A Problem Finds Us Early in the Trip July 6, 2006

Last night before going to bed Holly had said that a small abscess had come up on her front lower gum. Nothing too serious but it was causing her some discomfort. We have regular dentist visits and both of us have had quite a bit of work done over the last two years ending in checkups and cleanings in the last month, so this came as a surprise.

Because I am usually up early I logged on before Holly woke up, which was not easy as the desk is no more than two feet from her bed, looking for information about dentist in Kyoto. The next leg of the trip takes us to Beijing for a couple of days and then into, Outer Mongolia, Siberia and Russia. It didn’t take us long to figure out that Japan was the place to get something done about the problem. Maybe it was because it was 5AM or maybe it’s just obscure but it took me two hours to locate an English language medical / dental directory for Kyoto. I then went back to bed for an hour.

We went downstairs for breakfast and afterward stopped by the front desk to get help in calling a dentist that we had located a five minute walk away. The desk clerk did not speak much English, this hotel caters more to Japanese than foreigners, but he managed to understand our need and set the appointment for 3PM this afternoon.

We had five hours to kill so what else would we do but go see a temple. We bought a bus pass grabbed a schedule / map and took off. The temple de jour is named Roukon-ji Temple but is commonly referred to as Kinkaku (Golden Pavilion). It is one of the more famous sites in Japan. It is a small three story temple that sits on a small island in a small lake. The second and third stories are covered in gold leaf and the overall structure has graceful traditional Japanese architectural lines. The overall effect is of looking at a gold music box.

The lake is named Kyoko-chi which means mirror pond. Today was cloudy with a slight wind that created a small ripple on the water, but it was easy to imagine how it would look on a calm sunny day.

Back on the bus we had three hours left and one more destination on the itinerary; Nijo-jo (Nijo Castle). The castle was originally built in 1603 as the residence of the first Tokugawa Shogun Ieyasu. It served as the a symbol of the power and authority of the Tokugawa Shoguns until 1867 when Yoshinobu, the fifteenth Shogun, returned sovereignty to the Emperor at Ninomaru Palace which is on the castle grounds. The castle and surrounding land was given to the Imperial family at the same time.

This may not be a “castle” as we westerners think of it, but it is an impressive structure and compound. To begin it has a 50 foot wide moat, pretty castle like right? On the inside bank of the moat a stone wall rises approximately 40 feet above the water and completely encompasses the three million square foot grounds. Sounding more castlely all the time, huh. There is also an inner moat which surrounds Honmaru Garden, again with a large wall. At one time this was the inner palace but was destroyed by fire in 1788 and never rebuilt. I know you’re asking yourself about now “I thought this guy said that this wasn’t like a western castle”, but this is where the similarity in architecture ends. All the structure on the inside of both walls are made of wood, mainly cypress, and again are in traditional Japanese style.

We were able to tour through the Ninomaru Palace which took us about 45 minutes. The clean minimalist lifestyle of the Japanese was vividly demonstrated with most of the palaces 35,000 square feet being open space with no furnishings. The only person to live in the palace was the Shogun, his quarters occupying about a tenth of the total area. The balance of the palace was reception rooms, meeting rooms, waiting rooms, offices for his ministers and an armory. All rooms had elaborate murals and most had detailed ceiling tiles most of which are in amazingly good shape. The Shogun Ieyasu had a “Nightingale Floor” installed in the walkways of the palace. This is a floor that is designed to squeak when it is walked on so that intruders can be detected at night. It still works.

The castle was a real treat after all of the temples and shrines. While wandering through the grounds and palace it was easy to see how this was used to impress friend and foe alike as these visitors came to pay homage to the Shogun.

Holly’s appointment was getting close, so we found our bus stop and were on our way back to Kyoto Station. (The bus lines here are as well organized as the trains and with a little study are easy to use). When we arrived at the station we grabbed a quick bite and then walked to the Kyoto Tower where the dental clinic was on the 3rd floor.

The dentist took a quick look at Holly while we sat in the waiting room and told her he thought the problem was due to the fit of the upper and lower teeth and maybe she was grinding her teeth at night. Once she was in the chair he cleaned the infected area, gave her a prescription and even told us where to find a pharmacy. Of course that didn’t stop your intrepid explorers from needing to ask a policeman for directions. Of course this didn’t work because said policemen didn’t speak English. Holly showed him the prescription, did a great job of acting “pain’ and before we knew it we had a four man escort to the pharmacy. Is this a great country or what?
We are now in the hotel room with Holly resting and me pounding keys. Tomorrow is travel day with Beijing as our destination. I’m not sure how often we will have internet over the next ten days, so bear with us if we don’t publish for a week or so.