2/18 Kyoto and back to Tokyo

2/18/2013: Actually, a few more things about my day on 2/17. The temple of 1,001 buddhas is called Sanjusangendo Temple. It was actually a really interesting site. It was built in the 12th century. The main attraction is a giant hall filled with 1,001 buddhas. They are all about 5 or 6' tall, and lined up in a "bleacher" type arrangement. It took around 100 years for everything to be completed. They are wood statues with gold plating, and each buddha has 42 (or 43?) arms, each hand holding a different tool that could improve your health (if I remember correctly). The main buddha is just a larger version of the other buddhas - around 11 feet high. There are also other deities spaced out in the front section, including a wind god and a thunder god. There were some monks doing some loud chants (more like wails) in the hall. The hall is the longest wooden building in Japan (which may not be surprising since it contains so many buddhas). Outside, there is a spring, which was discovered by a priest through his dreams, and the water is said to be good for preventing babies from crying at night. 

After that temple, I wandered up past the Kyoto Women's University, then to Kyomizu Temple, which is  UNESCO World Heritage Site. This area, if I remember correctly, started as a shrine built by a monk, and developed into the headquarters for the biggest sect of Buddhism in Japan. This one seemed more touristy to me than the first area, but it was still interesting and offered a nice view of Kyoto. I stopped at a small restaurant within the park, which offered elevated tables with pillows for seats so you had to sit with your legs crossed. I ordered some ramen with an egg over it, which was pretty tasty although the egg seemed uncooked (on purpose). From this temple, I walked around through some different streets for a while. The streets are lined with stalls selling trinkets, desserts, drinks, food, etc. Excellent people watching as well. Having burned out on temples, I made it as far as Maruyama Park, where I sat on a bench and read until I was too cold and walked back to the hostel. It was a really cold day.

So on the morning of 2/18, my only roommate, the old Japanese guy from the previous night, woke up at 5:45am and turned the light on and proceeded once again to crinkle plastic bags for a while. When I finally looked up to see what the hell he was doing, he was just about to drop his pants, so I put my head back down real quick. He must have been applying some balm somewhere, since the room smelled very strongly of ben-gay. He finished lathering, then left, and I finally got back to sleep. I struggled to wake up when my alarm went off (7:15) and finally got out of bed around 8:30am. It was raining pretty hard, so I decided to just grab breakfast at the café adjacent to the hostel. Not having made any plans for the day, I decided it was a good day to get some work done, but the internet wasn't cooperating so I was unable to accomplish much. I talked to Ariel over Skype briefly, but it was such a weak connection that we didn't really get to say much besides "can you hear me?" The rain seemed to keep everyone at the hostel from going out and exploring. The common room was still really busy around noon, whereas on the day I arrived it was empty at that time. I spent a little bit of time talking to an odd Australian guy who I could tell from a few other instances was really looking to talk to someone at the hostel. He was older - I'm guessing late 30's, early 40's, and had darting eyes and dressed like a 15 year old. He spoke so fast, with an Australian accent, that I had to ask him to repeat everything. He said he's from Sydney, but I don't remember ever having trouble understanding anyone when I was in Sydney. He spent 2 weeks skiing in the Nagano area, which is in the Japan alps on Honshu island (the main island, where Tokyo is). He said the skiing was good and kept emphasizing that Hokkaido would be brutally cold. I was feeling confident about the cold until the day I walked around Kyoto with my ski jacket on and still got cold. Whenever speaking about Hokkaido, people mention the "Siberian wind," which doesn't sound inviting. I suppose I'll have onsens to look forward to.

I decided to abandon my plan to take the train north from Kyoto to Sapporo, since it is a very long train ride and there's no fast way to get there by following the west coast of Japan, which is what I was hoping to do. Instead, the fastest route is to take the bullet train back up to Tokyo, and then switch to another train that heads north from there. I was more interested in seeing the west side of Japan, so I figured I may as well just stick with the flight I originally booked and fly to Sapporo on the 19th. I booked another room at K's House in Tokyo for the 18th, which meant I had to take the train back to Tokyo today.

Before doing that, I decided I'd go back to the Arashiyama area to try to find the bamboo grove and also see the monkey park.  It was still raining pretty hard, but I thought I'd be disappointed if I didn't try. After consulting the girl at the hostel front desk about the do's and don’ts when in the presence of monkeys (since I was bitten in China), I bundled up and caught the train to Sawa-Arashiyama. In case you're wondering about the do's and don'ts, here's what I was told:

1. Don't show them any of your food
2. Don't carry plastic bags, as they will think they might contain food.
3. Don't make extended eye contact with the monkeys. That includes staring contests.

I wandered around for a while before finding the bamboo path, which is just a path through a bamboo forest. It was actually a great experience - similar to that feeling when you walk through a dense aspen grove, where for some reason it is more exciting than just walking through any old regular forest. I reached the other side of the forest (only took about 10 minutes) and didn't see any signs for a monkey park. I was thoroughly wet at this point anyway, so I just meandered back towards the town where the train station is. While walking back, I could hear loud short steps coming up from behind me pretty quickly. It was a girl (probably actually mid-20's but it's hard to tell) that chased me down to offer me her extra umbrella. She had a serious look of concern on her face for my well-being and said "you look so cold!" I had been wearing my rain coat with my hood up and hands in my pockets and actually was pretty cold. I didn't accept her umbrella though since I was already pretty soaked and it was mostly just my hands that were really cold. She seemed frustrated that I wouldn't accept, but I thanked her a lot and kept walking. I was astounded by how nice she was to chase me down and offer an umbrella though.

I decided to abandon the monkey park, reasoning that I'll see plenty of monkeys in Thailand. Instead, I stopped to warm up at a little café back in town before heading to the train station. The woman there was very nice and spoke a little bit of English. Trying to save room for sushi back in Kyoto, I just ordered a steamed bun and some coffee. The woman that worked there was very friendly and we talked a little about skiing. I caught the train back into town and went straight to the sushi train restaurant again. I tried some different dishes this time. Oysters are extremely chewy. The "lobster salad" roll was good. Salmon is still the best. I had 3 cups of green tea but refilled each time mostly just so I could use the heat to warm up my hands. I like the sushi train not just because it is so easy to pick out what you want, and not just because it is so tasty, but also because you are sitting with a bunch of other Japanese people and get to see how they go about eating their meals. The guy I sat next to for dinner on 2/17 stuffed like 3 bags of green tea into his tiny cup. Everyone I've watched (subtly) really loads up on the pickled ginger before even looking at the sushi train. And the girl I sat next to for dinner would eye up seemingly identical dishes and pick out whichever one looked best. I don't know what she was looking for, but I assume she has a more refined eye for quality sushi.

I returned to the hostel, changed into dry clothes, picked up my bags, and headed back to the train station to catch the shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo. I'll have my own room for the next few nights, which will be nice. Hopefully no bunk beds for a while.

Another Japanese observation: every historical building has at some point in its history been destroyed by fire. I don't think I've seen any historical site that is original. Every sign says "it was lost in a fire in the year XXXX and was rebuilt in YYYY."

Not having much else to do as I rip across Japan in the shinkansen at 180 mph (I made that number up), I'm going to copy a funny section from the book I'm reading (takes place in Japan in the 1980s):

"At nine, the woman of the ryokan brought us a dish of sliced apples, and the dental man told me about his son.

"My son's fifteen. A boy scout. He's out camping this week for one of his badges. Up in the mountains. All by himself. It's hard for a lad, but it'll do him good. The first night I drove up and took him a chicken. The chicken was alive and he didn't know what to do with it. I said nothing, I just stood there and watched him. He told me over and over that he didn't want to kill the chicken, but I said nothing, and eventually he wrapped it in a newspaper and snapped its neck. The second night I took him a live eel and a diagram of how to cut it up.

He's not a bright boy. He cried for a while when he killed both creatures. He wanted to tell me something, but I came away before he could speak. I'm rather worried about his future.

He's not much good with an abacus, even though I've told him it's one of the basic skills. Reading, writing, and the abacus. We make two thirds of the electronic calculators in the world, and four out of five Japanese shopkeepers still use an abacus. My son's a disappointment. He made a mess of the eel."

Ok, that's all so far!