2002-05-17 - 7:14 p.m.
I developed a sore throat last weekend in Kyoto, and when it was still hurting on Wednesday, I made my supervisor take me to the doctor. Let me just say that there is a very particular feeling one gets -- somewhere between amusement and dread -- when one is escorted into a room, seated in front of an unfamiliar medical contraption, and told to use it. In this case it was a sort of humidifier with a hose coming out of it. At first when I saw the water bubbling through the plastic case I was afraid that it was some kind of forced gargling exercise, but then it was made clear to me that I was supposed to hold the tube about an inch from my mouth and breath in the vapors. The nurse set the timer for five minutes and left me alone, tube in hand with a box of Kleenex, you know, for the inevitable facial condensation. In the end I was given three kinds of medication by a pharmacist who spoke English and was very excited to use it (“There aren’t many foreigners in this area...” she explained).
Last Friday night, before the sore throat, Saori and I took the night bus from Tokyo to Kyoto. I can say that I hated the night bus, but I can’t say that it was a bad idea to take it. I got no sleep. I never do on night-forms of transportation, no matter how comfortable (or uncomfortable, as in the case of a certain night train in Croatia). But, the bus DID get us into Kyoto station at 6:30, so that by the time we ate breakfast and found the right city bus, we were the first visitors to some of the city’s most famous temples. Our first stop was Ryoan-ji, a temple with a famous Zen rock garden. Usually the viewing platform is crowded -- not the best atmosphere for contemplation -- but we were lucky enough to have it almost to ourselves. Afterwards we went to Kinkaku-ji, a gold temple floating in a pond -- arriving ten minutes before it opened, along with about a dozen school tour groups. We found a small cafe that looked as if it had been lifted out of Paris: a dark wood bar, old-fashioned coffee presses, the barista in a tuxedo and a cabinet full of delicate antique coffee cups.
Around lunch time, we took a bus to the eastern part of the city to drop off our bags at the pension where we were staying. We finally found it on a tree-lined street with a small river (a canal, really) running down the center. At $35 a night, the pension was definitely aging, but it was clean and family-run in a great location. A grandmother laid out the rules: curfew at 11:30 PM, bathing between 5-11 PM only, and free green tea service between 9 and 10 PM. After signing the forms and dropping off our stuff, we found a cute little restaurant down the street for lunch. The three tables in the tatami mat area were full, so Saori and I sat at the counter behind which was not a bar, but the full kitchen. We watched as the two women did all of the cooking in a crazy mess of dishes and pots and containers of pickled vegetables, with all of the burners going at once. For about $8 dollars I got a huge set lunch with rice, an array of pickles and vegetables, grilled fish (Sao ate those) and yu-dofu, a traditional Kyoto dish of hot tofu in a citrusy broth. The cooks, who during the lunch rush were not frantic but rather relaxed and talkative, told us that in about 30 minutes there would be a dance performance by some maiko (geishas-in-training) at a nearby shrine. Taking their advice, we meandered through Maruyama park until we got to the shrine, Yasaka-jinja. Four maiko-sama danced, two at a time with precise movements and golden fans. The elaborate stage was trimmed in white lanterns which bobbed about in the wind.
Strolling back toward our pension, we stopped by the massive Chion-in and observed a memorial ceremony in progress inside the main temple. Closer to the pension I examined Edo-era coins and trinkets in a scattering of tiny antique stores. After a nap, we took a 20 minute walk to the area along the banks of the Kamogawa River, which is teaming with restaurants and shops. I have to say, in Japan developers have an uncanny way of making naturally beautiful things look ugly. The Thames or the Seine or DC’s Potomac have been incorporated into the design of the city in such a way that they add beauty to the urban environment. In the modern Japanese fashion, the Kamagawa is banked by wide swaths of concrete. (Most of Japan’s sea coastline is banked in concrete as well). If you want to sit by the river, you walk down some concrete steps from the street level and lay out your picnic blanket on concrete to gaze at the river which flows about 8 feet below between walls of even more concrete. Still, even the most commercial areas of Kyoto feel a lot different and smaller than Tokyo, which was a nice change. I particularly liked the narrow alleyways packed with restaurants -- one side expensive (river view) and one side cheap (no view at all). After dinner we returned to the pension for tea, a bath, and more much-needed sleep.
On Sunday we slept in, ate a Starbucks breakfast on the banks of the Kamagawa river, and then made our way to Sanjusangendo -- a temple with a hall that has 1,000 40-armed statues, then to Kiyomizudera, a temple perched on a mountainside. I bought a yukata, a cotton kimono, in one of the shops on the steep slope leading up to the temple, and a couple of blue-speckled dishes at a pottery store on the way down. I explained to Saori that the glazed looked like a robin’s egg (no robins in Japan), and she asked, “Do they taste good?” Ah, cultural context.
Near Ginkaku-ji, the silver temple, I bought some of the traditional Kyoto sweets. Though they would be considered utterly strange to the American palate, I really like Japanese sweets, which mainly consist of pounded rice (mochi) filled with sweet red bean paste. The Kyoto version are triangular shaped and dusted with cinnamon, or something like it. After a full day of mochi-eating and temple-visiting, I needed a change of scenery, so we spent a nice hour in the Kyoto Modern Art Museum.
On Monday we went to the city of Nara, about 30 minutes by train from Kyoto. Nara Park is overrun by tame deer, and as one would expect, the souvenir stands are overrun by deer trinkets. Besides the wafers you can buy to feed the deer, there are deer stuffed animals, deer t-shirts, deer cookies and candy (some shaped like deer crap), deer cell phone trinkets, and deer fans. I abstained. We visited a temple with a huge Buddha inside. Just outside the gates were souvenir stands selling, among other things, a grapefruit-sized ball of popcorn, nuts, and caramel in a box showing the Buddha picking his nose -- a holy ball of snot. Nara was hot and we were tired, so after lunch we went back to Kyoto station to catch the train back to Tokyo. It was my first time on the Shinkansen (bullet train), and it was really cool -- whizzing past mountains, rice fields and entire cities, Japan on fast-forward.
It was great to have a vacation, and not so fun to go back to work... so much time spent doing nothing, when I could be on vacation! Next week is my last week at this far school, the last week commuting 3 hours on the train everyday. Just in time for the warm weather -- and the rainy season -- I’ll start my last school, which is in a suburban area just a 15 minute bike ride from my apartment. In the meantime, I’m getting over my cold by watching Family Ties reruns (from the video store). Just like home.
P.S. There’s a new movie here, a romantic comedy about a woman who has a baby with two gay men (we’re not sure who). The theatre in Tokyo is offering a discount to groups of two men and one woman who come holding a baby doll.
