Kyoto, Golden palace, and more

June 9, 2013

We all got up bright and early and left the apartment at 7:30 to catch the local train to Nagoya Station and then catch the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. We were hoping to all get seats together but it’s a little hit or miss when you don’t reserve seats, and reserved seats are of course more expensive. We did manage to get seats together and the seats are sweet because you can turn around a bank of seats so they are facing each other (just like in all the vans here). We had bought some snacks in the station to eat on the train and enjoyed the passing countryside.

We got to Kyoto at about 9:30 and decided to get day passes for the subway and busses because many of the attractions aren’t close to subway stations and we didn’t want to do more walking than necessary (we still did ALOT of walking). It was nice having Naoya along to do all the talking whenever we needed help or directions; he also did all the navigating around the city. All the places we wanted to visit were of course very far from each other, and having to take the bus to get to them really slowed us down. Also, the maps of Kyoto we got at the tourist info booth made everything seem deceptively close. We decided to start at the top of the map and visit the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. When we got off the bus we finally found some vending machines with something other than beverages and cigarettes, but it was only electronics and nothing exciting like hot dogs (although the Japanese seem to love their hot dogs because you can get prepackaged ones at all the convenience stores and off the McDonald’s breakfast menu, I might have to buy one before this trip is over).

 Because it was a Sunday the Golden Pavilion was super busy and there were a bunch of school groups there. One group asked if they could interview us for their English class, they asked us questions like “where are you from?” and “do you like Japanese food?” and they took a picture with us. I also had a random guy ask me if he could take a picture with me. At first I thought he wanted me to take his picture in front of the pavilion because he was by himself, so I did that and then he said he wanted a picture with me in it. I figured what the heck but Jen thought it was super creepy. Of course because the pavilion is a tourist attraction there were lots of booths selling souvenirs and treats. Kyoto is known for its Yatsuhashi, which is a sweet dessert made of rice flour, sugar and cinnamon and filled with red bean paste, and all the booths had samples, so we sampled our way towards the exit. There were also samples for different flavoured nuts and they had the best wasabi nuts ever (totally regret not buying any). Jen made sure she picked up a Hello Kitty pen. I didn’t know this, but Hello Kitty has regional products that you can only buy in certain cities. So for example, you can only get a Hello Kitty pen with the Kitty and the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto and nowhere else. Jen has quite a little collection of regional Hello Kitty Pens.

Our next stop was Nijo Castle. We were able to walk through the castle which was still original and see all the different reception rooms and the beautifully painted walls. 

We had to take off our shoes to walk through the castle and there were signs everywhere that pictures and video were not allowed, but I took a couple pictures anyways (without flash of course). Like other castles in Japan, Nijo has floors that squeak as you walk across them by design so that ninjas couldn’t sneak in. Besides the castle there were many gardens to walk through and a viewpoint to survey the surrounding area.

By the time we finished at Nijo it was probably around 12:30 or 1:00 and we were all pretty hungry and ready to sit and rest for a while. We went to a restaurant that Naoya had been to before where instead of ordering with the waitress, you go to a vending machine and put in your money and press the button that corresponds with the meal you want and the waitress just delivers it. It was pretty efficient because you don’t have to wait for your bill, you just leave when you are finished (also there is no tipping here). 

I think the main reason Naoya wanted to go to this particular restaurant is because they have all you can eat rice; apparently last time Jen and Naoya ate there he went overboard with the rice and felt sick, so he promised to be more careful this time. He still ate 3 bowls of rice and probably would have eaten more if everyone else weren’t already finished their meals.

As I mentioned earlier, it wasn’t very easy to get around Kyoto and we wasted lots of time waiting for transit. Because of this we knew that we weren’t going to have time to see all the things we wanted to see (Kyoto is definitely a 2-day minimum destination). Instead of going to more temples we decided to hike up a mountain and see snow monkeys. So we ventured back across town and hiked up a winding trail (which was pretty tiring considering we had been walking all day and all week, also it was hot). 

Side note: Japanese women are crazy and don’t know the meaning of the words “appropriate footwear”; 

 

we saw several women wearing high heels (some stilettos) walking up the hill, which was quite rocky and uneven in some places and (of course because we weren’t in Canada) there were literally no hand/guard rails of any kind stopping you from slipping and flying off the edge of the train and down the mountain side.

Anyways, we did make it to the top and there were monkeys everywhere! We also lucked out because we happened to be there during the baby season, so there were lots of baby monkeys running around and play fighting with each other (it was so cute, I could have watched the babies play all day).

There was also a feeding room where you could buy monkey snacks for 100 yen and feed the monkeys through a wire barrier. The hungry monkeys were hanging on the outside of the wire and would stick their hand inside and take treats from you with their little monkey fingers. Of course I bought some snacks (I think it was a yam or potato or something that was cubed).

The monkeys just stuff their faces; I saw one that had 3 or 4 peanuts (whole in shell) sticking out of its mouth and he was also cramming anything else he could get in there. You aren’t supposed to touch the monkeys or look them in the eye, so of course Jen needed to be warned not to touch them more than once; she has a history of touching wild animals. It was also a really nice spot to view the city.

By the time we finished watching the monkeys monkey around it was too late to get in to see Heian Jingu shrine, so headed to Gion which is a very old area of the city and if you’re lucky you can see geisha walking around (or at least people who have paid obscene amounts of money to be geisha’d up).

 We weren’t really sure what area of Gion we should go to if we wanted to see a geisha, so Naoya stopped at a little police station to ask. The officer just laughed at him and said that Sunday is the only day that geisha don’t work, so we were unlikely to see any. We did find a street of old shops, but everything was closed by that time so we just wandered aimlessly for a while before heading back to the train station.

Along the way we saw a restaurant that specialized in fugu and had a tank of fugu next to the front door. We were trying to scare them so they would puff up, but I guess they are used to people messing with them because they just ignored us.

When we got to the train station we were all on the hunt for some food to eat on the way home, but the bento boxes were super picked over and there weren’t very many good options, until I spotted a place selling pork buns (I think that Ben could live off of pork buns and Japanese curry because that’s all he seems to want to eat); we got 2 pork buns and 6 shrimp dim sum-like things. We dove into our meal as soon as we got on the train; it came with little packets that looked like mustard but it WAS NOT mustard. I don’t know if it was a different kind of wasabi or something but it was super hot and caught us both by surprise. We are going to try and find some to bring back and feed to dad to see how red his face gets.

We got back home at about 9:30pm and everyone totally crashed. It was a really long day of walking and sightseeing, Jen and Naoya had to work the next day, and Ben and I were planning on another long day on Monday. We decided against going to Osaka since we had already seen lots of cities and decided to go to Nara instead, which has a huge park full of tame deer.