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Oct 8, 2021 10 tweets 14 min read Read on X
🐈FRIDAY FELINES AND REFRESHMENTS🍬

Golden hour at Ginkaku-ji's (銀閣寺) Kōgetsudai (向月台) and Ginshadan (銀沙灘), representations in white sand of (possibly) Mt. Fuji (富士山) and China's Lake Xi (西湖 'West Lake').

#Ginkakuji #銀閣寺 #Jishōji #慈照寺 #Kyoto #京都 #Japan
And what better sweets to enjoy with a trip to the 'Silver Pavilion' than Tawaraya Yoshitomi's (俵屋吉富) 'ginshadan' (銀沙灘).
Flavoured with hama-natto (浜納豆), the higashi (干菓子) have a sweet and salty taste that pairs perfectly with matcha🍵🙌

➡️@tawaraya_unryu
#matcha
The sand mound has a small depression at its summit to give it an even more Mt. Fuji-like appearance, and indicating that the garden was best viewed from the upper floor of the pavilion. White Shirakawa sand (白川砂) was chosen to best reflect the light of the full moon.
#Japan
Impromptu tea beside the The Path of Philosophy (哲学の道 'Tetsugaku-no-michi') brought a friendly face.

Following the course of an irrigation channel fed by the Lake Biwa Canal, the narrow, cherry-tree-lined path was first opened in 1890 (further extended in 1912).
#哲学の道
A rotund little cat joined Nao-san for tea and to catch the last rays of the day🌞🙌🐈🍊

#哲学の道 #kyotocats #京都 #Japan #Kyoto #ThePathofPhilosophy
I already have 2 cats waiting for me at home, but I was sorely tempted to put this gorgeous beastie in my backpack.

Oh to have a cat that would be happy to ride around on my bicycle.
#Kyoto #京都 #kyotocats #京都の猫 #猫 #PhilosophersPathCat #Japan
The Path of Philosophy is a haven for cats, and most have grown increasingly friendly around humans (and the food they bring).

By coincidence Nao-san's furoshiki had a cat theme!😺😽💕
A teatime speciality all the way from Yamanashi Prefecture (山梨県)...'kikyō shingen mochi' (桔梗信玄餅).
It's a little messy, so it comes with a plastic furoshiki to keep everything together whilst pouring the kinako and brown sugar syrup over the chewy mochi.
#桔梗信玄餅
Legend has it that the sweet was inspired by a similar snack used as an emergency food by daimyō Takeda Shingen (武田信玄 1521-73) during campaigns. Takeda's 'snack' was in turn inspired by abekawa-mochi (安倍川餅), a kinako covered rice cake eaten in Yamanashi at Obon (お盆).
The Path of Philosophy (哲学の道) runs between Nanzen-ji (南禅寺) and Ginkaku-ji (銀閣寺). It came to prominence after the philosophers and Kyōto University professors Nishida Kitarō (西田幾多郎 1870-1945) and Tanabe Hajime (田辺元 1885-1962) used the trail as an exercise route.

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More from @camelliakyoto

May 28
🔔🪨😭THE GREAT BUDDHA'S WONDERS🐂💢👂

Kyōto was once home to the greatest statue of Buddha in all Japan.
4m taller than Tōdai-ji's Daibutsu, the statue stood in an immense hall in precincts now taken up by Toyokuni-jinja and Hōkō-ji (remnant of the original Buddha's home).


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The great hall and last (vastly smaller) incarnation of Kyōto's Daibutsu are sadly lost, but within the neighbourhood (where once the temple precincts sprawled) are a series of wonders.
They include a great bell that brought down a ruling clan, an exploding cow, & a tomb of ears.


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1) THE CHIMES OF DOOM🔔

Having seized control of the country after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu calmly waited for an excuse to destroy the rival Toyotomi clan.
His chance came with the forging of a new bell and an inscription that could be read as a threat.


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Read 24 tweets
Aug 21, 2023
🙊THE MONKEY'S SLIDE🛝
At first glance the teahouse garden appears to be made up of mostly moss, pine & camellia...but if you look more closely the borders are packed thick with dozens of varieties of plants.
One of the most beautiful at this time of year is the "Monkey's Slide".


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More commonly known as crape myrtle (百日紅), older generations in Japan fondly call the tree 'saru suberi' (サルスベリ the "monkey's slide").
The bark of the tree is so smooth that even monkeys struggle to get a foothold!

#Kyoto #京都 #Japan #百日紅 #サルスベリ #IwataMonkeyPark


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Crape (also crepe) myrtle gets its name from the appearance of its flowers, which look very much like crepe paper.
Blooming from mid-summer through to autumn, the flowers (commonly bright pink) are also known in Japan as 'hyakujitsukō' (百日紅 'red for 100 days').

#Japan #百日紅


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Read 6 tweets
Jun 19, 2023
🎨A MODERN TOUCH🖌️

One of the Shōren-in's (青蓮院) most striking features greets you as you enter the drawing room...a series of bold coloured lotuses, blooming across 60 panels.
Begun in 2005, the work was created by the artist 'Ki-yan' (キーヤン/Kimura Hideki 木村英輝).
#Japan ImageImageImageImage
When visiting Shōren-in, Kimura was suddenly inspired to fill the drawing room's plain fusuma with colour.

It took him two years to complete the 3 sets of lotus paintings (蓮三部作)...
🪷"Blue Illusion" (青の幻想)
🪷"Amitabha's Pure Land" (極楽浄土)
🪷"Hymn of Life" (生命賛歌) ImageImageImageImage
Why all the blue lotuses?🤔

Shōren-in was originally constructed atop Mt Hiei as a lodging facility for monks serving at Enryaku-ji.

Shōren-bō was named after a nearby pond in which blue lotus flowers bloomed ('shōrenge'). Many famous monks, such as Saichō & Ennin, lived here. twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Image
Read 8 tweets
May 11, 2023
🚪😱HAUNTED GATES & DANCING CATS😼👻

It's been a while since I've done a #folklorethursday, so here's some local, rather less well-known tales.

Demizu was once home to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's lavish palace 'Jurakudai' (聚樂第), and the area has many strange wonders.
#Kyoto #京都 ImageImageImageImage
Kannon-ji's 'Gate of 100 Lashings' (観音寺 百叩きの門) belonged originally to the prison at Fushimi Castle (伏見城). When the castle was dismantled the doorway was gifted to the temple🏯🚪🩸😰👋

The gate is just 1 of the '7 Wonders of Demizu' (出水の七不思議).
#Kyoto #京都 #出水 ImageImageImageImage
Before prisoners were set free they underwent a final punishment at the prison gate...a warning to stay on the straight & narrow.
They were lashed 100 times with a piece of split bamboo across the back. It was agonizing, & sometimes deadly!

Image thanks🙇‍♂️-bakumatsuya.com ImageImageImageImage
Read 23 tweets
May 10, 2023
'May Sickness' (五月病 'gogatsu-byō') is a term for a seasonal disorder that strikes just as Golden Week comes to an end.
After the flurry of changes that take place each April, it may seem like May should be smooth sailing, but returning to work/school after the break is tough. ImageImageImageImage
It may seem like a small thing, but sweets absolutely help lift a gloomy mood...

🌫️🌩️☁️😶‍🌫️🌥️🌤️🌞

Kameya Yoshinaga (亀屋良長) has done the impossible and perfectly captured the blue skies & cotton puff clouds of May in sweet form☺️

The wonderful 'hikōki-gumo' (ひこうき雲)✨ ImageImageImageImage
While 'May Blues' doesn't sound particularly serious, in some cases it can lead to depression, anxiety & insomnia.
In April the new school/work year begins, and there's a feeling that Golden Week only helps exacerbate feelings of disorientation, mental exhaustion, & apprehension. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Read 4 tweets
Apr 20, 2023
Astonishingly the temperature will soar close to 30 degrees today...the hottest day of the year so far😓

As this heat is a little unexpected we swooped on Ishidatami (石畳) for their famous matcha soft serve (抹茶ソフトクリーム). Fresh matcha is kneaded into the ice-cream🍵🍨🙌 ImageImageImageImage
Fresh matcha as an ingredient in cooking and baking tends to lose its flavour quickly, and so Ishidatami doesn't serve ice-cream older than 3 hours, preferring instead to make new batches throughout the day😮

#Kyoto #京都 #matcha #抹茶 #icecream #Ninenzaka #二年坂 ImageImageImageImage
Another favourite (though much pricier) way to cool down is with Oimatsu's (老松) cheerful 'natsukan-tō' (夏柑糖 'sugared Chinese citron')🍊🥰

#Kyoto #京都 #夏柑糖 #老松 #oimatsu #Japan #citron #chinesecitron #orange
Read 4 tweets

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