Kyoto! (Continued)

After paying the entrance fee, we walked along the gravel path, past some Japanese-y looking structures, such as a bell tower, what seemed to be a smaller temple, and very clean gardens, and then finally, we came upon a lake, and near the end of the lake sat the Golden Temple. Of course, there were hordes of tourists on the shore taking their pictures. Travelling as a solo tourist, I soon became easy fodder for those wanting to get their pictures taken, and most of the people, actually all of the people that asked me to do it where Japanese. I explained to them that I couldn’t speak Japanese, but I could click the shutter and count down 1-2-3 if that’s all they wanted.




I like this guy. Oh yeah, looking pretty gangsta there right in front of the Kinkakuji. Again, I was pretty late in taking this pic, his expression was way more exaggerated a few secs ago.




Heh, I saw this lady near the exit, where she was looking forlornly at her empty wallet. She wasn’t moving at all, so I took a pic. :D As Mimay would say, “Wawa naman sha”.









There was more things to see along the path, more mini-temples, shrines, immaculate gardens, overpriced souvenir shops, you know the rest. So on to the next temple!




After consulting the trusty bus map, I decided that the most accessible one would be Ginkakuji temple. When I got there, there was a long street going up a hill leading to the temple’s entrance. This street was lined with food shops, (which I took lots of free samples from, mochi is too good) and again, overpriced souvenir shops. A lot of them. And of course, the street was packed with tourists. i.e the pic above.

And at the top, there was a large tent set up where a huge crowd of people where writing something on these pieces of wood, and then where handing them to the people in the tent. I’m guessing it was for the Bon Festival, where they burn the wooden pieces in the shape of a giant character “Ten”, so big that it is visible from the township. Great timing that they do it on the night of Aug 16, and yet I was scheduled to leave Kyoto on the morning of Aug 16.

So anyway, this temple was a bit different than the first, it also had a sand sculpture, with a cylindrical shape surrounded by what seemed to be a lateral pattern. I later found out that this was to represent Mt. Fuji and the surrounding Lake Ashi. (I think. Or so they say).

Connecting from the Ginkakuji Temple, is the Path of Philosophy, where it was said that a philosopher (can't remember his name) once trod so that he could think/philosophize. Naturally, I would need to walk this path. Little did I know, that it wasn’t so easy, as it took 40 minutes to walk along, in the sweltering 38 degree heat. Maybe the lack of tourists should’ve been a sign, as no one in their right mind would willingly walk this path. Sure I did meet the odd tourist on the way or following me, but not the mass rush you found on the street leading to the Ginkakuji temple. Rightly placed along the path where vending machines, where I had to buy water/pocari sweat/aquarius (the latter two being forms of Japanese Gatorade, that happen to be quite tasty and refreshing) along the way.

The path happened to be alongside a canal, and being Filipino, there were several things that I found wrong about this.




The lack of garbage, squatters, makeshift houses built along the banks, etc was quite disconcerting. Also the fact that the water was crystal clear was quite disturbing. And to top this all off, you could smell absolutely nothing, no reek of rotten garbage, pollution, none of it. Very unsettling.






At the end, I’m not even sure if I reached the Nyakuoji Shrine, but there was a shrine that I reached, and pictures of this would suffice.

I thought I should do more exploring, but then I saw the path that lead to another part of the shrine area, and found that it was more steps/hillside/uphill climbing.




Screw that, I’m all templed out, it was now mid afternoon, the sandwich I had eaten from 7-11 this morning had now been digested and used, and it was time to find the ramen place mentioned in the Lonely Planet book. I took the bus to the Gion area, and while reading the book, it mentioned several good ramen places that were in the Ginkakuji area. Great. So trying to make the best of things, I wander down the alley which the book says it is in (I think) yet somehow I am not able to find it. No surprise there. Half the things that I tried to look for that are mentioned in the book I never find. Anyway, I keep wandering down the alleyway, which looks like your typical crowded Asian alleyway with neon signs and whatnot, till I come to the near end of it, where there are several shops/restaurants with traditional Japanese designs, and one that even displays an English menu on the outside! Okonomiyaki? Wahey, let’s give this a go.




So I duck inside, take off my shoes, and inside I find three sweating white people, presumably waiting for their seats, sitting on the floor in the tiny waiting area. The waiter then pops his head in, and I just raise my finger indicating only one person while saying "Hitori-de" which I think means just one person, he nods, says something incomprehensible in Japanese, and goes away. Turning disguise mode on, I then listen in on the white peoples conversation, where they talk about someone’s girlfriend and drama drama drama. Blah. I then get thinking as to how big this restaurant really is, cause from the outside all you see is a small doorway, with the ceiling looking hardly any taller than myself. A few minutes later, the 3 white people are called in, and a few minutes later, so am I. I am led into the main restaurant, and what I see is a small little room, with three tables, with a family seated/kneeled at one, and 2 people at each of the other 2 tables. Situated on each table is a hot plate where they seem to be getting their food from. Facing the three tables was the main kitchen, where you could see cook literally slaving over a hot oven, well, not really oven, and in front of that was a long hot plate/bench, where the three white people where situated at one end, and myself at the other end. It left about a space of a meter between us. In front of me there was a small metal bowl and a spatula. Alarm bells started ringing off, I was thinking that this was maybe a place where we had to cook our own okonomiyaki. Man, I certainly hoped not. Choosing the pork okonomiyaki and a small mug of Asahi beer (much as I was getting accoustomed to the creamy taste of Asahi, the prices kinda got to me). The waiter soon brought a small bowl with a 5cm cube of boiled tofu topped with soy sauce and shallots. Great. So taking the chopsticks, I dug in to the “entrée”. A few minutes later, the waiter then slid on to the hot plate in front of me, my pork okonomiyaki. After observing the other patrons, I realized that the hotplate in front of you was to keep the food warm, while the spatula was used to serve it in your small bowl. It all makes sense! However, the thing that got to me was, what if you were a slow eater? That meant the longer you took to eat, the higher the chance of you food being burnt right? I suppose they keep the heat low enough to prevent this from happening, but by the time that I got to my last morsel of okonomiyaki, there was already a black crust forming underneath, however still tasty.