John Linton
We spent the day in Kyoto yesterday or at least a fair chunk of it. We left the hotel at 7.30 to catch the 8.15 Shinkansen to Kyoto which even at Shinkansen speeds is two and a half hours away. The station, like all Japanese stations was immaculately clean and our carriage was, if possible, even cleaner. Like an aircraft, the carriage was carpeted and the carpet looked like it was brand new without a single 'pulled' thread or the slightest mark. When the train 'took off' there was no sensation of speed and no discernible movements that you associate with Australian trains - it had as little movement as an aircraft. The trip was uneventful and when we arrived at Kyoto station our 'tour guide' was standing outside the carriage door we disembarked from with a sign with my daughters name on it (she had organised the trip). The train trip and that level of efficiency and courtesy pretty much defines Japan in relation to Australia in many ways.
We journeyed around Kyoto for the next 6 hours in a type of mini-van I don't remember seeing before that was as clean as if it were on a show room floor. Our guide, as would be expected, was very experienced and knowledgeable and treated us as courteously and deferentially as I have ever been treated in my life - but also adding much humour and many anecdotes about the more scurrilous side of the history of the shrines and temples we visited. Being a professional guide he knew which places to take us and exactly what to show in the places we were taken. Among the high lights for me were the oldest and best known stone garden and the pre tenth century great hall (100 meters long) containing 1,000 beautifully symmetrically arranged life sized wooden statues together with some two dozen or so other statues each 'block' relating to some version of events, gods and people and their stories.
The pagoda architecture and general workmanship quality dating back to the 11th century and before was a constant reminder of the beauty of the country generally in terms of the longevity of its culture and engineering achievements. The stone garden which I had visited when I first came to Japan in the late 1970s was where I learned my basic lesson that has helped me ever since then live a more contented and fulfilled life. I visited there with only a Japanese 'host' from the company who employed me and an Australian colleague. Our Japanese host explained that if we sat quietly on the steps facing the garden and contemplated any problem that was concerning us we would eventually see find a complete answer. All we had to do was contemplate the garden and think about why the designer had placed the fifteen stones in the groupings and location he had.
It worked for me then and it has continued to work for me ever since (obviously minus the garden which is simply a Zen device to clear your mind. It is true that any issue, no matter how complex, can be solved completely by only the thoughts, knowledge and reasoning processes available to you within your own mind. Doubtless a zillion self awareness books teach the same thing but on that wintry and rainy day more than three decades ago I learned that simple technique and have always benefited from it.
We had a simple lunch in one of the many hundreds (at least) of such establishments in Kyoto and, yet
again, discovered how much better noodles taste when they have been made
on the premises using flour hand ground by the maker and served in a simple soup with a few slivers of vegetable. Of course the presentation on the tray was exquisite as was the lady who served it. As we were saying good bye to our guide at Kyoto station at the end of our 'tour' around a dozen Geiko (or perhaps maiko as they mostly appeared to be very young) got out of a fleet of cabs and moved off like a cloud of gorgeous butterflies (and I apologise for plagiarising that metaphor but it is the mot just) in a little group escorted by their attendants. It was a breathtakingly beautiful sight.
We returned to Tokyo and walked back to the hotel in the rain and very low temperatures (almost certainly much lower than 10 degrees) and, in contrast to our country lunch had dinner in the hotels one Michelin star Chinese restaurant where the food and service was at a standard I have never before experienced but, in all the basic ways required of really good food, didn't really leave a better taste or satisfaction feeling than that served in the tiny 12 seat 'restaurant' in Kyoto although it cost 25 times more.
Today is my birthday and I will leave it at that - rather than continuing on sounding that Australia is not much of a country - it isn't at all - it's just that Japan is just so superior in so many ways.