Being the jet setter and baller that I am I decided to hop over to Japan this past weekend for a couple of days. We had Friday off and I didn't want to waste it being hungover and bumming around Hwajeong so Jennifer and I booked some tickets and set off right after work on Thursday. The trip started off a little rocky considering that we decided against making hotel reservations prior to arriving in Kyoto. We got in Kyoto at about 10pm at the tail end of Golden Week, a five day holiday for most of Japan. Without dwelling on the issue, hotel/hostel/ryokan/love motel rooms were not to be had at that hour on that day so we spent the night wandering the streets with our luggage and ended up sleeping in Kyoto station. There I said it, no big deal it's over with.
On Friday morning I bolted upright out of my half-sleep freezing cold, hungry and with two dead legs as a result of the way I was hunched over my baggage. I sensed the presence of a freak near me and turned around to see some Japanese guy sitting uncomfortably close to us in what might be one of the biggest train stations I've ever seen. He proceeded to light a cigarette and might as well have been blowing the smoke directly in my nostrils. I looked around confused and annoyed for a sympathetic face that echoed my sentiments that this guy was up to no good. I made oversized hand gestures and said "what the fuck are you doing?" in an attempt to make him uncomfortable. My efforts went unnoticed so I woke Jennifer and we set off to find a hotel room for the next two nights so that this event wouldn't have to be repeated. We called some numbers and found open arms at a cozy little Ryokan, (Japanese style hotel), near the station. The Yuhara Inn is a family owned Ryokan named after the matriarch, a hunched old lady that talks in the most whispy high-pitched grandma voice I've ever heard. I thought her rather adorable until she pointed to the sign indicating the 10:30pm curfew, after which I saw her as a killjoy old bat. We weren't able to check into our rooms until after 3pm but they agreed to keep our bags so we wearily set out into the city for our first day of sight seeing.
The first order of business was to conquer a four hour walking tour. Thanks to our creepy train station stalker we got an early start at about 9am. Thinking that despite our fatigue we would at least beat the crowds we made our way from the station area to Southeast Kyoto and the start of the walking tour. The sun was ablaze and I instantly regretted my lack of foresight in bringing sunscreen. We crossed the main river that bisects the city, the Kamo-gawa, and found ourselves instantly emersed in what all of the travel books describe as being classic Kyoto. We wound our way through small streets, among quintessential Japanese houses with their flower boxes overflowing with flowers so colorful and aromatic I found myself stunned at the contrast this quaint and aesthetic city was to Seoul. The first stop on the walking tour was one of the MANY buddhist temples in Kyoto. Kiyomizu-dera is a sprawling temple at the top of a rather steep and narrow hill that acted as a funnel for the hoards of Japanese tourists and the two white girls making the ascent. The temple consisted of a number of different gates, shrines, prayer halls, statues, and bellfrys nestled in the rolling and overwhelmingly lush and green surroundings of the hills. I say that the green was overwhelming because when we got to the top I couldn't stop exclaiming how green it was. I was very near freaking out about the different shades of green I was seeing in the trees. Noticing that Jennifer seemed less than whelmed I took off my sunglasses to get a better look, at which point the colors dimmed from the high res megapixels I was seeing to something a little more standard.
The book mentioned a strange attraction within Kiyomizu-dera that they "don't want to tell you too much about... as it will take away from the experience." It said that by entering the hall you figuratively pass through the womb of the Daizuigu Bosatsu, a Bodhisattva with the powers to grant any human wish. Although I woudn't mind the power to grant any human wish, I'm not sure how I fould feel about having hundreds of people pay a buck to tromp through my womb every day. Anyway, our curiosities peaked we paid our due, were given a bag for our shoes and descended the cold stone stairs into the darkness. Now when I say darkness I really mean pitch ass blackness because that's just what it was. I have never been in such utter lightlessness in my life, except perhaps for the last time I found myself in someone's womb. I walked through what felt like an ever-enclosing tunnel with an icy cold floor by running my hand over a rope encircled by closely spaced wooden balls. The darkness was so thick and enveloping that I felt as though I was being crushed by it. I found myself ducking and bending over in avoidance of what surely must an ever-shortening roof and closing walls until I stopped and reached my hand straight up over my head and into the thick of it. Fully expecting to graze my hands along the ceiling of this space I was shocked when my fingers danced around in nothingness in all directions. I have no idea how big the space was but it felt like it was touching me on all sides and that I would certainly get stuck in it at some point. The coldness of the floor and the collapsing feeling of the darkness was such a surreal feeling that I did in fact feel as though I could be in some giant womb. With my eyes peeled back as far as the would go I followed the wooden balls, which started to feel more and more like someone's bowels until my by now enormous pupils detected a shred off light. The light was cast over a giant stone wheel in the center of this cavern. The myth says that you rotate the wheel 90 degrees while making a wish and it will come true. We emerged from the depths of this womb back into the flooding sunshine of Kyoto.
We continued along the walking tour through some of Japan's oldest streets. Kyoto was the political capital of Japan off and on for most of history. It wasn't until 1869 that the capital moved to Edo, present day Tokyo. Although the political powerhouses have moved North, Kyoto remains the cultural epicenter of Japan and it is believed that due to the efforts of the U.S. scholar Langdon Warner in conjunction with the importance of the cultural heritage at stake, Kyoto was thankfully spared during the bombings of WWII.
Weary from our lack of sleep and the first half of the 5k walking tour, we indulged in a jaunt around some of the most historic parts of Kyoto's southeastern neighborhood in a rickshaw. I lacked confidence when I caught sight of our scrawny little driver. I tried to convince him that American girls were built differently than Japanese geisha and that he should by no means strain himself but he hoisted us up effortlessly and started jogging up and down hills and around corners. He did stop at one point to take a rest but I didn't blame him, it was friggin' hot out and there's no way I'd be lugging any foreign heffers and all of their tour guides and camera equipment around anywhere.
Finding ourselves not fully rested after the rickshaw ride we decided to take a rest in Maruyama-koen, a lush park with coy-filled ponds, cherry trees, weeping lilac trees and butterflies. We made a bee-line for the shady covering of three lilac trees whose branches intertwined to make a massive shelter under which to sit. The smell was intoxicating and combined with the coolness of the shade and the bench on which I sat, made a perfect spot for an afternoon slumber.
After some much needed rest, a shower and some dinner we ended our first official day in Kyoto just before 10:30. I've always stuck to my curfew.
