Gion Matsuri Parade / Festival/Celebration
We had only been there for eight days but we had done so much and on this day we had a ton to do we had decided to stop by the Gion Matsuri Parade and then make our way to the Kyoto race course to check out the horse races. Then we have decided to go to the Eikan-do Zenrin-ji the buddhist temple and after that we eat dinner and head back to the hotel to awiate the next day of activities. Our day started out with Rhoan yelling at us to get up I was the first to wake up and Served was the last It took all of us to get ready about three hours with Nolan taking the longest shower. after all of us are ready we head down to the breakfast area of the hotel we all ate in a rush because Rhoan had planned so much for us to do and he didn't want to wait any longer. We didn't rent a car so we took the bus, fell asleep on the way there we go as close to area where the parade was going to be happening we got off a ways from the area we had a long walk to go.
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| Gion Matsuri Parade |
On our way to the Parade Rohan and Nolan got into a fight on how to get to the parade, which way was faster to stop the fight I suggested that we go different ways and meet back at a spot for lunch they agreed and we split into two groups Sirvad and Rohan and me Tristen and Nolan and so we went our separate ways. The first thing we saw was the food stands lined up there was yakitori, taiyaki, taoyaki, and okonomiyaki. We were going to eat later on so we kept walking the next thing we saw were the Yamaboko floats, the parade floats are divided into two groups there was the Hoko and the Yama. There were nine large floats and twenty three smaller one we asked a person and he said that they were supposed to represent a purification ritual that went on in the past. It dates back to 869 as a religious ceremony to appease the gods during the outbreak of an epidemic even today the festival still selects a local boy to be a divine messenger.
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| Gion Matsuri Parade |
We walked around a bit and saw the marching bands and the people marching beside the floats and as we were watching across the parade we see Rohan and sirvad in the crowds. After everyone had passed in their floats we go over to them to see if their ready to go eat they say that they have seen everything that they could see and that they were really hungry.
Kyoto Race Course / Sports
Our next destination was the Kyoto Race Course. To get there we had to take the bus it was about a thirty minute ride before we got there and when we finally arrived the place I saw that it was huge about the size of a football stadium. I didn't really know why we went there Rohan controlled all of our money and he would not let any of us use it to gamble on the horses, we stayed there for about two hours just watching the horses race it was pretty cool acting the horses take off at the sound of the gun. The first shots that we heard scared Nolan and Tristian so much that they jumped off their feet after awhile of seeing the horses race we started playing a little game we would pick a horse and see which one would win it passed the time.
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| Kyoto Race Course |
Eikan-do Zehrin-ji / Environment
After about a hour and a half we decided that it was about the time for us to leave our next place on the list of places that we had to go for the day was the buddhist temple Eikando Temple. We got there around the afternoon the temple is known for its leaf colors in the autumn to bad its not fall but the lace was still cool to see the thing I was most interested with was the history behind the place. We walked past a few signs that talked about the history what I learned was the Temple was originally a villa which was donated to a priest and he turned it into a temple in the 11th century had a priest names Eikan and the temple was named after him. Eikan is known for getting the temples main object of worship a weird statue of the Amida Buddha with his head turned After we had see all that we could see and it was late we went back to the hotel to sleep until the next day filled with activities.
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| Eikan-do Zehrin-ji |
Written By Malachi
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