Of Drinking Trees and Oncoming Dragons...
Jun. 4th, 2012 07:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranThe gardens at Ryōan-ji feature an impressive lake, with an equally impressively placed restaurant.
Since this is Ryōan-ji, the restaurant, naturally enough, is also famous. It's called Yudofuya and it specializes in boiled tofu (yudoufu) and other vegetarian meals.
The sign on the right reads "Seven herbs Yudoufu" or "boiled tofu with seven spring herbs".
Inside, apparently, you can sit on tatami mats and enjoy the spectacular view over the lake. (No, I didn't get a chance to do this, unfortunately...)
At least I could browse the menu... (The Japanese side says roughly the same as the English, but it looks much more stylish.)
At Ryōan-ji, even the trees look like stones.
Except when they look like ... trees. Almost.
We caught this one swigging quietly while it thought no-one was looking.
A door outside the Zen Garden.
And finally a note about Ryōan-ji's name. When I first saw it on a map, the characters read 龍安寺 or "Peaceful dragon temple" (actually ordered as Dragon (Ryō) Peace(An) Temple (ji)).
All three of them are quite interesting characters, but 龍 meaning "Dragon" is one of the most evocative of the traditional Chinese characters. Let's take a look at it.
龍
On the left, you can see 立 meaning "to stand" over 月 meaning "moon". On the right... well, it even looks like a dragon, doesn't it?
Compare this with 龙 which is the modern simplified Chinese version.
Right, so Peaceful Dragon Temple. Shouldn't be hard to find. All we had to do is get on the bus to Ritsumeikan University, then walk to... wait a minute! Where are we?
It turns out the top character is an alternative form of "dragon", also pronounced Ryō in Japanese, which is used as a substitute for 龍. It apparently has its own long and distinguished history as the character for "dragon", but I'd never seen it before (and neither had a Chinese friend who was with me). It's supposed to represent a dragon seen front on. Can you see it?
Here's the carpark. Phew! Looks like we're in the right place. I found out later from a Taiwanese friend that 竜 is also used in Taiwan and that children with 龍 in their name were "always crying". Can you guess why?
Because the other kids have all got two questions done by the time they've written their name on the top of the exam!
Since this is Ryōan-ji, the restaurant, naturally enough, is also famous. It's called Yudofuya and it specializes in boiled tofu (yudoufu) and other vegetarian meals.
The sign on the right reads "Seven herbs Yudoufu" or "boiled tofu with seven spring herbs".
Inside, apparently, you can sit on tatami mats and enjoy the spectacular view over the lake. (No, I didn't get a chance to do this, unfortunately...)
At least I could browse the menu... (The Japanese side says roughly the same as the English, but it looks much more stylish.)
At Ryōan-ji, even the trees look like stones.
Except when they look like ... trees. Almost.
We caught this one swigging quietly while it thought no-one was looking.
A door outside the Zen Garden.
And finally a note about Ryōan-ji's name. When I first saw it on a map, the characters read 龍安寺 or "Peaceful dragon temple" (actually ordered as Dragon (Ryō) Peace(An) Temple (ji)).
All three of them are quite interesting characters, but 龍 meaning "Dragon" is one of the most evocative of the traditional Chinese characters. Let's take a look at it.
龍
On the left, you can see 立 meaning "to stand" over 月 meaning "moon". On the right... well, it even looks like a dragon, doesn't it?
Compare this with 龙 which is the modern simplified Chinese version.
Right, so Peaceful Dragon Temple. Shouldn't be hard to find. All we had to do is get on the bus to Ritsumeikan University, then walk to... wait a minute! Where are we?
It turns out the top character is an alternative form of "dragon", also pronounced Ryō in Japanese, which is used as a substitute for 龍. It apparently has its own long and distinguished history as the character for "dragon", but I'd never seen it before (and neither had a Chinese friend who was with me). It's supposed to represent a dragon seen front on. Can you see it?
Here's the carpark. Phew! Looks like we're in the right place. I found out later from a Taiwanese friend that 竜 is also used in Taiwan and that children with 龍 in their name were "always crying". Can you guess why?
Because the other kids have all got two questions done by the time they've written their name on the top of the exam!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-06-04 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-05 05:47 am (UTC)