11/3 - An Evening in Kyoto

We got on the bus to head to Central Kyoto. After a few stops, it was really crowded. It looks like everyone was going to the middle of town tonight. It was a national holiday after all. We managed to nap a little on the bus because we were fortunate to have a seat. We got to a major intersection in the middle of town and got off the bus and wandered. However, I was so tired that I had no idea where we were heading and N was apparently just following my lead.

We eventually found one of the shopping arcades that N was looking for.  N originally wanted to visit the Nishiki Market [錦市場] in the morning in order to get some extra fresh fish for breakfast.  But it just didn't work in our schedule.  We wandered part way down the Nishiki Market.  Most of the shops were in the process of cleaning up for the night.  There were a few places selling some things, but there was not much left.  All I could do was get a photo op and say that we visited the Nishiki Market.

We then went over to Teramachi [寺町] which is another long shopping arcade in Central Kyoto and is just perpendicular to Nishiki Market.  One of the famous sites in this shopping arcade is that there is a stone torii [鳥居] that is literally embedded into the buildings on either side.  They managed to preserve a piece of history, but I guess the builders didn't care if they encroached on that piece of history.  Right across from the torii, was the entrance to a street temple.  The temple looked much bright and exciting with the dozens of Japanese lanterns that decorated the entrance.

We went up and down Teramachi for about half an hour and we were really hungry.  We originally wanted to have dinner at Watami [和民], but the restaurant was all booked with business parties.  N didn't really want to eat any Western food while in Japan, but I kind of wanted to try some.  We came across a French restaurant called Paris 21e.  It was on the second floor of a building along the Teramachi shopping arcade.

I ordered a glass of Suntory Half-Half beer to start.  It's basically a Japanese version of a Black and Tan.  So half dark and half light.  In this case they took Suntory's dark and light beers and mixed them together.  We don't get any Suntory drinks in Vancouver, so I thought this was worth trying out.  Even N liked it and she really doesn't like dark beers. 

For our food, we ordered a salad, charcoute, and a seafood paella.  The salad was really good.  It had a mix of egg and shrimp.  The charcoute is an Alsatian dish of sausages and veggies in a pot.  This dish wasn't bad, but it was a little salty for our taste.  Then there was the seafood paella.  It was not what I expected.  The sauce was really weird.  I can't even begin to describe the flavour.  I was expecting more of a tomato flavour.  In the end, the salad was the best and dinner seemed to go downhill from there.  At least I had my Suntory to wash down the food.  And like Bill Murray in Lost in Translation says:  it's Suntory time!

After dinner, we took the bus back to K's House Kyoto.  We got into our spartan guest room for two.  We dropped off our gear and went downstairs to finally get some Internet access.  While N was checking her messages, I noticed that the bulletin board had an introduction to a sento right across the street.


A sento [銭湯] is a Japanese bath house where you pay to go in.  The sento is divided into men and women's sections and we paid around ¥300-400 for the one we went into.  We took advantage of the tiny sento across the street.  The showers at K's House Kyoto are shared, so we might as well do the Japanese style of bathing.

Honestly, I had no idea what I was supposed to do.  All I knew was that I must wash completely before bathing in the actual baths.  The man at the bath house spoke no English, so it was a little hard to figure each other out.  I really had to mouth out to myself the cost that he had quoted me for admission.  It wasn't all that busy as far as I could tell.  The man had a television running on the men's side of the sento. He was watching the Japan Series, the Japanese baseball championships, between the Yoimuri Giants and the Nippon-Ham Fighters (mmm...Ham Fighters :P).  Fortunately, there were a couple of other men who came in with me.  So I just followed their lead.  The men had their own towels and wash basins; whereas, I had to borrow from the bath house.  Thankfully the towel, soap, and shampoo were all complimentary. 

As I took my seat on a stool by one of the many faucets along the wall, I peeked out the side of my eyes to see what the other men were doing.  They would fill up their wash basins with the gloriously warm water.  It was a bit chilly tonight, so the warmth hit the spot.  Both men had brought their toothbrushes and shaving kits.  So they were brushing their teeth as they used their wash towels and wetted their naked bodies.  They would then lather up their hands with shampoo and wash their hair.  The body was next.  So foreign me just followed their lead minus the brushing and shaving.  The best part is when I fill up the wash basin with the warm water again and just pour the whole basin over my whole body. 

After a thorough cleansing, I got into one of the two baths.  The introduction at K's Kyoto House had already warned that the baths are usually hotter than what foreigners are accustomed to.  They weren't kidding.  Holy smokes!  It was really hot.  I had to really ease myself into the tub slowly.  After the bath, my whole body felt warm and pulsating.  I bought a bottle of milk, which is apparently one of the things to do after bathing in Japan.  I thought wtf at first about drinking the milk, but it felt very refreshing to drink the milk.

When I walked back to the guest house, the wind just didn't have the same chill anymore.  I was warm all over and felt as bright as day.  So if you don't mind bathing totally naked in front of complete strangers, I would highly recommend partaking in a sento.  It was a glorious feeling and I felt more connected to Japanese culture by just experiencing it. 

And that was the end of our first full day in Kyoto.  And what a full day it was!  The sento really helped to usher me into a wonderful slumber for the night.  Tomorrow would be another busy day with an early start again.

[sento image from pingmag.jp and originally from "Sento - the Japanese Bathhouse.” © Julia Baier]

11/3 - Gion, Kyoto

From K's House Kyoto, we walked out to the closest bus stop.  We were going to spend most of the day in the Higashiyama [東山] area of Kyoto.  This area is home to a lot of Kyoto's famous ancient buildings.  Our first stop would be Gion [祇園].  Gion is most famous for catching a glimpse of geisha, especially at night.  Our goal wasn't really to see geisha today, but to just walk around the neighbourhood.

In the Gion neighbourhood is also the Yasaka Shrine[八坂神社].  The shrine's bright red gate looks over one of the major intersections in Gion.  It's a huge intersection in fact.  It looks larger to me than most Canadian intersections because the corners are all rounded so it's easier for traffic to make left-hand turns (Japan drives on the left side of the road, so a left-hand turn is equivalent to our right-hand turn).

We walked up through the gate and wound our way past a few food stalls to the actual shrine.  There was no charge for walking through.  We lucked out on a small event at the shrine.  Some families were bringing their children to participate in Shichi-Go-San (七五三, seven-five-three) rituals.  Basically boys and girls who are aged 3, 5, and 7 were dressed up in traditional Japanese kimonos and .  So there were dozens of cute little kids in traditional wear walking around the shrine.  The proud parents were snapping away with cameras.  It was a very neat scene.

After our visit to the shrine, we went back out to the busier part of Gion on Shijo-dori.  We walked up and down the stretch.  There were a lot of souvenir stores given that Gion is popular with tourists.  Food shop vendors offered some small food samples of their special gift boxes.  One of the bigger shops on Shijo-dori was Yojiya [よじや].  Yojiya is a special cosmetics company that was founded in Kyoto in 1904.  Their most famous product is their oil-blotting facial paper.  We wandered through the store for a few minutes.  N ended up buying a little something, but not the blotting paper.

We walked down a little further and came across an okonomiyaki restaurant that was featured in N's Chinese-language travel book.  It is famous for the statue in the front.  The statue is made up of a boy and a dog.  The boy is in traditional Japanese clothing and he has a box of take out.  However, the boy is running and afraid because of the dog.  The little white dog has a firm bite on the boys pants and is literally pulling down the boy's pants revealing his little wee-wee.  It's very interesting what restaurants will do to get your attention and pull you into their restaurant.



We were walking back towards Yasaka Shrine to get the bus to our next stop for the day, when I noticed a sign post marking a special road.  The sign was only in Japanese and would read "Hanami-koji" in Romaji.  N said that this is the road where you can most likely find geisha.  However, because it was still morning, most of the restaurants and shops were closed.  We decided to walk up and down the street to see what was there.  Interestingly, there were no sidewalks on this street.  Pedestrians and cars just had to share the road.  We walked down to Gion Corner, a theatre that specializes in many different traditional arts from Kyoto.  On our way back from Gion Corner, we came across a little delivery van painted with a Canadian flag on its side.  The van even had a Vancouver address and phone number printed on the rear.  The van belonged to Seaborn, a company that sells Canadian gourmet food in Japan.  (So what is Canadian gourmet food and is it good business?)

We headed back to the road where we had been dropped off by the bus. We were now ready to head off to our next destination in the Higashiyama area - Kiyomizu-dera Temple.

11/3 - Osaka to Kyoto

It's our first full day in Japan and we're already on the move.  We leave our luggage at the Hearton Hotel Shinsaibashi and grab a quick breakfast at Matsuya.  Matsuya is basically Japanese fast food where you buy a ticket at the machine for the food you want.  Present the ticket at your seat and you quickly get your food.  It's very cheap food, but pretty filling.  We were at the location just outside Loft department store and it was amazingly quiet at 8am.  Maybe everyone was at work already.  Then again, Shinsaibashi is more of a shopping area than a working area.

We took the subway up to Umeda to change to a JR train to Kyoto.  In the middle of transferring from the subway to the JR Umeda Station, we went topside to the Osaka Visitors Information Center.  We had to buy our Osaka Unlimited Pass before we forgot.  Just like the Thru Pass, we wouldn't be using it right away, but best to get it now so that we don't have to search for a vendor later.

The JR train was about a half-hour ride from Umeda in Osaka to Kyoto Station.  I tried catch some z's, but I don't sleep well on most moving vehicles.  If I can nap even a little, though, that's great.  Kyoto Station is a massive train station.  Not only do JR trains (regular and bullet trains) stop there, but so does the Kyoto Subway, the Kintetsu Line, and is home to the main bus terminal in the city.  It's a gigantic structure.  It's a modern gateway in a city famous for its ancient buildings.  While at the station, we also bought another pass, the Kyoto City Bus Pass.  We knew we would be using this one today.

The first thing we wanted to do was to head over to K's Kyoto House.  K's House is a hostel/guesthouse featured on hostelworld.com and in the Lonely Planet.  It was a 15-20 minute walk from Kyoto Station. There were lots of foreigners in the lobby coming and going.  Most were going out for the day.  We checked to see if we could drop off some extra belongings to lighten our load for the day.  We were lucky, our room was ready to store things, but the bed just hadn't been made.  Perfect.  We went up to our room and dropped off our stuff.  We were soon off to see our first sights of the trip.