Day 1 in Kyoto

Not counting the travel day, as I pretty much got on the train, got off the train, and planned at the hostel. :) I will say that the trip from the station was difficult; I now remember why I didn't like having a roller suitcase in my last travels. I just about killed my ankles whenever I'd climb the stairs, with my bag bouncing off the back of my feet. I got to the hostel a half-hour before they opened for checkin, so I sat outside, edited photos, and talked to Suki (Korean girl who's living in Perth, Australia at the moment) while we waited. When check-in time opened up, I met one of the two front desk girls who was just a bundle of adorable, cheerful energy that didn't quite speak English. She asked for my name, and when I responded, she went "Chrisrussu, okay. Wait, Christmassu? Like Santa?" and made the 'big belly' gesture, looking quite confused. It was a fun check-in ^__^

Founder's Hall. The photo doesn't do it justice; it was HUGE!

The next day, I wanted to go back and see some things I passed on the way from the station, particularly a HUGE Buddhist temple called Higashi-Honganji. Its Founder's Hall is the largest wooden structure in the world, and was one of the first temples I'd been in in Japan that really felt like a place of worship. Monks were walking about cleaning relics, people were bowing to the altar whenever they passed in front of it, and people were kneeling in prayer or reading on the huge open tatami mat floor. Photos weren't allowed inside any of the buildings, so I don't have any photos of the things I liked, sadly =/

Next I decided to see some of Kyoto's famed gardens, so I went down the street to Shosei-en garden. The walk over was interesting. Both the temple and garden are within easy walking distance of my hostel, and the neighborhood is like Kyoto's epicenter of religious paraphernalia. There are TONS of shops selling prayer beads, incense, and supplies for building at home shrines (including cabinets made of special woods, statues of different buddhas and spirits, and scrolls and talismans with prayers written on them). It looks like when you want to start a shrine or prayer corner in your home, you come to this neighborhood to get started. I saw several couples sitting inside the various shops, seated on tatami mats and talking with the shop owners.

Anyway, the garden. It was nice! It didn't have any raked pebbles or moss gardens (that would come later),

but was still very pretty. I was actually able to have space to myself, which was nice, and is definitely not something I can say about gardens in Tokyo. There were a few lingering cherry blossoms in the garden (particularly a few weeping sakuras; picture willow trees, except pink), along with a few cool Japanese buildings and bridges. Nothing groundbreaking, but still nice!

Oh yeah, and bees. Really, really big bees. They'd just kinda hover about eight feet above the walking paths buzzing threateningly. It was weird, 'cause they buzz much more loudly and at a lower pitch than American bees, which makes it sound like they're RIGHT in your ear. I kept ducking, then realizing the bee was still like ten feet away.

Street in Gion.

Once I'd had my fill of gardens, I went up to Gion, which is the traditional quarter here. The buildings are mostly the dark, unpainted wood you think of when you think of Japanese buildings, which makes you feel like you're stepping back in time just a little bit. The folks walking about in kimonos adds to the feeling. I grabbed some photos, gawked at some geisha look-alikes, REALLY gawked at an actual geisha (who had an entourage of about 30 people snapping photos), then grabbed a seat at Tully's and people-watched for a bit while I charged my phone (I keep forgetting to plug it in at night). Oh and Ponnie: I know you worry about my safety, but just to prove how safe this country is: two people came in and were afraid someone would grab their seats by the door, so they LEFT their purses and DSLR cameras in seats about 2 feet off the street while they went to order drinks.

Properly caffeinated, I went home and threw on a sport coat for dinner at Sushi Matsumoto, which I posted about earlier. What I didn't post about was the ride over, which was its own adventure. I wasn't quite sure where it was, so I decided to take a cab. Taxis here don't normally speak much english, so I saved the restaurant's address, phone number, a map, and a google map with a route drawn on it to my phone. I handed that to the cabbie, who stared at it for about twenty seconds before saying, "Wakarimasen (I don't understand)." I pointed at the address and said "Koko kudasai (Here please.)" He still didn't get it, but saw the restaurant's phone number. He called them to get the address (which I saw him write down and was the same as the one I had just given him), then started driving. He wanted to make sure I understood they weren't open until 5:30 (it was 5 already), so he kept repeating it in Japanese. He then parked next to the alley my restaurant was in (too small for the cab) and jogged down the street to point out which door I needed (I could read the sign since I knew Hiragana, but wouldn't have known otherwise, so it was a very considerate gesture). I wandered til they opened, had dinner, wandered home (it was actually closer than I'd thought to where I'd been earlier that day in Gion, so I just took the metro home), and went to sleep.
 

No kidding.