Off the Beaten Trail

Well, as of yesterday, I've started my final adventure before returning home. I got into Kyoto sometime last night and slowly made my way to my hotel. I would have been completely lost if I had not engaged the time-honored tradition of standing and looking around like a scared and confused forienger. And it worked! A gentleman came up to me and I knew enough Japanese for him to guide me to the subway station that lead to my hotel. Mr. Businessman, wherever you are, I thank you.

Oh! I forgot! I saw the Nintendo Building on my way into Kyoto! I think Aunt J needs to have a talk with her friends back there. All it was, was a gray building with the words Nintendo at the top. Not one single pokemon adorned the building. Come on now, I was at least expecting a giant Pikachu. ;)

After checking in, I headed down to the Gion District. Gion is basically tourist central. Everyone is lured there with tales of Geisha and their apprentices shuffling to and from work. Well, I didn't see any and, being alone and in a strange city, I wasn't about to go wandering the dark alleys looking for them. I find that, even outside of the touristy areas, it's much easier to play me and my Sapporo Friends' favorite game: Spot the Forigner.

After Gion, I wandered around the Yasaka shrine. I did that again today in the daylight and it was just as pretty as last night, though maybe not as otherwordly.

Today, I got up bright and early for breakfast at my hotel. Japanese people have strange ideas about breakfast and the only thing that was recginizable were a couple of buns with jam. They were good though. And they had orange juice! From there, I headed to the Fushimi-Inari Shrine. It wasn't in any of my guidebooks but I came across it while I was researching ways to get to and from the city on Wikitravel.org And am I glad I did! It is beautiful! The main shrine was at the bottom of a small mountian, but all the way up the mountian were paths through red gates called Torii. In some places, the gates were placed so closely together and so thickly that you couldn't see the sun. Best part of the day.

Now, I had expected to go to one more shrine after Fushimi-Inari, but I couldn't figure out how to get there. Like Fushimi-Inari, it wasn't a real touristy place, but unfrotunately, unlike Fushimi-Inari, it's station was not named after the shrine. So there went that idea. I headed back to Kyoto station and decided I would do the tourist thing after all. I headed to Daitokuji Temple and contemplated what I had learned from my Buddhist class. Daitokuji is a complex of some twenty temples, only four of which are open at any given time. Unfortunately, only ONE was open today! Very disappointing.

So I headed to Nijo Castle, former head of the Kyoto government and all around awesome place. Only to find it CLOSED. Urgh! So I took a family from Singapore's picture outside the closed sign and they took mine and off away I went again. This time, I headed to the Golden Pavillion at Kinkaku-ji. Now, this is considered a must see, but I had been doing all I could to avoid it. For one thing, it costs money to get inside and, unlike Nijo castle, which also would have cost money, all it is a building that you can't even go inside. But I had time to kill so I did it anyway. It was nice. I guess.

The entire building is covering in gold leaf, making it down right painful to look at in certian light. I had to hold my camera out for myself to take a picture with me in front of it. Dozens of people there and not a soul asked if they could take my picture. Mom would have been very dissapointed.

After Kinkaku-Ji, I started to head back downtown. I thought I would head to Gion and wander a bit more before turning in early. I, after all, have a train to catch at 7AM(!!) tomorrow morning. WRONG. I didn't take me three minutes to realize I had no idea to get back to Kyoto station, my hotel or Gion! Getting off at Nijo Castle, I switched buses and had no idea where as station was with a bus that would get me back to familiar territory. I was good and lost.

Luckily! People are very nice here and I kind of, sort of know Japanese! I asked a nice grandmother looking lady which bus to go on to get back to Gion. Not only did she tell me, she ended up taking the bus with me way past her stop and even gave me a lemon drop. What a gal. We had a nice converstaion too, while the lady in front of us laughed as we tried to understand eachother through my limited Japanese and her nonexistant English.

I got to Gion and wandered the Shrine some more, but decided that the great big shopping district that I went past on my way to Gion looked more interesting. It hadn't seemed very far away and I have a fairly good sense of direction. I could walk! Then I would hop a bus back to Kyoto station and go to bed. WRONG.

I got lost. Again! I walked and walked and walked and got worried that I had missed a turn somehow. So I got on a bus and almost immediately realized that my turn had been not four feet in front of me. No worries, I thought, I'll get off in a couple stops and be right as rain. Not so! Turns out two stops is two stops too far. A river! I thought to myself. I knew I had to cross I river, so I backtracked, found the river and started walking. AND HOUR LATER, and too many turns for my sanity, I found where I wanted to be. The shopping district! Only now, I had been walking for an hour and a half, I was hungry and grumpy and tired. Who wants to shop at a time like that?

I had ice cream and a cheeseburger and went home. :p