Kyoto Story

Minna-san, Konnichiwa!

At the weekend I decided to finally go on the trip I have been itching to go on for years and years- to Kyoto. Kyoto (Japanese for capital city) was the capital of Japan for around 1100 years, before it was moved to Edo, which is now known as Tokyo (eastern capital.) Although it was officially the capital, during large chunks of this time, samurai lords (shogun) held administrative governments in other cities such as Kamakura and Edo. Kyoto managed to escape heavy bombing in WW2 and has not suffered a major earthquake in recent history, so much of the historical architechture remains, leaving an amazing place to visit, and somewhere I want to live. I have tried to keep the following writing to a minimum because I think

the pictures do the talking. Thankfully it did live up to my expectation.

In order to save money, I booked my tickets on the night bus which leaves Tokyo in the evening around 11pm and arrives in Kyoto at 6 the next morning. Unfortunately I couldn't sleep because I was just so excited about what was to come. When I arrived, nothing was open but

I sat and read my book in the station until the sun came up then hopped on a train at 7.15 to start my intensive sight-seeing. My first and main plan was to go to the Inari shrine, for the god of rice, because this was the one thing in Japan which I knew I wanted to see before learning Japanese. It is famous for its 10000 torii which are the gates which always precede a shrine. These ones preceded and followed it. It was really moving to finally see it in person and actually walk through there. There were nearly no people there so I had plenty of time to get the perfect photo:

There are lots of nice little streets (once you get away from the station which is nice, but like any other city anywhere.) I had lots of free samples of matcha green tea flavoured things which was excellent because it is my new favourite thing.

These girls were deciding what to eat and settled on this restaurant here (yes I was eavesdropping but they didn't know because they assumed as a westerner I don't understand Japanese.)
After I got to the end of that street I came across 2 Geisha who were on their way somewhere. I had read in my book that it is really bad to ask geisha-san for a photo because they are so busy, so I took photos from behind them, but then a Japanese person asked if he could have his photo taken with them, so I naturally did the same (forgetting that Japan is a 'do as I say not as I do' country when it comes to foreigners.) These were actually Maiko rather than Geiko (Kyoto dialect for Geisha.) Maiko are trainee Geisha, and are usually the only ones who wear the white makeup on their faces. I think they were newly qualified as well, because their collars had turned from red to white (I saw that on TV.) I thanked them very heartily (very low bowing) and couldn't believe I'd finally got the much coveted Geisha photo.
Then I did some more sight seeing (i.e. more shrines and temples, of which there are many photos, but too many for here) and it started to rain. I then had a choice of finding my hostel and sleeping for 2 hours before going out to meet my friend, or taking a bus to go and see Kyoto's most famous sight. Deciding sleep was for the weak I kept on going, to find the bus stop. I wanted to go via Gion, the geisha district and old town of Kyoto, but took a wrong turning, still finding the bus stop, but missing the nice part. I took the bus, chatting to an old man on the way. The people in Kyoto are much more friendly in Tokyo and have a lot more time to chat and give directions and be helpful. They also speak more English so I had to be careful to speak as much Japanese as possible. Eventually I arrived on the other side of the city (all the things worth seeing are around the city rather than right in it.)

Having gone in December, there were not many tourists which was certainly nice, because my friend who went a few weeks earlier said she couldn't move for all the people who had gone to see the autumn leaves. The one place which is apparently busy every day of the year is the Kinkaku-ji or Golden pavillion which was burnt down by a mad monk in the 50s but rebuilt to the exact same design and covered in gold again. It was breathtaking.

Whilst I was there I bumped into a school trip who asked me some questions for their questionaire and then bought me some wasabi peanuts (wasabi is the spicy Japanese horseradish.)
That evening I met Yuri-san, my very first Japanese friend, who I met in my first year at Newcastle. I had not seen her for a year and a half so it was really nice to meet her again, and we went for Karaoke which was great fun and something we talked about doing back in England.
The next day we went to a place called Eiga-mura which literally means film village, which was set up like a Samurai town from the Edo-period. We got attacked by Samurai but luckily had swords with us so it was ok.

We also saw the Loch Ness monster.

This bar is a place where enemy troups often stayed but their whereabouts were revealed so the place was raided and many people killed. It happened a lot so I'm not sure why they kept on staying there and didn't go to the nearest travel lodge.

After that we went to a castle, built by one of the many Shogun of Japan. It was huge, and equipped with "nightingale floor" which squeaks when even something light touches it, which was to prevent enemy ninja entering. Ninja have become my new favourite genre of tv because the Japanese don't seem too keen on modern spying, so I make do with old spying which is just as good.
Then we went for kaiten-zushi which is the sushi on conveyor belts. I also tried nattou which is infamous for being disgusting to foreign people. I would love to say it was nice, but it was disgusting so Yuri ate the rest for me.
This was some of the grounds to the castle. The buildings are part of the central palace.
After that we cycled to Gion, which is incredibly beautiful, especially in the evening, but very difficult to photograph in the dark. It seemed like a film set because it was so surreal to imagine that in the olden days the entire city looked like that.
That evening, we made Japanese food, watched a samurai film which featured locations I had seen in the day and things we had seen in Eiga-mura which made everything link in together. The heating wasn't on but we sat under Yuri's kotatsu which is possibly the best thing I have ever seen (exaggeration.) It is like a table, but surrounded by duvet, which you sit under, and it is heated. It basically keeps you warm as you eat and is traditionally used at new year. I really want to buy one so we can use it next christmas- apparently they are quite cheap.

Then I had to go home which made me very sad as I didn't want to return to Tokyo with lessons and work and stressed out commuters and jam packed trains. Never mind though, I had such a lovely weekend (I'm trying not to think about the cost,) and I think it will be one of my fondest memories of Japan.