Kyoto'ing

Jessie and I set out for Kyoto early last Saturday morning with our friends Hiromi and Takahisa Fukasawa.

The Fukasawas are my students. We meet once or twice a week at their house for a lesson that is supposed to take an hour, but usually lasts longer because we goof off too much. They’re in their fifties - he’s a dentist and she’s a sixth-grade teacher.

The leather of their Audi’s back seat was certainly better at 7 a.m. than the bus fabric we would have been sitting on during our six-hour bus ride. And instead of six hours, it took us just over four. We learned a new phrase that day: Takahisa is a speed demon.

We learned a lot during our two-day tour of Japan’s former capitol city, and they considered it a two-day lesson.

Takahisa doesn’t speak much English - just enough that between his English, my Japanese and (mostly) charades, we’re able to get the point across most of the time. Hiromi’s English is definitely better, and we’re usually able to communicate on a basic level concerning just about anything.

Regardless, plenty of things got lost in translation during the trip, but I think we all understood that would happen.

All in all, I’m certain it will turn out to be our easiest, most relaxing trip during our year here. We gave them 40,000 yen, and they did the rest for the whole trip.

Our hotel was, well, nice. Let’s just say we didn’t want to think about how much it was costing, so we cranked up the heat, showered until we were raisiny and took it easy. We were even lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a couple Maiko (apprentice Geisha) at our hotel!

Anyway, the hotel was not the best part of the trip. Although we were a week or two late to catch the fall leaves in all of their glory (the Japanese are obsessed with fall colors) we toured numerous temples, gardens and castles with leaves crunching, the sun shining and our taxi driver/guide showing us spots he recommended.

After hiring our taxi driver on the first day - again, I don’t want to think about the cost involved here - we asked him to meet us the following day as well, so he was basically our chauffeur for the weekend. He was a nice guy and when Takahisa asked him for a discount at the close of the weekend, he basically jumped out of his socks to give him one, saying he was happy to drive around beautiful ladies. I took a little offense to that, but upon reflection, he was probably talking about Jessie and Hiromi.

This is why I bring Jessie everywhere with me. You would think she invented white rice and raw fish or something.

Probably the most difficult aspect of the trip for our foursome was trying to find places where I could eat. We learned another phrase a few weeks ago that they were able to use frequently throughout the weekend: picky eater. I never should have taught them that one.

We saw all sorts of things ranging from enormous pagodas built entirely of wood, to beautiful Zen gardens and bamboo forests.

Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines were absolutely everywhere. Temple visiting is a sort of pastime for the Japanese - sort of a religious experience and a feast for the eyes at the same time. It reminds me a little of how Europeans visit and tour cathedrals - some for spiritual reasons and others for the majesty of the structures themselves.

For us, the temples seem partly like a moneymaking machine because essentially every ritual you perform at a temple requires some kind of object, which are on sale there, of course. At the same time, when asked to participate in something like a prayer/wish, it’s difficult to decline. So, we get out of it when the damage of doing so will be small. Everyone knows we are Christians, as we’ve explained the fact to them, but for a Japanese person, religion and life are so inseparable from each other that they don’t see their religious acts as being a compromise for us, rather, they would be us experiencing Japanese culture.

Buddhism and Shintoism are both what I would call “loose” religions, especially when compared to the Abrahamic faiths. They demand little more than what I would consider basic human kindness and respect for your fellow man and for nature, at least from what I've gathered. The Japanese make lots of wishes and believe in an endless number of charms and trinkets. I often wonder if they truly believe anything will come of them. I suppose it’s not so different from many Christians, sadly: say your prayers; who knows, maybe something will happen.

Well, regardless, you do see quite a few people saying their prayers very earnestly.

Anyway, one of the most amazing parts of the trip was our “jinrikisha,” or rickshaw ride. Now, the rickshaw is about as common as bicycle-pulled carriages are in the U.S.: not unheard of, but you have to know where to look, and Kyoto is one of the places you can find them. Jinrikishas are essentially carriages pulled by really friendly, sweaty guys in tight pants. They're better than horse-drawn carriages because the drivers are better at deciding when to stop and when to go. Oh, and there's no whipping involved.

But, you have to feed rickshaw drivers better than horses, meaning it’s a pretty expensive ride. Still, we ponied up the cash and a guy with enormous thighs “drove” us up and down the narrow streets of Kyoto much to our delight and to the amusement of our fellow tourists and the locals. We kind of felt like zoo animals with the fanny pack-toting Japanese tourists pointing their Nikons at us, but it was a great time.

Riding in a rickshaw was one of the things I really wanted to do in Japan, mostly because I thought it would be funny, and because I promised our Sunday School class in Ames, Iowa that I would at least give it a try. But, it was a really nice experience, and at the end, he let me pull it around a little bit with Jessie in the back holding on for dear life. He said he wasn’t supposed to, but the Fukasawas said something to convince them. What a cool thing!

We've both decided that this will likely end up being our best vacation in Japan. It was virtually stress free, and just an all-around great time.

It's hard to describe some of this stuff, but hopefully we're doing a passable job with this blog. We'll keep them coming as we have new adventures; there seems to be a nearly endless supply. Hopefully that's the case where you are, too.

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