress or something... It makes me think of the Tale of Genji every time
And then, just outside the gates to the palace, is a street and it's back to modern Japan. It's amazing the time skip...
The sign stating it's the Imperial Palace
On the way to the second castle we visited that day, we found this great walway path that went under the street. It was a nice change of view instead of cars and what not and there was a cool part where you literally walked on stones across the water. Or you could walk almost sideways alongside the water. Many old people walked here.So after the Palace, there was another castle nearby that I'd heard from a friend back at the dorm that we had to go and see it. It had something called "Nightingale floors" and was created by Ieyasu Tokugawa. It wasn't far from the palace and the day was warming up a bit, so we walked.
Upon arriving at the castle, it began to snow again. But that only added to the magical-ness of the area. This castle was BEAUTIFUL. It's called Nijo castle and, sadly, I couldn't take any photos inside. I bought postcards once in the gift shop and took photos of the gardens. There was also a smaller castle inside the walls we visited, but we didn't go inside it. The gardens were more than enough for us. It was a wonderful day.
Once inside, though, we learned what the floors were. When Tokugawa created the castle, he worried of ninjas killing him during the night and spies listening in on his meetings during the day. So he created a special hanging system under the floorboards so that no matter how quietly you walked, there was a jingling noise much like a bell in a ball for a cat. I guess you could say it sounded like a bird or something?
The rooms were extremely elegant and all of the paper doors were elaborately decorated with hand drawn pictures. The pictures were all of nature, as all paper doors usually are when decorated. What amazed me was that Tokugawa commissioned local student artists to create the works. Some were so amazing, it was hard to imagine what it could've looked like from professionals. Not only were the screen doors just amazing, but the hand carved wood working around the doors and windows inside the rooms were so breath taking.
Now the palaces here are quiet different from what you're probably thinking of. There is a long wooden wrap around hallway that goes around the entire palace. This leads to every single room. The rooms are almost all centered in the middle of the house and are connected together. They're only separated by the paper doors. The servants come down the hallways to deliver food and messages while those that live in the palace stay in the main rooms. The largest rooms in the palace were (in order) the meeting room, Tokugawa's study, and the ladies' quarters. The ladies quarters was separated into positions of were the women sat in the room being that the most important sat closest to Tokugawa and those that served all the ladies were closest to the door. We also got to see the room where the weapons were stored. My friends were most excited about this, haha.
The outside area was amazing, especially closer to the water. It was amusing because even from outside, you could hear the floors jingling and the people walking. At the other castle, we ran into these Korean boys that were excited to see us. They asked to take our pictures and spoke in relatively good English. It was amusing and we did so. The view from the top of the hill near the palace was amazing.
As always, there are more photos on my Facebook so, if you get the chance, please check there for more photos. I'm going to look and see if there's an ability where I can make a section on my blog just for photos and post some more up for those of you without the ability to access my Facebook.
So as I leave off on this post, here are more photos. The next entry will be of Osaka. I will 100% be going back to Kyoto very shortly as I miss it and didn't get to see nearly as much as I wanted. Sorry for taking so long to update everyone of my time there.
The sign outside.
Close-up on the detail from the gate into the castle. So amazing... (That white stuff slashing across the picture is snow)
What a grand entrance!
It's like I've stepped back in time again!
The outside of the castle. Being this close, you could still hear the people inside walking around.
Some of the amazing landscape out by the pond. So beautiful... And with the people walking around and the bells jingling it was like a little magical wonderland
The underside of the roof. I just love how pretty it always looks. Nothing is left to be bare
See? Nothing is left bare.
What it looks like underneath the outside walkway. To get down into the gardens, there was always a giant slab of stone to step onto where one's outside shoes sat. Then, from the stone, you'd walk down onto the grounds.
The other palace on the grounds
At the top of the stairs entrance looking at the entrance. Those giant walls were common for palaces back during the more feudal times as it was perfect for ambushing invades as well as protecting against attacks.
The other palace. It was a lot more wood and less screens. This palace was definitely more about the gardens than the inside.
The view from the top of the hill nearby.
The cherry blossoms are gonna come soon. And it'll be beautiful.Thanks for reading this post! See you next time!
~星子☆
