Kansai Adventures – Part 1

The timing of Claire’s visit turned out to be extremely lucky. Our entire staff, including me, had to come in to work on several Saturdays this winter, and was thus compensated with several floating holidays (to be redeemed sometime this month). There’s not much going on during this time of year, so I opted to use mine on Monday and Tuesday, giving Claire and I a 5-day-week with Vernal Equinox Day on Wednesday (yeah, I didn’t know what the holiday was either) to explore.
Kyoto
We decided to take advantage of the opportunity and travel Kansai, the area I live in. The first stop was Kyoto, for which we departed early Monday morning. Kyoto was the capital from 794-1868 and is now Japan’s cultural capital with over 2,000 temples and shrines. Thank goodness tourist season has not started yet, because it was a packed sightseeing day with visits to the Golden Pavilion, Nijo-jo (castle), a tour at the Imperial Palace (which I found more interesting and valuable than my last time), Heian Shrine and giant torii, Yasaka Jinja Shrine (with vendors selling yummie snacks), Kiyoumizu Temple (my absolute favorite temple in Kyoto) and a stroll around Gion. Plum, peach and even some early cherry-blossom trees were blooming (I had to confirm the sakura, or cherry blossoms, with an old woman since it’s so early and such a big deal here) and there was coincidentally an event called Kyoto Higashi-yama Hanatouro where the cobblestone streets (lined with traditional Japanese houses and shops) were atmospherically lit up by small lanterns and sometimes lined with flowers.
GeishaWe headed to Gion at the end of the day to check out the shopping district and I wanted to show Claire the “Geisha area”. I was pointing at a poster of Geisha, showing her what a Geisha looked like, when Claire goes, “yeah, I know. There’s one right behind you.” I spin around to see a young girl, probably a Maiko (apprentice Geisha), with her striking white face and red lips in a tangerine-colored kimono, making her way past us and down the traditional Pontochou main street. Startled, I pulled Claire with me as we discreetly followed our maiko until she disappeared up a flight of stairs. It was my first Geisha sighting and I was pretty excited, explaining to Claire what a rarity it is to actually see a Geisha. Little did I know that 15 minutes later, we would run into three more Geisha waiting to cross the street, as Japanese tourists stopped to stare with animated sugoi’ (awesome!) left and right, and then see another three crossing the street the other way! I almost threw my purse and our suitcase to get at my camera, but when it came down to it, I was slightly embarrassed to be taking pictures of the poor young girls, knowing how uncomfortable it can be to know that you are being stared at, followed, or that people you don’t know are taking pictures of you because you look different. Anyways, it was a magnificent surprise!
Little America – the Holiday Inn Kyoto
We rounded out the evening with a gourmet Japanese meal, including Kyoto-style tofu with vinegar, and our first purikura (picture stickers) before taking a bus (with our day-pass) to the hotel. Even though many travelers base themselves in Kyoto and take day trips to Kobe (and vice versa), we decided to overnight in Kyoto. And thank goodness we did! We booked a surprisingly affordable (especially for Kyoto) double at the Holiday Inn. I have been feeling a bit homesick since Claire arrived, getting updates on some people I dearly miss and hearing all about home, but I think stepping into our American-style hotel room marked the culmination of those feelings, especially when I saw the sign for Dominos pizza. Needless to say, we slept well and the continental breakfast was amazing, although it was a little funny to feel like a tourist again in my part of Japan for the first time in a long time.