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For those of you who are not up on your japanese, gaijin means foreigner. and these are my memoirs.
So after the capsule hotel incident, I took the next morning slow, eventually boarding the 6 hour bus ride from Tokyo to Nagoya (which is when I wrote that fantastic note- speaking of which, most of my posts will probably be like that, I happen to have free and frequent internet access right now so I'm doing it this way).
I arrived in Nagoya and hopped on a subway to the cheapest hostel in my lonely planet book. I wandered around in the area trying to find it but was without success. Finally, I asked someone on the street and they informed that the youth hostel closed down 6 months ago. drats. hopped
back on a subway and called the next cheapest one, which was considerably more expensive- but they had an opening in a Japaneses style room and I grabbed it and got there as soon as I could. A Japanese style room is far less invasive then a Japaneses style bathroom. Its basically a wide open room with a small coffee table and no beds or anything. In the closet there is a mattress-pad, a comforter, and a sac of rice- ahem- i mean, pillow. I happen to sleep alright on the floor so this was fine for me. I didn't get to shower because we were only allowed to shower from 5-10pm and the doors to the hotel locked at 11pm, so I got to the place with just enough time to run out and find some quick dinner and get back before curfew.
The next day I headed to see a sumo tournament, I was so psyched about it. sumo tournament are very rare in japan- there are three tournaments in a year and it just so happened that i was at the right city at the right time (or so i thought...). I got to the doors
at 830, when they opened. there was already a line at the door- i got in line and I asked the guy in front of me "sumo?" and he said "hai " and he showed me a keychain that he had with his favoriate sumo wrestler's face on it. so the doors opened and we all filed in. that was weird, i thought, they didnt ask for tickets. i thought i was online for tickets. but who am i to argue against free entry? the stadium is very cool- much like a basketball stadium- see the picture below. Sit down and wait for an hour until it starts, only one quarter of the stadium is being filled though and i don't know why- sumo is supposed to be such a big deal. finally all these guys in suits some sit around the main stage area and three guys in kimono come out very ceremoniously. there was about an hour of ceremony, with a branch and a vase of water and some dirt. and lots of bowing. and walking slowly. some really annoying and beat=less drumming. finally, they finished and started to walk off and i got psyched for fat guys
to come out. then the crowd started to leave. and i get worried. skip to the end: i just sat through opening ceremonies, games start the next day. and i was not spending another day in nagoya, it was expensive and the tickets were almost completely sold out for the first day anyway. so close, yet so far. i got to see the stadium and opening ceremonies- not for nothing, i guess.
I went to see Nagoya Castle next, which is a really old castle site. What I discovered when I got there is that all of it was destroyed by air raids by the allied forces during WWII, and this was a reconstruction with some original artifacts. still kind of interesting but seeing reconstructions is not quite as cool. That is something I saw alot of places in Tokyo and Nagoya "This is a reconstruction of the _________, which was destroyed during bombings in World War II" and it has definitely had an impact on me. I learned in school about WWII and that we bombed japan- they dont quite mention that we destroyed 1,000s of years of culture and heritage and that we leveled full cities to
nothing but ashes, and killed hundreds of thousands of peoples in a matter of hours. I think when I was taught about it- it seemed like we were bombing military targets and things that threaten us, not just 'hit whatever you can' or 'lets get that really old castle, it looks important'. anyway...
Lastly I decided to follow a blurb on the bottom of a touristy map that I was given at my hotel to Arimatsu, a little town just south of Nagoya. It turns out, this city is where tiedying was invented- and not the swirly red-blue-yellow cheesy tiedying but this is detail oriented, complicated, beautiful fabric work. I went to a place where i could watch a short video on the history of the town and shiburi (thats what they call it), and watch it being made up close. The video was interesting- the town sprung up in between two other cities almost as a stopover/touristy town (this is a long long time ago- we arent talking american tourists) and it gained local notoriety for shiburi (tiedying)- its fame spread and soon jerry garcia got wind of the town... haha just kidding. Afterward I got to watch
two old women making shiburi- its done all byhand and its a local way of life- you are not a real woman until you can master this craft. I walked around the city a bit, the buildings were from a very old style- which I hadn't seen really because this was the first place I had walked around that was NOT bombed to bit in WWII. Before I left, I went to grab a meal at the shopping mall next to the train station- I was trying to be brave and go into a place with no english (i follow the rule that says the less english means the more authentic japanese and less touristy... not always true though). The menu had a few pictures and I tried to ask the waitress what was vegiterian- she was having a hard time understanding me but eventually she pointed to something on the menu (she REALLY did not understand that I did not speak or read japanese) and i said, 'hai, bejiterian, hai' meaning 'yes, if its vegiterian, yes' and that was that. I lucked out and did not get anything totally bizarre- it was basically spagetti and roasted vegetables (see.... not
english and NOT authentic japanese. you live and learn). As she was bringing the meal, I noticed a table across from me- an older guy and two little kids. the two kids were watching me and giggling the whole time (not totally unusual- americans are pretty weird looking to anyone that doesnt live in a big city like tokyo). when she put down the pasta, all three of them were looking at me and smiling and the old guy laughs and does a handmotion for chopsticks. so they wanted to see how the gaijin would handle spagetti and chopsticks. it just so happens that i am a master at chopsticks... not from experience with japanese food but really just because i like chopsticks, they are fun. well i impressed them all and the kid yelled out (very proud of his english) "very good". i laughed and said thank you.. and thought it was over. then he got up and came over with a menu and was trying to ask me what my meal was- i told him i cant read kanji (thats the japanese and chinese written language), eventually he gave up and left.
Once I got back, I
decided I had enough and hopped on yet another train- this time Kyoto bound.
In Kyoto I am staying with my friend Judd from Rutgers, who has spent the last year studying in Japan and is still there now (im in his room, typing this)- Judd was actually away for a couple of days but I had been in contact with Dave, a friend of ours from Rutgers.
I got into Kyoto station and took a 1 hr bus ride to the stop closest to their dorm and (after an hour of walking around a dark town, wondering what the hell i was going to do, knocking on the locked door, with no way to get in touch with dave to tell him to let me in, and finally stopping someone on the street and using my phrasebook-broken-japnglish-sign-langauge to ask him to use his phone and finally calling judd, who called his friend fred to open the door for me) got into the dorm and finally relaxed.
While Judd was away, I was using his room, which meant a bathroom to myself, a computer, a nice bed, and a place to leave my bag- which has been
awesome so far. Judd came back two days ago but he is sleeping elsewhere out of the kindness of his heart and so I'm still hooked up- it costs 1000yen (a bit less then 10 dollars) per night to stay here (the dorm charges for guests) but that is much much better than youth hostels which are 2500-4000 (and those are the budget places). So for the last three days I've been staying here, doing day trips around Kyoto, sometimes by myself and sometimes with other people, and coming back here at night- and here are my adventures: (sorry about the tense switching between past and present, I'm having trouble deciding how to phrase this)
Background on Kyoto:Kyoto is fantastic city- a great combination of small town areas on the outskirts, beautiful scenery, but it still is a real city with a huge bus and subway system and everything else. Kyoto alone has 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, something like 1800 Temples and Shrines, and it situated in the valley between two huge mountains. Judd's dorm is near the bottom of the west mountain- so his view is fantastic. Also, Kyoto is a rarity because it tons of really
old temples, shrines, architecture, etc- can you guess why? Because the allied forced DIDNT bomb it. how nice of them.
First day:
>I took a nice long walk in the area immediately surrounding the dorm, which is on the outskirts of Kyoto. The narrow streets and houses with cool japanese style roofs were pretty and finally I came to this lake and small farming community. The lake had tons of little kids and families fishing for craw fish or crams or something- they used sticks, string, and shredded squid- it was really neat to watch. Then I wandered (for about an hour and a half) through the farming area- rice fields and all sorts of vegetables- and old japanese people riding bicycles and picking the vegetables and it was probably the most fantastic little village i have ever seen and i want to live there.
>I went back to the dorm and Dave and his friend Walker took me out to show me one of the main hip shopping areas- Shijo/SShinjo/and a bunch of long japanese street names. They were fun to see, just walking around looking in shops. We went for dinner at this sushi place where you
sit at a table that lies against a conveyer belt and plates of many different kinds of sushi go around and around on the belt- you pick off whatever plates you want and pay at the end, according to how many plates are stacked in front of you- it was 137yen per plate, not bad at all. I was tempted to try at least the tuna but was worried it would hurt my stomach because im SO not used to any fish at all- so i stuck with the safe ones: a tofu sushi that was really good, an egg sushi that was pretty good, and one called Nat To, which is a kind of fermented bean- it was kind of gross. But- I came to Japan and ate sushi- now leave me alone yoli. just kiddding. Had I been more adventurous (and had a death wish) I could have tried horse sushi, eel sushi, or one of other extravagant and really questionable things.
Second day:
>I started the day at Sanjusangendo Temple- a really awesome Buddhist temple, known for having 1001 statues of Kannon, a buddhist god of mercy, who has 1000 arms (I'm reading a book on
eastern religions while Im here because I feel lame just doing to temples, snapping photos, and leaving). The sculptures are incredible- it is one gigantic status, surrounded by 1000 full person size (5.5 feet). And the 1001 statues are 'guarded' by 11 (I think) Buddhist deities, each has his own name, speciality, and story. This temple had a lot in english which made it especially interesting, most temples have very little english and make it harder to enjoy. Several of the 5ft statues are as much as 800 years old! (why? because the allied forces did not... you get the picture) the other ones are only 700 or 600 hundred years old. They are carved cypres and, as I learned from lonely planet, each statues has 40 arms but Buddhist mathematics explain that each arm saves 25 worlds, so... you get 1000. sound farmiliar? and with an outstretched arm.... and with each finger 1000 plagues... or something... and something about nostrils, also. interesting comparison, I though.
>Next I went to Ginkaku-Ji, or the Silver Pavilion, a Zen temple that is not actually painted silver but that was the plan, apparently. The temple was alright, I think it was too crowded with loud tourists for me to really appreciate its Zen-ness.
>Next I met up with Judd and climbed a nearby mountain (this was no mt fuji, only about 45 minutes up)- it gave us a great view of all of kyoto (though once again, the clouds covered what could have been a nice sunset, oh well). On our way down, we passed some americans who were having trouble reading a sign and judd stepped it to save the day. What do you know, the guy is wearing a Panim El Panim Shirt (a jewish/zionist organization from the east coast that I worked with one time) and these two people are a jewish couple from boston- he was BBYO and she was NFTY (two jewish youth groups). We talked for a while and it turned out there were going to a vegiterian noodle place and so we went with them and had a good dinner (more expensive than I had been spending but it was a special occasion and it was REALLY good miso soup and noodles (yet another authentic japanese meal, Ive come a long way from pizza.... sort of. I almost had some today but held back).
Third day (today)
>Started the Day off at Kinkaku-Ji Temple- you guessed it, the Golden Pavilion- this one ACTUALLY gold leafed (see picture). The grounds were very pretty and the building really amazing- though I have to be honest and say that these kinds of sights are, for me, limited in what I can get out of them. I feel like I'm just playing the part of the tourist when i see them. I pay the entrance fee (usually between 300-600 yen), take the brochure, walk along the path, stop at the mandatory picture taking areas, continue, ooh and ahh, and leave 15 minutes later. I much more enjoyed the Sanjusangendo temple where I actually learned about each deity and what it stood for, etc.
Not to mention how I am still struggling with the concept that Buddhist temples have souvenir shops when the most basic tennant that Buddha taught was to divorce yourself from worldly pleasures (gifts and money and more) as they are distractions... seems seedy to me, though Judd tried to explain that there are many kinds of Buddhism and they do not all follow what Buddha said verbatim and Japanese Buddhism is one of them. I haven't gotten up to that chapter yet, I guess.
>Next I went to Nijo temple but it closed on tuesdays. 😞
>Next was the Kyoto Imperial Palace, which was in use by the emperor on and off for 1000 years, while Kyoto was the capitol (before Tokyo was). The emperors changed the capitol city constantly for various reasons= one of which was make sure no city got a big head (my words, not the emperors). After waiting for the office to come back from lunch, I was able to show my passport and get a permit to get an english tour of the imperial palace- which ended up being pretty worth the wait. Of course, the palace that we were viewing was not the one that the emperor actually lived in, apparently that one (NOT what you are thinking...) burnt down several times and was rebuilt several times as a result of warfare and ....drumroll please.... their use of candles as a source of light, in an entirely wooden palace. nonetheless, the palace that I saw is an exact replica of the ones that had been used in the past. In fact, the palace that I saw was a replica of the palace that was used- but that was NOT the main palace. The actual main Imperial Palace used to burn down so often that they had a few places for him to stay while the main palace was being rebuilt (which also burnt down a few times) and this was a palace where he spent so much time that he ended up staying in.
>Lastly for the day was Kiyomizu Temple- which was a really beautiful temple on incredible grounds- including a natural spring that was discovered by a monk who was shown the spring in his dreams. The water from the spring is believed to have therapeutic properties when drank. which I did. I'll let you know how that works out- so far, so good.
Wheh. That brings me to now. I am spending WAY too much time on this computer on this update. Actually, I wrote the first half last night but wanted to post it all at once. My plans for tomorrow are uncertain but I think I may spend tomorrow as my last day in Kyoto and head out to Osaka and/or Kobe. I leave on friday from Kobe for my 48 hour sea voyage to China, where I will be meeting up with Eli (my roomate for the last two years) and traveling with him. I am not sure how often we will get to internet cafes in China but certainly when we get to Shanghai (around the 25th), we'll have internet at his uncles.
Hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading...
~mark
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Frankie
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I like your cute movie reference titles
I will be in China officially on the 20th. I know that's a long time from your arrival time, so chances are, you won't want to wait around in Beijing. Too bad you're gonna be gone by the time I go to the beer festival in Qingdao (though, you did go to one in Israel already). Enjoy the rest of Japan! If you haven't left Kyoto yet, I strongly suggest for you to take a train out to the Fushimia Inari Temple. Look it up on wikipedia, it's amazingly gorgeous.