Excusemimasen again

So for some reason that last post is really funky, as in I can't properly edit it on here. So, please forgive any funkiness of ze last post. I'm just tired of copy-pasting, changing, and reposting it just to find something else wrong with it....eehhhhhh....

Day 3: Gion, Take 1, and Eine Klein Nachtmusik

Last Tuesday began with one of several attempts to go see Gion, an area very near Shijo (of the wonderous Wonder Tower and nightlight) which is famous for geisha, maiko, and teahouses in Kyoto. Robert and I got on the wrong bus line and sat for a while until I was pretty sure we should have passed Gion. When I asked a lady about it, and she talked to the bus driver, we discovered which line we needed to have rode, and the driver was kind enough to return our fare to use for the other bus. By then, it was nearing the time to meet Gerry at Nijojo castle, so we decided instead to head in that direction.

The construction of Nijojo--the last "jo" being the suffix for castle, like -tera and -in are suffixes for temples, and -ji is a counter for temples, and -jinja is a suffix for Shinto shrines--began in 1603, under the first Tokogawa Shogun Ieyasu. Itty bitty abbreviated history lesson. The castle was completed in 1626 under Iemitsu, the third Tokogawa shogun, and is a prime examples of early Edo design. Most of the walls are covered in murals, several with gold leaf, depicting landscapes or nature scenes. Lot of peacock and eagle imagery.

The ceilings are adorned mostly with elaborate floral and geometric patterns. They also have mannequins in many of the main rooms, showing where the shogun, the first lady-in-waiting, and so on, would have sat.

Historical murals aside, the most fascinating thing in Nijojo is the nightingale floors, or uguisubari, which were built as security devices against ninjas and sneaky pirates with cat-like tread. It's a very bizarre experience to walk on these, because it doesn't feel like the floorboards are creaking under you. With a ton of tourists moving down the corridors, the floor was constantly chirping as well. The musical squeaks are created by nails rubbing against cramps under the floorboards, in response to pressure.

We also walked the Ninomaru and Seiryu-en gardens, making our way around the castle grounds, through sakura and ume groves before getting caught in the tourist trap.

The tourist trap consisted of an initial group of vendors in tents and then the souvenir shop. I might have purchased a beautiful and expensive peachy-pink sakura-colored scarf from one of the tent vendors. (The reason they were so expensive, besides the whole 100% silk thing and the complexity of the weave, was the fact the dyes used came from Kitayama cedar bark and leaves. Kitayama cedars grow in Keihoku, one of the mountainy outer-skirt areas of Kyoto. Robert bought a couple of scrolls and a pouch from another tent vendor, and I guess he spent enough that the lady threw in a free card-carrier walletish thing.
Then we were viciously lured into the souvenir shop.
Actually, I was just curious. In addition to specifically Nijojo-oriented souvenirs, they also sold a lot of the usual and traditional Japanese kiosk gifts: fans, postcards, handkerchiefs, cell phone charms. I couldn't help myself. It was so cute. I bought a charm of Stitch dressed up like a maiko, but what tickled me the most was the lady behind the counter calling it "Maiko-san". There's a lot of Stitch merchandise here in Japan. Some is from Lilo & Stitch, and some is from that spin-off tv show--there are a few charms of the pink feminine experiment abomination. I'm not sure if its the character or the show that's more popular...

The shop also sold those white headbands you see guys putting on in anime when they're determined to study for an exam, and inevitably fail. No ichiban headband for Robert yet.     

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K

The trip back to the guesthouse was pretty eventful as well. Something was going on near the intersection outside Nijojo; a ton of traffic police were out in the huge intersection with their white uniforms. Hilariously, Kyoto traffic police also ride on Kawasaki Ninja motorcycles. There was some sort of banter between one of the officers and a biker waiting at our crosswalk. Don't think it was particularly witty, just very soulful and rhythmic. Something along the lines of:
"Hey, can we go yet?"
"No, sire, please do not cross yet."
"How about now?"
"Please be patient, sir."
"Oh, come on! I've got places to be!"
"Sir, I SAID please wait!"
A loose translation based only on tone, and zero verbal language.

Once Robert and I returned to the guesthouse, we figured out that we'd somehow just missed Gerry at the station outside Nijojo. We all went there, but he took a different exit from us, right when Robert wasn't making a round in that direction, and went in before us far enough ahead that we never ran into each other inside. I suppose he was sauntering along at the same leisurely pace as Robert and I were...

That night we were invited--through Ben--to one of his friend's small going-away party in her apartment. (She was also a ryuugakusei at our university, going back to China.)This was also a privilege it seems, because everyone but us was Asian...So we ate at Freshness Burger in Kitaoji station while Ben went to pick up gifts. The burger Gerry ordered was reported horrible, but the hot dogs Robert and I ordered weren't bad at all.
The party was tiny, kind of like the apartment--only the apartment was bigger than my old one when you count the loft-space. And the loft was where we hung out awkwardly while we waited for Ben's friend to return. (We think she forgot to tell the rest of the party that we were coming...) I got to meet my future roommate though, and she seemed cool and awesome. Ben's friend told us to call her Alpha, although I believe her real name was Wei...She was extremely cute. Said I was pretty...called Ben her "best husband" when they were bantering about whether they liked people for their looks or their hearts. Her gift was a Queen album, which she loved, and then we all laughed at the card he got her, when someone translated it out for us and it turned out to be an extremely sappy card and very near a marriage proposal.We did not wear out our welcome, thankfully, and left early enough in the night to still have some energy to go down the street to Operetta karaoke.
We sang, we yelled, we dramatically spoke lyrics for about three hours. The food and drinks were good. I had fun seeing what Japanese songs I knew were in the database, and even more fun trying to sing the ones I didn't know so well. (Turns out there are quite a few anime songs in the database, probably because many of them are sung by Japanese pop artists, not nobodies.) They had a pretty good selection of English music as well: Muse, Bowling for Soup, the Who, the Killers, Black-Eyed Peas, Journey, Michael Jackson,  Cyndi Lauper, Rick Astley, Toni Braxton...can you see where the night went?

Day 2: Lost, lost, lost...

Monday morning we were awakened by the dulcet tones of an advertisement car with loudspeakers, and the protests of a neighbor's dog. Its barking came out somewhere between screaming child tantrum and Tusken Raider battle cry. This wouldn't be the only morning we'd raise a sleepy brow, mumbling "Oh God, is something dying?" either. Very unsettling sound.

Jampan, however, is far more pleasant. Sweet bread with jam in the middle. Jam. Pan. (Or more literally, Janpan, but the sounds are indistinguishable in Japanese. Nice pun though.) I prefer the ichigo-flavored ones, but they also have ones with red bean paste in the middle. My experience with Japanese pastries is off to an excellent start.
 
Our second temple visit was Daitoku-ji, which was closest one; a short couple of blocks from the guesthouse in fact. Most of the sub-temples inside were actually closed to tourists, but many of the Japanese went inside past the no-entry signs anyway. I think they were actually paying their respects, as opposed to sightseeing, though...We still got to see most of the area, even some of the sub-temples closed off. There are a few beautiful gardens, a graveyard, and some tea houses, I think.

Koto-in, a smallish sub-temple we actually could enter, is a zen temple, with a tea house, a zen garden, several old art pieces (scrolls, paintings), and the gravesite of Lord Hosokawa and his wife, the patrons of this temple. One side of the temple was open to the outside, similar to a porch; a few small groups of people were sitting, snacking, having tea, or just meditating.





Speaking of meditating, we passed a group of older tourists, one of whom was trying to explain meditation to another, the latter who mulishly insisted "Well I didn't feel a thing!" when he had tried it. Kind of amusing. I got my second seal/signature in my nokyo-cho when the lady at admissions signed it as well.

 This stepping stone in the garden had an upside-down-face. Or maybe a downside-up face...

On the way back to the guesthouse we stopped by a couple of stores just outside Daitokuji. The first sold very expensive Japanese antiques, but there was a beautiful porcelain Kitsune statue, a fox-spirit curled up in a yukata. The second shop was much more amiable to our wallets, and the middle-aged ladies who ran it proved to have an exceptional sense of humor. When Robert tried on one of the happi coats, which was absolutely enormous on him, one held out the coat, looked him up and down, then joked "Please eat more? Like sumo." Had ourselves some good laughs out of that one. Robert bought a tiger (his chinese zodiac) netsuke from them, and I got a netsuke of a dragon with a tiger. When the ladies struggled with threading the cord through the netsuke, I had another tiny moment of satisfaction knowing how to tell them that it was ok and not to worry about it. (Neither of us are inclined to use these as cell-phone charms anyways, just trinkets.)

 Some beautifully faded soda advertisements on the way back to the guesthouse...

And a small shrine/temple we passed by as well...

The sign says it all.

That evening we were supposed to meet Ben at Kamigamo shrine, near the university. First, we headed towards the wrong university, mostly because I was silly enough to leave the correct directions at the guesthouse.
Our next mistake was not taking the bus once we'd asked someone for directions. The pain of walking hilly streets for three or four hours in 2-inch heels doesn't leave your feet for about three days. (I don't care how much Ben says Japan is all about the suffering and enduring, it is never normal for a woman to walk, straight walk, for so many hours in heels. You bring walking shoes for that sort of thing. But then I wasn't expecting to get lost for so long.)

 If only getting lost was always this scenic

We ran into another shrine along the way, but after a while we decided to turn back. We ended up walking all the way back to the guesthouse, too--
or I mostly walked and piggy-backed Robert a couple of times along the way. All the taxis that passed us just zoomed right past us before we had a chance to wave them over.




This, however was really the highlight of that misadventure, and it's definitely the strangest thing I have seen thus far in Japan.

 Yes, ladies and gents, it's a Hello Kitty gravestone for sale. (There were some other beloved cartoon character tombstones as well, but Hello Kitty really just stuck out. I can't imagine why...)

So, it turns out that we were actually almost at Kamigamo shrine when we turned around.

I didn't really want to walk. Ever. Again. But we decided to meet up with Ben for realsies, a went to a nice place downtown, where I tried a tasty beverage mixed with matcha. So, the night ended on a significantly better note than I had been expecting. Luckily, walking for so long in heels is truly the worst thing that's happened to me here yet. Which is great...
I think.

The night of the day after the Very Longest Day (Confused yet?)

Sunday night we ventured to Sanjo with Ben-san via subway and walked around a bit. Sanjo-dori is a street in the downtown area somewhere in or around the nightlife district, where people go to party. The streets were pretty packed, mostly with young folk, especially newly graduated young folk. We saw one such lad being part dragged, part carried, down the sidewalk by his steadfast and sober companions. Well, they were sober enough to be the designated-walkers, in any case.

After some indecisive meandering, Ben left us to our own devices and went home to sleep. We immediately stepped into the nearest restaurant, a cozy little ramen place. And then we proceeded to take a good long time figuring out what parts of the menu said and which meals looked good in the pictures on the menu. Robert and I ordered the same thing, ramen with chicken. Gerry wasn't very hungry, so he went for something smaller; the server probably though Gerry was weird for ordering a side-dish even after they asked "Just this?" Ramen, real ramen, is not at all like the packaged noodles and salty powder you can get for about 20 cents back in the States. (Although it holds a dear place in the heart of my palate, and I've kind of been craving extremely cheap, albeit salt-watery, partial-meals.) The broth is thicker and creamier, similar to Campbell's cream of chicken soup, in terms of consistency. It also came with small slabs of chicken which I compulsively broke into smaller pieces so I could enjoy it throughout the course of the ramen-consumption.
On another note, related only by Campbell's soup, there's a hilarious magnet on the guesthouse fridge which replaces Campbell's with "Eatery", and the soup name with "Miso Horny Sushi". It whas very funny.

After we gochisosama deshita-ed and paid, we ventured back out onto the streets. Next we explored the Wonder Tower. Not really much of a tower, just seven floors of games: a couple of stories in the middle are for gambling, but the rest are devoted to arcade games and claw machines.

**Photo courtesy of Robert

Mission accomplished: play DDR in a Japanese arcade
The second floor had a DDR machine. It had a good number of selections from every edition of DDR, I think. Being a creature of habit, I stuck with mostly DDR Max 2 songs: Destiny, I feel..., Dive. And Butterfly. Mochiron. (I couldn't find any Breakdown, which was sad-making. But then I probably wasn't looking hard enough.)

We went up another couple of floors to ze video games. Robert and Gerry played a few rounds of Tekken 6. (I don't know all that much about Tekken, but the stages are pretty impressive.) There was also this MMO-RPG arcade game, Shining Force Cross by Sega. It's very Square-Enix-looking, but not. The new Square-Enix game which was in Wonder Tower's arcade is called Lord of Vermillion II, which is actually a collectible card game. Imagine playing Magic the Gathering on an arcade game.

A little bit before midnight, we finally started heading back towards the subway station. Unbeknownst to our intrepid travelers, the eki closes down at midnight; we arrived just as they were starting to shut things down. Oh crap. Hilarity ensued as we tried walking to another station in the hopes that it was only one closing down. Yes, we were that naive and hopeful. We stared at maps, went in the wrong direction, then the right direction, and eventually flagged down a taxi, only to be embarrassed trying to explain where we wanted him to drop us off. We asked for Daitokuji, a temple only a couple of streets over from the guesthouse, but then he asked us where in particular around the temple grounds. We mumbled for a bit to each other, trying to be more specific. When we mentioned Kitaoji (a nearby street and station), he latched onto it, but then drove us a little past where we needed to be dropped off.We got home...eventually.

We apologize for any inconvenience...

Been having some wireless difficulties the past couple of days at ze guesthouse. It kind of just went out a couple of mornings ago when there was some construction or something going on outside, and we've been having issues reconnecting to it.
I will do my best to write out some entries in Word, or something, and get them posted tonight! (I also thought since I've missed a few days it'd be easier to divide up entries by days. So, there may be a few new posts coming up soon instead of one ginormous one.)

The Very Longest Day, and the morning after

Yesterday was the longest day I think I've ever had, in all senses of the word. Really, it began Thursday morning, after a couple of hours of sleep. I didn't manage to sleep that evening before we drove to the airport at a very ungodly hour the next morning. I don't believe I slept on the flight to Chicago, although I think I might have had a catnap across a couple of seats waiting to board. (Also, Gerry seems to have a hidden radar for finding the slightly broken seats at airports.) The transpacific flight was less than comfortable: the leg room was not terribly roomy, there weren't any little AC fans over our heads, and there was the part about it being a 13-hour flight. We followed the sun going west, so though we jumped ahead a day when we crossed the international date line, we never actually saw night until we landed in Japan. When we arrived in the Tokyo-Narita airport, we all wanted showers--but we still had a bus ride to a different airport, another flight, a train ride, and as it turned out, another bus ride to go.

As it turned out, we flew in on a very blustery day, complete with turbulence, and wooden roller coaster-like descents. This was surprisingly helpful as it ended up delaying our next flight by 40 minutes, which meant we could make it in a reasonable time, considering the 90-minute bus ride between the airports and rechecking luggage. The bus ride itself was a welcome relief from cramped flying--plus we got our first non-bird's eye look at Japan. The landscape is still wintry, scraggly and grey, but here and there we could see sakura and ume trees starting to bloom.

Before our last flight to Osaka, we picked up our first snacks in Japan. I wasn't feeling particularly adventurous, so I ended up buying those little creme-filled Koala cookies you can find at World Market, and Canada Dry ginger ale. The ginger ale here is more gingery, which I suppose isn't a big surprise--still delicious. We also saw soy sauce flavored Kit Kats. In Japan, there are a crazy number of Kit Kat flavors, and the flavors themselves...well, crazy--More on that later.

After our last flight, we took a train to Kyoto Eki, the landmark where I asked my first question to a worker in complete Japanese (whether taking the bus or the
chikatetsu would be cheaper). But once we found the right bus line, the ticket machine confounded us until a nice man who spoke English let us know you pay for your ride on the bus itself. So we hopped it. Then it started to rain.
 Maybe we should have taken a taxi. You always hear the sardines comparison. Now think sardines with luggage.
At our stop with the super-long-name, I made the mistake of putting my coins in the change machine instead of the payment-eater: one of what I am sure will be a long list of embarrassing moments here. At least they expect foreigners to make mistakes.

We finally managed to find the guesthouse after walking for a couple of blocks in the rain, which wasn't too heavy, but eventually made the map I'd printed out harder to read when the ink started running. We thought we were on the wrong street for a moment, but a nice lady who happened to walk down the street pointed out the guesthouse to us. Just about everyone I've interacted here has been very kind and helpful (and polite, of course.) The gentleman who runs the guesthouse is just the same.
The guesthouse is a lovely, quaint little place. The rooms are on the smaller side, but feel more compact than cramped. You leave your shoes just inside the front door, as is traditional. The kitchen is well equipped, and sometimes guests leave a bit of food in the fridge for future guests to finish, like Pino, delicious ice cream bon-bons. The bathrooms, showers, and mirror/sinks are not actually inside the building, although they are under cover--and everything is impeccably clean. The showers, western and Japanese toilets are all enclosed, and the urinal is covered by traditional Japanese door-curtains.
No, I have not been brave enough to try the Japanese-style toilet. I'm afraid of falling in. Besides, the water-efficient western-style toilet is much more amusing. The seat heats up, which feels pretty awesome. I suppose it has this feature because going to the bathroom would be kind of difficult if it was really cold out--it can get drafty. Also, the flush-handle made me lol. On top is the kanji for "big" with an arrow pointing up, and below that is the kanji for "small" pointing downward, so you can flush the toilet and conserve water appropriately.

You have to mind your head going up the steep stairs going to the 2nd floor rooms. I don't know how the manager got my suitcase up those stairs...refusing his help would have been rude though, I think. Our room has a fairly big closet, and 3 futon. The pillows are kind of like bean-bags--not stiff, but they hold shape better than feather pillows.

A little after we put our things in our room, Ben came by, and we talked a bit to a couple of Japanese girls who were visiting the area in the common room (which is outfitted with a tv, computers, internet, and a heater.) We got ourselves cleaned up before going out to eat at a small restaurant. Not many things were open that late, just a bit after midnight. We ordered some familiar dishes, although they were different from what we're used to, as expected. On the way back, we stopped by a convenient store, and bought a few drinks from vending machines along the way. Vending machines are literally on every block, and carry soda, teas, coffee, and juices.

Needless to say, we passed out quickly last night. (Side note: "needless to say" is so weird. You're indicating it is useless to say what you're about to say, but you say what it is that is useless to say anyway and emphasize the uselessness of saying what you said on top of all that. Silly English.)

We woke up fairly early this morning, Ben called a taxi to the guesthouse, which took us to Tokyo Eki. After a a pit stop at Mister Donut, a subway ride and a short walk, we found ourselves at the Koubou-san market/fair at Tou-ji, one of numerous nearby temples. There is absolutely no shortage of temples and shrines in Kyoto. It was a bit foggy and overcast today, so much that the sun in the sky was white--a little eerie.

The Koubou-san market is only held on the 21st of each month, and the vendors sell everything from food, to kimono and yukata, charms and trinkets, traditional crafts, to bonsai. It's not unlike the Marketplace in Charleston, SC, or the gitano's market in Rota, Spain.

This leads me to an observation, or maybe a feeling that Robert and I keep having as we walk about the streets in Kyoto. We aren't so struck by the differences in what we see so much as the similarities. The houses are actually very similar to those you see in Spain: small, with a couple of stories, the upper stories often slightly smaller than those beneath, and many have gardens and trees growing just behind the walls.

The businesses and stations are very Western--no surprise. The shikansen works pretty much exactly like the subway in D.C., down to the ticket-gates and the doors yelling at you to get out of the doorways so they can close. We even walked past a church today that vaguely imitated a Gothic cathedral--without the cathedral part, and with the fancy Gothic elements severely watered down.

Back to the market--I went giddy and had my first mini-shopping spree. I bought a couple of cell-phone charms: a beige glass owl, and a cute little kitsune holding a bead. I also found a several pieces of beautiful ceramic ware, and ended up buying a very wabi-sabi looking vase, and a couple of tea cups with absolutely lovely paintings of rabbits gazing at the moon. I also found beautiful not-quite-geta sandals, and some cute tabi.

After some meandering around the market, we went inside Tou-ji. To the left was a stand for souvenirs, where Ben suggested I get a nokyo-cho, a book which you can take to Japanese temples and collect the signatures and seals to each one you visit.

On the way back from the fair, we walked around Kyoto Eki, up several escalators to the top of the building, back down some stairs, across a couple of skyways, then back down a few escalators and past a wedding. There might have been a couple moments of slight acrophobia and vertigo. The views from the top levels of the station were vast, albeit foggy. Kyoto Tower looks, as Ben says, like a huge cigarette.

After our outing this morning, we rested up a bit...in fact, some of us are still resting upstairs as I write. A few hours ago Robert and I ventured out to find the 7-Elven since we were feeling peckish. We ended up picking up some interesting looking edibles in addition to soba and cup noodles. Robert bought some green tea Kit Kats, which turned out to be pretty tasty. I'm very intrigued by the passionfruit Kit Kats, though I haven't gotten to try it yet. I picked out some apple candy that turned out to be a lot like taffy, a heavenly piece of chocolate (with vanilla creme and a layer of what seemed like strawberry jelly on top, covered in white chocolate), and a cold strawberry pastry-looking desert we haven't tried out yet. Also, check out grape Fanta here.

I think they wanted Tommy Lee Jones for this advertisement because he looks kind of like the guy in their logo. Minus a pipe and a mustache.

Also, Japanese tv is hilarious. The pizza in the Pizza Hut commercial looks entirely gross, the commercials are goofy as all get out, and there was an amusing game show where the teams of contestants had to enter the jump-rope line, answer questions correctly, and keep jumping rope as the rest of their team joined them. Some of the men were completely hopeless at entering the jump-rope without tangling themselves up horribly.

The blusteriness continues outside, the heater is very toasty in the common room, and we have some plans to go see some more fun places tonight.

~

Next time on Dragon Ball Z....Vegeta's STILL powering up!

 

(These little naked guardians that sit outside so many of the homes and shops here are apparently raccoon dogs.)