Kyoto 3 or how to see more in less time.

Today we decided to split up into 2 groups: Rony and himself on one side, Talia and Shanainai on the second. Rony and himself accomplished a lot, despite talking nonstop with each other.
The reason for this is that each group wanted to see/do different things that the other group wasn't fond of. So without further ado, let's hear each group version of their day.

Rony: So I started early in the morning, at 9:00 with the closest temple to our hostel: Sanjusangendo.

That temple uniqueness is the 1001 Buddha statues it contains. Very impressive. I didn't have a camera but it didn't change anything: It was forbidden to take pictures in the temple.
The entrance fee is 600 Yen, but it contains a small museum of the place with its history and culture. Everything was in English, which was very cool.

Talia: That was our first stop as well, except we were there about an hour later. We started out in the common room trying to figure out the order of where we going and which buses we needed to get to each place. Since I am a bit less adventurous than Rony, I preferred to figure out which route we needed to get to each place before we were actually out in the freezing cold.

Like Rony said, the temple is gorgeous. We didn't take pictures inside, but we took a few outside. The temple is actually the longest hall in Japan - and when it's minus a million degrees outside, you feel each and every one of those meters, especially on your freezing toes since we had to remove our shoes.

sanjusangendo

Rony: After Sanjusangendo, I took the bus #100 and went to Kyiomizudera. Or at least I tried. I didn't really find the place, but I saw several Geisha (or models dressed as Geisha) photographed by what seemed like a professional photographer (he had an assistant who directed the lights) and all the tourists passing by were taking pictures too. That was the first time I really regretted not having a camera. I then strolled around Higashiyama, which has beautiful streets and shrines and every corner has a new beauty to reveal.

Talia: Once we were sufficiently frozen, we took a bus to the Nishikikoji Food Market. Rony's all marketed out, and we both love these things, so it was great. We found the place fairly easily (I was really proud of myself for navigating my way through a Japanese town on my own), and saw amazing food items, some familiar and others bizarre (e.g. an octopus ball on a stick). There were many free tastings at many of the booths, but of course my courage has its limits and I only tried the few "safe-looking" foods.

A quail egg is inside the octopus

We were supposed to go to the Nijojo Castle next, but we were having a great time, and since we hadn't seen each other in a really long time, we decided not to rush it and just enjoy hanging out together. We had lunch at a really nice restaurant that left us a bit hungry, but it was delicious, so at least that. :-)

The other side of the market is actually a souvenir-type market, though I didn't actually buy anything. I figure an extra dollar per gift if I purchase in Tokyo before we leave is preferable upon the extra weight that I'd carry for the next 3 weeks.




Rony: At 11:00 I got to the Path of Philosophy which is suppose to be a beautiful path/street. But after 500 meters, I left: maybe it's special when the trees are blooming, but during winter it has nothing special. But I saw some funny people there: One elderly guy came to me and asked me in English where I was from. When I answered, he laughed as if I told him a joke and left. I also saw a woman who was walking her dog and actually being "led" by her poodle and run when it was running. It was quite funny.

At 11:30 I got to Ginkakuji, the Silver Pavilion. It has a nice garden and a walking path. But I'll let Talia tell about it since she was more impressed than I was.

Talia: Our next stop after lunch was the Ginkakuji (we did the Path later). We were both very impressed with the garden, much more so than Rony. It was, in our opinion, absolutely gorgeous, even if it wasn't full of flowers just yet. We climbed to the top of part of it and it started to snow, which was totally awesome for both of us, even though it has been basically snowing almost every day for the past week.


We were also approached all the time by people (in general, Rony and I are randomly stopped on the street and subway and anywhere else there are people to be asked where we're from - it's really funny). We both say Texas and people's eyes light up - it's really funny. I usually also say I live in Israel, and then people get REALLY excited. Sometimes they don't understand immediately, so I have already learned how to pronounce Israel in Japanese, and how to say Hebrew in Japanese, so now people usually understand quickly.

The down side of traveling in the winter is the cold, but the up side is that there are very few tourists, so we both get a lot of attention (though a part of it is because of my strawberry hat), and the best part is that we usually get really great pictures because there is hardly anyone around. Most people's pictures are usually full of other people - ours aren't.

Anyway, Shanainai and I were very proud of ourselves for navigating our way through Kyoto and kept saying to each other (while still there) that we're awesome and great, and so cool - and where's the exit from the temple???


Rony: After a short lunch break, meaning buying something at 7-Eleven and eating on the street, I took bus #102 and went to see Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion. What a beautiful view! The gold there is so bright and the garden so nice. I was really impressed.

Talia: After finding our way out fo the temple, our next stop was the Path of Philosophy. We had the same impression as Rony, that there wasn't really much to it, and we also left the Path about 1/3 of the way through, after taking some philosophy-themed pictures. :-)

Talia on the Path of Philosophy

Rony: It was close to 14:00 now and I had one more sight to see before heading to the Manga Museum: Nijo Castle. I planed only an hour there, but the place is so big and beautiful that I took my time and enjoyed it. That was once again a place I regretted not having a camera. The inside is big and beautiful and the gardens and castle walls are impressive too. I recommend Nijo-jo warmly.

Talia: At this point, we were freezing - it was about 17:00 or 17:30 already. We decided to take advantage of our bus pass (a ride is 220 yen, the pass is 500 yen, so if you use it at least 3 times, you've more than paid for it), and caught a bus (unplanned bus! Go me!!) to our next stop: Kyoto Handicraft Center (for SURE Rony is jealous he wasn't with us here!)

We got off at the stop that seemed most correct for us (it was!) and started walking according to the map. We ended up walking through really cute streets - but none of them had the center we were looking for. Since Japan doesn't have names for each streets - only the main ones - it is very hard to be sure where you are. Anyway, we stopped a cute lady for directions, she started giggling when we talked to her in English, and basically pointed in the direction we needed. We started in that direction, understood what our mistake was, and then saw a European-looking woman, and she was able to explain to us exactly how to get there - we were actually just about 20 feet away.

So we saw the signs for the handicraft center that Shanainai had read about, and it was supposed to be a really cute place with lots of souvenirs and activities. So we went in, and the first floor has nice enough souvenirs, but the expensive kind, and nothing that really excited us. So we decided to go up to the 6th floor and walk our way down.

The 6th floor was pitch black, and the 5th an 4th were a restaurant, so we stopped at the 3rd floor. It was a bit boring, so we went down to the 2nd floor, which also had souvenirs, but crazy priced stuff. We were really disappointed, but at the same time content because we wanted to go there, found the building, and never got lost in town.

Rony: After seeing so much temples and beautiful places, I was ready for my highlight: The Manga Museum. I planned 2-3 hours for that.

But once there, I was disappointed: It's actually a huge library of manga, with little explanations about what manga is, where it comes from, what the symbolic meanings of some drawings in manga are.

I hoped that it would go deep in that culture, but instead it was quite superficial.

I guess I'll have to get my answers elsewhere...

Talia: We left the Kyoto Handicraft Center and turned right to catch the bus when we saw another sign for the Kyoto Handicraft Center. And then we walked into the correct building - the one we were in before was the wrong building. That was fun.

This building, the REAL Kyoto Handicraft Center, was actually everything we hoped it would be. It was fun to browse through so many different cultural artifacts and kimonos and souvenirs - I even bought some really cute gifts for my family (which I can't specify here because my Dad reads this on Saturdays and sometimes my sisters, too). We were happy!

Rony: On my way back to the hostel, I passed Kawaramachi street and noticed another beauty of Kyoto: Under each lantern, there was a display of old photos of random people in different situations. It was actually an exposition of photos by artists I guess, and it was displayed on the street. It was so unexpected and cool. So I made Talia come and see it later and take pictures of it.

The photos are displayed under each street light. See in the top right corner one example

One of the cute photos displayed

Talia: He made me, but I wanted to see it. When we got back to the hostel, about half an hour after Rony, he immediately told us about the amazing day he had. You should have seen his face - it lit up like you wouldn't believe. The best part of the day was listening to him recount his incredible day!

Rony: All in all, I had a great day, saw so many beautiful and special places. I had to rush a bit of course, but I think it was worth it.

Talia: Even though I got a bit sad that I had missed some of the sights that I wanted to see, Shanainai and I had our own perfect day as well. Besides, Rony and I just KNOW we will be back to Japan - we are both entirely too infatuated with the country not to come back - so whatever we miss now, we will see later. It's just a fact.

Tomorrow Hiroshima!

Pics from our last day in Kyoto:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=609678&id=906005363&l=58f908fbaf

Kyoto wonders

After a 2-hour and 40 minute ride on the Shinkansen (bullet train), we arrived in Kyoto. First of all, the train station is huge. It's like a train station and a mall combined, very special. It took us 10 minutes to exit the station and find ourselves in front of Kyoto Tower, a tower that seems like a radio transmission tower in orange and white.

Our backpackers hostel is 10 minutes from the station, but with our backpacks on, it felt like 30. We finally arrived to the hostel, K's Hostel. The people at the desk are very nice and there's also a cafe attached to it, so it's even cooler. But the surprise was that one of the (Japanese!) receptionists started to talk to us in Hebrew! Apparently he was there volunteering for 6 months and he really liked the place. He's even thinking of coming back to study for a year! He's the second Japanese person we met who has lived in Israel and liked it. Funny.

Anyway, it was already 16:00 and we hadn't eaten lunch so we were starving and looked for a place to go. This guy recommended us a Japanese restaurant not far from the hostel that serves udon (soup based noodle dish) and other stuff like that. The service was great (as usual here) and we were ready to visit the city and see the night life around Gion.

We were looking for Geishas and apparently it was the area to find them. The Gion area looks like what Kyoto was like 150 years ago. Small wooden houses, people dressed in traditional Japanese clothes, almost no cars.

Even if the area has mostly expensive restaurants that only business men go to and expensive shops, it's still a beautiful place to walk around and it definitely reminded us that we were not in Tokyo anymore.

Kyoto seemed quite like Tokyo when we exited the train station, but now we see the obvious difference.

We finished with the local "Red light district" where we saw a (drunk) geisha holding a business man on the way to find a taxi. To rest after all the drinking, apparently. She was in full make up and garb - i was very exciting for us.

The next day we started our Kyoto tour by seeing the 2 main highlights of the city (according to Rony): The Bamboo forest in Arashiyama and the Fushimi Inari Shrine with its thousands of orange tori.

First came the Bamboo forest. We took the train to Arashiyama, which cost us nothing since we have the JR Pass. After a 20-minute ride, we arrived at the Saga-Arashiyama station and started to walk toward the bamboo grove, about a 20-minute walk from there.

On the way, Rony decided he wanted to buy mandarines that were for sale on the street. They were just on a stand in front of a house and there was a small box for money deposit. Just like in New Caledonia. So he bought some. After tasting them, we understood why nobody was there: They were sour like lemon and not edible. So we just threw them away. Too bad.

Buying the sour mandarins

The town itself looks like a typical Japanese suburb/small town and we fell in love with it. We totally saw ourselves living in such a place, where everything seems so peaceful and pretty.

Then we arrived at the bamboo forest. What an amazing view! Bamboo trees all around us and above us. With all those trees, it felt like a giant green dome above us, protecting us.

Bamboo grove

In the bamboo forest. Rony still has his mandarins... for now

 On our way back to the train station, we passed by Kameyama Park and Hozu river, which both held beautiful scenery.

Hozu River

Sweet japanese baker

It was now time for Fushimi Inari Shrine, but for that we had to pass through the Kyoto train station. And since we were at the station and it was lunch time, then why not eat? So we passed by a Japanese fast food establishment that looked like this:

If you don't know what it is and wonder what the hell this slot machine is and how it's related to food, then we completely understand you :) This is actually the menu of the restaurant and the machine is a self ordering machine: You enter the amount your dish costs, you select the dish you want, and the machine gives you a ticket that you hand to the cook inside the restaurant. And 25 seconds later, your dish is on the counter ready to eat. Amazing, cool, awesome! Not to mention delicious!

 While we were wondering what we're going to eat, and trying to figure out the different dishes, a nice Japanese guy came out of the restaurant for help. He was very nice and helpful, and started to talk to Shanainai about Kyoto and other stuff while Rony and Talia went to eat. But after 30 minutes it started to be a bit long and Talia came to the rescue and Shanainai could finally eat.

In our defense, Talia went to check on Shanainai several times and see if she needed help, but the answer was always no. We're guessing that the guy just wanted to practice his English and found a perfect occasion to do so. Usually when Japanese people come to us to talk in English, it's just to ask where we're from. But this time it was different.

We finally got to Fushimi Inari Shrine and it met all our expectations - and even exceeded them: Everything was orange (Rony's favorite color) from the giant tori at the entrance to the temples, to the shops, fences, stalls.

And that was only the beginning: We started to climb the mountain behind the temple and pass through the infinite number of orange tori. It was exactly as we saw it in pictures:

Rony climbed and ran all around with a big smile on his face and Talia took an endless number of photos. Really a unique experience. It's a good thing we have an 8 GB memory card!

The Fushimi Inari Taisha (shrine) is dedicated to the god Inari and Inari is also the name of the mountain where the shrine is located. Inari is the shinto god of fertility, agriculture and rice and it is symbolized by a fox. So we saw many statues of foxes there.

By the time we left and got back to the hostel, it was 16:00 and all the other places we wanted to go were already closed. So we decided to do some shopping and to get rid of a few kilos off our backpacks and send them back home. They will probably arrive 2 months after we get home, but it's OK. 6.6 kilos less is quite significant if you don't carry them for a month. :)

This time we decided to eat at the hostel, and we had some salad we bought at the 7-Eleven and called it a day. We were still tired from the day before and we decided to rest.

Since we didn't see half of the places we wanted to, we decided that the next day Rony would go on his own, at his own pace and see the places he wanted to see the most, and Talia and Shanainai would go see their preferred places.

But that's for another post :)

Pics from Kyoto: 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=608314&id=906005363&l=7dd6ec49d7