May 9 – May 13, 2016

Tokyo-Kyoto-Nara, Japan

After leaving Hokkaido, I headed back to Tokyo and KAndy for a couple of days to break up the trip to my next destination, Kyoto. I don’t remember now, why I needed to stay in Tokyo for two nights but it was fun to see Katsumi and Andy again. We watched some more Black Sails and I explored one of the giant train station malls. It was a nice, lazy couple of days. I said goodbye to KAndy once more and headed to Kyoto. It was another bullet train and it goes right past Mt. Fuji and since it was fortunately not a cloudy day I got a nice view but only a semi-adequate picture.

I arrived that afternoon in Kyoto and ended up staying in a cute little hostel called OKI’s inn.  It’s owned by a really sweet young couple that are also really interested world travel. They had recently traveled to India and told me all about it. They gave me some ideas on what to explore that afternoon so I headed out to explore the Philosopher’s Walk.   According to wikipedia…”The Philosopher’s Walk (哲学の道 Tetsugaku-no-michi, lit. Path of Philosophy) is a pedestrian path that follows a cherry-tree-lined canal in Kyoto, between Ginkaku-ji and Nanzen-ji. The route is so-named because the influential 20th-century Japanese philosopher and Kyoto University professor Nishida Kitaro is thought to have used it for daily meditation.” Unfortunately, the cherry blossoms had already fallen by the time I arrived but it was still a very peaceful walk. I don’t think I meditated much but I did visit a few of the shrines/ temples. Also I walked past a cat cafe…they’re really real.

Later that evening, I explored the streets of an area called Gion (祇園), “which is Kyoto‘s most famous geisha district. It is filled with shops, restaurants and ochaya (teahouses), where geisha and maiko (geiko apprentices) entertain” (www.japan-guide.com). Kyoto is also famous for tofu, so I went to a restaurant and tried an all tofu dinner. Yummy.

I don’t know why but for some reason, I just could not get super excited about Kyoto at the time. And it doesn’t really have anything to do with Kyoto. I think it was my state of mind. There are a lot of tourists in Kyoto and I just wanted to get away from them. So, the next day I decided to do a day trip to Nara…yeah…Nara is also super touristy…oh well. On the way I stopped to check out one of the many, many, many fancy temples around Kyoto, Fushimi Inari Taisha. The temple was truly amazing but there were a bazillion tourists there so I only stayed about 30 minutes and then headed to Nara. The doggie statues were cute.

I don’t know why I thought Nara would be less touristy…but it was still really nice.  I walked through town to get to the area with all the temples. On the way to the temples you pass a large park that has the adorable Nara deer wandering around. It seems that the deer have been trained to bow for treats…so cute! There were a lot of temples to see here. Some of the oldest in Japan. One of the most impressive was Todai-ji. “Constructed in 752 on the order of Emperor Shomu, Todaiji Temple’s Great Buddha Hall (Daibutsu-den) in Nara is the largest wooden structure in the world and houses an immense statue of Rushana Butsu, the “Cosmic Buddha.”(http://www.taleofgenji.org/seven_great_temples_nara.html). It was truly impressive but the best part was that I was able to get a hand painted stamp here. There were also adorable kids running around everywhere. I had a pretty average meal in Nara but I did get some awesome pudding…one of the top three I had in Japan.

Turtles!!

Hand painted stamp!

Yummy pudding!

Adequate soup

I returned back to Kyoto that night and went to explore the Gion district some more. I actually saw a geisha and then immediately felt really bad for her because people started following her to take pictures. Some were pretty insistent. Eventually she just ran off down the street. Poor lady. I aimlessly wandered around some of the old streets of Gion that have homes/shops that were built in the middle ages according to wikipedia and had a much more delicious yuba and soba dinner. Gion is pretty magical…a confusing mix of the past and the future.

The next day, I decided to go check out the art museum before I had to catch my next train. I ended up going the wrong way on the bus and ended up at the wrong museum but on the way I found a cute outdoor market where an indian guy had me try some sample chai, saw another beautiful canal and huge temple gates. Getting lost really is the best part of traveling…they ain’t lyin’. I eventually got back on the bus and found the right museum and got to see an amazing exhibition on the “Art of Zen”. The exhibit walked through the introduction and then the spread of zen buddhism in Japan. I was most surprised to learn that the zen buddhist monks served important roles as advisors to war generals throughout Japan’s history. I had no clue. This concluded my brief but interesting visit to Kyoto and Nara.  On to Shikoku!