Kyoto

With little snafus, my group made their way to LAX and boarded the United Flight to Tokyo. Our little group was scattered throughout the plane, couple of us was in business class, one in economy plus, and rest in economy. I snucked back to the other sections of the plane to give my friends the little alcohol bottles and ghiradelli chocolates. I've never been to Japan (if you don't count the number of layovers through Narita in my previous travels). Went through customs and got my first Japanese visa stamp. True to the stereotype, even the visas are 'advanced.' No stamps, stickers with some type of barcode. Got to the train station easily enough. I have to admit, mass transit is easy in Japan. Took a bullet train to Kyoto, it reminded me of a very upscale and cleaner version of the Amtrak system. After getting into the Kyoto station, we traversed miles of stairs both up and down to get to the subway station to get to our Ryokan. I was initially worried that our late arrival would leave us alone in the terminals but it seems that the Japanese never sleep. We slumped into our ryokan around 11 pm after almost walking past the entrance. Ryokans are almost like bed and breakfast plus hostel. The more upscale Ryokans are known for their cuisines and elaborate traditional architecture. Being on a long vacation, I choose a more budget oriented ryokan. As typical of ryokans, the pubic bath facilities is gym like where all the showers are in one room sans stalls. There is a huge hot bath tub for people to lounge after their shower. In general, the group seemed to take a fancy to the communal bath facilities. Luckily, we had a private toilet room in our room. Of course, being an American, using the 'facilities' can be an interesting adventure. I've never seen so much electronics connected to a toilet. Automatic seat warmer, bidet, sprayer combo plus an interesting way of filling the tank water. I wonder what would happen to Japan if electricity became extinct in this country.


On a bright note, I'm happy to have free internet access even if only in the lobby.

Walked around Kyoto the first day. I was ignorant of the bus system so we walked the entire day from one temple or historic site to another. The combination of humidity, heat, and foot traffic nearly killed us all. Nijo castle was pretty cool, I think the guys decided that their future compounds should mirror the estate. We also attempted to see the Imperial Palace and didn't realize that visits are by appointment only. My brother nearly got us arrested. Apparently, there are sensors/cameras around the exterior gates and the security guards didn't like the fact that: 1) my brother pretended cross the walls by squeezing through a cutaway in the wall and 2) where he touched the main gate and posed himself as climbing up the gate. Security was on us within 15 minutes telling us to get out of town.... Ok, not out of town but we got the message to not touch the building. Ironically, the security focused on giving us warnings through the one person in the group completely uninvolved with the whole incident. As far as food, I have been very impressed with the quality. I've been told that the mochi is very good here and I heartily agree. Tried a variety of mochi desserts and I'll never be able to eat them the same in LA. Even the quality of the red beans is different. In the Nishiki market, came across a place that specialized in mochi.
There was an open kitchen area visible from the outside and they were very dutiful in the making of mochi. There was rythmic chanting and a big mallet. I know it sounds wierd, if I get the time I'll upload the video. Visited a McDonald and was slightly disappointed. The pies were fried but the filling option is apple only and it was ok. It also seems that Kyoto is very noodle oriented as most of our meals have consisted of ramen. Tasty, I would definitely say that Kyoto is makes good dough! The second day of Kyoto, we decided to take mass transit as much as possible since we were all tired of walking. From the trusty Lonely Planet guide, went back to Kyoto station via subway to only discover we could have taken the buses from our hotel door. Hehe, luckily the subway was only $2, not too bad for a rookie mistake. The city buses are very easy to use and runs quite often. Even the system map was easy to figure for a foreigner. Sometimes I wonder if LA well ever get to the point where a convenient and logical mass transit system will be in place.
We took off with the plan of visiting four temples. A very ambitious plan and succeeded in visiting two temples. Visited the Ginkaku-Ji compound and Nanzen-Ji temple. Both sites were very impressive, alot of history and the level of preservation is quite high. One of my friends mentioned how they saw no litter, no graffitti, etc. Makes me wonder why I always see cigarette butts in Hawaii (a favorite Japanese destination). On our final day in Kyoto, visited the Kiyomizu and Kinkakuji temples. Both are impressive but I liked Kiyomizu more. It was a bigger compound and, although surrounded by alot of commercial stores, seemed to be livelier and prettier than the other temple. Kyoto is a very pretty city - from the shrines and temples to the general neighborhoods - makes me wonder what Tokyo will bring.