Kyoto!

The following day I was to make a trip to Kyoto. Armed with my backpack and trusty camera, I set off. From the hostel from where I was staying, I had to cross the Azuma bridge to get to the train station. This morning however, there seemed to be a small gathering on the bridge, and they were stopping people from going across on one side. So I though, um, I’ll just go on the other side. So I start walking, and turns out they are filming some kind of show. I look and see one of the characters, and it’s a schoolgirl dressed exactly like Sakura from SF!!! I think to myself, I got to take a picture of this, so I loosen the Velcro from my camera case, and this shady guy walks up to me and starts talking in Japanese, pointing at my camera, and I tell him I don’t speak Jap, and he does the DX crotch chop sign with both his hands as if to indicate no pictures. Right. So much for that photo op.

This time, it’s a much easier trip through the train system, having already been through the rigours of it last time. Seriously, once you’ve done it once, you should be ok, it aint that hard to figure out. With the minimal English text as well, all should be peachy.

At Tokyo Station, once I got my seats reserved for the Shinkansen (bullet train), I realized I needed to eat. So I headed to one of the places that sold bento boxes, and realized I only had 7 minutes before the train was to leave. Guided by their picture menu, I hastily bought a box which had what looked like meat pieces with some peas. Later on on the train, I realized that it was what seemed to be small shellfish, with 3 pieces of a very big shellfish. Once more… Riiiight. So much for my first bento box experience. But hell, out of hunger I managed to wolf it all down.

I didn’t arrive early enough to snap a picture of the front of the Shinkansen, but heres what it looks like inside, and also a movie of it as we speed by. Doesn’t seem very fast, but that’s because my camera doesn’t take good quality pics, so it skips frames.





Once in Kyoto, the historical bastion of Japan (I think), where the ways of the past live side by side with the moving of times, where temples abound and geisha can still be found on the streets, our first order of business:

A-CHO!!!











It took me so long to find this place. The directions said after you exit the train station, its just around the corner. RIGHT. I get out of the train station, and it’s a whole shopping complex filled with rows of shops, restaurants, and backalleys with more shops and restaurants. I got to see the entire shopping district of Kyoto before I even found a-cho. So yeah, it was cool actually, I saw some sights first, walked around downtown, and what do you know, by accident, I see this small backalley, with a little door to what seems like a pachincko parlor with a costumed girl welcoming the customers. On the poster next to the door, it says “2F A-CHO”. Here we go!

Man, you can see why the japs are so highly respected on the worldwide gaming stage. The level of play these people are at is simply amazing. The person playing Beatmania was just AAA’ing lvl 11 and 12 songs, it was awesome to watch. And the people playing the fighters, man, they were just too good. /end fanboy rave.



I also managed to see (by accident) the Kamogawa River (or just the Kamo river, can’t remember), where couples sit equally spaced out along on the bank. They weren’t that equally spaced out as evidenced in the picture, but that’s partly to blame on the tourists. Freakin hell, you’re ruining the symmetry!



Also while in Kyoto I went to Ponto-Cho, and ate at one of the izakaya’s, or Japanese style pubs. Whenever you enter a shop in Japan they shout “Irashimasse!” or the shorter “Irashai!!” and not just the guy nearest the door, everyone working in the store does it. It means welcome or something, and you could say it’s Japanese equivalent of Filipinos saying “Be happy suuur!” as you enter Jolibee. Except theirs wasn’t a by product of a marketing campaign.

Anyway, the izakaya you could say was one that was catered to tourists, cause just like everything else in Japan, it was overpriced. Everything was served on small plates, in even smaller portions. I ordered a type of Japanese sausage, which equated to four 10cm long pieces about 2 cms in diameter, served skewered on toothpicks and served with butter (Butter as a dipping sauce? hehe awesome!) I also had a pork pieces barbecued with cubes of leek, also skewered on small barbecue sticks. This all washed down with a mug of Asahi beer, came to a total of about 1500 yen (about 15 CAN). Yes, my wallet cried on that dark day. Where you there when my wallet cried? Let us pray. (If you get that joke you are a winner).

On that same night, after consulting the handy guide that is the Lonely Planet book for Japan, I decided to go to an onsen, or a hot spring. There was one which said was the easily accessible from downtown Kyoto, yet I would seen learn what that meant. I took the train to the last stop, and then had to transfer to a smaller local line. You could tell that we were getting farther away from civilisation, as the train station had little or no English signs, the train that we were riding on was a single car, and the stops were no longer subway caverns with automated ticketing stations, but simple wooden stops close to the road with a conductor to hand out tickets. It was also getting dark, so it did get me kinda worried. When I did arrive at Kurama station, the end of the line of the second train I rode, there was a van waiting that said “Kurama Onsen Shuttle”. I did read that there was a shuttle that goes between the station and the onsen, but the book also said it was a 10min walk. Initially I thought I would walk, but on the side of the van it also said “FREE SHUTTLE”! wahey count me in! So on board the shuttle we go.

There was only 3 of us on the shuttle, including the driver, and I would also find out later on that the second person was also a driver that worked at the onsen. I sat at the back as to avoid any conversation, but later on, the second guy turns to me and says something in Japanese, I only manage to hear “Kurama Onsen” and “desu ka” so I assumed he was asking if I was going to the onsen, and I nod in agreement. Whew. The lack of the people going to the onsen can be attributed to the fact that it closes at 9pm, and I got there at around 830pm. The staff later does find out I cant speak Jap, and they help me through the ticketing station. Man, even entrance booths to Onsens are automated. You choose the onsen, ie. Indoor or outdoor, since the indoor one was now closed, I didn’t really have a choice. You can then also choose extras like a washcloth, shaver, etc etc. So up the steps we go. There are two entrances, one from women and one from men. With no English signs, I had to wait for a male to go into one to figure out which one was which. Inside, there are lockers where you put all your things in. Being slightly intrepid and at the same time apprehensive, I went completely starkers. Its not that bad actually. I mean, all of you are naked, so its not as if someone is being singled out, so it was all good. I saw on the side there was the stools where you sit next to the taps to wash yourself, luckily there was only 5 of us there, and 4 were already in the onsen, so any faux pas I would make while showering would be ignored. After washing up, I then headed to the onsen, and sat in the freaking hot hot tub. It was really really really relaxing, I could’ve gone to sleep in there. Except for the fact there were other naked men in there of whose sexual orientation I was unaware of. The train ride back was awful, cause I was on the verge of going to sleep, yet I couldn’t because I had a 30 min train ride and a 5 min walk to endure. It was also next to a hillside, so just over the fence of the tub area, the staff already had the forethought to shine a spotlight on the greenery so that it could be appreciated even during the night. For obvious reasons, no pictures were taken. Unless you wanted to see naked Japanese men :|

The inner nanay in me told me that I should at least go and get “cultured” in Japan, ie, see some temples and what not, so what the hey. The handy bus map that you can get from Kyoto Station actually points out all the good temples, and how to get to each one, it was indeed very handy. I decided that I would also need a buspass to make the going easy, instead of having to pay each time. So at Kyoto Station, I point to the buspass I want to buy, and the conversation goes something like this:

Ticket counter guy: “Bus...OK! Train…OK! One day only….OK?”
(Enter Hard Gay)
Hard Gay: OOKAAAYY!!!!!!!
(Cue “Livin La Vida Loca” music)

I only bought that pass cause I thought it covered ALL train lines, I would realize later that I only covered TWO of them, both of which I didn’t even go on. I had to actually go out of my way to go on one of the train lines just to make the ticket worth the price :(

The one thing that I liked about Kyoto, is that it’s a tourist spot not only for foreigners, but also for Japanese people from other parts of Japan. So I didn’t have to feel like an idiot with me having to consult my map every few seconds or so, I could look like the rest of the Japanese tourists that were as lost as me. Just like these guys.

Eg.



Argh, I took the picture too late. The guy was holding a bigger map and they were both looking at it, but by the time I got my camera out he had already put it away.

And the buses were not as big a nightmare as Mimay had put them to be. In what seems to be the opposite to all other countries I’ve rode a bus on, you would get on the bus first, and pay when you get off. Mimay had said if you don’t know where to get off or if you don’t have enough money, you would be stuck on the bus. Forever!!! (cue thunder and lightning) But with the touristy stops also being announced in English, both through the loudspeaker and on the LED display at the front, things were all peachy :D So much to Mimay’s chagrin, I was able to depart at the correct stop. And in reality, it wasn’t hard, because EVERYONE on the bus got off at that point. Ah yes, to be a tourist. So I joined the sizeable crowd marching towards our destination.

If I had to see one temple, I would at least see Kakuji-ku temple, or the Golden Temple, the one where George Dubyah Bush went to. Except we don’t get to go inside it.

To be contd...!