3 Kyoto Days

Okay, this one is going to be another long one. Probably. We woke up our last morning in Nara and made our way to the train station, because we had to go to Kyoto next. I was very pleased with this, as Kyoto is my favorite city that I have been to in Japan yet. The train was not bad, we did get seats, although dad sat away from Kev and me. Silly old man. From the Kyoto station, I went upstairs and wasted a half an hour (and two hundred yen) uploading some pictures to the internet, which is how you have Osaka pics on the entry before this. I still have Nara's and Kyoto's to upload, and hopefully I can get those done whilst in Tokyo. It was a short walk to the hotel, which is off of Shichijo-dori (7th Avenue), quite near the Kyoto station. Although it is close, we still passed three Lawson's, one of which was very, very fancy. We were early, and couldn't check in yet, but we left our baggage in a little room and headed out to see the city. Armed with a map of Kyoto's bus routes, we went to take over Kyoto. Our short bus ride took us to Kiyomizu-dera, the temple of the clear water. I think that this one has become my favorite because of how beautiful the views are here. After our climb through the tourist traps that line the streets, we got to the temple. The buildings that stand there now are only 400 years old, compared to the 900-1000 years old that they should be, but it is still really impressive. We went in to the complex, and went in to one of the buidings (where we had to remove our shoes, of course) and walked around a dark passageway, lined with bronze statues of Bodhisattva and Kanon. Some of them had pretty creepy eyes that seemed to glow, and that was fairly odd in and of itself. Coming out of there, a group of people was gathered where the monks were performing a ceremony, beating their drums. It was pretty darn cool to watch, though I had no idea what was happening. The platform that they were working on restoring last time I was here (last month) was half way completed, so we could go out on to it. Can't emphasize it enough. Gorgeous view. Trees everywhere creating a blanket over the contours of the land, with the city in the distance. Wandering through the other buildings in the complex, we decided to follow the scenic route that we did not take when last I was here. The trail gave us another good view of the hanging platform, even if construction was being done on it. At the end of this path, we found the tiny pagoda that teased us through the hills. And it was tiny. But it was old, really old and weathered. After this we started down the hill, but dad saw a closed gate that led down some dark stairs, and had to go. He insisted that we were allowed because the gate was not locked. He is an idiot. Eventually, Kev and I joined him (to make sure he didn't break his neck or something) and found the temple graveyard. It was very nice, but I just don't think it polite to go traipsing through a graveyard. Especially in Japan where Shinto beliefs are pretty much a mix of Animism (everything is imbued with a spirit) and Ancestor Worship (they may be dead, but they can still influence your life). Down near the spring/waterfall area, there was a little restaurant that we had a beer at (Kev a Coke). Since we sat and did that, there was no pull to wait in line to drink water. Even though it may be blessed. We just slowly meandered out after that, no real rush or hurry. It was nice, kind of like this whole vacation. We went back down the hill a different way, and I was starting to direct them to Shakey's, the all-you-can-eat pizza place, and we got all the way up to Shijo-dori (4th Ave) and Kevin said he wasn't hungry. That killed that, so we went back to the hotel, and when we got back, they realized that meant another 45 minute walk each way for pizza. That'll show them. We checked in to our room and were surprised. Very surprised. This is the cheapest hotel we have at about 9345Y a night. ($87USD a night), and it is the biggest room. It has an entrance way and sitting 'dining room' with a tiny bathroom and little balcony ( that you can just dry clothes on), plus a tatami room with three mattresses on the floor, real mattresses, as well as a 17 inch flat screen television. The walls of the bedroom are even golden. Plus, of course, the air conditioning. We immediately settled in to read because we were tired after our long walks, but eventually our hunger got the best of us. Dad had seen a place that seemed to have fried rice, which Kevin wanted, so we set out for there. There was also a yakitori place that looked intriguing. It turns out that they were the same place! Although there was no fried rice, it was a tofu dish, (Chichi no baka, I said to the waitress. She laughed. [My dad's an idiot]) and we feasted like kings on yakitori. It was awesome. This restaurant had room to seat about 20 people, including a hidden seating area, two tables, and the bar area. I love yakitori, also. When that was consumed, we headed back, and dad fell asleep early, and talked all night in his sleep about all sorts of made up Japanese words. Kevin and I made a Lawson's run around 11 or so, but that's about it. Morning came on day two, and our plans had two things: Kinkaku-ji and the Daimonji later that night. Nothing in between... So we took a bus to Kinkaku-ji, which stopped at Ritsumeikan Daigaku (where I was last time I went to Kinkaku-ji), and we headed in to see the Golden Pavillion. We got our picture taken by it, as I have done with everyone I went there with. It was nice walking through there, and it just was nice and relaxing. Afterwards, we were going to get a bus to Arashiyama to go to Monkey Mountain, but we didn't make the bus, so dad said we should keep walking while we wait. So I said to Kevin, "This means we're walking, we won't be able to get a bus." I was right. Damned dad impatience. We walked about an hour and a half at least, winding up and down hills, but we found some beautiful sights. One was a big pond with the mountains in the background, also the bamboo forests lining the road. We were also walking along and dad let out a surprised noise. He saw a Tanuki statue on the side of the road. What he didn't notice is that there were a bunch of marble genetalia around. These things, both male and female varieties, were about 3-4 feet tall. Pretty impresive. It was crazy. We continued along the way, stopping for directions a few times, and then just kept going, walking, walking, walking some more. Eventually, we came to the place that I had been told about in my directions. It was the road that I had walked the last time I was in Arashiyama. Somewhere along this road we found a ball. It was about the size of a Lacrosse ball, had dimples like a golf ball, and the semblance of threading like a baseball. It was clearly confused. It bounced well, so we kept it and had a grand old time. Kevin was tired. Oh so tired. We got to the bridge that led to Monkey Mountain, but it was starting to get late. As we ascended the stairs that would have allowed us to begin a hellish climb to Monkey Mountain, the old man who worked there was putting out the "CLOSED" sign. Oh well, we were too slow. If we had taken either of the two buses that would have brought us there sooner.... Well, we got to see the edge of Kyoto there. I guess that counts for something. Didn't get to see any monkeys though. In the area around the bridge at Arashiyama, there seemed to be a festival of sorts picking up. There were stalls all along the river, selling all sorts of foodstuffs and drinkstuffs to all sorts of people. Kev got a huge stick of yakitori, and dad got a big grilled corn. I decided not to eat, not all that hungry. It turned out that we could see one, maybe two, of the Daimonji (big burning symbols) on the mountains, but we had to wait about an hour and fourty five minutes. However, in the meantime, there was a bit of fun sitting and watching lanterns float down the river, which we also had to wait for. But it was cool, and we enjoyed it. Dad kept being impatient and trying to leave or make us walk, which actually got me into kind of a bad mood. Why couldn't the man be patient and just sit and relax, enjoying the river for one stinking hour? Well, he is only in Japan for two weeks, and there is a lot to see, so he was rushing. In the interim between the lanterns going up and the lighting of the Daimonji, we went over to see these fairy lights set up over the river, and got a few special treats. One, there were a bunch of boats hanging out on the water, and they had food, fireworks, and other fun stuff, served to them by a boat which sold it all. After that, I saw a couple boats with giant flaming lights on the end, and went to investigate. It took a second to convince myself, but they were cormorant fishing!! They were using cormorants (birds who swim and fish in the water) with rings around their necks to stop them from swallowing the fish they caught, and then the fishermen took them from the birds. It was crazy. I had heard of that before, but never had I seen it. Friggin cool. Then, dad went to fetch a few beers, to celebrate the occasion, and came and reported that the Daimonji on the right side could be seen from the middle of the bridge. Kevin and I went to see. It was great, but my camera would not report any of it back so I cannot show you how cool it really was. About 5-10 minutes later, the one closer to us, a giant Torii, the gate that leads in to Shinto shrines, lit up. That was cool, but the crowds were starting to get to us, so we tried to make our way back. I was going to ask for a bus, but I seemed to remember a faint tickling in the back of my brain of a JR station close by, so I asked for directions to that, and it was a life saver. Instead of a crazy crowded bus, we got our train right back to the Kyoto station, and on the way back, we stopped at our yakitori place. Yakitori was delicious, and we tried a few other things, one of which was a pork skewer, wrapped in a leaf and with plum sauce on it, and the other was grilled mochi (that sticky pounded rice stuff) with cheese and bacon wrapped around it to make it delicious. The bacon was nice and crispy also. That ended our lovely second day in Kyoto, and the third was also lots of fun. The third day, we did something different. We rented bikes from the ryokan (actually, from their sister inn down the road) and literally circled half of the city. We rode along Shichijo-dori (7th Ave) to the river, turned left, and rode down along the river, on the river, for quite a while. Just past Shijo (4th) Kevin's valve shot off of his front tire, and we had to walk the bikes. We stopped at the Lawson's I knew of at Sanjo (3rd) where I had seen Pepsi Blue being sold when we were here for Gion Matsuri, and asked for directions to a bike place. I got one right across the river, but it turned out to be a bike rental place that claimed to not have a bike pump. We walked to another, but their pump did not help, but finally got to a place on Nijo (2nd) that was built into a small corner of a building, and the guy there inspected Kev's tire and found it to be sound, then filled up all of our tires, all for 1000Y, about 9.50 US. Not too bad, since our ryokan charged 3000Y for each bike messed up. From there, we rode along the river until the path disappeared, found a Daily Yamazaki (another convenience store) for some liquid fuel, and then kept riding through the city's edge in order to find the mountains or the woods. This ended up riding up really steep hills in Kyoto suburbs. It was the most fun bike ride ever, I think, because we got to see some gorgeous sights, and my dad nearly got run over by tiny Japanese cars. Also, we had to go uphill, but there was fun downhills as well! We stopped at one place that we thought might be one of the sites of last night's "Big Burn" as dad called them. I don't think it was, but from our vantage, we could see a different view of the city, as well as the Daimonji that said "Hou." It was pretty cool. Later on our journey, we found a fun little place that looked like a walking path (which meant riding path to us!) and went along it, with the woods and mountainside at our side. Kevin and I were riding in the lead, and started saying "Snake, SNAKE!" because there was a two foot long snake on the edge of the path, and stopped, but it was hidden before dad got to see it. However, there was a little bridge over the stream we rode along, and the bridge led into a path into the woods. The path led uphill (it is a bad idea to climb in the woods in Birkenstocks, by the way, so don't even bother), and to another vantage of the city. We were just rocking out on our bike tour, and I think it may have been the best part of the Kyoto trip, next to the yakitori place. After our fun path ended, we went downhill, and found ourselves near Ginkakuji, but we didn't want to go into another temple. We were kind of templed out for a while. The downhills were really fun, so we kept at them, and the sky just started getting darker and darker... We stopped at what was like a dead end just in time to see a public bathroom, park our bikes and run to the overhang as the deluge started. The sky just opened up on us and dumped down. It was pretty cool that we found somewhere to hide. I was enjoying it, anyways. After a little bit, the rain let up, and we got back on the road, rode down and around for a while, finding a little place to stop and grab a beer (this stop called for my favorite, Yesbisu) and relax for a few while the rain stopped. Then, after that, we found our way back to the river (I am surprised that my direction sense is holding up) and went back home. It was a long day of riding for 6 hours, and we were tired and fairly moistened by the rain. Also, on the last turn, my bike decided to hate me and slid out from under me, and I fell down. I cut up my knee, but just a scratch. Kevin saw a few people in a car laugh, so he flipped them off for me. Good little brother. On the way back, we scheduled our first Shinkansen (bullet train) of the trip, heading to Tokyo. And then, back home, we rested and read for while, as well as wrestled. Kevin likes to attack us, so he gets the crap beat out of him, in the nicest possible way. I mean, I know he is a fragile little boy, who could snap if I played too roughly. Still, he asks for it! Eventually, dad wanted pizza, so we went to what we thought was a pizza place. I ordered a bacon, eggplant, and spinach one for dad and one for me, then tried to make a special request. Kev wanted just a cheese pizza. I said "Cheese and sauce only," to which the waiter responded, "Do you want green peppers or onions?" I said once again, "Cheese and sauce only." He says, "Bacon----" and I cut him off with, "I DON'T NEED THAT! Cheese and sauce only." He finally understood that. It turned out that my dad and I got pasta with those toppings on it, while Kev is the only one who got a pizza. Punk. That pretty much ends the Kyoto trip. The morning after is the trip to Tokyo, so I shall leave off here!