10/8 - Day 4

Thursday, 10/8

Today is our first full day in Kyoto. We have a private guide with us all day and tomorrow. 

Breakfast at most of these tourist hotels span three or four hours. This hotel opened breakfast at 6:30. We're usually among the first there, but we didn't get down until 7:00 this time and there was a long line. We figured they were from a tour group. Most of the people surrounding me spoke French and they were quite pushy. I had my elbows out to preserve my personal space. 

The buffet was quite extensive. I couldn't take a picture of it without capturing people's faces even though most of them were not Japanese. But they had some creative dishes, some faux meat (like Impossible Burger), some simply Japanese in addition to the usual stuff. No one went hungry.

All over the hotel there were these decorations. Who knew this was a Japanese holiday?

Our tour guide arrived right on time and she walked us through the train station where we were wandering for hours last night to catch a bus.

Since she spoke English, she went by "Amanda".It turns out she is from central China and working on a graduate degree at a university in Kyoto. She paid for our bus fares and admission fees arranged by our travel agency "Japan Highlights". Turns out they are a Chinese company also. I found them to be thorough and so far things have gone smoothly. 

We got off the bus at Nijo Castle which was a very popular tourist destination based on the number of busses out front. We had already passed by it the day before.

This was the Emperor's Palace when he wasn't in Tokyo ruling the country. 

Everyone is looking at the fish in the moat.

This is the inner wall.

Surprsingly, the castle is free to explore. Some of the buildings inside required an admission fee.

Only partially uniform today.

We took another bus to the Gion District, an area with high end clubs where you could hire a Geisha. It was then that I began to see women in kimonos. These were not Geishas - they were tourists dressed up as Geishas. Our tour guide said that this was a popular tourist activity.

We hiked up narrow streets swarming with tourists to the Pure Water Temple.

That's our guide with the Hello Kitty umbrella. This would be meaningful later in the day.

This is looking down at the same street.

One ritual before entering most temples was to wash your hands.

The water was not potable, so this was probably more ritualistic than hygienic.

To the right of the last shot was an overlook. You can see the Kyoto Tower in the distance.

Most temples have a ritual where you draw a fortune. If you get one that you don't want, you can't just throw it away. You have to tie it on one of these stands. (Lots of bad luck this particular day.)

I actually tried this on the next day. There were a series of venting machines dispensing fortunes in multiple languages. I chose to get mine in Chinese. I had our guide read it for me and she said my fortune was the jackpot. It's in my wallet.

At this point we were getting hungry, I was dehydrated, and my legs were killing me. We strolled through a market and while there were a lot of interesting shops, it was a little chaotic for a relaxing lunch. Our tour guide tried to put together our interests with establishments, but we were getting hangry. We settled on a sushi place that turned out to be a lot of fun.

The market was a series of long covered streets with small stalls on each side. This part is called Nishiki Market.

I don't know what the white spot is at the bottom of the picture. It's definitely not trash,

There used to be a sushi place in downtown Syracuse where plates would move around on conveyor belts. This place used the same model. It reminded me of an old-fashioned automat.

Here we are with the belts in the background. The bottom belt was constantly moving and you just picked plates off the belt if you liked what was on it. The top belt went the other direction with food you ordered from a tablet and it stopped at your table and announced that your order had arrived.

When you were done, you put the plates down this slot where there was probably another conveyer belt.

The bill was calculated by the number of plates that went down the slot, dim sum style. The device that looks like a water dispenser delivered hot water for tea.

I didn't get a picture of this, but there was a compartment underneath a panel in the top of the table with chopsticks and I don't know what else.

Feeling refueled and a little rested, we wandered the mall a little longer before our appointment at the place for the tea ceremony.

The ceremony was a long and culturally enlightening experience. They had us strip down to our underwear and gave us base layers and a robe that was secured with a fabric belt. On top of that we selected kimonos from a large rack and a sash. While we undressed and put base layers in a curtained cubicle, women helped us with the kimonos and sashes. It felt like a fitting for a new suit.

We were ushered into a room with a dozen or so other guests and the ceremony was led by a hostess. There was one man in the facility, otherwise it was entirely run by women.

We were supposed to perform the ceremony sitting on our knees. That is impossible for me and many other guests had to change positions from time to time. Mike and I sat cross-legged and that was hard, tortuous for me. Luckily, I was be the wall and I had to extend my legs every so often.

Here we are in front of a painting with characters that say: "one life, grab it while you can" or something more culturally appropriate.

By this time, we were exhausted and our guide was gone and off the clock, so we took a cab home. Mike and I agreed to call it a night even though it was somewhere between 6:00-7:00. Since our hotel did not have a public bath, I sat in a tub of hot water for a while before showering off. Walter eventually went out later for food, but I skipped the foraging and went to sleep.