Last night we arrived to Osaka very tired, went right to the hostel (couldn’t find any couchsurfers for the first couple nights) and collapsed. Despite the tiredness, I couldn’t fall asleep. Well, the guy on the next bed snoring might have had something to do with it too. It was biblical, catastrophic, like the trumpets that would herald the End of Times. When I woke him to tell him to turn, he denied everything adamantly, and went back to snoring. Eh, hostels, there is always one in the room.
Alleys of Gion
Today we woke up early and headed straight to Kyoto. That was the right choice. Kyoto is my new favourite Japanese city. It’s not to big, it’s quite old, has many interesting places to see, it has character. It’s the first place where we found a second hand antique old stuff shop! Purchases were made, we now have some cool souvenirs.
Maikos?
But in order. We landed on a station near Gion, the geisha district. Many windy small streets with ridiculously expensive, classy restaurants, beautiful buildings, a maiko theatre, and a couple temples. We even spotted a couple maikos, though it’s likely that they were just women who paid for a full maiko style makeover. Eva was considering getting one too, but it didn’t happen in the end.
Heian Jingu
We then checked out the Heian Jingu temple complex – it’s interesting to see the the customs of Shinto as people prayed in the shrines. And from there to the main attraction of today: the old imperial palace. We were lucky. This palace is open to the public 5 days per year. Today is the last day.
The Emperors lived here right until the end of the Edo period – the capital was moved to Tokyo only by Meiji towards the end of the 19th C. The park surrounding the palace walls is great already, with all its old trees, big lawns and wide walks. It’s good to see some space in this ridiculously overpopulated land. Unsurprisingly, hundreds of people wanted to see the castle as well, and once we entered the walls, we were back in the crowd. The palace was very impressive and very different from what a European would expect. Most strikingly, even the Emperors had hardly any furniture. Can you imagine a Western palace with no furniture, just tatami mats on the floor? Further, nothing hanging on the walls – no paintings, tapestries, mirrors. The walls themselves are decorated with paintings instead, as are the doors and multiple beautiful screens. It all feels very minimalist. Virtually everything is made of wood. outside The pal ace is no single building constructed on some regular plan – instead a number of separate buildings are located in different parts of the garden, with the Emperor’s drawing room being in a different building than his audience hall. A great deal of the palace is on the outside – huge terraces, big courtyards, gardens. The place doesn’t seem to have any heating and the insulation provided by wooden walls and paper windows… well, just isn’t. Wait, this part totally is just like Britain.
Imperial rooms look quite empty
Audience building
Theatre building
The most beautiful screen I’ve seen yet
Kyoto suburbs look quite relaxed
After the palace we started heading towards the Kinkakuji temple, but on the way we realised that we ran out of cash, and all the post offices are closed due to a holiday. Did I mention that not all Japanese ATMs take Western cards? Scrap that. Virtually none of them do. The only Citibank that we knew would work, was completely out of the way. We wasted an hour and some transport money (where art thou, Tokyo, with your cheap metro? Don’t believe people who tell you Tokyo is expensive – maybe flat rent is, but transport is half the price of everywhere else!).
Once back on the track, we found another temple on the way, and this one had tea shops by the entrance. (I like that the standard here is a tea shop, not a coffee shop.) We had some lovely tea and some fresh mochi on a stick in an interesting salty-sweet sauce.
Now finally Kinkakuji. Pretty impressive, have to say. All the gold, all the gardens, and all the tourists. Seriously, the palace wasn’t as full as here! Also, there were Western tourists as well! Don’t see many of them around, and generally there are hardly any non-Japanese people in here. Japan isn’t particularly welcoming to immigrants. From what I hear they generally feel superior to other nations and tend to discriminate against them quite badly. Guillaime said that working here can be hard for foreigners, and finding friends harder. Interestingly, I hear that most brothels and men’s bars don’t serve foreigners. Also, I’ve been told that I couldn’t be a teacher or lecturer with long hair, and apparently if you have tattoos, you can’t go to saunas or swimming pools. Essentially, Japan feels quite nationalist, xenophobic, and sexist… I feel like back in Poland!
Before heading back to Osaka, we strolled a bit around the street market, found some nice things, and then… We bumped into Lisa Skye! Just like that, perfect random encounter. I love the world I live in: I meet a person in Australia in February, have her sharing my flat in Scotland in August, and then randomly meet in November in Japan. How cool is that? We had a chat, wished them great holidays, and went back to Gion to see how it looks after dark. It looks great, but still no luck with the geishas. Ah well, they are meant to be elusive creatures.
Possibly the best plastic food in the world
Kyoto by night
Gion by night
Gion by night
Yaki Soba on a fancy heated plate built into the table
Back in Osaka, we went for some delicious okonomiyaki and yaki soba, then I climbed the roof of the hostel and went to sleep. I mean, I climbed back down to bed first, though I wish I hadn’t, because sleeping on the roof would have been much better than listening to the bloody snoring…
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