I love Kyoto. It’s where I first went in Japan 9 years ago when Tim and I had our study abroad adventure during the summer after 1st year, where I first learned Japanese and Japanese culture, and where I met new friends from around the globe. During our summer there we took 7-hour classes on Japanese, met up with conversation partners each day at lunch, and had cultural & sightseeing excursions each weekend with the same partners. We were able to view the whole beauty that is Kyoto as well as enjoy living there and going out around town when the night fell.
Aside from a few days showing Matt around Kyoto a few months after that program, I haven’t been back since. Each Japan trip afterwards centered only around Tokyo, for many reasons which I’ll get into during the next post (since I’m on the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo right now). I was unable to come back during my last trip due to some unfortunate complications, so I was excited to come back this time.
I left Hiroshima as it began pouring rain hardcore, following a crazy hot 85-degree 70-percent humidty day. The trip on this Shinkansen, a Kodama class, took way longer as it stopped at every. single. stop. But I finally got in around noon and walked to my hostel, PIECE Hostel Kyoto, which was luckily only a few minutes from the JR exits of Kyoto Station. This place was nice. Brand new building, super modern design, concrete floors and an 18-person dorm room. Unlike the other hostels, I didn’t have to take off my shoes. In fact, shoes were worn everywhere except in your bed. I wasn’t that thrilled about it because in order to go to the bathroom, or shower (on a different floor) I’d have to put my shoes back on since I didn’t have slippers. Otherwise, this place was a nice spot.
Only having a day, I had to pick out just a stop or two to check out that I absolutely wanted to see again – the absolute first choice was Kiyomizu Dera, a huge mountainside temple and one of Kyoto’s most famous attractions. I wanted to see something new, though, so I jumped online and looked around and found Fushimi Inari Taisha – a shrine in the southern tip that is famous for having hundreds of orange torii gates leading up the mountain, in the midst of a forest. Inari is the Shinto god of rice, and this is Inari’s most important temple. There are fox statues everywhere acting as messengers, and people and companies are known to buy torii gates along the trail (their names are inscribed on the backsides, which you see as you walk back down through them). It was a HOT day – low 80’s with the usual humidity – so I hiked up through the increasingly steep trails for about an hour before I reached a decent vista point / plateau and called it a day. I think lugging around my full pack is starting to drain me a little bit, so I didn’t have as much energy for this hike as I thought. That, and it was getting late afternoon and I wanted to make it back to my next stop, so I hiked back down through the gates and then it was on to Kiyomizu.
I had to take the 市バス (City Bus) to get there – this bus line was our everyday mode back in ’04. When we lived in Kyoto taking the train or subway was a very rare occurence – something I all but forgot given how much living in Tokyo centered around the JR (or Metro). The bus doesn’t take SUICA or IC cards so I was sad. After getting off the bus, it’s a short 20 minute walk up through streets lined with shops and sweets. It’s always fun to go up this as it has a little more old-Japan feel and you can buy the traditional Kyoto sweets, 八ツ橋 (yatsuhashi).
The main temple itself is a massive building built into the hillside, which is supported by wooden beams underneath and was constructed completely without the use of nails. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, and was built in 1633. I just read that there is an expression of “jumping off the the Kiyomizu stage” (the platform in the photos below) equivalent to “take the plunge”, and that people used to jump off it and if they survived, their wish would be granted. They don’t allow this anymore.. for good reason. Only 85% of people who jumped, survived.
Part of the temple is under construction right now and covered beneath a huge tent, but luckily it’s not the iconic stage portion or the waterfall area. The name “Kiyomizu” means “clear water” and refers to the waterfalls that the temple is built around. One of these waterfalls is channeled into three streams coming over a walkway, where people can catch some of the water in a cup and drink it for good luck.
After Kiyomizu, it was dinner time and I headed back to Kyoto Station, where they have a Ramen stadium. I decided to eat more noodles. I went in and there were more than 10 shops each selling different styles of ramen from different regions. The one with the longest line, “King of Ramen”, sold Tokushima-style ramen which I’d never tried or seen, so I tried that one. This was totally different, and damn good. The broth is pork-based like Hakata, but instead of chashu they top it with stir-fried pork belly and, the best part, a raw egg. The result was a bowl of ramen that had a distinct flavor, reminded me a bit of sukiyaki and gyudon, and was on a whole different level for ramen. Honestly I think I liked this one better than what I had in Fukuoka, but my hunger (I hadn’t eaten lunch) might have swayed that judgement. Tokushima is in Shikoku and I think I should actually try it there before I make any final decision on what’s best. I also just found out they have Tokushima style in CA (LA, SF and UC!) so I’ll have to go there when I get back.
After ramen I met up in 三条 (Sanjo District, where the bars and nightlife are) with two old KSU friends from our ’04 abroad program, Yoshi and Tomoyuki. I last saw Tomoyuki when Winston and I were in Tokyo in ’08 as he came to visit us over there, so it had been 5 years! He looked exactly the same except he came from work wearing a suit, super サラリーマン style. I hadn’t seen Yoshi since ’04 when Matt and I visited and I swear neither of them aged a day. They asked where I wanted to go and in true KSU style we decided on Watami izakaya. We drank, ate a ton of food, and reminisced. This was my first real test of how terrible my Japanese has become. My grammar structure, most (informal) verb conjugation, listening comprehension and vocal accent were still pretty much there, but my vocabulary is embarrassingly tiny now. Lucky for me Yoshi’s English is still excellent for both translating and helping me remember words. It was fun though and by the end of the night I had a lot of speaking confidence back – except when I came to a word I didn’t know, which sadly is pretty often.
Around 11PM everyone had to head back out since they lived an hour from Kyoto, so we all said bye and parted ways and I headed back to the hostel. Since my train to Tokyo in the morning was at 7AM (the 8AM was full and I wanted to get into the city in time to meet up with Justin and Andrea), I washed up quickly, re-packed and went to sleep.
I woke up nice and early this morning and am now on a Hikari Shinkansen to Tokyo. New day, next city! I already know this one will be a long day, Winston’s in town and we’re going out tonight. またね。
