Kyoto-Day 1

This weekend, the three of us took a trip to Kyoto. This trip was required as part of our Japan trip, so most of it had already been paid for. Kyoto, in central Japan, is about 3 hours away from where we are in Chiba. It used to be the capital of Japan before the Emperor moved over this way to Tokyo. The city still has a lot of historical sites and traditions.

To get there we got to ride the Shinkansen or the "bullet train"as its usually called because of how fast it is (over 500 mph according to Wikipedia!). We woke up very early on Thursday morning so Keiko could take us to the train station. I was happy that Keiko came with us to help us buy tickets for the Shinkansen because I probably would have been extra confused with it being so early and so we didn't have to bike to the station. For breakfast, Keiko offered to buy us sandwiches at the train station. The sandwiches at the shop she picked out did not look appetizing at all, but we are were polite and picked out something. To our surprise and relief they were actually really good! Mine was sort of a barbecue pork sandwich, which probably isn't a great breakfast, but it hit the spot anyway.

The ride on the Shinkansen was very smooth so it didn't feel like it was going as fast as it supposedly was. It felt like an airplane ride; it was smooth and there were tray tables, a drink/snack cart, reclining seats, etc. I slept for most of the ride and finished reading The Hiding Place, which is a moving piece of Holocaust literature for all you readers out there! Here's the speedy little train!

We arrived in Kyoto mid-morning and set off walking to our hotel. It took us a little longer than it should have to find it because we went out the wrong side of the train stations (oops!) and there aren't very many street signs in Japan. We weren't able to check in until 1:30, so we left our bags there and set off to find some lunch. Mike, Lori and I poked around some of the streets close by and finally found a small sushi place on a side street. It was owned by a man and his wife and had pictures and flags from countries all over the world on it. Our lunch was delicious; the man didn't give us menus but offered us a platter of several different kinds of fish over rice and rice and fish rolled up in seaweed, a large bowl of steaming soup, and a cup of tea- all for about 700 yen! (close to $7). When we paid for our food, the woman open a box of chocolates and offered us each one. How nice!

We explored the area close to our hotel for a while and then heading back to the hotel to check in at 1:30. The room was probably a family suite because there were three beds in it; a queen sized and two twins so we each had our own. The mattress on my bed at school is not that soft, so I knew I was going to have a wonderful nights' sleep on this bed once evening came. We were each given a robe and complimentary green tea, along with many other free sample items in the bathroom, like hair ties, Q-tips, toothbrushes and toothpaste. Sweet service!

Around mid-afternoon, we walked to the nearest Subway station and rode over to Kiyomizu Temple. We had to hike up a huge hill and then several flights of stairs until we finally reached the temple area. Here are some pictures from the grounds area of the temple:

There were lots of bright orange buildings around Kyoto. The orange means something....I think it's prosperity? Possibly.

I thought these ladies might have been geishas, but they didn't have white painted faces. We tried looking for geishas later in the evening. I saw a few but was never quick enough with my camera to get a picture!

Once we reached the very top of the temple, we paid a small amount to walk around farther and see the view. It was getting close to sunset time, so we hoped we'd see some beautiful colors but it was a little too cloudy. The view of the city and the trees below us was unforgettable however. Here's some pictures!

The only cherry blossom tree in the bunch!

We stayed at Kiyomizu Temple for a while just taking pictures and enjoying the view until the sun had gone down. We wandered to a more downtown area of Kyoto and decided on an Indian restaurant for dinner. I've come to love curry while I've been here, so I ate plenty of a vegetable kind along with a huge piece on nan. It's a delicious triangular-shaped bread that's soft, doughy and perfect for dipping in curry. Yum!

After dinner, we took a cab over to Nijo Castle to see the "Spring Light-Up." I've never ridden in a cab before and I wasn't sure I could flag one down, but all I had to do was raise my arm as one drove past us! The Spring Light-Up was something we had read about on a Kyoto website and really wanted to see. Cherry blossoms are starting to come out right now and around the Castle they are lit up at night. We were coming back to the Castle the next day during the day time with our tour, so we didn't look around the buildings too much. There was one area where several little tents were set up and were serving Japanese sweets and drinks, and had full benches of happy customers. We didn't buy anything, but it did look good! And the set up of tents was very cute.

We walked for a bit until we found the garden where the trees were. Even though the blossoms weren't in full bloom, they still looked beautiful with the sparkling white lights around them. There are some things in nature that make me stop and realize how lovely God's creation is, and these trees were one of these things (even though they were lit up with man-made lights). It was very romantic and magical. Too bad I was strolling around the park with Mike and Lori instead of some good looking boy :). I tried several things on my camera, but I couldn't get a single good picture of the trees. I think Mike was able to get some on his though. While we were walking through the garden, there was a clearing in the trees that went to a moat around the castle. I realized then how much I really like castles and I made a mental note to come back to that spot to get a picture tomorrow when it was daytime!

On our way out, we heard music playing from one of the buildings and found three women playing these instruments. They all had long fingernails, which might have been special attachments, but looked real. I couldn't tell what the instruments were, but they had strings and sounded like harps. We stayed for a couple songs and enjoyed the peaceful melodies.

After the Castle, we got back on the Subway and exited at the station near our hotel. We were hoping to find a small dessert and something to drink, which we found as soon as we exited the Subway station. Inside, we had to take our shoes off and then were seated at a regular table. We looked around the restaurant and saw the traditional Japanese tables were you sit on the floor and asked if we could have one of those instead. The waiter agreed and I gave him a really overly enthusiastic "thank you." I think I've done that a lot while being here. It's kind of obnoxious.

Lori and I ordered a dessert, but we a bit surprised at what it was when we got it. Lori thought from the picture that it might be green tea ice cream with chocolate sauce and marshmallows. It was green tea ice cream, but the "chocolate" was a sweet bean sauce that's very popular in desserts and the "marshmallows" we some kind of white blob that tasted like rice. It wasn't too bad, just not what we expected! We headed back to our hotel to get some rest for the second day of our trip. We had gotten up so early that morning, walked around for hours, and stayed up late that night; I think we all were exhausted. We stayed up for bit and talked, until I couldn't resist my comfy bed and blankets anymore.