day 48! teramachi, fushimi inarimon, kinkakuji

Willer Express was not everything we had hoped it would be. They tried their darndest to make us comfortable and sleepy, but when it all boils down, you are in a metal box that is rattling its way across a country so no, no we did not get much sleep. >< Also the bus stops every 3 hours or so to let people use the restroom, which is good but also wakes everyone up from their hard earned sleep....

Fortunately from taking the bus with my sis all those years ago I was somewhat prepared/resigned for an awful ride. :) Also I am a sleeper level 99 so I did ok for myself /modest.  Kurt on the other hand, has a hard time sleeping even in the best of times, so he probably ranks Willer Express somewhere below Satan now. :< Sorry! But thank you for letting me be cheap. :( If I had spent $240 to take the bullet train instead, I don't think I'd be able to sleep that night either, from the guilt...

Oh haha. :p Funny anecdote that ends up with me looking like a tard.

So I'd brought my pajama pants with me on the bus, thinking it would be easier to sleep in comfortable clothes. I took advantage of the dark environment to quickly slip out of my pants and into my pjs but for some reason even though I pulled them up to my waist, they didn't feel like they were on all the way...! After a few tugs I figured I was just imagining things though.

Fast forward to the next morning. We are dumped unceremoniously neear Kyoto station. Blinking groggily in the morning sun, I look down to make sure I had all my things with me. And that's when I noticed.

My pants were on backwards. T^T

There was nowhere to change except in the station, which we had to walk a ways to get to. Lol I'm sure it wasn't all that noticeable to people? And everyone was tired so I could have been streaking across the crosswalk and no one would have batted an eye. BUT STILL. I could tell. T^T I could tell cuz, as we've gone over before, I have a very pronounced derriere, and so my pj pants have you know, gotten poofy in the back from usage. So when the pants are on backwards, it looks like I dunno, like my crotch is pregnant or something. AGGHHHHHHHHHhhhhh fuuuuuu Willer Expressssssssssssssss. x_x

Lol anyway I changed in an elevator and things were cool again. :)

Got on a subway to go to Kurt's host mom's place, where we were staying. The subway cars here are so odd! There are always seats available, and they're seated front to back instead of across the sides of the car like most of the trains are organized.

Kyoto is pretty. :) A whole lot prettier than Tokyo.

We barged into Kurt's host mom's home at 7 or 8 in the morning cuz we're terrible people. D: Also, she usually gets up early cuz she does a ton of things (learning French, swimming/water aerobics, traveling, host mom'ing) so she said she'd be up. Her house is really cute!! It's near Misasagi subway station. It's small by American standards but arger than I had expected for a Japanese house. She has a really old dog named John-chan and an old cat named Myu-chan. :) She's really really energetic and looks about 40 (she's 60). She also speaks in Kansai-ben, the dialect of the Kansai region, and I spent the first half an hour trying to reorient myself. A looooot of verb and sentence endings change in Kansai-ben so I'd be thinking furiously "She's...going swimming? She is going to swimming? She hates swimming? WHICH IS IT!??!"

Anyway I think she is really cool, and she obviously cares very much about her exchange students so I'm envious of Kurt for the great time he must've had with her. :)

We talked for a couple of hours, where she bustled around getting us foods even though we weren't too hungry. She really liked hard bread, so we ate two pieces of this suuuuper crunch raisin bread. O_O It scratched the roof of my mouth up. She must be super genki just to eat that  bread every morning...

She mostly talked to Kurt cuz I guess, she and I had just met, but while I rested, Kurt's eyes started glazing over from Japanese overload, so I tried to pitch in.

After chatting for a bit, I got online to see if there was any word from Cathy&Steve since they would be in Kyoto the same time as us. We made tentative plans to meet up, so we excused ourselves, got changed real quick, and headed out to see them :D :D :D

Here's a pic of the room we stayed in. I really really love Japanese futons. :3  Sure they're not as comfortable as a feathertop, but they're better for you, and they take up waaaay less space. Look at all that space you get if you fold them up!! XO Also, the juicy voluptuous comforters. :3

We headed out for the station, and before you know it, there were Cathy&Steve!! I HAVEN'T SEEN MY FRIENDS FOR SO LONG!! :D Maybe 1.5 months?? I was really happy to see them. I unfortunately did not think to take pics of the reunion. Probably for the best though as we were very tired looking.

We went to walk around Teramachi, which is the name of their downtown area? They have this HUGE like strip mall thing? It's awesome cuz it's outdoors but the whole thing is covered, so if it rains it is still convenient to shop. Too bad for us, it was still early enough (9:30) that things weren't open yet, and we had to content ourselves with window shopping.

We turned to Kurt to be our fearless leader, since he knows Kyoto, and he decided on Fushimi inarimon. Off we went!

So to get around Kyoto, there are of course many subway stations that you can use, and also many many bus lines that will take you around. We snagged a bus map from okaa-san (that means mom, and I'm just gonna call Kurt's mom that) before we left, so we mainly got around on buses. It's nice cuz you can buy a daily bus pass for $5, and then you for the most part don't have to worry about fare. Well, I s'pose it's a little more complicated than that, since flat fare buses you don't have to, but special fare buses you MIGHT have to, but we just swiped and prayed. (ooo that's what she said)

Kyoto in the early morning. :) It really is pretty..! So much more green than Tokyo.

I feel like most people, when they want to come to Japan, think of geishas and temples and samurai and sakura. I mean, stereotypically I suppose that's what they're known for right? But then they go to Tokyo and it's like whaaaaaaat. There's none of those things there! That's why I think most people that come visit Japan should go to Kyoto. :) It was the capital city for hundreds of years, and in many ways is still the cultural center of Japan. Or Nara (which I haven't been to), which was the capital city before that. Tokyo is just an amalgamation of people and buildings that cropped up in the last hundred years or so, and it's completely commercialized, urbanized, whatever you want to call it. Tokyo is a great place to DO things, and party, and go around with friends, but there definitely isn't a whole lot to SEE there. Fewer big temples, lots less of that old Japan feel that people are expecting. :)

Anyways that's my Tokyo vs Kyoto spiel.

We have arrived at Fushimi inarimon! This area? landmark? is famous for these red gates, which I believe are constructed when someone passes away, and their family or friends pay to have one built.

Cathy gets some takoyaki for us all to snack on. :)

So once you get past the little neighborhood and enter the actual park/site, you start climbing uphill, since all of the gates are planted in the side of a mountain. Here is a temple area and the beginning of the ascent.

More gratuitous temple shots.

We come upon our first series of red gates! These gates are really big, and they're constructed one after another to make these giant halls/walkways of monuments. It's really very grand....

And a short video clip of what it's like to walk through. :)

Cathy & Steve. :) What a cute pic.

There were also some hallways of smaller gates, which were just as cool, since with the smaller size the number of gates you can pack in increases significantly. And no this picture isn't mirrored, it's actually just two different hallways....

And here's what it looks like if you peek behind you. Whoa! Kanji. These are all the names and dates of the deceased.

 

We sporadically encountered random temples and shrines. The difference being, I believe, that temples are for Buddhists and shrines are for Shintoism. The Japanese as a whole are not a very religious people, but they do pay their respects at temples and shrines and such, traditionally. It's like a half religion, almost.

These fox faces are a sort of good luck charm that you can buy. At most of the shrines, they sell some form of a blank canvas (in this case, fox faces) for a couple of dollars, and you draw on them or decorate them however you choose. Then on the back you write who you are and what you are hoping for, and then you tie it to the board. In a way it's like....a Santa Claus wishlist. :p

A closeup of some of the faces. :)

Detour! Spotted a wood and dirt staircase going off the trail, so of course we had to check it out. Cuz you know, Scooby Doo and stuff. It was a pretty, mini-hike, and then a small temple at the end of it.

Pretty, trees and bamboo mixed together.

Another one of those charm walls. :)

A lot of the shrines have a rope bell you can ring, for what purpose, I'm not sure. Summon God? Scare away evil spirits? Tourist entertainment device? Anyway it usually works, we usually have to go up and ring it to see what it's like. The bell is not an actual clapper and belfry type bell, but more of a huge jingle bell (wtf there's the xmas theme again!) that kind of makes a clangy sound if you shake the rope. So no gratifying sonorous tolling for us.

Some running water near the temple, with one of those little hollow bamboo fountains. Cathy is using the water to water the plants...ahh...not sure that's quite according to tradition but who knows what those fountains are for. :3

Oh speaking of water, the air around here was more damp and warm than in Tokyo, or even in the more urban areas of Kyoto for that matter. I think it was just being surrounded by so much nature and vegetation. Unfortunately damp air means mosquitoes, spiders, and many other bugs and critters, which all plagued us relentlessly. :(

Due to said bug factor, we didn't continue our ascent too too high, but headed back for the station, which is decorated specially thanks to this landmark's renown. I really really liked Fushimi inarimon though, it has a particular atmosphere and feeling to it, reverent and solemn but also imbued with a sort of mysterious air, that really makes you feel like you're in another age. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's magical but, that sort of feeling, and the wild vegetation and untouched natural surrounding are a bit reminiscent of Princess Mononoke or the like. :) Really really awesome, and different from other temples/shrines that you'd see elsewhere. Definitely recommend for anyone that's going around Kyoto.

Thanks Kurt for bringing us there!! :D

We were pretty miserable from lack of sleep and bug bites, so we treated ourselves to a quick lunch respite. :) Kaitenzushi! (aka sushi boat). Actually kaiten = revolving, rotating and zushi is just sushi, but pronounced slightly different due to the preceding words.

I believe this is tuna. :)

Whereas most kaitenzushi places have many different colored plates, with every color corresponding to a certain price point, at this place every plate is 157yen. :) No one tried anything too crazy, but we did grab every plate with unagi that we could find. :D

Next we decided to go back through Teramachi and look around, since at this point all the shops had opened. Steven and I wanted coffee so we dropped by Holly's Cafe.

Steven wanted a cafe mocha, and yay, right there on the menu there was a cappuccino  mocha. It all seemed perfect until Cathy was like uhhh I think that lady is putting ice cream in your coffee. lol........turns out Holly's Cafe is more of a dessert coffee type of place, and they have these parfait desserts, one of which is cappuccino mocha flavored..............so instead of a hot coffee, Steven got a cold sweet dessert. :( My bad! It did look delicious though -- it's the one on the end.

Also my cafe latte was just steamed milk + sugar so, I guess the moral of the story is that Holly doesn't know squat about coffee. :p that bitch.

Shopping time! Like I said, Teramachi is really big, so there were lots of little shops to peek at. Bakeries....

a cane shop....

punk clothes....

and of course arcades!!

We headed into one such arcade, where we tried to win a little plushie from a UFO catcher.  But as Steve and Cathy can now attest to, those things are FUCKING HARD! lol. And pretty much just a ripoff. In the end we didn't win anything. :(

Kurt showed us one of his favorite games, called Bishi Bashi Tower. I'm not one for arcade games, but I'll have to admit that it was super fun. It's kind of like Mario Party? Every round is a mini game, where they explain to you what the controls are and what you need to do. You play with the blue, green, and red buttons, and the yellow button is just to signal that you've finished the round. Well for example, the first one I tried was that you're trying to get an elf to roll a snowball. He moves a step forward every time you press blue or green. So you're basically pounding blue and green as fast as you can, trying to get him to finish the snowball, and then yellow when it's done!

All in all we played quite a few rounds, and there were a lot of clever ideas for mini games. :) Most require quick thinking/reactions, and a LOT of them are SUPER tiring for your hands!!!

Cathy and Steve played a Mario Kart esque racing game, where you have to actually push some foot lever (physically) to move your character. I have AN AWESOME VIDEO that is super cute cuz Cathy's super into it lolololol but I shall keep that as blackmail. XD XD

This store was having a sale where all of their (normally insanely priced) bags were only 1000yen = ~$10. I ended up picking one up to use a carry on because I feel like I've bought so much stuff that there's no way I'll be able to get it all home with the bags I've got... O_O

This awesome piece of machinery makes little cake things!! It was cool to see all the different mechanical parts performing their specialized little functions.

After a few hours of window shopping, we decided to switch tracks back to more cultured sightseeing. :) So off we went to Kinkakuji (The Golden Pavilion)....

We arrived there shortly before 5, around 4:30? The park was closing at 5 which we didn't find out until AFTER we'd bought our entrance tickets, which was a bit vexing.

But the scenery was soothing.

Kinkakuji!!

The park is not that big, and the golden pavilion is right in the middle of it. My sister and I came to see it when we came as well, and it's more or less how I remembered it, but without the 3000 degree weather and us sweating all over everything. The pavilion was really beautiful and brilliant then, though, because the sun reflected off the gold and made it shine. Today it was really nice, but slightly overcast so the golden exterior appears to be a bit duller....

There, another rare pic of me, since I think it turned out alright. :) Thanks to Cathy, our photographer.

Oh! that is a Powerpuff Girls tshirt I bought in Taiwan.

I really liked the random irises planted around the lake....

There were some little statues around the park as well, and people tried throwing money into that little bowl. We used up all of our 1yen coins, Kurt made one in, but I only got one into the big one behind it. ^^;

Then back out of the park...

Started feeling tired again, but no one was hungry for dinner (it was still around 5 or 5:30). So we went in search of a karaoke place that we'd spotted earlier in Teramachi. They had a nomihoudai (all you can drink) course, which OF COURSE we opted for. :) Along with the package came our choice of an appetizer (there were only a few choices though), a bottle of wine (just some really weak fruit wine), what karaoke machine, and on and on and on.....anytime you want to do something here there are like a billion multiple choice questions to answer. :p

But we finally made it, and there was food and drinks to be had by all. :D Also really awesome singing! Steven is so soft spoken, but he has powerful enough lungs to drown out the rest of our singing, even without a mic. :D I know this because it was actually tried and tested during Viva la Vida. ;) It was really really fun though, karaoke can be so relaxing, and a great stress relief, especially when you're with a bunch of good friends that you can just have fun with. Also when you have unlimited alcohol.

The thing about nomihoudai though, is that all of the drinks are super weak. :( I mean, it's not like we're taking shots of tequila for 1.5 hrs straight or something. Obviously to make it affordable for them, most of the drinks offered are cocktails and have low alcohol content. I don't mind too much, personally, because I love cocktails and sweet drinks, but I think Steve, Cathy, and Kurt all felt like it was way too much liquid to consume. There is always beer though... :)

After karaoke (which was too short imo T^T) we were all sort of tired out but not quite ready to call it a night. Cathy called for more booze so we went to an izakaya to drink. Izakayas are like Japanese bar restaurants. There ARE bars here, which are just for drinks, but traditionally Japanese people would go to izakayas for drinks. There are foods, but it is more tapas styled, since you don't want to eat a huge plate of spaghetti while trying to get drunk. Consequently though, the food is delicious (though it can be unhealthy, depending on what you order).

Steven and I decided (unwisely) to split a bottle of shochuu. It's been a while since I've had shochuu. I'd forgotten how utterly disgusting it was. :D It's rice wine, I believe, and tastes like Korean soju. Or a bit like vodka. It's vile. Cathy and Kurt, on the other hand, opted for sake and my stomach was jealous of them. :(

A light salad~

Some salmon sashimi....

Before long though, Steve & Cathy were wasted, and it was time to go home. :D We sent them off in a cab, but instead of going back right away, we went to go see Gion at night. Gion is what used to be, and still somewhat is (to a much much lesser extent) the geisha district of Kyoto. There wasn't that much to DO there, that late at night, but it let us walk around a bit and enjoy the night air.


After that though, we went back to okaa-san's house, where she had left us a cute note, and we tried to write one back, about plans for tomorrow.


Then, sleep. :) Day 1 Kyoto: reunion with C&S -- complete!