We had a wonderful opportunity to travel to both China and Japan this winter. We spent 10 days in Japan, splitting our time between Kyoto and Tokyo with a day trip to Nagano. To summarize the trip: In Kyoto, we learned about older Japanese culture and traditions as well as Japanese history. In Tokyo, we learned about what modern Japanese culture is like. They were both interesting and nice cities but for very different reasons. I think it's important to learn about things both new and old, and Kyoto and Tokyo are the perfect embodiment of new and old in terms of Japanese culture. Also, be aware that things in Japan are not cheap. It would probably be comparable for someone coming from the US, but I guess Gianni and I have been spoiled with how cheap things are in Korea and were in China. One thing that will be easy for you if you're coming from North America, they use the same outlets and plugs in Japan--very helpful for us since we didn't have an adapter. All the pictures from the trip have been posted on flickr, so check those out. But for now, get ready for another series of posts about our Japanese vacation.
We flew from Busan, which is closer to us than Seoul, to Osaka. Our flight was in the afternoon, so we didn't have to get up early or anything. Osaka is fairly close to Kyoto. Prior to going to Japan, we bought JR passes to get us around Japan for one flat rate. There are tons of JR lines, and you can basically go anywhere with the pass. It is a bit expensive, but it was definitely worth it to use there. The passes only lasted for 7 of the 10 days, so we activated the passes right at Osaka airport before heading to Kyoto. In hindsight, it might have been better to activate the passes later to use for the entire time we were in Tokyo since there are a lot of JR lines there that we could have used to get around the city. If you are thinking of coming to Japan and getting JR passes, just know that they are only worth it if you plan to take day trips to see different parts of the country. It was worth it for us because we used them to get to Kyoto, Tokyo, and Nagano as well as within Tokyo and Kyoto on the JR lines. Be aware that Kyoto only has a few JR lines, which won't help much to get around the city, so they will be more useful in Tokyo.
We got to Kyoto in the evening, so we really didn't have time to do anything but eat dinner once we found our Air BNB accommodation, which was in the northern part of Kyoto about a 30 minute bus ride away from Kyoto Station. The guesthouse is in a nice residential neighborhood that seemed very safe to us. The only downside was that there is a railroad track running right by the place, so there are many times throughout the night and early morning that the railroad track barriers will be lowered and a dinging sound goes off. The train doesn't run all the time though, so it wasn't too terrible. The line is actually a privately run train line for the city, and there is this adorable one-car train that goes by frequently. There aren't that many stops on the line, and I don't think it's a very popular line to take since the trains are only one car. We took it once, and it was pretty cute. We dropped our things in our room, which was freezing cold. Our hosts were not actually home during our stay, so it took us a few days to get that fixed. Something we noticed first at our guesthouse and later at other places we stayed: most Japanese bathrooms have separate toilet room and shower room. And the shower room has a below-ground tub because Japanese people usually sit on a stool when they shower. You're supposed to sit in the little tub and shower. Also, the toilets usually have a little sink behind them, so they the sink will automatically start to run when you flush the toilet. The best parts about the bathroom/water situation in Japan is that you can drink the tap water AND flush toilet paper down the toilet! These are two things you aren't supposed to do in Korea, we're told, because of old piping. Since China has the same system as Korea, I just assumed Japan would be the same. We were pleasantly surprised to find this difference. Gianni and I weren't feeling too adventurous after a lot of travelling, so we just picked up something to eat from the nearby convenience store.
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| The Silver Pavilion and Garden |
For our first day in Kyoto, we planned on taking a long walk to see a lot of the major sites in the eastern part of the city. It was a nice way to see and get acclimated to Kyoto. The first place, Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion) was within walking distance from our guesthouse. Ginkakuji Temple is a small Zen Buddhist temple (that you can't actually go into) built in the 1480's. Like a lot of the temples and shrines in Kyoto, many were built as homes for wealthy families or individuals and became temples or shrines after their death(s). The temple building is surrounded by a lovely little garden. The garden has a small pond, a zen rock garden, and a moss garden. I had never really seen a moss garden before, and it was nice to be able to see at least some green even when there were no flowers in bloom. I'm sure all the gardens we visited in Japan would look a lot nicer in the Spring, but it gave me a better appreciation for the all-season trees, moss, and bushes. There was no lack of green in these gardens. Our walk continued along what is called Philosopher's Path. In the spring, the Path along a little stream is lined with cherry blossoms. It takes about 30 minutes to walk the entire path, which we did, and there are several temples and shrines along it.
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| Ceiling painting at Nanzenji Temple |
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| Nanzenji Temple |
We learned quite quickly in Kyoto that you can hardly walk 5 minutes without getting to another shrine or temple. They are just all over the place, and it would be impossible to visit them all (plus, I don't think you'd really want to). The next temple we visited was another Zen Buddhist temple called Nanzenji. The Emperor established the temple in 1291, but the buildings have burned down several times throughout history, like many of the buildings in Japan. There's a large gate at Nanzenji with large, wooden columns holding it up. The main building of the temple had some very beautiful gold ceiling paint of dragons. Behind Nanzenji there is an active aqueduct made of brick that was fun to walk along the top of for a while.
After walking around the temple and its garden for a while, we needed to get some lunch. We stopped at a place right near the temple that had traditional Japanese food. It turns out that the woman who runs the restaurant is actually learning to speak English at the community center because she gets so many English-speaking visitors due to her proximity to a major tourist site. She was really very good at it already. Gianni and I were astounded by the fact that so many people, even older people, spoke English. The older people in Korea generally can't speak any English at all. The Japanese people are so friendly, and many older people offered, in English, to help us when we were lost. It was very impressive, and it made getting around in Japan much simpler than when we were in China. For lunch I had a rice and egg dish that I had never had before, but it was quite delicious.
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| Heian Jingu Shrine Garden |
The Philosopher's Path basically ends at Nanzenji, and the restaurant owner gave us directions to our next stop after lunch: Heian Jingu Shrine. Heian Jingu Shrine is a Shinto Shrine. The shrine buildings were all covered in white and orange paint. The main building of the shrine itself was closed, but you can see part of it from an outer building. The Shrine was built in 1895, and it was meant to be a recreation of the Heian Palace to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the establishment of Kyoto (then called Heian-kyo). It was later turned into a shrine. That being said, a lot of the buildings have really elegant and Palace-style roofs and details. The best part of Heian Shrine is the large garden behind it. You have to pay to get in, and we were a bit worried because the flowers are not in bloom. I'm sure it would have been even more beautiful in spring, but you can still appreciate the pond, fish, and some trees in the winter. Gianni and I enjoyed walking peacefully in the more forested area and by the ponds and seeing the covered bridge near the exit.
It was a temples and shrines day because the next stop on our long walk was Chion-in Temple.
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| Yasaka Shrine |
Chion-in is a large temple with a lot of different buildings. We thought the temple was small, but there is a long staircase leading up to yet another set of buildings. I think it was at that temple that we saw our first Japanese monk. Usually, the monks are all around the temple, but we didn't notice very many at all in Japan. I guess Chion-in is a big enough temple that some monks have space to live there. The temple was first built in 1234 and rebuilt after a fire in the mid-1600's.
The last religious place of the day was Yasaka Shrine. Yasaka is another Shinto shrine, so it was orange and white painted. There are several main buildings where people can pray to the Gods, but there are also several smaller shrines dedicated to individual Gods. Yasaka has received a lot of support from the government, including Imperial patronage. Construction began on it in 656.
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| Meiko performance |
Yasaka Shrine is located in the heart of the Gion district of Kyoto. Gion is a very traditional area of the city where you can see the old-style of Japanese houses and shops. If you're lucky, you can also see a real Geisha in the evening. Geishas dance and serve wealthy businessmen at restaurants in that area. There are also a lot of places there where you can be made up to look like a geisha, so there are fake ones walking around too. We spent some time walking around Gion a bit before heading to a place called Gion Corner to see a performance of several varieties of Japanese traditional arts. It was a little bit expensive, but you are able to see several performances and experience a kind of condensed
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| Comedy performance |
Japanese culture. I was the first person with my hand in the air to take part in the tea ceremony, so I got to drink special green tea made in a traditional and specific way by a tea master. It was yummy and very concentrated. In Japan, they tend to use powdered green teas that have a stronger flavor. During the tea ceremony, there were people on stage doing flower arrangements and playing traditional Japanese instruments. Following that, we saw a gagaku performance. Gagaku is Japanese Imperial court music and dancing. Next, we laughed while watching a traditional comedy show called Kyogen. In the portion of the Kyogen that we watched, the main actors were a landlord and two of his
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| court dancing performer |
workers. The landlord has to go out, but he is worried about his workers stealing his sake, so he ties them up. Unfortunately for him, they find a way to still drink the sake despite the ropes. Their landlord finds them drunk and all the sake gone when he returns. The last performance of the show was the one we were most excited to see: the Kyo-mai dance performed by real Meikos. Meikos are Geishas in training. They did a few lovely dances, and we were even able to take a picture with them afterwards (because the originally-scheduled Japanese puppet show had to be cancelled that night). Even though it was a show completely for foreigners, I'm not sure where else we would have been able to experience all of those different aspects of Japanese art and culture. We had a nice time.
Visiting as many temples and shrines as we did in Japan, we, again, came to notice the differences between the forms of Buddhism around Asia. In Japan, there seems to be many different sects of Buddhism. The temples are much more simple even than they are in Korea. Typically, the buildings are just dark wood with some white or gold paint detailing. They are very beautiful, but much more natural and less intricate. The roofs of a lot of the buildings are rounded as well. As previously mentioned, many of the shrines and temples started as homes for wealthy people and were converted later. At many of the temples and shrines, there was a definite feeling that you could just be in a traditional Japanese home. There weren't even many Buddha statues around, in some cases. I think the lack of Buddhist statues has to do with the fact that Buddhist and Japan's ancient religion, Shintoism, are combined quite a bit. There are Shinto temples and Buddhist ones, but in most cases it is hard to tell the difference between them. In Shinto temples, followers pray by clapping their hands. I also think that a lot of the wishing and fortune-telling that goes on at all the temples in Japan comes from Shintoism. People will write their wishes on a wooden plaque called and Ema and hang it at the temple, hoping that it will come true. Also, there are people at the temples who will write your wishes out for you. There are even fortune boxes where you pick out a piece of paper and read what your fortune is. Shintoism has many Gods and was the native religion in Japan whereas Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the 6th Century. There are still many people who practice Shintoism today. One notable different between Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples is that Shinto shrines are generally painted orange and white and feature large Torii gates. I believe this is another shinto practice, but followers will wish for something and then ring a small gong using a large, tassled rope to wake up the God and have them hear your wish. Another note about shrines and temples in Japan: you don't need to pay to get into shrines, typically, because they are supported by the government in some way. You do, on the other hand, need to pay to get into most temples. I'm not sure if this is a Buddhist or Shinto practice, but most of the shrines and temples we visited hung up a lot of lanterns. They were pretty simple and made of paper with black writing on them. I thought I would see more of this kind of thing in China, but the lanterns are more popular in Japan I guess.
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| Carvings and Detail work at Nijo Castle |
All the walking on the first day made our feet hurt, so on the second day, we took the bus and subways a few times. We decided to visit a few more places that were relatively close to our guesthouse. Our first stop was the Kyoto Imperial Palace to get our "permission slips." You need special permission to enter the Imperial Palace, and even then, you can only enter with a tour. To get the passes, you need to visit the nearby office and show them your passports. It doesn't cost anything to get in and tour it though, which was great. The next English tour was at 2pm, so we decided to go see another nearby site first. Nijo Castle was completed in 1626. It was built as the home of the Shogun. History to follow is what Gianni remembers from his Japanese history class: The military in Japan was completely made up of hired samurais at one point. The shogun was the person who controlled the majority of the samurais, so he was basically a military leader. Because he had the strength of the military behind him, the shogun came to possess even more power than the Emperors during the shogunate period from 1192-1867. Eventually, the samurais were replaced with a Japanese army, which the US helped with in some way. When this happened, the shoguns lost their power and gave control of the country back to the Emperor in 1867. Today, there is still an Emperor, but he, obviously, does not have governmental control of the country. Gianni was kind enough to explain this to me as my education lacked a bit in the Asian history department. The entire complex is called Nijo Castle, but the main building is Ninomaru Palace. The exterior of Ninomaru Palace has lovely gold detailing and wood carvings. The interior has rooms with traditional Japanese paintings on the sliding doors and walls of each room. We spent as much time as we could walking around the Castle, grabbed some quick lunch, and headed back to the Imperial Palace.
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| Imperial Palace Enthroning Main Hall |
It was very interesting to see where the Emperor (the leader in only name) lived after having seen where the Shogun (the leader in all but name) lived. Obviously, the Imperial Palace was grander and larger. There is an Imperial Palace in Kyoto because Kyoto was actually the capital of Japan from 794 to 1869. At the time of the move, Kyoto was called the capital of peace.We arrived for our 2pm tour, and the tour group was fairly large. The guide spoke very good English. I was actually very happy to get a tour of the place because otherwise I wouldn't have understood the significance of everything. Sometimes I think touring a place with a guide teaches you a lot more than just reading information on panels in a museum or something. The tour was only an hour long, but I feel like I learned a lot. The Imperial Palace was the Emperor's home for 477 years. There are 6 gates at the palace, and each is meant for a specific person or persons, like Emperor, Empress, nobles, etc. The buildings of the Palace all face south because the Emperor should sit facing south as well. South is a lucky direction whereas the north-east is very unlucky, according to Chinese feng shui. There are separate areas of the Palace for residential and official purposes. The Emperor had a complex of 15 rooms to live in, and there are corridors between all of them because the Emperor was almost never supposed to put his feet on the actual ground. Gold, white, and brown are the main paint colors for important buildings in Japan. The Palace has buildings of all different architectural styles because the Palace, being built only of wood, has been burned down several times, and buildings in a newer style to go up in their place. The last rebuild of the Palace occurred 160 years ago. Traditional Japanese homes and even the Imperial Palace itself seems to be sparsely furnished. People tend to sit on the floor, so the most common
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| The tiger waiting room at the Imperial Palace |
furniture is really only woven floor mats and low tables. It is also interesting to me that wall paintings and sliding door paintings are the traditional form of painting in Japan. In China, they painted on scroll-like papers to be hung on walls, but in Japan they painted directly on the walls. I am always interested to see these little cultural differences. There is one building of the Palace that served as a waiting area for people coming to see the Emperor. It is divided into three sections: tiger room, crane room, and cherry blossom room. Each room features beautiful wall paintings to indicate which room it is. The highest nobles would wait in the tiger room, the lower ones in the crane room, and the commoners would wait in the cherry blossom room. The golden detailing on the roofs of the Imperial Palace are actually gold plated. The main building of the Imperial Palace has a bed of white stones outside of it. The white stones are meant to be pure and clean. That building is where the Emperors were traditionally enthroned, and three Emperors have been enthroned in the current version of the main building. At several shrines and temples and at the Imperial Palace, I noticed a flower motif on the wall tiling and, in some cases, a 3D flower on the corner of the wall tiling. That flower is actually a chrysanthemum with 16 petals and is the Imperial seal. A lot of the important buildings at the sites we visited, including the Imperial Palace, had these thick, wooden roofs. At the Imperial Palace, we got to see how the roof is put together. It is made of about 60 layers of cypress wood and held in place with handmade bamboo nails. The bark is striped from the tree, but cypress trees are not damaged by this because they can reproduce their bark over 10 years. Cypress bark is used because it is water resistant and doesn't even need to be treated before being used as the roofing material. Only the Emperor is allowed to have a roof like this, but temples and other important figures had to ask permission to have one as well. When we were looking at the royal residences, the tour guide started talking to us about heating the Palace buildings. In the summer, the buildings can be easily opened up to get air as most of the walls are sliding. But in the winter, it was very hard to heat the buildings. She said that the textile industry actually developed in Kyoto to provide the Japanese court ladies with enough kimonos to layer in the winter to keep warm. Sometimes they would layer about 12 kimonos! Lastly, all the Palace buildings can be disassembled and reassembled fairly easily. Many of the buildings were taken down during World War II and never reassembled. Sorry that was just a random assortment of facts about the Imperial Palace, but those were the things I found interesting enough to write down.
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| Kiyomizudera Temple |
After the tour, we took the Kyoto metro to the area in the center of the city where the Manga Museum and the Museum of Kyoto are located. Unfortunately, I didn't look up their operating hours, so both were closed on that day. It was a major bummer since we had a set itinerary and needed to get through some things in order to see all that I wanted to see. Instead, we found some internet, and Gianni and I tried to find something we could tick off the list and go see since it was getting later by that time. We settled on an amazing temple called Kiyomizu-dera. The temple is built on top of a pretty steep hill, but the street leading up to it is lined with souvenir shops, so at least you can stop and take a look. The temple
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| View of Kyoto from Kiyomizudera Temple |
offers gorgeous views of Kyoto. The temple buildings were built in 1633. The main temple building is held up with large, round stilts, but there is not a single nail in the structure. Instead, slots in the wood are cut out and the other pieces are inserted. This fact was verified with wikipedia, but you can see it for yourself by looking at the columns at the base of the building. Even though it is technically a Buddhist temple, there are still a lot of Ema (wish plaques) and fortune-telling, so I think Kiyomizu-dera is a good example of the fusion of Shinto and Buddhist practices.
Gianni had a craving for ramen for dinner, and we had seen one the night before in the area we were staying, so we decided to check it out. It turns out there are a lot of restaurants in Japan where you have to use the vending machine at the front to select what you want to eat and pay for it. The machine prints a ticket, which you give to the waiter or waitress, and they bring the food for you. We had to have help because the machines are only in Japanese, and we never knew exactly what we were getting when we ordered with them, but it turned out fine. I guess the vending machines force people to decide what they want faster and saves on the cost of printed menus...? Our first ramen meal in Japan was pretty delicious. Way better than the ones at convenience stores. In Japan, they actually put things in the ramen, like egg and veggies, instead of just giving you a little flavor packet.
On our third day, we were going to areas away from the subway but connected through bus lines. There was conflicting information online, but we decided to go out on a limb and try to Kyoto city bus day pass. If you take the bus more than twice in Kyoto, it is worth it to buy the bus day pass. The day pass gets you on any of the buses in the city, including the private lines. We didn't realize before coming just how many bus and subway lines are not actually run by the city. There are special tourist buses and some other special buses that only run in certain areas. But the day pass let us get around to all the different parts of the city, which seems to be a new thing since some of the info online was outdated and confused us. Anyway, it was well worth it to get the day pass that day. We road the bus everywhere and got our money's worth. One of the first things we noticed in Japan was that they drive on the other side of the road, which I didn't know before this trip. It made it a little difficult getting buses on our third day because I kept trying to go on the wrong side of the road to get buses in the right direction.At most bus stops in Kyoto, there was an analog sign that told you how far away the bus stop. There were 4 little discs that would turn over when the bus reached another stop or when it was approaching your stop. It was kind of cute and funny not to have a digital sign that told you the exact number of minutes like we have in Korea. On the buses in Kyoto (we didn't take any in Tokyo), you have to enter the bus from the back and pay when you get off at the front. It's a little inefficient though because the bus driver has to give change in some cases or issue day passes in others. It slows things down. The buses and subways were all great about speaking English. Although, the English voice was this creepy robot that sounded like GLaDos from the Portal video game. The voice also kept cracking like a pubescent boy. It was hilarious to listen to. The bus drivers are really nice though. They talk over these little microphones they have on their heads, and they actually wait for people to get on and sit down before moving the bus! That is a huge difference from Korean bus drivers who could give two craps about the little old lady trying to find a seat. We've seen several people fall down because of Korean drivers, so it was nice to see the Japanese drivers wait for a few more seconds.
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| Golden Pavilion |
Sorry for my tangent into the workings of Kyoto's bus system. Back to the events of the third day in Kyoto. We started by going to the north west of the city to visit Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion). The Golden Pavilion is a must-see stop for anyone visiting Kyoto. It is a beautiful golden structure right on the side of a pond. You can see the Buddha statue inside the building. The area around the actual Golden Pavilion has a few smaller, old buildings, like an old tea house. The gardens around the Golden Pavilion were nice, but I, honestly, liked the gardens at the Silver Pavilion better. The Golden Pavilion was a more impressive structure, but the Silver Pavilion gardens were better.
After the Golden Pavilion, we headed to the nearby Ryoaniji Rock Garden. The rock garden is
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| Ryoanji Rock Garden |
considered one of the finest surviving examples of dry landscaping in the traditional style of Japanese Zen landscaping. The temple with the rock garden was the estate of a prominent family in the 11th century. It is unclear, but most people believe the rock garden was created in the 15th century. They are also unsure of the meaning of it. When I heard about the rock garden, I kind of thought it would be bigger...like a full garden. The rock garden at ryoanji is actually quite small and only takes up about a courtyard inside the main temple area. Still, it was interesting to see a traditional rock garden. The pond near the temple was also quite pretty.
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| bamboo garden Tenkyuji Temple |
For our next stop, we had to go a bit further west on the bus to the
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| Tenryuji Temple Garden |
area of Kyoto known as Arashiyama. We had a few stops to make there, and the first was Tenryuji Temple. The temple was founded in 1339. We didn't actually go into it though, since you had to pay a separate price to go into the temple and its garden. We decided to just pay to see the garden since that is supposed to be the main highlight of the temple. It was a beautiful and quite large garden. There was a pond, mossy area, all different kinds of plants (we caught one early bloomer), and a bamboo forest at the back. There was also a small hill that gave you a nice view of the temple with
mountains in the background. If you exit out the back entrance of the garden, you will be right at the entrance for the bamboo tunnel. You can walk on a pathway through the bamboo to other temples behind. We walked through and back without stopping. That much bamboo in one place was really cool to see.We grabbed some street food to eat as we walked just down the road to Togetsukyo Bridge. The river the bridge crosses has a different name on either side of the bridge. On the west of the bridge, it is the Hozu River, and on the east, it is the Katsura River. After a brief photo op at the bridge, we got some lunch at a place on the main road in Arashiyama. I believe I had toncasu (not sure how to spell that, but it's fried pork cutlet with sauce, and they have it in Korea too).
After lunch, we headed to the Handicrafts Gallery that I had heard about. Too bad I didn't find it early, because it was right near the area we were in one the first day. It's just a place where they have a lot of Japanese crafts and souvenirs all in one place. We looked around for a bit, and I bought a few things, but we had a time deadline for the next activity. Gianni and I had heard about a shop that sells handmade chopsticks, and Gianni had his heart set on going there to get some for our collection (we have brass ones from Korea and jade one from China). We pinpointed the place on a map and had to get there before it closed at 5pm. We thought it was in the area near Kodaji Temple close to where we were on the first day. The area around the temple is another one like Gion, very traditional-looking streets lined with souvenir shops. We got there and searched around for a while trying to find it on the small alley street it was supposed to be on. After a conversation with another shop owner on the street, I discerned that the shop had actually moved to the area we had just been, Arashiyama! It was a bit disappointing, but we couldn't go back and find it at that point. We walked along the old streets for a little while instead.
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| Me dressed as a Geisha |
The previous night, I had done a little research about something I really wanted to do while we were in Kyoto: get a Geisha makeover. I found a place online and put in a reservation request very late in the evening, so I wasn't sure they would get it. I knew it was in the same area of the temple, and we stumbled on it as we were walking around. I went in to check, and the reservation had been accepted, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity. It costs about $50 to do, but it is so fun. The package I did came with a full makeover, including makeup, a wig, and beautiful kimono. I would also get six 4x6 printed pictures taken in their photo studio on a plain white background. I decided to pay just a bit extra and get one photo taken in a traditional Japanese-style room. You have to also buy a pair of the Japanese socks that are like mittens for your feet; only the big toe is separated. I made Gianni go browse the street for an hour while I got made up. You also get 10 minutes of photo time with your own camera, so he had to make it back to get some shots of me. First, you change into the robe they give you. Next, they apply all the makeup, which didn't take as long as I thought it would considering they have to paint your whole face white. They leave the back of your neck unpainted though because only Geishas are allowed to have their whole neck's painted. The back of the neck unpainted is the mark of a Meiko or Geisha-in-training. The makeup also wasn't as stiff as I thought it would be. It only really felt heavy on my eyes. It was hard to open them the whole way at first. After that, they put your hair in a hair net and attach the wig to your head. These people are serious professionals who do this all day; Getting the makeup and wig on is super simple and fast. It was totally weird having dark black hair on my head for the first time ever. Not to mention how large and heavy it was because of all the decoration on it. They just told me not to move my head too much. After that, I got to choose from one of the many kimonos they had, all with different patterns and in different colors. They were all gorgeous, but I settled on a maroon and blue one. Your helper lady brings the kimono into the changing room and helps you put it on. They are one-size fits all, so they use a ton of these little ropes to put it on you and make sure it fits right. Again, these ladies have done this so many times it's a piece of cake to them. First they tie on the kimono, then they add a piece around your neck to make the kimono lay right, then they give you an obi, which is the sash around your waist. There's a special part of the obi that they add in the back to make it pop out. They tie you into every piece somehow, but it's like wearing a Japanese corset...although maybe a bit more comfortable. You can't really bend or spread your legs too much. Before they started photographing me, the lady went and grabbed Gianni. His first instinct upon seeing me was to laugh because he could hardly even recognize me! They did a short photo shoot inside the white room, giving me different props and telling me how to turn my head and pose. Then, we went into the traditional Japanese room where she took more pictures while I kneeled on the floor. Gianni and I then took some silly pictures for my 10 minute free time outside. It was getting a little dark. I might need to fix those pictures a little bit, but they are still good. The ladies that work at the shop were kind enough to help me remove the makeup from everywhere except my face since I had "no friends" to help me. The makeup came off easily enough with baby oil and tissues, but I must have used a whole pack of tissues. The locker room has everything you need though. They gave me my prints right when I was leaving, and I think they turned out pretty well. It was a fun experience I think was worth paying for.
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| Our ryokan room for the night |
After my fun time as a Geisha, Gianni and I had to head back to
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| Gianni in his "yukaka" |
our guesthouse and grab our bags because we were about to have another traditional Japanese experience. I booked us for one night in a ryokan, a traditional accommodation. Ryokans have tatami (woven floor mats) and futon floor mats to sleep on. We also had a low table and cushions to sit on around the table. You have to move the table when you lay out the beds. We got free green tea and a few Japanese rice cakes filled with bean paste. The best part was taking pictures with Gianni in our yukata robes, provided to us with the room. Yukata are similar to kimonos but more casual. We could wear it wherever we wanted in the hotel. Staying in a ryokan was really fun, but a little bit expensive. I am happy we only stayed one night, but it was nice to have the first-hand cultural experience.
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| Torii Gates at Fushimi Inari Shrine |
In the morning, we took our things and left them in a locker at Kyoto Station. I was stupid and left something in the bags, so we had to pay for the locker twice. It was raining pretty heavily on our last day, so I had to wear my incredibly geeky poncho. At least it keeps my bag and camera dry. Gianni had to hold the umbrella over me as I took pictures. We took the JR line from Kyoto station to Fushimi Inari Shrine. The Shinto shrine is dedicated to the God of rice, and the God's messengers are foxes, so there are all kinds of fox statues around. This shrine is also famous for the many torii gates, leading up a mountain. Each gate along the pathway of gates is bright orange and donated by a wealthy person in hopes of doing well in his or her business. They are really cool, and it's a very popular path to walk along.
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| Manga Museum build in an old school |
Gianni felt we couldn't miss the Manga Museum, and I'm glad he pushed us to go on our last day when it was open. It is worth a visit even if you don't particularly like manga. For those of your who don't know, manga are Japanese comic books. The museum was free the day we visited because there was an exhibit of works by graduate students at the university that helped found the museum, Kyoto Seika University. The Manga Museum has the largest collection of Manga in the world, and it is a place where students of manga can do research. The museum is housed in an old school, and they've preserved the school's structure. There are pictures of the school in one part of the museum, and it was really interesting to see how the use of the space has changed. The graduate students' exhibit had a lot of free post cards you could take with pictures of their work on it, so I collected a bunch. It's really incredible to see the variety in the work. The museum has just walls and walls of manga comic books to read, you could sit there all day. I, stupidly, didn't realize that reading from right to left in Japanese also meant they read from back to front of a book. The binding is in the same place in a book in Japan, but I kept turning over the books because they looked like they were upside down. Gianni corrected me, but I just couldn't get used to looking at something "backwards." I think it would take a while for me, as an English-speaker, to get used to reading a book that way if I knew Japanese. Pretty interesting though. We also got to see a comic reading of a manga in the reading room at the museum. The guy doing it had a big personality and kept making jokes. He used some English, but there were English subtitles on the manga. He had a box that he kept removing panels from. Each panel was a picture with words underneath in English while he spoke the words in Japanese.
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| cool lanterns at a temple near Nishiki Market |
Our last stop before heading to Tokyo was Nishiki Market, a food market near the Manga Museum.
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| Nishiki Market |
The market is covered over and is about six blocks long. You can buy so many different kinds of food there, most of which I could not identify. Gianni and I ate some tokkoyakki. He'd had it before, but I had never. It's octopus tentacles inside fried batter balls with sauce on top. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I still don't like tentacles no matter how they are presented to me. We got some other snack-type foods to eat as we browsed the other stores and shops. Some of them were clearly catering to Japanese people buying fresh food to cook while others were souvenir shops. After our unfortunate incident of not buying chopsticks, I looked up where to buy chopsticks the night before. I found a shop in Nishiki Market that people said were good. We stopped in and picked up a nice pair of bamboo chopsticks and a bamboo chopsticks holder to go with it. We have completed the chopstick trifecta. Behind Nishiki Market is another outdoor shopping area for clothes and all kinds of junk, so we spent some time looking around there too.
We left Kyoto at 3:30pm, and I feel good about all that we saw while we were there. I think we saw a good deal of the city and got to experience traditional Japanese culture. Kyoto is a great city with a completely different vibe than Tokyo.
