Saturday, April 14 - Kyoto

Well, that was an interesting night of sleep. Our hotel room was tiny. As in, you can easily touch both walls on either side of the bed at the same time. We still somehow managed to get some sleep. In the morning we went to a nearby convenience store to get breakfast and went on our way. Breakfast was fruit in gelatin (Liz had mandarin oranges, Mark had loquats), a strawberry waffle for mark, a bean-paste filled donut for Liz, and some strawberry milk.

We took a train to Tokyo station and managed to find our Shinkansen (bullet train) without much trouble. We found our seats and made ourselves comfortable for the 2.5 hour ride to Kyoto. Yes, the bullet train is very fast. It was a nice ride but we were worried about weather: it was raining in Tokyo, and either rainy or cloudy most of the ride.

At Kyoto station, we bumbled around aimlessly until we found a food court called Eat Paradise. We decided on a place that specializes in katsu, and it was very tasty. Liz had tonkatsu, I had two small tonkatsu and two crab croquettes. The miso soup was tasty. Instead of tofu and kelp, it had tiny clams at the bottom. Our next stop was the ryokan (which is a traditional Japanese inn). We rode both lines of the Kyoto subway to get there and walked the rest of the way. My Google street view directions did not fail! We left our bags there and the reception desk worker showed us how to get to our next destination.

You can even count your calories on the subway steps.

We rode the bus to get to a point to start our walking tour. You enter the rear door of these buses and pay as you leave. It was crowded, but it got us to where we needed to go. There were lots of cherry blossoms along the way, so it was a pretty ride.

We were not at the start of our walking tour of southern Higashiyama. There were lots of people here. We started at one of Kyoto's most famous temples, Kiyomizu-dera. We didn't go inside, except for a place at the Tainai-meguri. You walk around in total darkness, guided by a railing. Apparently it is meant to symbolize emerging from the womb as you leave. To make it a more authentic experience, you can exit naked and screaming, but that may get you into trouble.

Kiyomizu-dera

We then descended a crowded street with lots of shops on both sides. There were numbers of people wearing kimono and even a few geisha. I was hoping one of them would photo-bomb us, but no dice.

More 'hanami'

We saw another temple, Kodai-ji, and then found Maruyama-koen park. It was crowded and there were lots of people having picnics on blue tarps. We walked around and took in the sights, and then moved in to Chion-in temple. It was a huge entry gate with big old stone steps. We walked up and walked around, but unfortunately there was some construction up top so we didn't see too much. By this point we were getting pretty tired, so we skipped Shoren-in and hopped on the subway to return to our inn.

This is the most renowned cherry tree in all Kyoto

Ur so geisha

One of these things is not like the others.

So, a ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn with a bath, floor mats for sleeping and paper sliding doors. They even give you a yukata to wear (they are light, comfortable robes). We hung out in the room until dinner, and may have nearly fallen asleep at one point (hard to do on these hard floors). Our food came at 7, and while good, it was way too much. Liz had the sukiyaki and I had shabu-shabu. They are like Japanese fondue, cooked in a pot and then you put them in your dipping bowl and eat it. There was beef, veggies, mushrooms and rice noodles. The sukiyaki was dipped in raw egg, which is surprisingly delicious. We couldn't even eat half of the food, unfortunately. Just too much.

Sukiyaki

Hmm! Good!

Next up was a bath. They are communal baths, divided by sexes. The process goes as follows:

1. Get naked.
2. Fill up a bucket and rinse off.
3. Get into the hot water and relax.
4. Get out and clean yourself with soap, then rinse.
5. Get into the hot water again. Continue relaxing.
6. Dry off, get dressed and leave.

It was relaxing. There was a Swedish guy in there with his half-Japanese son, we chatted for a bit. Upon returning, we found our beds (tatami mats) set up for us, and we quickly fell asleep.

Our sleeping arrangements

Liz's observations from the day:

• Green tea is life. If you see anything green, it probably has green tea in it. Green tea sweets, ice cream, and so on. It's water here. At lunch we were given green tea (not water) with our meal. We were also served green tea in our ryokan room when we arrived.
• Beef cooked like fondue and then dipped in raw egg sounds very scary, but in fact it is rich and divine!
• Japanese toilets are way better than ours. The toilet seats are heated, and most have a built-in butt squirter and bidet. About half have a faucet above the tank where you can was your hands - genius!

A truer word was never spoken.