Tokyo Backwards

---

They say Kyo-to is To-kyo backwards. This weekend, Tokyo was Kyoto backwards.

(Quote stollen from RJ - thanks)

On our quest for a little slice of apple pie - Disneyland and a Macaroni Grill - my friends and I loaded into a K car for a ten hour road trip to Tokyo. All was going according to plan - we'd just finished a jam session to a techno song that randomly declares "Barbara Streissand" between electronic beats (the song is called Barbara Streissand. Youtube/download it immediately.) - when a jolt and a cloud of smoke landed us on the side of a freeway with no shoulder and a car that wouldn't start.

It's all fun and games until you're surrounded by flares, sirens and policemen. Actually, when they're Japanese policemen in toy cars it's still fun and games. We suspect they sent one of them on a special assignment to our car because he could speak English. That's how helpful Japanese people are. And our tow truck driver? He called his daughter who spoke English, who searched for the best hotel for us and directed her father there. Things that would never happen in the the land of apple pie...

This twist of fate led us to a different kind of enjoyment from the circus of Tokyo. We got to see a few Geishas in the untouched streets of Gion, climb to the top of the Inari Shrine - named after the fox god who loves inari sushi, and do some shopping for non-Harajuku-authentic Harajuku girl costumes for Halloween (Harajuku is in Tokyo).

Gion was like a scene right out of Memoirs of a Geisha. And the Inari Shrine, with endless orange gates stretching to the top of a wooded mountain, a place to be at peace. After only a day in the cultural center of the country, the aesthetic value of traditional Japanese culture became almost overwhelming to me. Not just in the look of things, but in the romance of ceremony.

For the three months I've been here, I've seen school ceremonies, tea ceremonies, speaches and festivals that all have one thing in common: leaving no detail to chance. And in Kyoto, I finally got to see a piece of the history that built the tradition. I'm still amazed that a brand of entertainment that would be sleazy anywhere else in the world was literally a transformation of women into art. Only in Japan.

As for Disneyland, I know fate will send me there one of these days. By bus.

---

Photos

View from the Top
Sitting down to some inari sushi after climbing to the top of the shrine

Comments

[Dad]

Aren't the unforseen experiences like magic?
Hi Susan. When you are traveling, isn't it often the unforseen experiences that turn into magic? What began as an auto breakdown and an obstacle to getting to your original planned destination opened many marvelous doors into Japan and experiences to share with your friends.

[Patty]

Keep writing....
No-o-o!! I don't want to be at the end....I want to keep reading! Did you ever think about becoming a writer, Susan? Seriously, you are that good!! P.S. The last comment I wrote to you was kind of left hanging...that's because I accidentally hit 'send' before I was ready. Mrs C.