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Published: January 12th 2007
After my last exam on Wednesday, Mom and I took the trip that I had agonized about while we were planning her visit. I felt, rightfully so, entirely responsible for how things went and whether she enjoyed it or not. Let's just say maybe she didn't have much faith in my planning because after much consideration it was decided that we should take a tour to simplify things.
So we set off from Tokyo on the shinkansen (bullet train, yay!) and it took only a little over 2 hours to get to Kyoto. Our hotel wasn't too far away and soon we were exploring markets and generally wandering around. What especially struck me was that Kyoto seemed TINY and so laid back compared to Tokyo. That first night we took a walking geisha girl tour, which included a tea ceremony, traditional dinner, and a performance of the traditional Japanese arts (tea ceremony, flower arranging, calligraphy, music, etc.). After a quick jaunt into Louis Vuitton, (I still don't see the appeal of $1500+ purses but I guess that's just me), that was pretty much it for the night.
The next day we were off on a staggering all over tour
of the major sites in Kyoto. Writing this entry 8 months later I had to double check on the names of some of these temples and shrines because they tend to all run together after you see a bunch of them! It was pretty whirlwind but the best we could do with two days in Kyoto I suppose. In the afternoon we did see some geisha girls at the temple and I managed to get a quick picture, below. The whole geisha girl thing still baffles me. The tour guides were quick to make sure you knew they are NOT prostitutes or doing anything, um, immoral. We were told that they perform the traditional Japanese arts for high paying clients. Maybe I'm just extremely cynical but I cannot believe that in such an advanced society like Japan that the men are paying extraordinate sums to watch girls arrange flowers and pour tea! I'll just leave it at that.
The next day we were back on the train to Tokyo. It's worth mentioning though, embarrassingly enough, we somehow managed to miss seeing Mt. Fuji whilst on the train! Apparently the Tokyo-Kyoto route passes right by it and we were constantly
looking for it out the window on both journeys. It wasn't foggy so I don't know how we managed to miss it both times. It's pretty pathetic that I spent so much time in Japan and left without getting a glimpse of it. Reason to go back I suppose...
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