Kyoto- Hot in the City

Man, we are sweating like mad here in Kyoto, the old capital of Japan until the Meiji Restoration where the Emperor moved camp to Edo which was the domain of the Shogun. The people of Kyoto are still pissed the Emperor left and want him to come back. Which is why the palace is still mostly closed off to visitors and they keep it at the ready for a visit. I guess you have to live for something.

I am cooking bad in this town, so much for the fall being cool. We are staying at a really odd place near the JR train station, the Monterey Plaza. It was super cheap, but super posh. We must have got an off season deal as the place is actually a wedding hotel. They have a chapel inside, catering facilites and a salon. The staff was awesome, as the conciere helped us when the computer ate the reservation. He went with us to the kinkos to get my email up and print off my confirmation number. But the constant corus of hellos as we entered the lobby got a bit much. The bed was comfy though.

First off to the UNESCO sites of Nijo Castle and the Ninomaru Palace. In 1601 Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of Tokugawa Shogunate ordered all the feudal lords in Western Japan to contribute to the construction of the Nijō Castle. The construction was completed during the reign of Tokugawa Iemitsu in 1626. It was built as the Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa Shoguns.

The Ninomaru Palace is made entirely of cypress wood. The ceilings and sliding walls are beautifully painted by artists of the Kano School. The floors are all covered in tatami mats. The most incredible part of Ninomaru Palace was the Nightingale floors, which when you walked over them they made a bird-like sound of the Nightingale.

Because it had been raining, the park smelled so fresh and clean, with the pines and grass adding an extra tone to the air, the day was perfect for sightseeing. We decided then and there to spend five days in Kyoto. Next stop was the imperial palace, where we looked around the park and applied to see the palace itself for the next day. We also had to hit the Gion district. I did some work in my undergrad on Geisha and really needed to see the place for myself.

Gion is the old entertainment quarter. It was the centre of the Geisha culture. The local geisha actually call themselves Geiko, or women of art. They are artisans with many years of trainning in singing, dancing, playing instruments and the art of sonversation. Gion remains dotted with old-style Japanese houses called machiya, which roughly translated means "city house," some of which are ochaya or "tea house." These are traditional establishments where the patrons of Gion -- from the samurai of old to modern-day businessmen -- have been entertained by geiko in an exclusive manner for centuries. For us, we headed to Gion corner, a stage set up to showcase the arts of Kyoto: Maiko (geisha in training) dancing, tea cerimony, bunraku (Puppet drama), comedy plays, ritual singing from Tang China still done in Japan, and Koto playing. It was great for us gaijin to get a taste of the arts. We didn't see any geisha but I did the last time I was here 16 years ago and still remember the most beautiful creature in silk I had ever seen get into a cab, like she was floating on the air.

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