On the 28th Oct., the second day
of our trip to Kyoto, we headed to Daitokuji.
The first place we visited was Gyokurinin, one of the small temples of Daitkuji. We found the sign for a tea ceremony on the
gate. It was slightly different from
what I’ve learned from the internet, “在釜”. This is “懸釜”, which basically
have the same meaning.
We passed through the gate and walked
further in Gyokurinin. We finally reached the entrance of the building, and we
saw a lot of shoes on the shoe rack. We
talked to a receptionist, and she told us that there were already so many
people waiting and we might have to wait for two hours. Two hours!?
In our surprise, we looked at each other’s faces. And then, we decided not to wait any longer,
and proceed to look for other ceremonies at other temples.
We left Gyokurinin and walked around
Daitokuji. There are small temples
adjacent to each other. We saw a gate
that people in kimono were going
in. I was thinking that the temple of
the gate was holding a tea ceremony. But
as I walked to the gate, I found a sign “private”. We found a couple more gates with the same
sign. I guess that some tea ceremonies
might be exclusive.
As we were walking around, we just visited
two temples for sightseeing. They didn’t
have a ceremony, but have absolutely beautiful gardens. They are not gorgeous but they suit my taste
which is simple and natural. We were
quite satisfied visiting the beautiful gardens, and we thought of giving up attending
a tea ceremony.
On the way to the parking lot, I found
another gate. We asked a receptionist if
there is a tea ceremony held here. The
receptionist told us that they were holding a ceremony and we could join it. We were finally able to find the one that we
can attend to. We waited at the waiting
room for the next session for about 30 min.
The waiting room was just next to a garden with white gravel. The historical building and the superb garden
raised my expectation to anticipate the ceremony.
To be continued …