Cycling around Kyoto - Temples, Shrines, Gold-Flecked Tea plus more Toilet Shananigans

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I thought that Japan had shown me it all would regarding fancy toilets, but I was in for a surprise in a most unsuspecting place. I had previously booked a one day cycle tour of Kyoto after reading great reviews on Trip Advisor with Cycle Kyoto and so we turned up at the backstreet office near Kyoto Station at 9.30am. Greeted by Jaime, a Chilean guy who has lived in Japan for 20 years, we clambered past the many bikes in the cramped room to the low sofas at the back to wait for the other people. Through a small sliding door behind us was a compartment containing the 'restroom' - a pale avocado all-in-one sink and loo. The sink area was the top of the cistern with a solitary tap that had no mechanism to switch it off or on. So after doing my business, I flushed the loo and then water flowed from the tap so I could wash my hands as the water flowed into the cistern to refill it for the next flush. Genius. The other two people on the tour were a couple from New York, Jessie and Kyle. Now in the past we have been stuck some rather obnoxious American tourists (we have so far managed to avoid the crappy UK ones and only were briefly in the vicinity of some overly loud Australian ones the other day) and Glyn gets wound up and uses the word 'peckerhead' in his blogs extensively, so I was bracing myself. But Jessie and Kyle were extremely nice and funny, so I asked Glyn what on earth was he going to moan about in his next blog? He was concerned.Kyoto is a really easy place to cycle around, there are lots of cycle paths and cars don't try to kill you. If you ring your bell, people will move out of the way unless they are not Japanese, so Jaime told us how to say "excuse me" in Chinese - I already know how to say "Oi, shift!" to the English dunderheads.Our first stop was Ryukoku University where Jaime started teaching us to count in Japanese, claiming that we would learn up to 99 by the end of the day. Kyoto has a lot of universities because after Tokyo took over as the capital of Japan in 1869, the people of Kyoto were sad, so it was made a capital of learning and so the city kept their brains.... Or something like that. Like many things in Japan, the University building had been westernised and in the inside was church like with wooden pews - this was a place where students studied Buddhism.Another thing of note is that wedding ceremonies have become very westernised after the Japanese saw and admired the Royal Wedding of 1981 between Prince Charles and Lady Diana. As a result, Europeans living in Japan have become pastors so that they can perform weddings for the Japanese and it has become big business.Next stop was Toji Temple where Jaime locked our bikes together after having previously bragged that Japan is so safe that there was no need to lock our bikes outside the Uni. Kyle wryly commented that Jaime trusted students but not Buddhists. The temple was huge, wooden, with gold bits, stinking of incense filled with tourists and a bit of praying going on.I've not mentioned yet that it was NOT raining today... so far. Jaime said it wouldn't rain at all today. Hmmmm. Next stop was Kitano Tenmangu, a shrine where we each threw a coin at the shrine, rang a bell, clapped, bowed and made a wish as Jaime photographed us for his website. We also stroked a statue of a sitting cow - I stroked it on the head and then had to stroke my head to wish for passing of exams (I have no exams in the foreseeable so general intelligence will do), Glyn stroked its arse in the hope of fixing any back problems he may have. This is what we were instructed to do btw, it's Japanese tradition - something to do with a guy of ye olden days being executed for trumped up charges of wrong-doings and a cow at the time appearing to be sad about it and everyone felt guilty.Jaime explained why Christianity never really caught on despite repeated attempts of various missionaries. Shinto and Buddhism are the religions of Japan, but really it's anything goes just so long as you respect each other and are good people. This is why (according to Jaime) if you find a dropped wallet in Chile for example, you thank the gods for this gift and keep it. But in Japan, you would return the wallet if possible. They don't like money for nothing and it is impossible to tip - Kyle and Jessie backed this up; they had recently tried to tip a guy who had given them excellent service and he subsequently chased them down the street to return the money they had left behind. For Christians, if you believe in their God, you go to heaven and if you don't it's hell for you. The Japanese realised that if they go to heaven, they would be alone as most Japanese do not believe in the Christian God, so it was far better to go to hell, where at least everyone would be there together - the greater good being everyone sticking together. I like that.Lunch was AMAZING. A sushi chain that the Japanese go to and Glyn and I always like a place that the locals patronise. There was not one but two conveyor belts, the lower continuously rotated with covered bowls of sushi that required a certain knack of removing your chosen dish from that I became quite adept at. Above us was a touch screen (in Japanese, Chinese and English) where we could order specific dishes that soon arrived at speed on the upper conveyor belt. The table had a chute for your used plates and for every 5 plates, a cartoon would appear on the screen. If you were lucky, you could win a prize and I won a cat fridge magnet!! You don't win many prizes though as this was the only time we won over the 48 plates the 5 of us ate. I also had creamy soy milk ice cream which I thought was lovely but Glyn was not convinced.It was at this time I asked Jaime about the lack of farm animals and he said that the free-roaming ones are all in Hokkaido which is one of the larger islands of Japan to the north. Sadly though, a lot of the animals are factory farmed and live in terrible conditions, but Jaime did say that the Japanese are becoming more conscious of this and food is increasingly labelled as to where it has come from and how. The reason for the lack of cats and dogs is down to landlords not allowing pets.Next stop was a quick circuitous walk around Kinkaku-Ji, the Golden Pavilion which you can't go inside. Apart from the ground floor, it is covered in gold leaf and is very beautiful. It is a recent replica of the original (built between 1358-1408) which had been burned down in 1950 by a monk with suspected mental health issues as he was reported to love the building. As we were leaving, we were supplied with tiny cups of cold green tea with gold flakes, which looked and tasted like sugary liquid spinach. I wondered if my pee would sparkle next time I visited the loo but do draw the line at panning for gold.Cycling slightly uphill through the backstreets was a breeze as there was hardly any traffic or people. The buildings generally are low due to zoning but also it has kept its Japanese old style charm due to lack of bombing during WW2. It had been one of the original targets for the atom bomb, but a Japanese envoy who was honeymooning there convinced the Americans not to bomb it and so Nagasaki was bombed instead. This story amazes me in that some Japanese knew it was coming. Not that they could have relocated the 100,000's of people that were killed I guess, but that there was enough communication that some knew it was coming. Could it really not be stopped? I was taught at school that it was decided less people would die this way than if the war was to continue indefinitely but I never quite bought that.Apparently we cycled past the Imperial Palace but none of us saw it so I don't know why it is mentioned as part of the tour. A few more shrines and temples were visited as was the 'Philosophers Walk' which is a place where a philosopher used to walk. This is where it started to rain, but it was only light. We saw a guy pulling a rickshaw with two passengers, it looked hard work and he was wearing a knee bandage but he seemed to be happy although the lazy git wasn't running!In Gion we stopped at some quaint backstreets and Jaime asked two young girls in kimonos to pose for us. He told us that most of the young people in kimonos are Japanese tourists who hire them as part of the Kyoto experience. This was a bit disappointing! He likened it to tourists in Texas wearing cowboy hats.Our final stop was Fushimi Inari Shrine, one of the two most popular tourist attractions in Kyoto (the other being the golden pavilion) which has avenues of about 10,000 orange torii (gates - gates being two posts with a cross pole above head height), Jaime claims his mate has counted them all. Inari is the deity of rice and sake and this shrine is near a saki making region and businesses sponsor each gate for 5 years, the cheapest being around $3000 and the more expensive being closer to the shrine. The business names are written on the posts but don't look tacky as it's not their logos, just Japanese script which looks cool in my eyes as I can't read it. Looking at their various scripts on signage and posters, I can't help but think being a Graphic Designer in Japan must be a challenge.At this point, the rain started putting in some real effort and the uber thin but free waterproof I'd been supplied as part of the tour was coming apart at the seams. It was just a 15 minute cycle back to the cycle shop though and it was done in no time. We thanked Jaime and let him know that we'd had a very good time. I would thoroughly recommend this tour for most people who visit Kyoto - minimum fitness required and fun was had whilst a lot of Kyoto was fitted in within a short time.I did plan to see a bit more of Kyoto but after getting fed up trying to suss the trains, we headed to Nijo (which was on our way back to the apartment) stopping briefly for a drink and snack. I used the public loos in an entertainment complex and was convinced that I'd accidentally stepped into the gents as there was something that looked like a urinal for a midget on the wall. I have no idea what this was, but I need to find out!

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Photos

Kinkaku-Ji
Golden Pavillion

Kinkaku-Ji
Golden Pavillion