July 4th (Day 8)
A trip to Kyoto
Today was the day we would make our trip to Kyoto and we got up extra early to catch the bullet train out of Tokyo. We were early enough to miss the majority of morning rush hour traffic but it was still really crowded on the local trains. We carried our luggage with us from train transfer to transfer. At each stop as we got closer to Tokyo, more commuters pushed onto the train. Soon there was some concern whether we would be able to push our way through the crowd to the door when we eventually arrived at our station. More commuters crowded in and we stacked our luggage to reduce floor space and huddled together. More and more people pushed in.
It soon was at the point where the car seemed completely full but business men outside would just put their toes in the doorway and brace themselves against the walls or ceiling around the doors to get leverage. It was very reminiscent to being in a mosh pit but without the jumping up and down. Akira tried to keep hold of his bag but was slowly being separated from it. To keep his hand on the handle he had to bend down and his face was wedged between my shoulder and someone's back. I could see women grimacing in pain and M had an elbow in her stomach and was gasping for breath. When we finally reached our stop enough people exited we were able to escape in the rush. Akira and I took some pictures of the train as it left - you can sort of get a sense of how crowded it was.
While we were packed in the car it was silent with occasional grunts from people trying to breath. I could have probably raised my arms and made space around me but most people were pinned in place like sardines. I spent a lot of time thinking about how much power these electric trains were drawing to move all these people and supply air conditioning. We heard stories of women getting molested in situations like this and being unable to move or defend themselves in the pack. To help avoid this, they have certain cars marked with pink signs that were off-limits to men during certain times of the day. Akira also mentioned problems with camera phones and men taking surreptitious upskirt photos during the ride.
Women only cars ...and signs
The world's shortest escalator. (I'm standing at the bottom) Semi-crowded train Shamara was apparently really stinky this day...
Happy businessmen go to work. The door could barely close.
In comparison to the packed commuter trains, the bullet train was total comfort. It was air conditioned and we had reserved seats. The ticket taker made an effort to point out the sites we would go by. The trip to Kyoto took about 2 hours. The train we travelled on wasn't the fastest class available and only went 200-250mph. The fastest ones can go 300 mph.
Bliss by comparison.
Our 'slower' bullet train The fastest ones had funny shaped fronts.
Akira bought me a japanese playboy and a 'Volvic' bottled water. (at least I think it was water) /Volvic, the refreshing fluid produced in france!/
Before getting on the train we had to wait while an army of maids dressed in identical pink uniforms and stretched along the platform as far as the eye could see, boarded the train at a given signal to clean up. In addition to cleaning the cars, they also turned the seats around. The bullet trains travel on a non-looped track between the two destinations. When they reach one end the seats are turned around the other way in preparation for travelling in the other direction. Before taking our seats we turned one pair around so we could face each other. The pink maids emerged from tiny doors hidden throughout the train station. The doors were half as wide as normal doors and only about waist height. We got a picture of one of these doors but it's difficult to understand how small they are without something to compare against. When we first saw one while standing on an escalator we all assumed they were oompa-loompa doors. Shortly later while taking pictures of the crowds I actually saw one of the doors in use by a pink maid and was so excited I couldn't speak straight. Gesturing and jumping up and down in front of S and A I shouted "OOMA LOOLA! POOMPA LULA! LOOMPA OOLA!"
Without someone in the picture you can't get a sense of how small this door is.. oompa loompas stretch into the distance
You don't really get a sense of your speed when travelling on the bullet train. Every time we passed another bullet train going in the opposite direction (only a few feet away) there was a 'whump!' and the cars would shudder. I wonder if China's maglev trains (that supposedly go 400mph) seem significantly faster and how it feels to pass another train travelling that fast in the opposite direction.
- Another train viewed from my comfy bullet train seat (3.7MB)
- A sense of the speed of the bullet train (10.3MB)
- Passing another bullet train while travelling at speed (7.6MB)
- As a train left the station one of the officials on the platform was required to point at it. It was a strange ritual. (21.8MB)
Arrival in Kyoto
When we arrived in Kyoto we walked directly into the hotel which was built over the train station. The entire building encompasses the hotel, the station, and a variety of shops. It was huge, very futuristic, and interesting to explore. The darkness and size of the structure made it difficult to take pictures and have them come out properly.
Walking to Higashi Honganji temple
The rooms weren't immediately ready so we left our luggage with a porter and walked down the street to a large temple. Apparently Kyoto is infested with temples, castles, and other historical landmarks. You can't walk a block without seeing some old buildings or a shrine or two. Also, connected to the train station and the temple is a vast underground mall. We had dinner and lunch there several times and did some window shopping. The software in my camera was acting up and I don't have any clear pictures from the underground.
It seemed like the women from Kyoto were more attractive than the women from other areas but I could be imagining things. Most 'available' women wore what looked like really uncomfortable high heeled shoes that made them walk funny. I also noticed a positive correlation between the light color of a womans hair and how outlandish and elevated her shoes were. Whether this was actually a side effect of the hair color wasn't clear but considering most of the light hair had been bleached that way, my guess is that it was.
The temple near the hotel was huge and consisted of two buildings; the larger of which was being renovated. They had built a building around the entire temple as a sort of scaffolding that provided protection from the rain. It was impressive.
The pictures probably tell a better story than I can. In the courtyard, they had a roof tile with a printed message asking you to guess how much it weighed. I expected it to be a lot heavier (it was painted the color of lead) but it turned out to be about seven pounds. There are 108,000 tiles on the smaller temple we entered. I tried to envision being trapped in one of these temples during an earthquake. With the beams creaking and the roof sagging you'd want to get outside but there you're likely to get conked on the head by a rain of roof tiles. It would be exciting.
Make a donation!
The refurbishing process
This temple area had the most pigeons I had seen congregated at any structure. Whenever anyone sat down they would all begin marching like an army in that direction to beg for food. Some people sat down near us and I wanted to take a movie of this pigeon march but I was running out of space and batteries on my camera. I told A to take one but he was a little late.
They have signs up telling you to take off your shoes before entering the temple. Most people just line their shoes up on the bottom step leading into the building but we carried our shoes in plastic bags to thwart shoe-thieves and had to throw the bags away (hopefully for recycling) when we were done. The temples don't use nails - everything is designed with an elaborate systems of mortices and tenons. I tried to get some pictures of the dim beams (that had been painted white) but it was too dark and my camera was having software problems activating the flash.
Togetsukyo bridge
Mieko hired a taxi driver to act as our tour guide for our entire stay in Kyoto and Nara. I didn't catch his name but he was very loquacious. I don't know how much his service cost but S said she saw a bill or 104,000 yen (which seems unreasonable even in japan) and I saw the taxi driver holding a paper notes for 86,000 yen. He first drove us out to a picturesque river keeping up a continuous stream of chatter while we looked around. There were signs advertising a monkey park nearby where visitors get into a cage and feed them through the bars but we didn't have time to check it out.
Everything is 1000 yen
Akira says; This one shows the bamboo decoration for the Tanabata holiday. There is a story about a guy and a girl that were in love but got separated Vega (the girl) and Altair (the guy) face each other separated by the Milky Way. They are allowed to meet with each other only on 7/7. And people make wishes on the stars.
Tenryuji temple
He then drove us to another temple with nice gardens and old buildings. We walked around the buildings while he chatted continuously. Behind the temple buildings there was a large coy pond and a elaborate garden with 'natural' stones that supposedly looked like buddha resting by the pond. Also in this garden were large trees with elaborate scaffolding systems used to hold up their drooping branches. They were cherry trees and I wondered how many cherries they managed to produce each year - they were huge. We were going to go inside the temple but it was decided there wasn't enough time.
Not sure what the story is behind this pot with eyeholes
Propped up cherry limbs
start of Tenryuji temple
The heron seemed like it was planted there
From the garden around the back of the coy pond
A couple of pictures showing the temple during different seasons
The bamboo driveby
After viewing the temple our driver took us down several narrow streets or sidewalks past lines of rickshaws (it was $30 for a 10min rickshaw ride) and into a bamboo forest. The forest was really interesting. There are no branches and the canopy coverage above is complete and glows lime green. Underneath there is just a unbroken flat forest floor covered with dead leaves. We had time to take a few pictures then were sped off to the next site.
The rock garden at Ryuanji temple
The next temple had a building with a roof that was sagging alarmingly. Our guide explained this had happened during the last big earthquake and they had to install four pillars to help prop it up further. Our guide also explained that the large Buddha resting far back in the darkness of the temple had been manually carried out six times in the past when the structure had caught fire.
The next temple location was known for it's rock garden. There was a small model of the garden inside that was meant for the blind to understand how the rocks were situated outside. Much was made about these 15 rocks in the garden and how you can't see all of them from a single position. Our guide told a stupid story about only being able to count all the rocks in the garden with your inner eye. I didn't seem to have a problem counting them all but maybe I cheated by turning my head. We stared at the gravel for a long time but instead of finding inner peace I began to suspect it was all a joke designed to trick foreign tourists. I could imagine the guys in the back taking bets on how many pictures they could make the foreigner take of their gravel bed.
Explaining irrational things
start of Ryuanji temple Wait! I can't take a picture of all 15 rocks! It must be supernatural!
The pond at this temple complex was very pretty
One of the temples we visited had a large painting of a frowning? enlightened? confused? bust in the doorway. Despite the ambiguity I liked the style and was ripped off later when I bought a postcard at the souvenir shop nearby. After making my purchase we jumped in the taxi and drove to the next spot.
All the temples we visited had a 300-1000 yen entrance fee and many had restrictions on taking photographs.
Kinkakuji temple (The gold temple)
Next we drove across town to the golden temple. It's coated in 20kg of gold leaf and designed to reflect in the pond built up to it's edge. Gold leaf is nice but it's hard to get to lay flat and the entire structure wasn't quite as shiny as you'd expect. Our tour guide explained it was rebuilt in the 50's after a monk working there burned it down. He mentioned that the monks mother committed suicide to atone for her son's sins. When they rebuilt it afterwards they used more gold and did a better job.
Following the path around and up the hill a bit was another picturesque pond with a small island and a stone marker that had been put in place in memory of a white snake accidentally killed there.
A bell outside the golden temple
start of Kinkakuji temple
I liked the small islands with trees
A rock that resembles (?) a koi climbing a waterfall
In memory of a white snake accidentally killed here
Just $3000 for a golden chicken?! I'm so there!
It was 5:00 and they were closing down when we left and drove back to the hotel. Mieko was really tired and retreated immediately to her room. We spent some time wandering around. At one end of the train station there was a large series of steps and an escalator. Shamara took the escalators and A and I marched up all the steps. My legs were burning and felt rubbery at the top.
It quickly grew too dark to take effective pictures but we spent more time wandering through various skyways and odd courtyards filled with strange sculptures and architectural oddities. (see above)
We returned to the underground mall to eat dinner and bought some sandwiches to take back to M in her room. I was out of cash and though I still had my credit card it was awkward for purchasing small items. I had asked A whether it was possible to get cash back at one of these shops and he said he was pretty sure it wasn't an option. The concept of getting cash back at a store or shop is alien to Japanese people. Apparently they just go to the bank often and carry lots of cash. At S's insistence he tried asking the young woman selling us sandwiches whether it was possible to get cash back. She looked like we had kindly asked her to if she'd like to be mugged and explained with wide eyes that she could only charge the amount shown on the little calculator she was using to ring up the transactions.
I would really like a refreshing 'Melon Soda Froat' right about now... Or a gourmet beef cutret club house
Although it had gotten dark, it was still very hot and humid so before bringing back the sandwiches we decided to walk down to the hotel pool and check it out. The pool is located on the third floor and was advertised for use by people 20+ years old only. It was set down a posh hallway past a series of conference rooms filled with businessmen. The pool area itself was behind a glass door and had a receptionist. We spent some time outside the door discussing and eventually decided it was too fancy to investigate. Considering the age limit and fanciness I wondered if it was more of a public bath than a pool.
When A gave M her sandwich he told her that she was doing things too fast and it would be better to visit less places but spend more time looking at each one.
