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awolfroams · 3 years

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2017 Summer in Asia, Part 7: Kyoto, Japan

July 9, 2017 5:30 pm Still on the bus from Nagoya to Fukui

I keep procrastinating writing about Kyoto because it was so much crammed into two days. And even after all I walked and saw and climbed and did, I still came nowhere close to seeing all of the temples and shrines. The night we arrived in Kyoto, after checking into Hotel Gimmond, we set out to try and find some dinner. After looking at a couple of places that didn’t grab our attention, we poked our heads into an elegant-looking but fairly-priced, mom-and-pop restaurant literally around the corner from our hotel. @taketheshield pretended not to speak Japanese, for reasons I still don’t understand, so the very nice woman gave us a cobbled-together English menu of some of their entrees. Kyoto is known for its fried tofu and fried tofu skin, so I ordered a fried tofu dish with lychee-flavored shōchū to drink. @taketheshield got an eggplant and fried tofu skin salad, and we each swapped a bite. The food was the first cooking we’d had that rivaled the monks’ back in Koyasan.

@taketheshield had already been to Kyoto several times and seen most of what was worth seeing, so the next morning, I set off on my own for Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. I wandered through the bamboo grove for about an hour, stopping to take photographs and buy a couple of postcard prints from a friendly local artist. I then made my way down to the river and across it to hike my way up my first mountain of the day, to Arashiyama Monkey Park. There, I snapped some photos of tourists feeding the monkeys, and a couple of the monkeys playing and cleaning each others’ fur. I then hiked back down the mountain (it was about twenty-five minutes to hike each way) and back across the bridge to catch the bus to Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion.

Kinkakuji is situated in a small pond surrounded by a Zen garden, and true to its word, the walls are clad in real gold. On the estate grounds is also a ceremonial tea house. After touring the grounds, I caught another bus to Ginkakuji, the Silver Pavilion, but the buses were running a different route behind schedule, so by the time I got there, between being behind schedule and feeling hot and tired, I decided instead to duck into a nearby café for some shaved matcha ice with red bean and rice balls, and to charge my phone for a bit.

After I’d cooled down a bit and prepared a fresh coat of bug spray, I set off along the Philosopher’s Path to Nanzenji. The path is supposed to be the prettiest in cherry blossom season or in autumn, but I still found it to be lovely, walking along the creek with tiny wooden bridges where people sat with their legs dangling over the edge, all framed by hydrangeas and tiny wildflowers.

By the time I got to Nanzenji, I temple itself was closed, but I was still able to pass through the formidable gate and wander the grounds until I found the aqueduct @taketheshield had told me about. It reminded me of the one in Segovia. Later, on the train to Fukui, @taketheshield would point out the lake far outside of Kyoto that the aqueduct had been built to reach as the primary water source for the city.

With the sun starting to set, I hurried to the metro to Fushimi Inari. Fushimi Inari is a Shinto fox shrine up a mountainside known for having a stretch of mountain climb called the “1,000 Torii” because it is framed by at least 1,000 Torii gates. And that’s just one stretch. That’s how long it is.

After photographing the main complex of temples, I looked at the map of the mountain for reference, and started to climb. Fun fact: maps of stairs and hiking trails in Japan are not to scale. I should have learned from the monkey mountain, which I’d thought was an exception. I was wrong.

Climbing and panting my way up the mountainside, the sun rapidly setting over the city below, I started to see signs in English and Japanese warning of wild boar. They stressed to be careful, “especially at night.” I ran into another lone traveler, from Ireland, and asked her how much further up to the top of the mountain. The said she wasn’t sure, but it seemed like quite a ways, and she was turning back because of the boar signs. I was tempted to do the same, but she said if I climbed a bit further there was a great view of the city, so i thanked her and continued on a bit longer. At the clearing she had described, I took more photographs and turned around to head back down, when I overheard a couple of Spaniards trying to gauge how much further to the top. I told them it was far, to which they replied, “Aun somos jovenes y fuertes.” I wished them luck, but they insisted I go along as well, because apparently I am also still young and strong. Three people were more likely to keep a boar at bay than one, so I decided to go along with them for a bit. They introduced themselves as Carlos and Pol from Barcelona. I told them how I’d lived in Madrid the year before. We chatted a bit as we heaved ourselves up and up, through countless Torii, until finally I reached my limit on a particularly steep pass, swarmed with mosquitoes. I explained to them that I have asthma and would be turning back. They offered to accompany me back if I waited for them, but it was pitch black and getting late, so I thanked them and declined.

Carlos was staying in Japan for a few more weeks, so he asked to stay in touch and we swapped contact info. I then sprinted back down the mountain, slightly panicking over being alone and unarmed in darkness with the idea of contending with a wild boar. After about thirty minutes straight of sprinting, the path became better lit, and I started to pass more people.

I overheard a family of Spaniards puzzling over the same very-not-to-scale map I had seen on my way up, trying to figure out how long to the top. I told them it was quite a hike, and when they found out I was there alone, they turned back with me to talk me to the metro station. I found out they were from Madrid, so I told them how I’d lived and taught there for a year. They’d also been to Bangkok, so I asked them for tips for when we went there later that summer. They told me to be prepared to haggle prices, and to watch the taxi meters to make sure I wasn’t overcharged.

We chatted right up to the metro platform, when suddenly a voice cried out, “Hey, @awolfroams!” from behind me. It was the Barcelona guys. Apparently we had only been about a ten minute-further hike from the summit, but when I asked what was at the top and they said just another shrine like the ones along the way, I internally called worth it for turning back. I wished everyone safe travels and headed back to meet @taketheshield for dinner, where I recounted my mountain escapades.

We decided to go back to the same restaurant. Kyoto is also known for its green tea, so I had a bowl of green tea broth with rice and seaweed, and a side of the house special - tuna and spinach salad, which was delicious. I washed it down with peach shōchū, and then we thanked the woman at the restaurant, took a goodbye picture, and went back to the hotel to pass out.

***

Tuesday, July 11, 2017 12:45 pm Fukui Prefecture Dinosaur Museum, Katsuyama

The buses in Katsuyama only run once about every four hours between the station and Heisenji Hakusan Shrine, so it looks like I won’t be going to the “moss palace” on this trip. :( I could take a taxi, but it’s 2,000 yen one way because it’s 7 km from the station, and I don’t want to spend ~$40 round-trip to go to a shrine, even if it’s 1,300 years old. Oh well. I am currently at the third-largest dinosaur museum in the world, so I am trying to console myself with that. My phone has been eating through battery on this trip, probably because of all of the texting, Snaps, and Google Maps use, so whenever I find an outlet, I try to take advantage and charge, especially since they are not too common in Fukui Prefecture. This one is around the corner from this bench in the Earth Sciences exhibit, tucked under a phone and behind an emergency call box. I’m hoping no one notices or minds that I’m using it. Since I now have about two extra hours to kill at the dinosaur museum, I figured I’d rest for a bit and finish my Kyoto log.

For our second and final day in Kyoto, @taketheshield made an itinerary of places he was willing to see again so that we could travel together. We started with Nishiki Market. The long stretch of covered shops and stalls sold food, clothing, and basic home items. I saw a pair of stocking-topped socks like my ones back home that I was tempted to buy, but my bag is already heavy enough, or so I told myself, and moved on. We hadn’t yet eaten, so I got a skewer of three pieces of smoked duck for 200 yen, and then we shared fried calamari for I think 300 yen. I tried a ginger-cabbage fish paste patty for 200 yen that was okay, but not my favorite, and washed it down with a mango passionfruit peach smoothie which was expensive at 600 yen, but worth the price in the humid heat.

From the market, we walked the 20 minutes to Chionin Temple, passing through Gion district, where we didn’t see any geisha, but I did find a porcelain calico cat sitting on its hind legs like my Misha for my mom. @taketheshield said the inscription was to bring luck with money, which lord knows we could use. I also bought a small geisha figuring designed to bobble and always land upright, and tucked it into the same gift box for my mom.

Chionin Temple, like so many other temples, was up an incline into a mountainside, and, of course, the map of steps was not to scale. Nevertheless, I made my way up to and through the gate, up the steep steps (Japan loves massive steps the height of my knees) to the temple complex. The main temple was under restoration, but I got some nice photographs of the smaller surrounding buildings, which included a pagoda similar to the one in Koyasan.

From Chionin, we trekked through the boiling heat, up another mountain path lined with tourist shops and ice cream parlors, to Kiyomizu-dera, a Buddhist temple situated on a hillside, as if jutting out from a cliff. This temple was also, sadly, under restoration, but we were able to pass through it and see the massive Buddhas inside before walking along the cliffside to a fountain where visitors could use UV-sterilized metal cups on long sticks to catch pure mountain water at a small shrine to drink from while making a wish. I wished for snow. @taketheshield must have wished for new sweat towels, because he lost both of his to the waterfall stream below while drinking.

I was exhausted from all of the mountain climbing in Kyoto, but @taketheshield insisted I’d appreciate our final stop, Nijō Castle. He was right. The castle had been designed as a residence, not a fort, so unlike the other steep castles we had visited and climbed in our travels, it was entirely flat, a sprawling maze of hallways nicknamed for the chirping bird-like squeaks the floorboards emitted beneath our bare feet as we passed chambers of beautifully-painted sliding doors with tigers, lakes, and pine trees, framed by ornamental woodwork carved into vines and flowers. The faded ceiling panels still held massive floral designs that must once have been a much brighter red, and the castle was surrounded by a pretty Zen garden with rock islands and tiny waterfalls where koi swam lazily in the summer heat.

It had started to rain, so we hurried back to the hotel to grab our things and catch our train to Fukui. I’m off to potentially see a dinosaur movie. More later.

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