Dinner was a traditional Kyoto meal and it made Yuko uncomfortable. “Doesn’t it look strange?” she asked me but I said “No stranger than all the other stuff I’ve eaten in Japan!” It certainly looked foreign, but I could tell no real difference between it and the meal we had at the mid-year conference, which Yuko ate happily. Another difference between the East and West parts of Japan are the kinds of kanji used. In Kyoto there are lots of old and difficult kanji that most people from the east part of the country don’t know. It’s still hard for me to imagine living with a character writing system for your main language. What happens when you come across a Kanji you don’t know? You can’t read! Anyway, I enjoyed the dinner, though not quite as much as the mid-year conference feast.
We then went to Kiyomizudera to look at the light show. The traffic was unbelievable. Only a few days in the fall does the Kiyomizudera temple light up the colored leaves at night and admit visitors and boy do the visitors come! I don’t know how to describe the crowds, but it is smaller than Disney so it’s hard to compare. It wasn’t as bad as some of the firework shows in terms of getting pushed around, though. Still, wow! It was very cool to look at, though. God’s work was the most impressive, but the lighting was neat, too. I had a great time watching the Japanese tourists flock to the same view points to take pictures with their camera cell phones. Maybe they have great phones that take good quality night pictures, but . . . Of course, I was no better. I was trying to take night pictures of them taking pictures . . .
When we returned to the hotel Yuko and I went to the hotel’s onsen but the water was so hot I could only stay in a few minutes. It was so hot I think it wasn’t really safe, but it didn’t seem to bother the Japanese any. I had a good night’s rest.
Monday, Nov. 21st we had a traditional breakfast at the hotel, which was almost like our dinner. My American stomach doesn’t like tofu, fish, and unidentifiable objects as much at that hour. So, I was less adventurous and stuck to the familiar rice and nori (seaweed). Hm, I guess my tastes have changed a bit . . .
We had a little time to check out the temple in the morning, but for some reason it wasn’t in the schedule to see it. I found out later why: there were not many trees on the grounds. I found it a very impressive place and there was a big market going on and I could have spend longer there and even so we made it to the bus just in time, which meant we were late. On each stop he gave us a time to be back on the bus and without fail everyone was always on it at least 5 or 10 minutes early. I wouldn’t have felt so bad for being late but the hotel staff was lined up outside waiting to wave goodbye to our bus! I think a scene like that is in Lost in Translation. I’ll have to watch that movie again when I go back to the states and see if I feel any different about it after having lived here. Anyway, we went off to see a very famous temple with a famous bridge. Oh, I might add that I had a busy Saturday and wasn’t able to do the research on Kyoto that I’d hoped so that I’d know what was going on. It was probably a good thing, or I would have known what I was missing. I didn’t know about this temple so it only hurt me a little that we didn’t come to see the temple. No, there are all these big beautiful buildings around us and we were given thirty minutes (which really meant 20) to explore! I didn’t quite understand when yesterday we’d had an hour or more for these little shrines. I didn’t mind the time yesterday since we were able to enjoy the woods and nature, but it seemed strange! But back to this temple. It was very popular. Tour bus after tour bus came in one right after another. Police were there just to guide traffic on the way to the temple. When we arrived they had a group photo taken (which I have to say most of the group decided to buy even though we didn’t know each other!) then we snaked our way through a Disney-type line to enter the grounds. We walked up to one building and down by a stream and that was it. I couldn’t contain my confusion anymore and asked Yuko what was going on. It was then I discovered that most of the people on this tour have been to Kyoto a number of times (many schools take trips) and they’ve seen the insides of these great big buildings, but they haven’t seen the famous fall colors. This trip was about looking at the fall colors. Now, I think it’s great that the Japanese appreciate the seasons more than we do (the change of leaves and peak seasons are tracked by normal weather announcers), but it seemed odd that you might go all the way to Kyoto and pay a special price just to look at the same trees that everyone else does! In fact, what bothered, or I should say entertained me the most was that everyone flocked to the same view. If there were people crowded around then that’s where people looked, but often if I turned around or went to another spot the view was just as wonderful, but nobody looked. As soon as they’d observed the scene through their cell phone view finder they walked on to the next stop while looking at the photo they’d just taken. Now, I don’t mean to be down on the Japanese, it’s just very different from my idea of enjoying nature. I could have sat in those courtyards and enjoyed the beauty for a long time and I didn’t take too many pictures because even with my nice new digital camera, it can’t really capture what’s there. It seemed like they were there to take their pictures so they could show their pictures to their friends and say “I went to such-and-such a famous place at this famous time.” Oh, and the crowds in this space were quite amazing, too. Much more crowded than any place at Disney. I really don’t quite understand, though I enjoyed the beautiful scenery. Maybe I’m spoilt by the amount of natural land we have in the States. Anyway, once I understood what people were here for it was easier to take the rest of the trip. I want to go again sometime and look at the interesting places longer. We went to another large temple for a brief moment then we were free to have lunch and shop and do whatnot. It was here that I found the old beautiful Japan that I’d imagined. Yuko was surprised that it was this old Japan and not the modern Kyoto that I liked. I was amazed that it was modern Kyoto and not this old Japan that Yuko liked . . .
Sadly, we didn’t have much time to look around and even so I skipped lunch so I could see more. If I get the chance I’d like to go again, but the weekends fill up so quickly! At 1:30 we went back to the bus and went home. We practically drove past my apartment twice, but of course I couldn’t get off the bus until we were in Kofu and I had to take the train back then walk from the station, but I got in around 9pm and had a little time before bed. I enjoyed the trip, but it’s confirmed again that tours are not my preferred way to travel! I don’t know if I would have gotten to Kyoto otherwise, though. So I’m quite happy we went. I also got a good chance to learn and practice my Japanese since I had Yuko captive as my teacher the whole ride. Oh, and to leave you with the strange taste that the trip left me with, we watched some movies on the way back from Kyoto. One was what I’d call pornographic. Here was a bus full of retirees and housewives (remember this was a Sunday-Monday trip) watching two women lovers. As I find myself saying more frequently now: Doshite (why)? Usually there is no explanation and this time I decided not to ask.