Nihongo-a-Go-Go :: Aimee's Journal: June 2005 Archives

June 29, 2005

Kyoto Part 1 (finally) and the current weather conditions

Well, the weather has turned dreadfully hot here... though it's not so much the heat as the humidity. It's very hot and humid at home too, but here it just seems to hang and feel like you're wrapped in a warm, wet towel. Right now, it's 83 degrees Fahrenheit (at about midnight).

We've started using the air conditioner sooner than we'd planned to. This is also partly because of the mosquitos. From talking to students, I've pieced together that there are two kinds of mosquitos in Central Japan. The first is like the kind that we have at home - small, annoying, leave little itchy welts. The second is much larger with a striped body. These are the ones that REALLY bother me - they bites leave HUGE welts that last a long time and are very itchy. When they are going away, they leave reddish-brown blothces that look like bruises.

I'm working on writing my entry about Kyoto... it's about time, as it was almost a month ago now! Eeeeeeek. I guess I have to admit that I found Kyoto a little disappointing in some respects. It didn't seem very welcoming or friendly. In some ways, if I had only gone there on that one day trip during Sakura season, I think I would have left Japan with a better view of Kyoto. As it stands, aside from the kick-ass aethetic gorgeousness of Kyoto, I prefer Nagoya.

To start, when we got to Kyoto it was raining. And for some reason, that weekend was just rife with tourists and travellers... so most of the cheap business (western style) hotels were booked, even though June isn't really so popular for vacation in Kyoto. As a result, we ended up in the Palaceside Hotel. In theory, having a hotel that was located right beside Kyoto's Imperial Palace was a great thing. In reality, though, the Imperial Palace is nestled inside a large, walled park that is surrounded by trees. No view at all. The room itself was a decent size, the main problem was that every surface in the room was hard. The small couch was like an upholstered brick, and the beds... well, this is how I picture the composition of my "mattress."

So one of the big exciting things about staying at a hotel ("YAY! A BED!") was thoroughly unenjoyable. Also, I ended up being allergic to something in the room and sneezing non-stop whenever we were in the room. This also mutated into a cold after we left Kyoto.

But... our toilet, the hotel assued us with a lovely little paper ribbon, had been sanitized.

And in the desk drawer, there were side-by-side copies of Gideon's Bible and The Teachings of Buddha.

On our first day, we deposited out things at the hotel and took off for Kiyu Mizu Dera. It was still lightly raining, and quite a walk from the station. Unlike Nagoya, which boasts something like five subway lines, Kyoto has only two subway lines. Most of the popular temples are on the outskirts of Kyoto, outside the city center, so these lines don't really help so much. The best way to travel, really, is to take the tourist buses. But anyway, we were walking. We'd been walking and enjoying the mild rain, and we ended up not quite following our map correctly. So we ended up taking the longer way up to Kiyu Mizu, passing the Higashi Otani Masoleum and then following a path up along and through some fantastically huge and beautiful cemetaries.

Kiyu Mizu was really gorgeous. It's so lush and beautiful around it, with all of the trees and mist and low clouds. I loved it. I think it's been the most strikingly beautiful place I've seen in Japan... and I think the rain actually made it better. Anyway. Kiyu Mizu is one of the most famous temples in Kyoto. One of its most recognisable features is a large, overhanging balcony. The view from there was beautiful, though by then it had started to rain a bit harder again.

Kiyu Mizu is the site of a a fresh water spring (with important religious signifigance). Many people come to catch the water in long-handled ladels and drink. The water is very interesting tasting. It's very refreshing and almost sweet, it leaves a tingling feeling in the back of your mouth that lasts a few hours. I enjoyed it, but the little girl in a pink jacket who we watched didn't seem to. She seemed lost for a polite way to spit it out, and then just let subtely it run down her chin. She's toward the middle in this picture.

On the walk back down the mountain (yeah, it's on a mountain, and a bit of a trek up), we stopped in a bunch of the tourist shops. I bought my first real "Japan" bric-a-brac, the sort of stuff you pull out for guests who want to see what you bought in Japan. I should feel bad about that sort of tokenism, but the Japanese tourists seemed to be buying all of the same things as I was. I found the staff at these shops to be extremely unhelpful and unfriendly. Granted, they do deal with a lot of foreigners, but that doesn't excuse the attitude at all. Oh well. :)

Most places in Japan close early - most shops close around 7 or 8. The temples and other tourist locales all close their gates at around 5. So with the sun starting to set, we trekked back hotel-ward. We stopped to pick up bentos for dinner, which were very good. I enjoyed mine thoroughly, though I didn't take pictures.

At the hotel, I sneezed my little head off and watched a PBS-type fundraising show that was a memorial to this one very popular Japanese singer who had passed on. I really enjoyed watching it - they showed clips of the woman's concerts. She just had so much sparkle and personality, I really enjoyed it. I also watched part of a strange historical drama, and then part of a program about how to wear kimonos.

Anyway! I will continue this another time, I'm sleepy!

Posted by Aimee at 01:43 AM | Comments (2)

June 24, 2005

Octopus!

I've been wanting to buy a tentacle at the grocery store for AGES to take pictures... and Mandy finally let me! They were on sale for very cheap. *beam* Check out my artistic octopus photos!