The 8th Wonder of the World - Kyoto

Japanese Word of the Day
English: “Amazing”
Japanese: “Sugoi”

               If I were to ask you right now to think of 5 of the most beautiful places in the world I highly doubt Kyoto, Japan would be one of the ones you thought of. Before a week ago, it wouldn’t have been on my list either but after experiencing its beauty first hand it now stands a strong contender.

               Friday (2/4) began the same as much of the rest of orientation week: my friends and I got up relatively early and hiked to campus for morning orientation. We usually aimed to arrive 15-20 minutes early (because early is always good!) and I intended to use this time to get my laptop registered with the school network so I could finally begin using it and actually working on this blog. The reason I had waited so long in the week to get my laptop registered was due to a rather problematic cycle. Being on the KGU network required an updated antivirus software which I, due to a fit of laziness, had not gotten around to installing. When I went to update my software in my dorm I found I could not connect to the internet via Ethernet to get said software which would allow me to get a permanent internet connection. See the problem? So I took my laptop in, got it working with the internet and with a few updates was ready for the network.

               With the reassurance that I would later have back my precious internets I attended the final batch of orientation sessions with my friends. And what a lineup we had today! First was a general meeting on sexual health in Japan followed by a women only seminar. What fun!

               Actually it was really boring, except for the occasion joke thrown in.

               But then we met – Dun, dun, duuuuuun~!

               But seriously it was pretty boring. Random unprotected sex=bad. I feel enlightened. Women’s orientation wasn’t much more interesting. Obviously all the males were freed from the room before the dreaded conversation about PMS and what not began but near the end a male professor stood up to say something and I realized he was the lone Y chromosome left in the room. Poor, brave man. He’s my professor for Popular Culture as Social Practice, too.

               Once orientation was finally over celebration commenced by picking up our schedules from the mailboxes and seeing what classes we got. I managed to get all 5 classes I had picked; Spoken Japanese, Reading and Writing Japanese, Manga: The Graphic Fiction of Japan, Popular Culture as Social Practice, and Sumi-e (Chinese brush painting). During the orientation that morning we were also told that it is ill-advised to take the 5 courses allowed and 4 is more manageable. Woopsie?

               But there was no time to lament my intense course load as there was an optional trip to Kyoto to bring orientation week to a close. The Usual Suspects and I grabbed lunch and went back to Seminar House 4 to drop off our laptops and other unnecessary items before heading back to the meet up location for the Kyoto trip. As we approached the multimedia hall we saw swarms of students both international and Japanese gathering before being divided into seating areas. As we sat down I appreciated the sheer number of students in attendance both international and (more surprising to me) KGU students. In fact once we were divided up there were more KGU students than international students. For those wondering, the KGU students had come to serve as tour guides for us silly gaikokujin (I’m making you learn words!) and teach us how to use the bus and train systems. At first I wondered why they were all being so generous in aiding us but I realized later that they benefited in getting to use and practice English in addition to learn more about foreigners. Japan is a very international country in a business sense but away from specialized international schools like KGU it lacks much of the outside world.

               But I’m digressing, as I tend to do. My group of the four usual suspects was paired with four Japanese girls who I confess I cannot remember the names of. I think two were Kanako and something that rhymed with that except with an S. Regardless, they were all very nice and helped lead us to a bus stop where the one who took charge (we’ll call her Heels for now˘) showed us how to read the bus schedule and what bus to take to the station. While waiting for the bus we waited outside a pastry shop which played music. For a while we all tried to place what seemed to be a familiar song but were unable to pin it down until the chorus came on and we realized we were listening to a lounge version of Thriller sung by a woman. Japan is awesome. But back to buses! To this point, my group had only been to the station once before and we had walked the entire way (a solid hour walk one way) so I confess I had a guilty pleasure in riding the bus that the 220Yen fare could not deprive me of. At the station our lovely guides aided us in deciphering the train map and showing us how to get tickets but at this point I must confess I still have no idea how the bus or train systems work. Maybe I’m making excuses but that whole “being in another language with an entirely different alphabet” thing still trips me up. Competent of what I was doing or not we were soon on a train for the first time in Japan rushing away from Hirakata and towards Kyoto.

               Time for a little background on Kyoto! During World War II Kyoto was a major town that America chose not to bomb due its historical significance as a previous capital of Japan. As a result, Kyoto has kept many of its pre-war buildings and is a well preserved artifact of Japanese culture as it has retained many great shrines, temples, gardens and other relics of Japanese history. As a result it is not uncommon to see women and men in traditional or religious garb, especially near the temples. But don’t think that it is an outdated city of the past; the bustling city of Osaka is a high-tech metropolis that is considered the heart of the Kansai region. It’s also the home of the world famous company Nintendo for my video game fans out there (and we saw the building from the train!)

               We departed the Osaka train station and landed right in the busy city surrounded by a mixture of beautiful traditional buildings and highly modern office buildings. Our guides set us off in the direction of a nearby temple and we began passing through the city. As we walked we found the Japanese solution for the Coppertone sunscreen girl; a boy rushing off with a shiba inu*pulling down his shorts. Except this is Japan and censorship is silly so his statue penis was completely exposed. Yay Japan!

               Statue nudity aside we also witnessed some of the most beautiful candies in the world. They looked more like tiny beads than candy in a variety of colors, shapes and designs. At one of the candy stores we passed Heels stopped and picked up a container of what looked like triangular ravioli and told us it was a famous treat of Kyoto called yatsuhashi. These are triangles of raw flour with varieties of sweet bean paste flavors in the pocket in the middle. I personally could eat it but wasn’t much of a fan, though my international comrades seemed to like it.

               After a bit of walking we reached our first temple, which I am ashamed to say I cannot recall the name of and am too lazy to do the research to discover the name of. What’s more important is it was very beautiful! While the main gate of the temple faced a busy intersection of town as soon as you passed into the gates all the hustle and bustle of the city seemed to pass. Suddenly, we were immersed in a naturally shaded and calm sanctuary that even the city noises couldn’t penetrate. Upon entering we were directed to a small shrined basin of water where visitors are to wash themselves. Using the wooden ladles provided we rinsed our hands, symbolically cleansing ourselves of burdens. I could use one of those in the seminar house.

               As we left the washing area we began the path up to the main temple area, passing booths where temple workers (more than likely monks based on their clothing) sold beautiful prayer bead bracelets, hair beads (which are worn with kimono), old coins used in Japan, old sword hilts, all sorts of things! To be honest, I want to describe what all we saw but I’m not sure I can do it justice. With this blog I will post a link to a photo album with pictures and more in depth descriptions to better explain what I saw. I will mention that at the top of the temple there was a booth where Shinto priestesses sell luck charms and fortunes. To get your fortune you draw a straw from a cylinder container with a small hole. You take your numbered straw to the priestess who provides you your corresponding fortune and then you get one of your Japanese tour guides to translate it for you since you don’t know Japanese. If you get a bad fortune there is a string of other bad fortunes where you can go to tie your fortune and at the end of the day it will be burned and erased. For those curious, I was a spoil-sport and didn’t get my fortune.

               At this point I should confess my guilty pleasure of seeking out women in kimono to take pictures of. I think kimono are some of most beautiful garments in the world and Japanese women do not take wearing them lightly! To wear a kimono means properly dressing in many layers and doing up ones hair in a beautiful way with tabi and geta.^ With my amazing 32x times zoom camera I used my awesome ninja skills to get (blurry) pictures of many women (and a man or two!) wearing kimono and I’ll be sure to share them with you. I hope you all can end up appreciating them as much as I do!

               After being thoroughly impressed at the beauty of the temple we departed down a side road lined with traditional buildings and continued on to an even bigger, more famous temple. Except it took us a long time to get there because the streets became lined with the most amazing stores! Fans, paper lanterns, paper umbrellas, origami paper, kimono print bags… everything you could imagine and more! And of course many shops selling kimono and yukata² though I knew I could not get one on my very first trip to Kyoto. No, no, I plan to bide my time and find the best deals on the most beautiful to call my own! Also, I need to budget and kimono and yukata aren’t cheap³. I managed to stave off my kimono lust by getting a Hello Kitty in a Kimono ketai for my phone and a beautiful kimono cloth pattern mini umbrella. Surprisingly, the things for sale weren’t horribly overpriced. The mini umbrella I got was 500yen (~$5) which is about the price I see them for in Hirakata city markets. Not to mention mine is much prettier and has its own little case!

               We also passed by a silly souvenir shop selling a…. strange variety of products, most of which I can’t remember simply because of the dancing cats that stole the show. As we walked by, sound triggered cat dolls began moving. One variety was a row of cats hanging by their hooked tails that proceeded to roll around laughing (causes all of us to burst out laughing) while the other variety sang a random blues sang and did a little dance for us. It was a riot.

               We also found a store selling a variety of spicy pepper sauces to put on dishes.  They were all quite good and if I go back I may get some for my rice. The best part was the store’s logo which was two women in kimono seeming to scream from the spiciness.

               At long last, we reached the final temple which an astonishing view over Kyoto right as the sun was beginning to set. We didn’t actually go into the temple because it cost money and we were all getting kind of tired and knew we had to walk back as far as we’d just come. But we did take the opportunity to stand atop the hill and admire the view of the city we’d just traversed through.

               As dark began to fall around us we set off back through the streets of shops to return from which we came. As we walked I noticed that the city seemed even more lovely as lanterns lit up while dark fell between the buildings. If anyone has seen the Miyazaki movie Spirited Away, think of the beginning when Chihiro is running through town as the city begins to turn dark (right after her parents turned to piggies). That’s what it looks like.

               I confess our walk back wasn’t very notable beyond noticing a Confederate flag in someone’s window. Back at the station we said our sayonaras to our wonderful guides and back in Hirakata stopped by a Japanese burger shop for a quick dinner on the hour walk back home. Once we reached the Kansai Gaidai gates we stopped in the vending machine section behind the cafeteria for a quick vending machine ice cream snack. It was quite good! My feet also appreciate the moment of rest they got while I ate it. Upon eventually returning home we said our goodnights and went our separate ways to collapse upon our futons and allow the blood to return to our poor feetsies, a sign of a good day in Japan.

Fun fact: While typing this article I accidentally wrote “Osaka” instead of “Kyoto” 5 times.

Ja ne!

˘This nickname comes from the over-the-knee and incredibly high (and thin) heels she was wearing. I’m not calling her heels as a jeer but rather in awe of how she managed to navigate not only a moving train but the stairs and cobblestone paths of Kyoto in those things!
*This is a Japanese breed of dog, notable for their curly tails. They’re sooo cute!
^”Tabi” are a kind of socks where there is a slit between the big toe and the rest of the toes so it can be worn with ‘thong’ sandals. “Geta” are a traditional kind of sandal that are wooden and have two blocks on the bottom elevating it above the ground. Do a Google image search and you’ll see why wearing them is so impressive!
²At this point in time I realize I should explain why it seems awkward every time I say “kimono” or “yukata”; the Japanese don’t pluralize so it’s actually incorrect to say “kimonos” or “yukatas” despite the English language making it seem weird.
³Actually, this is dependent on where you get it. At least two temples in Osaka have monthly antique flea markets where people often sell kimonos and yukatas for very little. I intend to attend these.
°”Ketai” is the proper word for all the dangly charms the Japanese put on their phones and bags. I have two now; Hello Kitty and a Hawkeye from Fullmetal Alchemist.