Yamato Road

YAMATO ROAD 大和路
In the course of my work, I suddenly needed to visit Kyoto-University, Uji campus. On hearing that, my wife suddenly wanted to go with me to enjoy the prime of the spring in the old, historic city while I was tied up in an academic discussion. "Not a bad idea." she said. After some thought, she decided to leave home alone early in the morning, 3 hours earlier than me to make the most of the day.
We met at Uji station of the JR Nara line after my meeting finished. We stayed at a hotel overlooking Uji-river flanked with cherry trees now gorgeously in bloom. Despite the beautiful weather and high season of blossoms, the place was eerily quiet. I hate crowded places. Though that's why I chose the place for the one night stay and Nara for the next day destination, it was a bit more than I had expected. The hotel(ryokan) was almost empty. I was alone in a huge bath, had it all to myself, yes of course swam in the tub and sang loudly to my heart's content. Few tourists were walking in the world heritage spots such as 平等院鳳凰堂 temple or 宇治上神社 shrine. Perhaps the stagnant economy...
To boost the local economy, we bought 3 packages of high quality green tea, probably the highest ever in my life, after we sampled some and knew what we'd called "green tea" until that moment was nothing but hot water colored green.

　　　　　　　　　　　　宇治平等院鳳凰堂　鳳凰

Next day we went down to Sakurai city(桜井市) by train and then to Tanzan shrine by bus. There the famous historic revolutionary coup d'etat 大化の改新 was said to be conspired between 中大兄皇子 and 藤原鎌足 1400 years ago. We climbed from there to the mountain peak where 鎌足 was said to be buried. What we saw there was a disappointing new tombstone supposedly commemorating him. But instead we enjoyed an unexpected panoramic view of Yamato basin and all the three mountains of Yamato(大和三山).

　　　　　　　　　　　談山神社　十三重の塔

From there we took bus again, got off halfway to the station and then walked along country roads to the grave of the first assassinated emperor 崇峻 to a temple named 聖林寺 where, without any other tourists but us, we had a luxury of taking some rest lying on the floor right under the foot of a national treasure; 11 faced kannon.
It seems we are more and more interested in our country's history as we get older. I like the Japanese history from 5th to 8th century (Tumulus period to early Heian period) where some room is still left for our imagination to make up the scarcely documented events and facts.
Where did the Japanese come from? What was the relationship of the imperial family with Korea. Do they have Korean ancestors?
When we trace the questions back to the deep past they only seem to dissolve in a realm of myth.