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Japan Day 12

Posted by Mark | Filed under Travel

Today we went to Kyoto. We’d been warned that it was one of the hottest places in Japan, but I hadn’t paid too much atten­tion to the warn­ings think­ing that I wouldn’t really notice the dif­fer­ence after the heat I’d already been deal­ing with. Boy was I ever wrong! It was the sin­gle most bru­tal day of heat and mis­ery that I’ve ever expe­ri­enced. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I’d been wear­ing shorts, but AWelkin had men­tioned prior to the trip that it was one of the more con­ser­v­a­tive areas of Japan and we shouldn’t wear shorts there because it’s just not done¹. I have to say that if I’d known in advance how bru­tal the heat would be there; I would have ignored that cul­tural advice and worn shorts. It was hor­rific and it make mat­ters worse, the main tem­ple we’d come to see was more than just a lit­tle ways from the train sta­tion and all the walk­ing was uphill. Before we got there though, we rode the local bus sys­tem which wasn’t too bad, except when it got crowded². Once the bus desposited us at the base of the hill to the tem­ple; we started the climb, ignor­ing all the shops on the way up. When we finally made it to the top of the hill; we found we had to go up a set of steep stairs to get to the actual tem­ple area. I think we’d already vis­ited another tem­ple that day (I’ll have to go through all the tick­ets and scraps I saved from the trip to double-check) and so AWelkin allowed those stu­dents who wanted to; to rest at the base of the tem­ples. Only about 5 of us (3, if you didn’t count AWelkin & Bryon) actu­ally went in. It was the most beau­ti­ful tem­ple we’d seen yet and had a view of the val­ley area below which rivalled (but didn’t quite beat) the view of the ocean at the one pre­vi­ous tem­ple. Again, words fail me here so I’ll have to hurry up and see about post­ing some pic­tures.

After we fin­ished up at the tem­ple, we had a short time to do some shop­ping on the way back. I started off try­ing to help Bryon find a kit­sune fig­urine but we had no luck. Then I saw a shaved ice stand on the way down. I stopped to get some and cool off a bit while Bryon con­tin­ued down to meet up with AWelkin. After I’d cooled down a bit, I took my ice with me as I fin­ished walk­ing down to the meet­ing point. Then we waited around far too long for all of the stu­dents to fin­ish show­ing up and then took taxis back to the train sta­tion. On our taxi-ride back, Keki-san pointed out some maiko walk­ing off onto a side street. They were wear­ing beau­ti­ful kimonos, but unfor­tu­nately we didn’t have time to stop and I had put my cam­era away so there was no chance to get a pic­ture of them. *sad*

Once we all got to the train sta­tion, we all headed back to the Jikei cen­ter. On the train ride back, I had a nice chat with H-san (the big­wigs of Jikei that spent the most time with us). He gave me some background/history of Japan and asked me what I liked about the pro­gram so. It was very pleas­ant. Unfor­tu­nately, I don’t think I gave him the infor­ma­tion he was really look­ing for because I’m such a non-traditional stu­dent and only went back to school in order to take this course. *sigh*

At the Jikei cen­ter, the staff out did them­selves again with a bar­beque for us. They grilled bits of beef (tiny, tiny but very tasty slices), corn, pota­toes, onions, pep­pers, some­thing like tofu but made from a root (which I didn’t care for) and rice balls (which I loved). They also had fresh (pulled from the ocean that day) which they grilled whole (heads, scales and all); but they ran out before I got around to try­ing them. I was soooo dis­ap­pointed (not). They fin­ished off the meal with more fresh fruit (water­melon and grapes) as well as shaved ice inside of plas­tic sticks (like a frozen pop­si­cle). I tried both the melon and cream soda fla­vors, yum! Towards the end of the BBQ, Keki-san was talk­ing with AWelkin and men­tioned how much she liked the Japan­ese bath at the cen­ter. There was a bit of silence amoung sev­eral of us as AWelkin fig­ured out that Keki-san wasn’t talk­ing about a bath in her room, but a bath like a Japan­ese bath­house. Sev­eral of us insis­tently were ask­ing where it was and if we could use it. When we learned we could (unlike the pool which had been closed because no life­guard was avail­able); there was much rejoyc­ing. *yeah* It was odd show­er­ing up in front of other men like that, but the ooo, aaaa, ah, ah, NOT COLD water in the tub (which was 3–4 times the size of my bath­room here in the US) made it all worth­while. Espe­cially since it relaxed my feet; so that for the first time, in about 2 weeks, my feet weren’t hurt­ing. Aaaaahhhhhhh.

After the relax­ing bath AWelkin, Bryon and myself did a bit more karoke and it was old farts night for about 2 songs each before some of the other stu­dents came in. AWelkin & Bryon slipped out early but I didn’t quite until my throat hurt but that didn’t take as long this night, partly because I was still some­what sore from the night before and partly because they were smok­ing quite a bit more that night.

¹ One of those clu­tural dif­fer­ence things.
² AWelkin, Keki-san and Sato-sensai seemed very amused to see me srunch myself on top of a step inside the bus and push my head up at an angle along the ciel­ing to make room for some of the lit­tle old ladies get­ting on to the bus.

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