Kyoto

This past Saturday, Adam and I took a trip to Kyoto.  It only takes about an hour and a half by train to get to Kyoto so it’s pretty convenient.  I had been planning this trip for some time, as I had made reservations for a free tour of Kyoto Imperial Palace.  We arrived in Kyoto at 9:14 AM and were supposed to be at the Palace by 9:40 AM.  The line-up for the washroom was rather long so we only ended up leaving the station at 9:25 AM.  At this point, I started to feel a little stressed about getting to the palace on time.  We boarded the subway at 9:35am.  We got off the subway, went through a random exit and asked a passer-by which way to the Palace.  We both had our backpacks on containing two litres of water, not to mention our lunch and supper which slowed us down a little. Walking quickly/running, we entered the Palace gardens, but then we had to find the entrance for the tour.  We ran to the Information building which displayed a map of where to go for the tour.  We ran around the building only to find that it was a dead end.  We ran back around the way we came and could see the gate in the distance.  People were entering the gate and we ran faster. We saw people running from the opposite direction as us towards the gate.  Finally, we got there at 9:55 am, sweaty and tired.  I was glad they let us go on the tour.  The information I had gotten said that you had to arrive by 9:40 or you wouldn’t be allowed on the tour.  Adam and I were joking that they probably only say that for the English tour so that people get there on time.  For the Japanese tour, they probably only need to say that it starts at 10:00 AM. 

The tour was pretty good.  The guide started with a brief history of Japan that focussed on the changes in the role of the emperor. We then had a tour.  We didn’t get to go into any of the buildings, but our guide told us some information from the outside.  I learned a bit and quite enjoyed the experience, although I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone coming to Japan just for a few weeks.  You don’t get to see too much, it’s more just the experience.  Here are a few of the interesting things I learned: The emperor doesn’t live in Kyoto, but in Tokyo.  His palace and grounds in Tokyo are 10 times bigger than the Kyoto ones. The roofs of the buildings are made of 80 layers of cypress tree bark with wooden bamboo nails.  They used to play a drinking game where it was the person who won who got to drink sake.  Different gates and rooms were designated for people of different ranks.  For example, the servants had a certain entrance (the one we came through), the emperor had his own gate, different dignitaries entered through a different gate, etc.  We saw three waiting rooms for people of different rank.  The lowest rank room had cherry blossoms on the walls and red cloth joining the tatami floor.  The middle rank room had some kind of bird on the walls with white cloth joining the tatami floor.  The highest rank room had tigers on the walls and white cloth joining the tatami floor.  I guess the Japanese trend of ranking everything goes way back.

Brief Japanese history lesson

The rocks in front of this ceremony hall are white so that at night they reflect the light more.

Treasure House

Close-up of the cypress bark roof.

The palace burned down quite a few times partly because of this corridor.
Buildings were joined by this corridor, so when a fire struck, it spread quickly.

This is where the emperor would receive people.
The white canopy is where he could relax between visitors.
Apparently his throne is in front, so I'm thinking he might have knelt on the floor.
Whenever he received people, the blinds would be lowered so that you couldn't see into the room or see him.
This was because he was seen as a god.

The palace had a couple of nice gardens.

After the tour, we had lunch in the outer gardens which is a public park.  We chose a place in the sun and started to munch on some pita and falafels.  Adam was sitting on my right, and I was holding my pita in my left hand slightly away from my body.  When I was about halfway through my pita, a hawk, followed closely by a crow, swooped down and tried to grab the pita from my hand.  I actually felt some part of the birds brush my hand.  Well, my body went directly into the fight and flight mode and I chose the flight option.  I promptly got up and went under the nearby trees to make it more difficult for the hawk to make another swipe at me.  Adam picked up my bag and the picnic things and brought them over to me.  The hawk continued soaring above, no doubt looking for another chance at my falafel. It was the singular most terrifying moment of the day.  I am glad that the hawk didn’t claw my hand.  Adam said I should thank my guardian angel for that one.  Now for those of you who are acquainted with how I was stalked and regularly attacked by a certain crow on my way to work in Lethbridge, will understand how doubly terrifying this experience was for me.  One crow is one thing, but a hawk and a crow are two things (AKA quite another thing).  I was quite nervous around all birds for the rest of the day.  In conclusion, I’m planning on writing a review on tripadvisor warning people not picnic in the Imperial Palace Grounds, or at least not picnic in an open area.

The Palace park area
I found out that these are a different type of cherry tree.

Adam got a picture of the hawk that attacked me.

 Seeing as I was quite nervous, we left the Palace and decided to head to the second stop of our day- Ginkakuji Temple, also known as the Silver Pavilion.  We boarded a bus (as you will see we basically used every type of public transit Kyoto has to offer) and took it to the Ginkakuji stop.  We met some nice people who walked with us from the bus stop to the temple to show us the way.  They also spoke a little English.

The Silver Pavilion actually isn’t silver.  I thought I should clear that up.  It was meant to be covered in silver like the golden pavilion was covered in gold, but for some reason never was.  It was built for the grandson of the man who had the golden pavilion built.  Similar to the Golden Pavilion it was built as a retirement villa and now is a Buddhist temple.  The gardens were quite nice, but the temple was nothing special.  At the temple, some students approached Adam to ask him some questions in English.  They were on a school field trip.  Adam and I had helped the grade six students in Tarui prepare for their trip to Kyoto and helped them practice the conversation they were supposed to have with foreigners, so we weren’t surprised to be approached. The interesting part of this was that I had been waiting for Adam and none of them approached me.  They only approached Adam when he came towards me.  Perhaps my sunglasses and hat made me look less like a foreigner or something.  Or maybe, I’m turning Japanese. 

This is supposed to be Mt. Fuji.

This is supposed to look like the ocean.
The Silver Pavillion is the building at the back.

View from the garden of the temple.

Silver Pavillion

After seeing all we wanted, we left the temple and began our walk down the Philosopher’s Path.  This Path is famous and is especially popular during cherry blossom season.  The cherry blossoms were basically done, but there were some other flowers blooming.  It’s a pretty path and has a relaxing atmosphere.  Adam and I sat on a bench to finish our lunch.  As I watched the people go by, I told Adam, “Instead of calling this the Philosopher’s Path, they should call it the Foreigner’s Path.”  We both thought that was pretty funny.

I'm trying to look philosophical on the Philosopher's Path.

I think these are azaleas.

 After we finished our leisurely romantic walk down the path, we headed for the subway station.  On our way we passed what looked like another famous temple and a historic canal.  Although we only saw one sign in English, we gathered that this canal was built to transport goods from Kyoto to other parts of Japan on the way to Lake Biwa. It kind of looked like a water fall coming through the city.  I guess at some points they built a railway track to transport the goods since the water levels varied so much.

Probably another famous temple...

Where the canal starts/finishes.

 We took the subway to the end of the line and boarded a local train line to take us to Arashiyama.  Like I said, we pretty much exhausted Kyoto’s public transit options.  Arashiyama, from what I can tell, is like a suburb of Kyoto.  They’re attached, yet distinct.  It’s a cute little town with all kinds of tourist shops on old style streets and people walking all around.  I commented to Adam, “I feel like I’m in Banff in the summer.  There’s all these little tourists shops bustling with people, there’s mountains...”  Adam cut in, “And there’s Japanese people everywhere.”  We had a good laugh over that one.

We checked out the bridge that is apparently iconic of Arashiyama and I was really amazed at the beauty of the mountains.  They looked so close and so green.  Since it’s spring all the leaves are budding out with that bright bright green colour.  We also visited a bamboo grove which was actually the main/only reason I wanted to go to Arashiyama.  As many of you know, I have a love of bamboo.  Since grade seven I have had a bamboo plant which anyone I’ve lived with has gotten to appreciate and which my mother, sister, and friend have cared for while I’ve been off gallivanting across the globe (AKA living in France and Japan).  The bamboo grove did not disappoint.  After the bamboo grove we were mistaken as to where we needed to go to get to a different station than the one we had come in on and went to the river.  We ate a little supper and then saw a bus come up that said it was going to Kyoto Station.  We hopped on and then found out that it would take 40 minutes to get to the station, so it would have been a better idea to go with the train, but in any case we got quite the tour of Kyoto. 

Arashiyama bridge

Tons of rickshaws were all around. 

Bamboo grove!!!

When we got to Kyoto station, we saw three girls all with blond hair.  Adam commented, “People with blond hair sure stick out.”  I replied, “That’s what you look like.” 

Lastly, I realize that I’ve made quite a few comments about being the “foreigner” in this entry. While in many ways, I’ve gotten used to being stared at, I’m still very aware of the fact that I stand out.  I stare at foreigners too.  Adam explained that it’s because your eyes are naturally drawn to something that’s different.  People aren’t rude, it’s just natural. 

This coming weekend will yield more adventures, so please stay tuned for next week’s entry.

Two Foreigners and Three Water Guns

This past Thursday night, Adam and I went out for supper and then decided to buy a water gun to deal with our cat problem.  Wednesday night and all day Thursday, there was a cat outside our window meowing very loudly.  It managed to wake us both up Wednesday night.  Adam decided that we should buy a water gun to use as a cat deterrent.  So, we went to the store and found a wide selection of about five or six different water guns.  Unfortunately, there were no prices on the guns.  Adam, being very logical, decided that we should take three of the guns up to the till and ask for a price check.  Then, we could decide which one to buy.  As we were walking inconspicuously up to the till with three giant water guns, Adam saw some of his students.  We kept walking.  We went to the till and Adam asked, “Ikura desu ka?” which means, “How much is?”  I don’t know what the lady thought he said, but she turned around to a fellow cashier and said something.  This cashier was on the move and got on her cell phone.  Soon a man came running up to the till.  All the while they’re trying to communicate with us.  Once the man arrived, I told Adam quietly, “Maybe you should try ‘ikura desu ka’ again.”  He did and sure enough the cashier understood and we didn’t need the assistance of the other cashier or the man.  Maybe they summoned the man because he spoke English or something. The worst part was, Adam and I found the situation rather humorous and got the giggles.  Here we are two foreigners with three water guns on a dark cool Thursday evening.  It’s obviously an odd purchase.  Then, we draw even more attention to ourselves by asking for a price check while giggling, looking probably more suspicious than ever.  We managed to successfully purchase not three, but one water gun.  The good news is that the water gun worked.  We don’t have a cat problem anymore.

Note: No cats were harmed in the making of this blog post.  

Adam didn’t actually hit the cat, he just sprayed near it and I guess it decided to go meow elsewhere.

Mino

As per usual, Adam and I did some exploring this past weekend.  We headed North into the mountains to a little town called Mino.  We had to transfer trains in Ogaki, Gifu, and Mino-Ota. The last train we took was a small little local line train with only two cars that seemed to work more like a bus than a train.  We decided to not stop in Mino itself, but to go two stops past it to Suhara.  We got off at Suhara hoping to find the hiking trail along Kataji gorge and walk into Mino along the river.  The river was a beautiful colour, the sun was shining, it was a beautiful day.  Unfortunately, the station we got off at didn't have a washroom, it didn't even have a building actually, it was more of a bus stop.  As we weren't sure where the gorge was and since I needed to go to the washroom, we stopped in at a white water rafting/kayaking tour shop.  Luckily, the man who owns the shop spoke English well.  Before I continue, I would like to mention that it can be rather difficult to find information in English about rural places.  We asked where Kataji gorge was and he told us that it was about 9 km away. In his great kindness, he offered to give us a ride to the gorge.  We accepted.  Then, he found out that the festival we were going to attend later in the day had the main events around noon.  He then offered to drive us back into Mino town.  We accepted.

So, in the end, we took the train farther than we needed to, only to be driven back to where we needed to go.

Where we got off the train.

We had some lunch and then looked for the festival.  We weren't sure what was going on at the festival (again lack of information in English) except that there was a parade.  Some people approached us as we were looking at our map and asked if we needed help.  In the end, they told us to, "Follow the sound."  We began our walk through the old town.

Where we had our lunch.
The cherry blossom petals were falling like snow.

Mino is a town known for paper making.  I was actually wanting to go to the museum they have where you get to make paper, but it wasn't very accessible without a car.  Because of the paper industry, merchants became very prosperous.  Mino is also famous for it's "Udatsu" which is essentially a fire wall that has a little roof on it. The merchants built these "fancy" udatsu to show off their wealth.  We walked through the old town listening for the "sound."

Udatsu

Old town street

This udatsu is rather scandalous.
This man built one right next to his neighbour's!

One of the many paper lantern shops.

We ended up finding the parade and you can see the pictures.  Basically, there were big floats that adults carried and little floats that kids carried.  Drinking in public is legal in Japan, so generally the people carrying the floats are rather drunk and many people have beer in hand.  As they carry the floats, a person leads the way banging a drum and blowing a whistle.  The people carrying the float then do a "call" back and forth from either side of the float.

At one point, we were sitting down to take a break and this lady walks quickly past us saying the word, "Onigiri."  We see a man carrying a crate of "onigiri" with people crowding around him.  He came and offered us some too.  I guess at this festival they were handing out free food.  Onigiri is a rice triangle/ball that can have an assortment of things on the inside and usually has seaweed on the outside.  The stuff he was giving away didn't look to good and as we had just had lunch we declined.

The floats are really big!

 After we had had our fill of the parade, we went back into the old town and bought paper!  I also bought some green tea ice cream.  I had been wanting to try it for a while since it's rather popular here, so I'm glad I finally did.  It was pretty good too.

As we were shopping, some of the floats came past the shops.  It seemed like after lunch, each float just started doing it's own thing and going wherever it wanted.

After shopping, we went to an art museum.  Mino has a lantern festival in October where people design and make paper lanterns and they are displayed outdoors.  Some of these lanterns are kept and displayed in the art museum.

Art Museum

 Our last stop of the day was to go down by the river where we could see the oldest modern suspension bridge in the world!  So really, I don't know what we saw or if/why it's significant.  What does the "oldest modern" mean to you? So, we saw a suspension bridge, walked across it, and hung out for a bit by the river.  We could see some cherry trees were still in bloom up in the mountains.

On our way to the river, a random float came down the road.
Here we spent time looking for floats, when they were coming to us.

The oldest modern suspension bridge!
Every small town has to be famous for something.

After the river, we headed for the station.  In my great foolishness, I didn't go to the washroom, thinking that I could go at the station.  The station turned out to be like a bus stop again and I was in the same predicament.  Lesson learned, go to the washroom at every opportunity.