KYOTO

I am really glad that we ended up spending the largest chunk of time in Kyoto.  I enjoyed it far better than Tokyo.  I joked to Spencer before we left for Kyoto that perhaps it would be Bizarro Tokyo (since the letters can rearrange to make ‘Tokyo’ and it used to be the capital).  He didn’t think it was that funny.

The vibe in Kyoto was much more laid back.  Not Thailand-level laid back.  This is still Japan, after all.  But, more people biking around, fewer business suits, and less urgency.  More people meandering rather than rushing.  More strolling conversation than silent cell phone surfing.  More sitting down to eat rather than grabbing a quick bite.

And the shopping…

But I will get to that.

Where the local trains travel at 60mp/h, the shinkansen (bullet trains) travel at 168mp/h.  We made it to Kyoto in two hours and forty minutes.  You can set your watch by the trains.

Once we arrived, we had to take a subway to get to Karasuma Oike station.  Since Spencer is fantastic at booking hotels, we didn’t have a far walk before we reached Hotel Gimmond.  The last place we stayed, Hotel Nihonbashi Villa (which isn’t in Nihonbashi), was considered a two-star hotel.  But, that is a Japanese two-star.  Which really makes it more of a three-star by American standards.  Hotel Gimmond is a Japanese three-star.  The room was a couple of feet larger but the bathroom was worse.  The door opened inwards which further depleted the already non-existent space.  First-world problems.  I accidentally got myself wedged between the edge of the door and the toilet once or twice.  Two adults and their luggage for a week in a fairly small space isn’t the ideal situation, but at least we had the knowledge that the next stop would be another star up and would also have a coin-op laundry.

After dumping our stuff in the room and taking a moment to decompress after subway-train-bullet train-subway, we headed out to find Zam Zam; a middle eastern restaurant/bar that offered shisha.  We both wanted to sit down and have a good long smoke.  And maybe a few drinks.

Our wanderings took us through all these fantastic little streets, none of them much more than one car lane wide.  Our hotel was in the downtown area of Kyoto which has a lot of machiya (traditional wooden townhouses) and all these small lanes were lined with wonderful, low, traditional buildings.  It had an anachronistic feel to it; traditional machiya with paved streets and (sometimes) vending machines outside.  We eventually came across Teramachi Street and Shin Kyogoku  shopping arcade.

It was epic.  A seemingly endless grid of clothing stores and restaurants and souvenir shops and tea shops on a high-street covered by an atrium.  We only window shopped to get a feel for prices and what was available.  In fact, the prices in Kyoto are really quite reasonable.  I would even dare to say “cheap”. As in, low-cost.  Not to imply poor quality.  Truly, the standard of quality was still pretty high.  I was glad we planned to spend five days in Kyoto.  This way I didn’t feel like I had to buy everything right at that very moment and I would have an opportunity to shop around.

It was getting on towards dinner time.  Neither of us particularly cares for Mediterranean food.  We just wanted a hookah.  Therefore, the dinner search was on.  Even though we are in a country brimming with restaurants and food stalls and pastry shops and snacks, food boredom had set in and noodles and rice and soup were getting a little old.  As we strolled, Spencer noticed a sign for Shakey’s Pizza Buffet.  It was on.  As we were paying (beforehand), they pointed out that they do “all-you-can-drink” for 500 yen for an hour.  That is for juice, soft drinks, and beer.  That’s right.  All-you-can-drink Asahi for $5.  Now, that means nothing to me because, even if it’s free, I still don’t drink beer.  The catch is that if one person at your table pays for the drink special, everyone has to get it.  Which doesn’t really matter because it’s still two pizza buffets with unlimited beverages (for an hour) for $27.  Done and done.  And it was good pizza.  I am a cheese lover and I don’t get much of it ‘round Thailand.  Bound and determined to try and fill up my cheese-o-meter before I head back.

After a satisfying meal, we continued on our way to find Zam Zam.  It is just another block or so east of Kawaramachi Street, next to a delightful canal lined with cherry trees adding additional charm to the already charming area we now found ourselves in.  Zam Zam was easy to find and a nice young woman outside greeted and escorted us in.  We were the only patrons.  It may well be one of the smallest restaurants I have ever been in.  The kitchen and bar are one and the same.  It is decorated all around with beautiful hookahs and Turkish tea kettles on high shelves.  While we waited for our shisha, we stared up and around, admiring the different water pipes, pointing out the ones we liked the most.  A little while after we got there, another gentleman came in.  He spoke more English than the owner, but it was still hard going.  He first commented that Spencer closely resembled a young Randy Bass (an American who used to play baseball for the Hanshin Tigers in the ‘80s).  Of course we had to Google him to find out who he was.  I can see the resemblance.  And our new friend referred to Spencer as “Mr. Randy” for the rest of the night.  After chit-chatting for a while longer (as chit-chatting with someone who speaks very little English goes), he asked Spencer what his real name was.  Spencer told him and the response was, “Dr. Spencer?”  There was a blank stare and a smile from “Mr. Randy”, but I understood the reference to Dr. Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds.  Spencer doesn’t go in for crime dramas and doesn’t really watch much TV anyhow.  Our new friend, Jin, and I had a good chuckle over it.  He stuck with using “Mr. Randy”.  Even after he decided that Spencer also looked like Commander Riker…

After we had finished at Zam Zam, we opted for a walk to explore the area.  It was pretty bustling for late night on a Sunday.  We found an arcade with the UFO games and won nothing (I already had two kitties from UFO games in Tokyo).  Another thing most of these arcades have are photo booths.  In Japan they are called purikura.  These aren’t what you typically think of when you think “photo booth”.  No boring, black and white photos here.  No sir! These are on a whole different level.  Level: Japanese.  They provide vanity areas with curling irons and flat irons and lit mirrors.  There are different digital backgrounds and various editing tools.  Before the pictures are even taken, you select eye-roundness and skin-whiteness.  One of Spencer’s friends had told him that we should try one out when I got to the country.  We didn’t in Tokyo, but we did in Kyoto.  Of course, neither of us reads Japanese, so we were just guessing at what to do.  We accidentally chose rounder eyes…  After they are taken, you step in to another section where you preview them and use a stylus to draw and stamp and fancy-up the pictures as you like.  But wait! There’s more!  Even after you finish with that part, they still don’t just print them for you.  You then go to where they SHOULD print out and have to play some sort of memory matching game.  What I *think* would have happened should we have won is that we would have gotten larger pictures.  Since we didn’t win, we ended up with wallet-size montages of our pictures.  Well worth the 400 yen.

If you do still fancy a more “old school” type photo booth, you can find them randomly on the street.  That’s where you get passport photos taken.

We spent some time looking up places to go and things to see; monkeys to feed and conveyor belt sushi to eat.

We located a place called Musashi Sushi.  Which is ranked #4 out of more than 2,300 restaurants in Kyoto.  Not sushi restaurants.  All restaurants.  My personal opinion?  It very much deserves that ranking.  If you are not in the know about conveyor belt sushi, let me fill you in.  It’s brilliant.  A sushi chef prepares the food and places it (usually two pieces, but sometimes one) on a small plate and then sends it on its way around the room on a conveyor belt.  You select whatever you like off the belt and you can also request that they make something that might not be up at the moment.  Cost is determined by the number of plates you have at the end.  At this restaurant, all dishes are 147 yen unless otherwise specified.  If you order a drink, they bring it to you along with another special plate so that they can tabulate that also.  I am loyal to Suehiro in Fort Collins.  To a fault.  But I have to say, this was the best sushi I have ever had.

The maguro and choice tuna belly were incredible.  The unaosi and unagi were delectable.  The salmon had such amazing color and striping.  We ended up eating there twice. If you are ever in Kyoto, Musashi Sushi on Kawaramachi needs to be on your food list.

I am a big fan of frozen yogurt.  I prefer it over ice cream and even over gelato.  Plain tart with mochi pieces and rainbow sprinkles.  That’s my go-to.  Just across from Musashi is a place called Yami.  We stopped in for dessert one afternoon.  They also make amazing crepes and that is what initially drew us in.  While Spencer ordered his crepe with cream cheese and strawberries, I browsed the menu and toppings.  They only have one flavor of yogurt (which happens to be plain tart).  Rainbow sprinkles are non-existent.  And, surprisingly, there were also no mochi bits.  What they DID have listed, however, was cream cheese.  As a yogurt topping.  Yes, please.  In lieu of sprinkles, I requested the “sliced” chocolate.  Which really meant “shaved”.

Food presentation is an art form here.  Even when it comes to fast-food.  In Spencer’s crepe, the cream cheese was applied (via pastry bag) in a pattern that would allow for even distribution once rolled.  And each strawberry was also strategically placed.  My yogurt was a perfect little tower in a cup, covered beautifully with shaved chocolate and then surrounded by cream cheese “flowers” also applied via said pastry bag.  If you ever have the opportunity to use cream cheese as a frozen yogurt topping, do it.  Without hesitation.  I went back two more times before we left Kyoto.

We had a bit of an excursion in the 100 Yen Store.  Basically a dollar store.  I bought myself a little travel shoehorn.  All the hotel rooms provide shoehorns and I had never realized how fantastic they were until now.  No more grinding my heel in to the back of my Converse until it goes on correctly.  So far, this is the only practical purchase I have made the entire trip.

For dinner on the second evening, Spencer decided that we would be going to Hafuu.  While Musashi Sushi is ranked the #4 restaurant in Kyoto (on Trip Advisor), Hafuu is ranked #2.  It is a top-end steakhouse.  I had (fortunately) brought a dark gray dress with me so I was able to make an effort on appearance.  This restaurant is no dive.  With the set meal at 7,500 yen, I tried to be on my best behavior.  Six courses plus an amuse bouche is what that kind of scratch will get you here.

Prosciutto with a salmon paté started us off.  The cold appetizer was bamboo shoots and shrimp over a potato base along with a scallop puree topped with a seaweed sauce.  This was followed by the hot appetizer of sea bream over ginger risotto with long neck clams.  The soup course was a delightful and velvety pea soup and the salad was greens with a very generous helping of shaved onions.  For the main course, I had ordered the teriyaki fillet, medium rare.  It was melt-in-your-mouth delicious.  While I am not an avid beef eater (I don’t usually go out of my way to order it in restaurants), even my “retarded palette” could appreciate the quality and scrumptious-ness of this meat.  The meal was wrapped up with a dessert of strawberry sorbet and a small piece of chocolate cake with a thin layer of chocolate mousse between the cake and chocolate shell on top.

The entire steak dinner (sans soup and dessert) was eaten with chopsticks.  I liked it.

We finally went to do some sight-seeing on the third day.  Kyoto is lousy with temples and gardens and places to visit.  We opted for Arashiyama.  This is where the bamboo forest is located.  After a short train ride to Saga, we rented a couple of bikes and set off.  The amount of foot traffic can sometimes make riding a bike difficult.  People stop in the middle of paths, you have to weave around pedestrians and other bikes, and you have to try to balance at low speed.  If you want to leisurely enjoy the sights, it is probably best to walk your bike or not have one at all.  While riding, you need to be fully engaged on making sure you don’t run someone over and cause an international incident.  Since I wanted to enjoy the bamboo forest and not concentrate on my bike, we parked them at the Tenryuji temple and continued in to the grove on foot.  It really is more of a grove than a forest and won’t take that.  Extremely tall with foliage at the top.  There is a neat concrete path wending through with thatch fences along the sides to prevent errant wandering in to the woods.

We went back to the temple and paid the 500 yen per person entrance fee to wander the gardens.  There were a variety of cherries and other flowering trees and plants in bloom.  Uphill paths afforded vistas over the temple and the rest of Arashiyama.  Although we didn’t go to any other temples in this area, I would recommend this one for those who aren’t planning to visit dozens of them.  It is beautiful and has large enough grounds that it doesn’t feel crowded.

Next stop was Iwatayama monkey park.  We had quite a winding hike up the paved path to get to the top of the hill where the monkeys live.

These Japanese macaques enjoy all the freedom the mountain has to offer with the added benefit of tourists purchasing treats to feed them at the rest area.  They warn you not to carry any plastic bags or food of any kind outside of the closed rest house.  The monkeys will steal it.  On the whole, they are so used to the human interaction that they ignore the interlopers and go about their business.  If you do desire to feed the monkeys, you can do so from the safety of the rest house.  You enter through a door guarded by a man who is posted to make sure the monkeys don’t sneak in.  For 100 yen you can purchase apples and peanuts.  Three sides out) for you to give them food.  And then they gently took the apples or peanuts from your hand.  My faith in monkeys has been restored.

After we arrived back in Kyoto proper, our stomachs were warning us that we had better feed them soon.  Feeling entirely unimaginative, we opted again for Shakey’s.  Not as busy as it was the first night, the pizza options were a bit limited and we had to request a pepperoni and a cheese pizza.  Which they gladly baked up and put out for us.  All you have to do is ask.

We also returned to Zam Zam.  This time we sat at a table instead of the bar in order to be able to relax and not have to make conversation with other patrons.  I had been experiencing soreness in one of my submandibular lymph nodes since the day I left for Japan.  Not swelling, just tenderness.  I ordered mint tea instead of wine, hoping that it might miraculously take away the discomfort.  I’m sure one would also recommend not smoking shisha in this situation, but I wasn’t ready to go to extreme measures just yet.  In fact, the mint tea worked like a charm.  Before we left, the ache had already subsided considerably.  By the next day, it was gone altogether.  I am now a believer in the power of mint tea.

A bonus to being in Kyoto in the month of April is that this is the time when the geiko and maiko (geisha and apprentice geisha) perform the Miyako Odori (Dances of the Old Capital).  There are posters all around the city advertising the event.  They hold four performances per day from April 1^st-April 30^th.  You know I had to go.  We asked the front desk to contact the Kaburenjo Theater to hold special seats (4,500 yen apiece) for us.  This would include access to the gardens, observance of a tea ceremony, a treat, and a gift before the performance and reserved seating on the first level during the performance.   Without reserved seating, we would have been in free-seating on the top level on tatami mats.  I was willing to pay for the perks.

We decided that we would take a cab instead of walking to Gion district.  It wasn’t much farther than the area we had already been walking to and around every day, but we didn’t want to have to search for it or leave really early to get there.  We already had to be there about an hour before the performance for the tea ceremony. After easily grabbing a cab and telling him where we needed to go, we were off to Gion.  It took us about 15 minutes by car.  We arrived with about 10 minutes to spare.  And as we were walking up to the theater, I realized that I, in a flash of brilliance, had not put my memory card back in my camera.  And I hadn’t brought my camera bag because I didn’t want to carry it around.  Bloody fantastic.  We walked out of Gion and around the corner to a Family Mart where they did, in fact, sell memory cards.  One can never have too many memory cards, I guess.

Crisis averted, we headed back to the theater to pick up our tickets.  The gardens of the theater were small, but very nice.  A clear pond, waterfall, stream, spindly cherry trees with their blossoms out, gravel paths…and most of the people inside waiting in line for the tea ceremony.  That was refreshing.  When it came time for the ceremony, we got in line with the rest of the patrons and waited our turn to go in.  I don’t know what I was expecting but here’s how it went:  File in, sit down on low stools at a long table in a row of long tables, have a bean cake on a ceramic plate set down in front of you along with a cup of frothy green tea, finish your cake and your tea, take the plate with you (free gift), go in to the gift shop and then in to the theater.  While all this is going on, there are two maiko on stage.  One performing the tea ceremony, the other sitting and looking very pretty.  En masse tea ceremony.  It was really meant as a performance, rather than something to be participated in.  But I still got to see real geisha performing a real tea ceremony in Japan in Gion district.

The Miyako Odori.  What can I say?  They were gorgeous.  I had such a thrill running through me to know that I was witnessing dances that have been performed by the geisha of Gion Kōbu since the 1870s.  The sets were so beautiful; changing seasons throughout.  It was so interesting the way they created effects of waves and lightning.  The costumes were absolutely gorgeous.  I especially loved those of the Heian period, with the layered robes and long, flowing hair going almost to the floor.  The skill and coordination with which they performed was so impressive.  During chorus dances, they were perfectly synchronized and moved as one.  I am so glad that I took the opportunity to attend these performances.

No pictures were allowed during the performances, so you will have to use your imagination.

Having gone to the 12:30pm show, we were quite famished by the time it was over.  Not sure exactly what we wanted to eat, we opted to have a little McDonald’s snack.  One of the great travel comforts is that you can always find a McDonald’s and have a cheeseburger with no pickles and no onion.  Although we would be in Thailand in less than two weeks, a Thai restaurant was chosen for lunch.  I actually felt relief to be in a restaurant where the waiter spoke Thai in addition to English.  I have been restraining myself from greeting and thanking people in Thai.  Keep reminding myself that this is Japan and I actually have to take a beat to think about how to greet and thank in Japanese.  Here I didn’t have to.  He greeted us with ‘sawadeekrap’ and I was at ease.  Some chai yen, pad see ew, and sweet and sour chicken with vegetables and we were right as rain.

Afterwards, we walked back over to Shin Kyogoku and Teramaki where we browsed for a bit before wandering to Nishiki; the food equivalent to Shin Kyogoku and Teramaki.  A long, covered arcade with fresh food vendors and restaurants on either side.

Strange seafood, vegetables, pastries, candies, spices, teas, etc.

That evening, Spencer looked up Indian restaurants in Kyoto, as he had a hankering for some butter chicken.  He located a place called Kerala.  On Travel Advisor, it was ranked #13.  So far we had had good luck with these highly ranked establishments, so we figured this would also live up to the hype.  It did not.  While I found the butter chicken to be good, Spencer was underwhelmed.  He was also unimpressed with the palak paneer.  To say nothing of the atmosphere.  While the waiter was polite, the general feel wasn’t particularly inviting.  The other patrons who were there seemed stiff and uncomfortable.  I was almost afraid to talk above a whisper.

Frozen yogurt was my next goal.  Wouldn’t you know it?  We were right across from the Yami yogurt that we had visited a couple of days before.  How fortuitous!  We went to check out an arcade we had seen before that advertised bowling.  We hadn’t gone in before because we were doing other things.  Lo and behold!  They had multiple floors of games.  On the first floor were the UFO crane games.  On the second were the ledge and pachinko games.  Spencer was in hog heaven once again.  Never made it past the second floor.  We thoroughly lost track of time and ended up closing the place down.  We may have been the last two people in there when we left.

Sometimes a girl just has to shop and a guy just has to get a foot massage and play arcade games.  Next day after lunch at Musashi Sushi, we parted ways and I spent my day strolling Shin Kyogoku, purchasing gifts and souvenirs.  It was nice to be able to take my time and stop to catch a photo op whenever I pleased.  I know this drives Spencer up the wall, so it was good to have the afternoon to do this without irritating someone else.  There are so many people I needed to shop for and so many options.  Kyoto really does have wonderful shopping.  If you are in Japan and plan to be in the Kyoto area, this would be the place to make purchases.  I may very well have stopped in nearly every store that sold trinkets and “Japan unique” items.  And I am going to have to pack creatively to get back to Thailand…

I met up with Spencer at the arcade around 5pm.  He had an appointment for his foot massage scheduled at 5:20.  While he had a stranger touch his feet, I went to have more yogurt.  Yes, I know.  I have a problem.  But I’m working through it.  By having more yogurt…

About 30 minutes later, I again went to the arcade.  Spencer wasn’t back yet.  I figured he had stopped to have some food (which was a correct assumption).  So, I got myself some tokens and sat down to play.  He showed up about half an hour after I did.  And the next thing I knew it was 11:30pm and the arcade was closing.  What?!  Yeah, they need to put clocks in these places, but I understand why they don’t.

Next stop: Osaka.