But for now I will restrain myself and write about my trip to Kyoto. *cracks knuckles*
I did add a lot of pictures, so most people (*cough* everyone but me) can just look at those and skip the text if they feel so inclined. I hope you're not using dial-up~
As previously mentioned, we were using the Seishun Tickets, which are basically unlimited-riding passes for 24-hours on JR lines (but only the two slowest classes of these). For ￥2300 each, they are the cheapest way to travel between Tokyo and Kansai this time of year.
So, we had a laid-back eight hours or so sitting on trains, reading, chatting, dozing, eating 駅弁 (my first time eating on a train), and getting off to change trains every couple hours or so.
The last stretch, the hour and half or so outside Kyoto, was my favorite. The forecast had said rain, but it had been clear most of the day, and we were hoping the whole time that it wouldn't start, but, finally, as we got into Kansai, it did. The sky was gray but not dark, and the clouds scattered and blurred the light so that it didn't seem to be coming from any distinct angle. Also, that train was one with many small benches for two that face one another, rather than the two long benches alone the sides of the car and standing room between, as I usually ride in Tokyo. Because of that, maybe, and because there were fewer doors, which were spaced further apart (also a consequence of the train being used in a different way - not as much need to get so many people on and off quickly), there was a lot of window area, and the inside of the car seemed unusually bright. The scenery was also particularly nice. It was peaceful and very non-Tokyo as the train cut across the rice fields there, with just a little bit of rain on the windows.
One unexpected moment for me was when I heard the conductor announce that the next stop was Hikone. Hikone (not to be confused with Hakone, where I took a trip with AIKOM and a bunch of TouDaiSei and sensei last month) is a sister-city of Ann Arbor, my home town. I applied for an exchange program there when I was in middle school (though I probably never got very close to going). It's also where one of the UM programs is, and where I think a casual friend of mine from high school (and a couple classes my first year of uni) is studying right now. It was kind of strange to watch the town go by and try to imagine what it would have been like to be there instead of Tokyo.
When we got into Kyoto we bought umbrellas, and then Miyamoto went to stop by Tou-ji (one of the bigger tourist temples in the city, a world heritage site, which the high school he went to is inside of), to see if he could get in (it was almost 5 - pretty late for temples) and see anyone he knew. I went off to look for hotel. At first I didn't see it, but I did come upon a temple that was very impressive from the outside. It turned out to be Higashi-Hongan-ji, but it was closed for the day, so I just walked around outside the outer walls a bit, looking. I then went back and did find my hotel, but it was almost time to meet Joon Woo and Miyamoto for dinner, so I went back to the station. Another curious thing happened somewhere in there, however. While consulting the map of Kyoto that Miyamoto and I had gotten at the tourist information center in the station, I happened to see, because it was very near where I thought my hotel was supposed to be, marked on it (very small, and among a thousand other things), the Consortium of Universities in Kyoto Campus Plaza. If I didn't get into TouDai, that was where I almost certainly would have gone. It was my second choice, and where, for the space of an afternoon or so last year, I thought I would be going after getting a confusing email. So that was a little weird, right after Hikone. All these could-have-beens I didn't expect to encounter. Of course, Kyoto was in fact my second choice, and TouDai my first, so it's not a regret at all, just kind of curious. And though Hikone is great for people like the friend I mentioned who's there, who don't speak Japanese, it wasn't what I wanted whatsoever. For that matter, I can't even say Hikone in Japanese; it always comes out jumbled or as Hikoni on my first try.
We had dinner at a restaurant in the station complex, which was very enjoyable, and even included some (a little) "Kyoto food". Afterward we split up and I went to my hotel. I checked in, and was shown to my capsule. I have to say, I liked it. At maybe ￥500 more per night than an average hostel, I had a locker and a personal space (well, a screen that completely closed me off visually, if not audibly). It was really as much space as I needed. And, no surprise, although the "room" was not more comfortable than my room in Mitaka Dorm, the bed (...which pretty much was the room, anyway) was much more comfortable than my bed in Mitaka Dorm. It was still not very late, so I had some time. I finished the manga I'd brought with me (it ended on a cliffhanger, too - why didn't I buy more before leaving? D+) and started on the copy of The Little Prince (in Japanese, so actually 星の王子様） which was hard and involved a lot of dictionary action (I was shocked by how many non-common-use kanji were in this ~children's novel), but was entertaining nonetheless. I slept deeply.
 Kyoto Tower |  A small gate of Higashi-Hongan-Ji |  Inside the capsule, looking toward my feet |  ...And looking the other way. |
The next morning I got into contact with Wu Di, who, with Chen Ken and Yang Rui, got into Tokyo on the night bus around seven am. They were exhausted and went to rest, however. Miyamoto had gone to his home near Osaka for the night, so took some time to get back to Kyoto, and then went to his high school again for a couple hours. I ate a konbini breakfast and set out for some nearby landmarks that I could reach on foot, the nearest being two world heritage sites, Nishi-Hongan-Ji and Tou-Ji. It was still raining steadily.
Nishi-Hongan-Ji was first. My basic impression of it was that it was デカイ. Big. Like Higashi-Hongan-Ji (to which it's closely related), it takes up more than half a block, with walls and a small moat all around the perimeter of the temple complex. But more than that, the main buildings were just enormous. There wasn't really that much to see, some of it was being worked on, and there was some kind of private event in one of the main buildings, so I couldn't enter. Still, there was very impressive atmosphere about the place. Old, and silent, and not the most popular among tourists, I guess, as there were about five people in the whole, enormous area. The rain was also keeping some people away, I guess.
 Outer wall and moat of Nishi-Hongan-Ji |  Half of one of the main halls |  A roofed passage connecting buildings |  I liked the guys holding up this water basin. |
When I'd had my fill, I went off to the more famous Tou-Ji, with it's five-storied pagoda. As Wikipedia says,
The pagoda of Tō-ji stands 54.8 m high, and is the tallest wooden tower in Japan. It dates from the Edo Period, when it was rebuilt by order of the thir Tokugawa Shogun Iemitsu. The pagoda has been, and continues to be, a symbol of Kyoto.
The grounds were quite nice as well, and my favorite was two halls from the 14th century housing bronze statues from the 8th and 9th centuries. Tokyo just kept burning down over time, notably burning pretty much entirely in WWII, so there aren't a lot of actual old buildings here, though the old temples were rebuilt on the same ancient sites. So Kyoto, which has seen relatively little fire, was very impressive in that regard (of course, it goes without saying that I've never seen a lot of very old things or buildings in the US). In the case of Tou-Ji too, of course, the temple was actually established in 796, apparently near were Rashou-mon stood.
 Tou-ji pagoda from afar. |  Pagoda with sakura. |  One of the 14th-century lecture halls |
After that, I met up with Miyamoto, and we set about finding lunch. We went looking for an obanzai buffet we'd heard of. Obanzai being traditional home food of the area, it seemed like a very appropriate thing to do while visiting. When we got there we found that they were closed every Wednesday and Thursday (wat), and since it was a Wednesday, we were out of luck. However, decently nearby was another obanzai buffet, which we ate at, and which was excellent.
After that, we headed toward Kiyomizu-dera, another very famous temple and world heritage site. The way up to it was quite interesting, lined with tons of little shops up the sloping street. Kyoto is pretty much surrounded on all sides by mountains, and many of the temples, including Kiyomizu, are on the slopes of the mountains facing the city. Kiyomizu-dera itself was (and remains) the most memorable temple I've been to. The buildings were beautiful, the view back over the city was great, the sakura were starting to bloom (although it was still raining, of course)... We even drank water from "one of the most famous springs in Japan" from silver cups. The entire complex was just gorgeous.
 Me in front of Kiyomiza-dera's second gate |  Miyamoto on the way up the steps to the temple |  Looking back at the main building and the city below |  Looking up from near the spring we drank from |
Afterward we walked back down the street, eating free samples of yatsuhashi (a famous food product of Kyoto, sold absolutely everywhere there might be tourists, which is everywhere) and drinking free tea along the way, which was pleasantly warm in the cold damp weather. We sort of wandered north a bit, considering going to Koudai-ji, but eventually stopping by Yasaka-Jinja instead. It was there, at that fairly pretty and large shrine, that Miyamoto taught me (when I asked) the word 朱色 (something like "vermilion"), which became my favorite word (saying something, since I'm studying a lot of words per day right now). It's the name of the color of the red-orange color so prominent on many shrines and temples, the usual color of torii, the red gates at shrines, and a color I've really liked since coming to Japan.
Afterward we were contemplating where to go (so different from Joon Woo and his finely-detailed battle plan of a daily schedule, checking off destinations as he goes), and decided on Sanjuusangen-dou, which was one of a handful of places I definitely wanted to go in Kyoto this time, no matter what. So, we walked across Gion to a station, and went down to it.
Sanjuusangen-dou was another of my favorite places. I don't know if there's much to see at the temple besides the main attraction, but we didn't really look. The main attraction is a very large sculpture of the Thousand-armed Kannon, and, surrounding it, 28 statues that are all national treasures of Japan of other dieties, as well as one thousand life-sized sculptures of the Thousand-Armed Kannon. A thousand. Life-sized. All carved from wood (and covered with metal) by hand in the 11th and 12th centuries. And all with differing facial expression and hand gestures. They were lined up all along this huge hall... It was really stunning. In fact, when after a huge section of them that went on and on, I thought we'd gone past them all when we got to the main single sculpture (much bigger than life-size), and I realized we were only halfway.
It was of course forbidden to take photos inside, but I yanked some from the internet (that I'm using without permission, in the spirit of completeness).
 Plaza at Yasaka-Jinja |
|  A thousand life-sized, hand-made, unique statues |
After that, Miyamoto went back to his home in Osaka. He'd come home from Tokyo in large part, I guess, to guide us (or at least me) in our/my tourism, but was apparently told to eat at home with his family at least one night. XD Reasonable enough.
I walked down shijou from around the middle of the city toward Gion. I ended up with some extra time before I was to meet Joon Woo and Team China for dinner, so I walked to the nearby Kennin-ji, mostly because it was nearby. I didn't know it until I got there, but it was (or claims to be) the oldest Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, founded by Eisai, who is said to have introduced Zen to Japan. It was very pretty and atmospheric, and also pretty deserted. Kennin-ji and Nishi-Hongan-Ji were really the only places I visited that weren't swarming with tourists (aside from a small amount of swarming I did myself). The buildings were all closed for the day, but the grounds were open, so I wandered around, and also up a neat little street to a five (?) storied pagoda that seemed nearly as large as Tou-Ji's, but which I'm not 100% sure belonged to Tennin-ji (pretty sure, though).
After we all met up, we found ourselves between Gion, a very expensive but historic and interesting district, and a cheaper district with an atmosphere more like, as Joon-Woo put it, "around kichijouji station." We decided to try our luck with Gion. The weird thing in Gion was that the streets were really empty. Perhaps because most the restaurants serve only a couple customers per night. We did see what was probably a bonified geisha walking down the street, though (Gion is known for being the place to go to maybe see them). Finally we found a fairly reasonably-priced restaurant that Joon-Woo had even heard of in his famous-foods-of-Kyoto research, so we went there and has the unagi, which it was (apparently... maybe) known for, and it was pretty good.
After that it was back to the capsule, and this time almost straight to sleep.
 A deserted path at Kennin-ji |  Street leading up to Kennin-ji's (?) pagoda |  A pretty spot in Gion: a canal crossed by little bridges and flanked by sakura and restaurants. |
The next day I was to meet Team China at Kinkaku-ji first thing int he morning, with Miyamoto joining us just a little later (since it takes a while to get to Kyoto, especially northern Kyoto, from his home). At this point it had not yet ceased to rain the entire trip, and this day was colder, though Miyamoto said in a text that it was supposed to stop raining later. I had another konbini breakfast, eating it while hiding from the rain under a ledge at the entrance to Kinkaku-ji while waiting for the girls. When they arrived, we went in.
It was fairly impressive. I should say, Kinkaku-ji literally means something like "Temple of the Golden Pavillion," and is the temple's popular name, not its official name. As that name suggests, the temple is famous for its pavilion that is coated entirely in gold leaf. In the rain it was pretty, though there was some sense that it might be better to see it shining in the sun. The grounds were also among the nicest I've been to.
 Kinkaku-ji and its pond. |  A bowl (filled with rainwater) at Kinkaku-ji that people tried to throw coins into. |  Yang Rui trying her best. |
After that, we went to the nearby Ryouan-ji, where we met with Miyamoto. Ryouan-ji is most famous for its rock garden, built/arranged in the 15th century. Again, being from the non-East-Coast-US, where there aren't exactly a ton of things very old and continuous (that is, still on their original site, and, as in the case of the rock garden and its walls, not even particularly restored), it was pretty interesting. We sat and pondered it for a little while, then walked around the grounds, which were, again, quite beautiful, including a large pond and a lot of really pretty landscaping.
 Walking on the grounds of Ryouan-ji. |  Part of the famous rock garden. |  More Ryouan-ji grounds. |  Pond at Ryouan-ji |
We then had lunch at the obanzai buffet that was closed the day before (I don't know why it was open this day), which was alright, though not as good as the previous day's, I think. Afterward we headed to the opposite end of the city to see Fushimi-Inari-Taisha, which is famous not for the shrine itself, but for the mountain behind the shrine, on which are thousands and thousands of torii (the vermilion gates at shrines I mentioned before), all gifts from individuals and businesses around Japan.
We didn't have time for the full course up the mountain behind the shrine, through the winding tunnels of torii, but we went up a little ways. It certainly made quite an impression. In the cold, misty weather (it did finally stop raining by this point), it was even a little creepy sometimes in those long tunnels. Definitely another place I really liked and want to go back to with more time when I get the chance.
 The entrance to the torii passages |  |  Miyamoto and Chen Ken inside a torii tunnel. |  On these ema you could not only write on one side, but draw a fox face on the other. |
A torii tunnel from the outside.
Finally we headed to Nijou-jou, to see it at night, because it was in the middle of a special light-up event lasting a few weeks. It was fun to go with everyone, and we all drank hot vending-machine drinks and looked at the sparsely-blooming sakura (still too early, there), but it wasn't too impressive. The area within the inner moat was entirely closed off, so we pretty much just saw the grounds, which were alright but not exceptional. At the end there was a little area with vendors' booths set up, where Miyamoto and I sampled sake (I always feel awkward accepting samples when I know I won't buy, but not Miyamoto, I guess XD) and the girls bought soba-flavored ice cream, despite the cold.
Finally, we met up with Joon Woo and, surprisingly, Keisuke, who had gotten in from Tokyo just before (his hometown being Kobe, which is fairly nearby to Kyoto). We all had shabu-shabu/sukiyaki (my favorite of all Japanese cuisine). Because it was all-you can eat, we ate mostly meat, of course. XD It was pretty fantastic. I can't remember too much of dinner conversation, except to say that Joon Woo talks and talks like none other when he's had a drink, and my listening comprehension of his Korean-accented Japanese only goes down. XD It was a great meal, though. If I had more money I would eat sukiyaki so often, and get all kinds of cancer and salmonella from red meat and raw eggs. It would be worth it.
 A pretty gate at Nijou-jou |  Nijou-jou inner moat |  Getting ready for sukiyaki and shabushabu |
Afterward I had a somewhat hurried trip to the station (I didn't realize how far we were, I guess). And... Well, see the previous entry.
When I realized that another seishun ticket (riding trains all day for dirt cheap) wasn't going to work, I contemplated staying in Kyoto for the day and getting a night bus back to Tokyo (a cheap hotel room and another night bus ticket would probably not be more expensive than a shinkansen ticket). But, by that point it was very late, which meant finding accommodation (this is Japan) would be hard, and I also did kind of want to get back to Tokyo to study, lame though that is. So, the next day, feeling pretty terrible from having gotten no sleep, I investigated options for getting back to Tokyo, but ultimately just bought a shinkansen ticket, despite the price. Getting to my bed (hard though it is) in Mitaka at 9:30 am, was worth it.
A few closing remarks, since I don't think I've really worked these in elsewhere:
- Kyoto is a much easier city to navigate than Tokyo!
- Kyoto has an amazing number of foreigners (presumably mostly tourists)! It makes me more aware of how few there are even in Tokyo.
- Going with Miyamoto was great! Besides very materially guiding me around, as in showing me the way and helping me navigate, he constantly told me all kinds of things about the area and stories and history connected to it. And, more than anything else, despite his high level of English, he patiently talked with me in Japanese the whole time. Despite my constant difficulty in understanding and difficultly in saying what I wanted to say. In that, he was a true saint.
When I realized that another seishun ticket (riding trains all day for dirt cheap) wasn't going to work, I contemplated staying in Kyoto for the day and getting a night bus back to Tokyo (a cheap hotel room and another night bus ticket would probably not be more expensive than a shinkansen ticket). But, by that point it was very late, which meant finding accommodation (this is Japan) would be hard, and I also did kind of want to get back to Tokyo to study, lame though that is. So, the next day, feeling pretty terrible from having gotten no sleep, I investigated options for getting back to Tokyo, but ultimately just bought a shinkansen ticket, despite the price. Getting to my bed (hard though it is) in Mitaka at 9:30 am, was worth it.
A few closing remarks, since I don't think I've really worked these in elsewhere:
- Kyoto is a much easier city to navigate than Tokyo!
- Kyoto has an amazing number of foreigners (presumably mostly tourists)! It makes me more aware of how few there are even in Tokyo.
- Going with Miyamoto was great! Besides very materially guiding me around, as in showing me the way and helping me navigate, he constantly told me all kinds of things about the area and stories and history connected to it. And, more than anything else, despite his high level of English, he patiently talked with me in Japanese the whole time. Despite my constant difficulty in understanding and difficultly in saying what I wanted to say. In that, he was a true saint.
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