Kyoto and a glance back at Japan

I am sitting in a private booth at an Internet cafe at the moment.  The place is pretty nice http://www.netparty.jp .  They have like 40 private booths 20 of them with Internet on a really fast machine that I am pretty sure is meant for online gaming.  Then the other booths have couches and videogame systems or large TVs with DVD players.   Also all the internet booths have these universal chargers for cell phones. 

 Since I last wrote I spent a few nights in Kyoto and a few more nights in Tokyo.  In fact, I am spending my last morning in Tokyo writing a quick summary of my experiences before I move onto Hong Kong. 

 The trip to Kyoto was definitely an interesting one.  I met up with some Austrians I had met at my first hostel and we made  the trek to Tokyo station to get to Kyoto.  We had all decided to take the “shinkansen” or the bullet train.  The journey to the station was quite terrible.  It was slightly raining outside, my pack was heavy, and Tokyo Station is probably the most congested place in all of the Tokyo.  It took us about an hour to get there and purchase the tickets for the Shinkansen.  Most of the Japanese Rail workers don’t speak much English so we weren’t even a 100% sure we got the correct ticket.  Once on the tracks we split ways as they pass the Austrian’s had didn’t allow them to get reserved seats, but was able to for a few more dollars.  With no place to to sit I stood their waiting in slight agony for the 20 minutes to pass until next train.

 The train arrived and left promptly exactly at the time it said it would on the ticket.  Passengers only had about 2 minutes to get situated on the train at the stop before it took off at high speeds for Kyoto, making only 2 extremely brief stops on the way.  The speed and smoothness of the train almost felt surreal.  The only way you could even understand you were moving was by looking out the window….otherwise it just felt like a smooth car ride.  However, outside the country side was flying by at 300+ km an hour.  It looked as if you were flying on a high speed jet just a few feet off the ground as houses/people nearby to the train window were just streaks of color on the grey background.  We passed by mount Fuji but it was covered in a rain cloud and only the base of the mountain was visible…and only for a few minutes.

 I fell asleep after about 20 minutes on the Train and woke up again in Kyoto.  There I made my way with the pack to the hostel I was staying in.  This Hostel was terrible.  It was small, dingy, dark, damp, and cold.  Also internet was no longer free but instead about 1 US dollar for 10 minutes.  The sleeping dorms were six people to a room and just involved a few stacked blankets on a tatami mat.  I tried to spend as few minutes in the hostel as possible and continued directly from dropping my stuff to the Imperial Palace and some shrines. 

Kyoto was the old capital and full of shrines, castles, and other building of historic significance.  Also, the city reminded me slightly of Rome.  Their was the old and culturally significant juxtaposed with the brand new and flashy.  While there I went to a number of temples including the Imperial Palace, Nanzen-ji, Fashimi-Inari, Heien Jingu, Nijo-ji, and a number of others I just stumbled upon.  I would elaborate on each place but I was pretty much over whelmed with temples by the end of the trip.  One place I did really like was this 4 km walk up the mountain called Fashimi-Inari Taisha.  It is a complex of 5 temples and a number of graveyards that just wind up a pristine mountain path.  The unique thing however is that the path is covered by thousands upon thousands of orange gates (See Attached Flickr Photos).   All had unique lettering, possibly names carved into their sides.

 Another cool site was the castle of Nijo-ji, the first castle of the Shogunate when he took over Japan.  The Shogunate was basically a samurai (warrior) who took over the country by force and transferred power from the monarchy to himself.  The castle the first one built was a structure to be seen.  It was first of all huge and very intricately designed.  There were a number of ingenious methods to keep out spies and would be assassins.  The most interesting was the use of “nightingale floors.”  These floors made a unique chirping sound even when the slight bit of pressure was applied to them.  As the tourist made their way through the castle it definitely sounded like a flock of chirpping birds.   In addition, many of the rooms had translucent panels to the halls, serving as guard rooms.  If an intruder walked past a translucent panel a shadow could be seen inside the room but the exterior of the panel looked no different than the rest of the panels in the castle.

 While I was exploring the different temples and castles I ran into an Australian girl named Liny (pronounced lin-ee).  She seemed to be very interested in Japanese culture and history and told me more about the sights we were visiting than the guide books.  Back in Australia she was studying homeopathic medicine and had a lot to say about the problems with western medicine.  She proceeded to talk about it for about an hour and then asked me what I was doing with my life.  I told her that when I return to the states I would be going to medical school and an embarrassed look washed over her face.  She then apologized for a few minutes which I found pretty humorous.

 After seeing all the temples I could handle and staying on tatami mats I made my way back to the train station and back to Tokyo.  Again I slept on the the train with its soothing hum as the world passed by outside.  Once in Tokyo, I again donned my large pack, and made my way to my final hostel in Japan.  This hostel was pretty nice except it was out of the way and the bed was exactly 6′4″ givign me one inch of space to stretch out in.  Also the ceilings were extremely low and I hit my head probably a dozen time on different surfaces.  The hostel was set up as a number of small apartments for 3 people.  I lived with an Australian girl and a Korean girl in japan studying the language.  Across the hall I met a British guy named David and a Japanese ex-pat living ing Amsterdam, Masimo.  We hung out most of the remaining days and went to different party spots in Tokyo.

 The first night we went to the bustling heart of Tokyo known as Shinjunku.  The place was vast but seemed small as there were probably 5 thousand people within plain sight on the main street.  We walked around for a while and I came to a few realizations.  A)  Japanese people are by far the best dressed people I have ever seen.  They were all wearing interesting and designer clothes and clearly took a lot of pride in their appearance.  The women were wearing outfits easily in the thousands of dollars with matching purses and shoes.  The men all looked like they came out of a european clothing store, and also had the coolest haircuts i have ever seen.
B)  Women have not learned how to walk in high heels.  I wish I could have just taken a video of women barely able to stand let a lone walk in these things.  I would say at least 80% looked beautiful but when they walked it was as if they were drunk and injured looking for any support to keep from falling over.  Everyone else that has been to Tokyo I am sure can corroborate my account of this.

 After people watching for about half and hour we ducked into one of the many food/drink bars that are frequented by salarymen after a long day of working.  I talked to both David and Masimo about their respective towns and views on Japan.  Everyone loved the city of Tokyo and would try to return.  On the way back to the hostel we encountered another familiar phenomena in the Tokyo subway…the drunk salaryman.  This guy was dressed impeccably in a suit but clearly drunk and often passed out on a subway bench.  It is all part of the culture of working extremely hard during the day (often 12 hours+) and having lots of [intoxicated] fun at nights.  Many of the individuals would probably end the night in a capsule hotel and go straight back to the office the next day.

The following day I made my way around Tokyo on my own for a bit.  I went to an electronic town called Akihabara as I got lost the last time I tried to get there.  It was definitely an electronics and gadget person’s heaven.  There were floors and floors dedicated just to phones, games, or even kitchen appliances.  I also ventured into a Japanese arcade.   There I saw the individuals playing drum games and guitar games as if they were the star of some you tube video.  I took a video of one such person and will upload it when I get the change.  Also I took a quick stop at Rippongi…the club and going out center of Tokyo.  I was instantly mobbed with people asking me to go to their club or girls offering massages.  This continued for the next 20 minutes as I walked around and took some photos and eventually returned back to the hostel. 

That evening I felt something that was unique to me but apparently very common in Japan…an earthquake.  It was only a minor one which lasted maybe 7-10 seconds.  It woke me up and I felt like I was moving but then realized that infact the room itself was moving.  It was an an eerie feeling and I wasn’t sure if it was a dream.  Then in about 20 minutes it happened again and I was still wide awake for this one.  The rumble was gentle though and nothing moved in my room.

 On my last full day in Tokyo me and Masimo went around the city and he took me to a place called Harajuku.  I had been wanting to go since I first arrived as a girl told me I would fall inlove there.  I had no idea what the place was until I arrived.  It was full of youngsters who were fully dressed in either gotchic clothing, maid outfits, or something else you would in an anime film.  It was an interesting walk to say the least.  Then the weather gave out and it rained almost the entire remaining day.  I wanted to go to Ueno park to get some last photos of the cherry blossoms but was unable to.  Instead, I ate, did some laundry, and took it easy for the remaining time.

 Now it is getting to the time I should be headed to the Airport to catch my flight to Hong Kong.  I will send an update after I visit the highest population density place on the planet.