Kyoto

I'm in my tatami room in the minshuko Kou Me Kawa that Dorothy arranged for me, and it's fine. Larger than the one at Sawanoya, a six-tatami instead of a four - with shoji screens and a tv (pay) but heat (free) and toilet (in room, or rather behind door from room, and western style, complete with warm seat). I had to make the  futon up from linens in the closet, but that is hardly a chore. When I got here, no one was here and a little man, obviously a neighbor, went and retrieved the husband and wife from (I think) the vegetable market just down the street.

Kiro-Mizu Dera

The Sanjusangendo temple 

As I waited for the bus so did a young American - a grad student biochemist from Northwestern, who invited me to accompany him to a couple of temples. This was great, because it gave me a chance to learn how to ride the bus!  And he pointed out a few bits and pieces he's learned in the two weeks he's been in this country.

 We went to the Sanjusangendo temple, which is a very long hall in which reside 1000 images of the Kannon Bodhisattva, i.e., Buddhas with lots of arms. Quoting the blurb in the guide-sheet, "the Kannon have eleven faces on the head and a thousand arms. However, as for their arms, we can see only 21 of the pairs. But these 40 arms are to be regarded as 1,000 arms because each saves 25 worlds. It is believed that Kannon Bodhisattva can transform himself into 33 different figures, so you can look upon the total 1,001 images as the appearance of 33,033 Kannons."  So there are these thousand 5' high buddhas, each slightly different from the other in some respect, grouped on each side of a tall buddha. All are a bit tarnished, but it's an interesting sight. (Pictures are forbidden in its long and majestic main wooden hall known for sheltering 1,001 statues of Kannon, the deity of compassion.)