The Travelogue Thread
Japan Day 7 - Kyoto Day 4.
Spent the entire day in the Higashiyama section of town (literally translates to "eastern mountain"). My wife got dolled up in a gorgeous kimono near Kiyomizudera, and I promptly got, er, something something in my pants. Already near the eponymous Buddhist temple, which is *THE* UNESCO-approved temple to rule them all. It's even better when the blossoms are in full bloom (they are just starting now, but nowhere near full splendour), but still no less magnificent. I acknowledged earlier how easy it can be to get temple/shrine overload, but this one needs to be on everyone's list of places to see in this wonderful city.
Alleyway to the kimono rental shop.
Kiyomizu-dera.
Jishu-jinga, where people try and have their prayers for love answered.
Lunch - green tea cold
soba and tempura.
Afterwards we slowly made our way through the crowded but utterly charming restored streets of sannenzaka and ninenzaka. The literal translation for sannenzaka is "3 year hill", but contextually it's actually
sai-
nen-zaka which means "praying for easy baby birth", named after 16th century Nene, wife of Hideyoshi Toyotomi who would climb up this street to Kiyomizu-dera to pray for a child. Ninenzaka' meaning is much more direct, translating to "2 year hill", referring to the second year of emperor Tenno's reign (807 AD) in which it was constructed. The street is a treasure trove of historical mercantile layout and new world tourism, with plenty of genuine tea shops to sit in for a relaxing bowl of
matcha and sweets, not to mention the oodles of stores specializing in Kyoto specific
omiyage. There is also no shortage of damn good, high quality unique restaurants.
Case in point: due to previous research I knew to look for a poorly labelled tea house called Kasagi-ya. It would appear that the awareness level for this place was directly proportional to the distance the person from whom you asked for directions lived from it, as it was well known to local shopkeepers, and the only patrons apart from ourselves appeared to be well known to the few employees. The outside was so non-descript as to fool the untrained eye (re: my own) into thinking it was nothing more than a local residence. There's no Harry Potter style magic once inside, either, as the small two dimensional exterior perfectly reflects the tiny interior's third dimension, only the staff are immediately welcoming (if a bit shy) and happy to serve. The excellent
matcha, coupled with perfectly made red bean rice cake and
mochi in such a quiet, unassuming locale on a small, narrow street with more than 1200 years of history, contrasting the noisy bustle of people just an arm's length opposite the small wooden walls, brought forth a sense of tranquility with each sip. Highly recommended. Would have another go given the opportunity.
Conversely, we later visited the, ahem, Hello Kitty Saryo teahouse, because 33 year old Asian wife. The decor is heaven to a nine year old girl (and evidently any Asian woman regardless of age) but the food was overpriced and not at all special. Unless you have someone in your party you need to placate, you can skip this one. However, without it we would never have noticed adjacent to it was a small official Studio Ghibli memorabilia store.
Emerging forth on the north end of these two ancient arterioles, we proceeded to what some might call Kyoto's prettiest street, Ishibei-koji. I won't deny its loveliness, and the fact it was mostly barren of tourist traffic made it seem that much more special... but I can't authoritatively give it that exclusive qualifier. What I can say is
we finally got our geisha (meiko, actually)* and mygoddam! Even before I could utter something stupid like "whoa" or "threesome" my wife started gushing with praise of how pretty she was.
She could entertain us anytime.
* okay, given that she was actively posing for pictures at the direction of an older woman makes it highly unlikely that she was a true
geisha or
meiko. She was more likely a model or model in training, but the true
geisha are said to be among the prettiest women in all of Japan, and given both my wife's reaction as well as my own, I think she likely makes an excellent visual representation.
Then came Maruyama-koen, a park with some pretty scenery, but also begging to be in full blossom bloom. It is also home to the colourful Yasaka-jinja Shinto shrine, where we partook of a vendor selling fresh street side
oden.
Sadly, it was too late in the day at this point to explore either Chion-in or Shoren-in Buddhist temples, the former looming large even from streetside, and the latter known to have both a beautiful garden and bamboo forest. However, we certainly had no shortage of memories from the day's adventure, so we left satisfied.
After my wife returned the kimono to the rental shop, we bussed back into central Kyoto and decided to celebrate our day of traditional clothing, food (minus cartoon character themed teahouse, that is) and shrine visitations by doing the complete opposite: we ate dinner at McDonald's. I had some burger with an egg in it, shaka shaka fries (basically McD's fries where you shake them with an added seasoning in a bag), and a cherry blossom flavoured soda that should be renamed "fizzy diabetes." I felt no different than when I sample a local McDonald's back home, i.e. my innards felt raped. What was more odd was seeing the Kyoto locals who view this place as somewhere to study, or read quietly. Maybe they were all in varying states hyperglycaemia and were rooted to the spot, I dunno.
Why'd we do it? Because we
could, that's the point. The menu is simultaneously unique and familiar all at once, and we tend to stick with overwhelmingly traditional local fare on our vacations whenever possible, so why not throw in the occasional western diet curveball just for (fatty) shits and (flatulent) giggles?
Kyoto Tower (near Kyoto Station, city centre).
This, along with Day 1, were my favourite days in Kyoto. You can spend weeks here just trying to "do it all", but you'd leave a bleary eyed, shrine'd out mess. Better to sample what this historically rich city has to offer and leave it wanting more. It's been here a long time, and will still be here upon your return.
Tomorrow we head into uncharted territory: places I never had the chance to visit 15 years ago. Three smaller towns nestled among the Japanese alps. My Japanese will probably get the acid test here. Thankfully, there will be much more time to travel shorter distances and achieve more depth with local culture and cuisine.
And no mothereffing McDonald's.
Wow.
Even the beer cans are gorgeous! :lol:
You seem to be having a great time.
We are!
FYI: the cans change
with every season, per manufacturer.
Keep them comming
A couple of years ago we did Tokyo -> Kyoto -> Osaka -> Tokyo so it's fun to see someone else experiencing many of the same things.
Yeah, it's been a long time since I've been here, so even though this past week was many things I had done previously, it mostly felt all new to me. This coming week, though, I am really excited about.