Kate’s Quests

Getting up at 4:30am, DJ and I blearily made it to the freezing cold shower room and slowly washed and woke up. We finished packing and said goodbye to the boys and hurried down the mountain with a flashlight. I was glad that I had suggested it since it was still pitch black at 5:30 in the morning. There was a full moon, but the woods are so thick, that no light can get through. We got to the station at 5:55 and the 6:01 train was waiting for us. Most of the Japanese business people were sitting on the train trying to warm up, but after our trek, DJ and I were trying to cool down. The gaijin bubble was in full effect at first, but as the train filled up, people were much more willing to sit next to us. A couple of months ago, I showed DJ the blog of a guy who also lives in japan and refers to the ability of gaijin (foreigners) to keep a considerable amount of personal space (even on a crowded morning train) because no one wants to get too close to foreigners. I don’t usually experience this when I’m alone anymore, but when DJ and I travel together…it’s in full effect. It was really bad when we first got here. But, as time went on I guess i got a little better at adopting the train attitude and don’t stick out quite as much anymore. Although, as gaijin, there’s only so much I can blend.

We made it to Shinagawa and onto the Shinkansen (bullet train). With a couple of Starbuck’s coffees and some snacks brought from home, we settled in for the two and a half hour ride. Each with our own iPod’s and (he with his sports and my NPR) podcasts we watched the scenery blow by with breathtaking speed. I have to admit that I could have stayed on the train all day, but soon we arrived in Kyoto and began finding our way to the hotel. We talked to Aunt Janet on the way and took some pictures at a small shrine that we ran across.

Some two hours later, backs and feet hurting from carrying luggage we checked in at the Karasuma Kyoto Hotel. It was Western, but nice. The beds were uncomfortable, but it was clean and it did the job. We got lunch at an Indian place and then, since it was getting a bit late and we wanted to make sure we had enough sunlight left, we took a cab to Kinkakuji (aka The Temple of the Golden Pavilion). This temple was made famous by the author Mishima who wrote a fictionalized account of the disgruntled monk who burnt the place to the ground in 1950. Luckily they had it rebuilt in three years. After seeing and taking many pictures of the Kinkakuji we walked uphill to the Ryoanji Temple. I stress the uphill because at that point my feet were really hurting and I whined and complained the whole way. DJ must have been thrilled, but I tried to keep it light. We then walked to the Ninnaji temple and it had just closed, but we stuck the camera through the fence and took pictures anyway. We jumped on a train that half way through the trip became a street car and we came back to the center of town. We wandered around for a long while and then decided to get dinner. Deciding on sushi, we found a place that looked good and went in. They didn’t have anything in English, but one of the servers spoke a little so he helped us choose something. We picked a set (Japanese love sets…like our value meals) and got the best sushi we’ve had in awhile. It just melted. They also served us some strange foods and I can’t even begin to imagine what they were, but it was all edible.

I didn’t sleep very well and my feet still hurt, but we wanted to get up and out early the next day. By 8:00am we were heading to the east side of Kyoto. We saw many temples and shrines and waited a bit too long to find lunch. We tried finding an English pub that DJ had been to in Hong Kong and once in Australia, but when we got there we found it was closed. We had some onigiri (rice triangles – fish wrapped in rice wrapped in seaweed) instead. I had salty plum and salmon while DJ had the wet seaweed. YUM! We headed back to the hotel for some rest before going back out to the (now open) English pub and then the Irish pub. I kept saying that I was glad that we lived in Japan so that I didn’t feel guilty about not always eating Japanese food when out. I will admit, though, that the sushi we had was by far the best meal.

Kyoto was a very modern city and apart from the nice shrines and temples and sections of city that are reminiscent of past times, it was just like any other city. It was like Tokyo, but with more cars and wider streets. I have to say, though, that we saw more western people there than I ever have here. I know we can go on base and see a lot of them there, but I expect it there. In Kyoto, it’s just tourists galore. I don’t see half as many white people out in town here than we did in Kyoto. We kept saying that seeing that many tourists just made us feel like any other tourist. But we live here (and that makes us extra awesome Americans). It was as if our year of living in Japan was wiped clean and we were seen as ignorant white tourists….just like everyone else. And it was not a good feeling. It’s constantly reinforced to us that we represent the U.S. to everyone we meet. So we’re often assuring people that Americans don’t ALL want war and we’re not all criminals. “You are driving all the way across the country by yourself?! Is that really safe? Isn’t it so dangerous in the states?” Listening to the other Americans around us, though (the tourists in the street talking and laughing loudly or the drunk guy in the bar) was a little embarrassing. Our culture is just so much louder and boisterous and different from the Japanese, it’s embarrassing to see others stand out so loudly. Being in Japan for so long (it’s only been a year, but hey) I start to forget how different we really are. I spend so much time trying to blend in and be the model American, that I forget how loud and fun Americans are. We are fun, but usually keep our parties at home.

So, while I did enjoy Kyoto and I got to see so many cultural sights, it was nice to get home to Hayama. Our kitties were very happy to see us.