Easy, Breezy, Japaneezy Blogging was non-existent for the past several days while Maria and I traveled to the city of Kyoto, one of the most beautiful and historic cities in the world. For those of you who may not know, Kyoto was the long-standing capital city of Japan and thus it is home to some of the oldest and most important historical sites in the country.
Luckily for me, Maria has a car and so we were able to drive to Kyoto, which saved us money from having to take the shinkansen. Actually, it did not save us that much because gas and TOLLS in this country are really expensive. Actually, the gas wasn't horrible given how gas prices in the US are trending, but the tolls were crazy. For a four hour drive from Joetsu to Kyoto, the tolll was 7000 yen, which is about $70! Yikes. Still, that was cheaper than the bullet train and we got to see some nice scenery, including some of the Sea of Japan coastline and a lot of rice paddies. On the way, Maria and I listened to some of her Japanese pop songs, including a big hit by Utada called "Easy Breezy," in which she sings that "You're easy breezy and I'm Japaneezy." Ha! Maria has decided to call quintessentially Japanese customs or phrases "Japaneezy," like her floppy hat that she wore in Kyoto. Very Japaneezy.
(BTW, I was able to fix the photos below by migrating over to Flickr. I will probably still insert photos into the blog now and then, but for this trip...there are tons. Feel free to link over to my Kyoto album on Flickr to see them...I will add captions soon.
Kyoto and Nara Album)
In Kyoto, we visited the modern Kyoto station and had lunch at a little sandwich restaurant which served expensive food. (Well, all of Japan is expensive, so I guess it really wasn't. But, I'm po.) Then we checked into the Uno House guesthouse, which Maria likes to call the "Campsite." It does sort of resemble a campsite, with random bathrooms, strangely connected buildings, wood and carpet in weird places. In fact the room was the least weird part of the campsite...a three-tatami mat room with futons. Actually, not too bad, especially for only 4000 yen for two nights. We dropped off our crap at the Campsite, and then we were off to see the Imperial Gardens. The palace was closed but I have learned that it is actually not the most impressive site in Kyoto, as opposed to say the Forbidden City in Beijing. The gardens were nice and large...Maria called it "the Vastness."
Then we decided to wander around some of the Kyoto shopping districts, enjoying some of the badly translated signs and interesting wares being offered. Our favorite was a "hip-hop" clothing store called the "Ill Store," which said it was the "Extra Dope Wear Select Shop." Hilarious. I took a picture of it, which was the first picture I took on my new memory card that I bought here. Maria pointed out that I was a picture-crazy freak and without a memory card, I would fill up my digital camera memory in a second. Luckily, Japan is home to cheap electronics, and I got a deal on a 128 MB card for around 3400 yen. Not bad!
The cool thing about Kyoto is that they have preserved a ton of the old shrines and temples even as they developed the modern city. Even in what basically a shopping mall, we came upon tons of little shrines right next to or between the shops. They were really beautiful and I got some neat photos of them.
Then Maria and I found a "photo club" place. This is a very Japaneezy thing to do - kind of like a souped up photo booth where you go in and take pictures in front of different backgrounds that are superimposed behind you. Then you can add icons, drawings and writings to the pictures you take before they print out - all while crazy electronic music plays! Needless to say, we were really silly and got some hilarious pictures which I will try to scan at some point.
We had dinner at a place called "The Garlic Station," which wasn't that great. We tried to see a movie but we kept missing the show times and we were also trying to be PO and not pay 1800 yen ($18) to see a movie! EXPENSIVE. We called it a night since we were getting up early the next day.
On Sunday, we decided to get up pretty early and go see the major sites of Kyoto. We first went to the Kenkakuji (Golden) Temple, which I believe was a former shogun's house that he asked to be converted to a temple after his death. It is beautiful and the pictures turned out great. See my Flickr album for more. Then we went to the Ryoanji temple, which was home to a famous Zen rock garden. It was really neat, but with a lot of tourists. It also had a beautiful pond where some people from Massachusetts took our pictures. Next, it was off to the Ninnaji temple which was bigger and very peaceful. We sat in the rock garden there for a bit and just enjoyed the quiet.
For lunch, we had Yoshinoya. I mean, I had to have Beef Bowl in Japan! It's so much nicer here too. You get it in a real bowl and the interiors are much more attractive, not ugly pinks and whites.
After lunch, we went over to the Nijo-jo Castle, which was where the Tokugawa shoguns basically ran Japan for many years. It was pretty impressive, a lot of neat wood structures and great reception area where the shogun would intimidate his underling feudal lords. I thought it was a very different kind of intimidating than the Forbidden City, but it was still impressive. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures inside the palace. I enjoyed the nightingale floors there, which were specifically designed to squeak so that the warriors could hear if someone was trying to sneak in. It was also fun to walk around all of these temples in my socks, since there were no shoes allowed inside!
We tried to find another temple, but failed to get there in time before it closed. So, we went to go find a 100 yen store to buy towels, since we forgot to bring them with us. Then we had dinner at Wendy's. Yes, Wendy's! Sorry, no fingers in the chili in Japan... We again attempted a move and promptly struck out, so we went to the Hub, which is a "gaijin" bar that is supposed to be like an English pub. We had "American Lemonade" drinks there - which I had never heard of. I think it was like wine and lemonade mixed together!
On Monday, we woke up and had Starbucks and then drove to the Fushimi-Inari shrine, which I am now calling the Original Gates. Remember the Gates project in Central Park this winter? Well, I have determined that Christo and Jeann-Claude stole it from Japan. This shrine is made up of hundreds of orange gates, one after the another, along paths in the natural setting of a mountain park. Sound familiar? Of course, these are torii gates in the traditional Japanese style, but basically the same thing. Copiers! I loved this shrine. It was very peaceful and it was fun to walk among the gates in the mountains. Lots of good exercise too!
It took us forever to find the place because the maps we all had sucked and Japanese street names keep changing. We figured it was a good test of our ability to compete on the Amazing Race!
After the shrine, we drove down to Nara, which was the original capital of Japan and is also home to some of the most important sites in the country. There are tame deer all over Nara who just come up to you and lick your hand. They were very sweet and vendors were everywhere selling deer food. I got some good pictures of them.
The highlight was the Todaiji temple, which is a center of certain Buddhist strain and the home to a huge gold and iron Buddha statue. (See photos)... There is also a part of the temple where there is a small hole in the base of a column. It is said that it is the same size as one of the Buddha's nostrils and anyone who can fit through it will achieve enlightenment. All of these little kids were getting through and some smaller Japanese women, but Maria really thought I could do it. We decided it was another of our "Amazing Race" challenges. It was quite a show when the foreigner (me) crammed himself into the hole. I totally thought I was stuck at one point and would become a new tourist attraction - Dumb Gaijin in a Hole! But, somehow I squeezed through and Maria got a picture which I will post. I guess I am destined for enlightenement. After I made it through, I saw that a large crowd had gathered to watch and they all APPLAUDED when I got through! Crazy!
We walked a few kilometers around Nara to a number of different temples, which you can see in the pictures. There were quite a few tourists there, including a lot of junior high students. Maria said that all junior high students usually take a trip to Kyoto and Nara. I thought the other temples were nice, but I liked Taido-ji best. Maybe that's because I became enlightened there!
On the way back to Maria's house, we stopped at a rest stop along the highway. We decided to eat at this sitdown restaurant - kind of a Denny's-like establishment. I ordered a small plate of food, because I wasn't that hungry, and it was cheap. The waitress gave me a funny look and said something in Japanese when I ordered it but I assured her that's what I wanted. Well, it turns out it was the kid's meal, which came on a plastic plate with a little cup and pictures of ducks and cats! So embarassing! We just laughed the whole time we sat there. They must have thought we were high or something. It made for a lot of fun though!
Today, we just chilled in town and FINALLY saw a movie - Million Dollar Baby. Yes, I hadn't seen it yet. It was very good. Tonight we are making sushi rolls here at home and then I am off to Tokyo tomorrow on the shinkansen. Check out my photos
here and thanks to all who have commented and emailed!