February 3, 2019
This morning Terry, Lorenz, Nakano, and I headed towards Kyoto. It took us about an hour by train and bus to get there. Kyoto was the capital of Japan from 794 until 1868, when Tokyo became the new capital. It is a truly beautiful city that encompasses traditional Japanese culture. Our main goal was to see the Kinkakuji Temple (you can see a photo below!). The temple is breathtaking, even with an overcast sky painted in the background. It was used as a retirement home for a shogun hundreds of years ago. It sits in the middle of a pond, which had a lot of koi fish! Around the zen temple, there were various shrines that the Japanese would bow or clap to. Traditionally, they bow and pray in temples, but bow, clap, and pray in shrines. A lot of shrines have boxes where people throw money into and then bow after. I am not sure if it is meant to be a gift to their Gods or if this is the only use they have for 1 yen coins. I tried throwing a couple coins, but I have awful aim and didn't make it into the smaller pots in front of their statues. It was definitely a touristy area, but I think you can understand why. The temple is not solid gold, the top two levels are covered in gold leaf. Regardless, I think it looks gorgeous. We stopped in the courtyard and I tried Maccha Ice Cream, which is a green tea flavor. Nakano-san has eaten it a few times, so I thought I would give it a shot. It was surprisingly good, but maybe a little too cold to be eating ice cream.
After seeing the Kinkakuji Temple, we walked through several narrow Japanese streets and saw some truly beautiful homes. During our walk, it began to rain so we ran into a convenient store and bought some umbrellas. I am so glad that we did, because we used them the rest of the day. Next, we went to Nijo-jo Castle. It isn't a traditional european structure like I imagined castles to be, but it definitely had the feel of a castle. Unfortunately, photography was prohibited inside due to preservation of the wall murals. It was a castle used by one of the Japanese Shoguns, Tokugawa. It was HUGE and had a moat surrounding it! When we entered the main building, we had to take off our shoes and put on slippers (this is very traditional in Japan). We also had to lock up our umbrellas because apparently that is the only thing that ever gets stolen in Japan. Inside the castle was so pretty. There were murals of trees, flowers, cherry blossoms, tigers, hawks, ducks, ponds, and many others. Each of them were unique and beautiful. It was more what I expected Japanese buildings to look like. The floors were all covered in Japanese tatami (it looks like a cushion or mat. They had model people to show where the shogun would sit in comparison to fuedal lords and imperial court nobility would be seated. After seeing the palace, we walked around the gardens, which of course, were also gorgeous (yes, even in the rain). During a brief break I tried peach flavored coca-cola. It was also very good! I anticipated it to be overly sweet, but it actually had a nice balance.
Next, we went to a market street for dinner. Again, finding vegetarian options is challenging. I ended up splitting up from the rest of the group and ate Nepalese curry and rice. They went to get some Japanese meat, I think. I was a little bit nervous because I was all alone in Kyoto and I still don't know my way around Japan very well. It ended up being okay though, I only got lost once or twice when trying to find them again. I did meet a couple that lives in Japan, but were originally from Ohio. Small World! After dinner, we walked in front of a Japanese theater (Kabuki) in hopes of seeing a Geisha, which is a female Japanese entertainer dressed in a traditional kimono and a white painted face. Unfortunately, we didn't see one in front of the theater. However, we decided to walk by some older Japanese tea shops and saw a Geisha in the street! We finally decided to find a train station and start heading back toward the dormitory. I was finally able to get a better grasp of knowing which trains to get on and which transfers to take. Google maps is a life saver honestly. Overall, a pretty cool day. I think that all of the sight seeing this weekend has helped me feel a little better about being here for 6 months. I am excited to try to see more things next weekend!
What an awesome day! Great experience and pictures. Crazy that you met another couple from Ohio!