The Cultural Town of Kyoto and Bustling City of Osaka

Kombanwa!

Hello again all! Just thought I'd relay all the stuff that's been going on today so I can relax at the airport tomorrow!

Well, we set out this morning to find some breakfast in Kyoto, to discover that the food court wasn't open until 10am (we were up unusually early this morning!). So we wandered into the train staion with the hope of somehow finding train times to Osaka for this afternoon. We managed to get them off a nice lady at the ticket information desk. I've been trying to use my incy-wincy bit of Japanese knowledge and odd English words, and pointing at maps and symbols etc to try and communicate with people, while Claire has been reeling off complex English sentences to people and completely confusing them! She was shouting "Excuse me!" to this woman at the information desk, who only turned around when I said "Sumi-masen?" (Excuse me?). Claire was like, quietly, "Well done Christina"!

We grabbed some breakfast at a deli/pattisserie looking cafe in the station. I think I had a tuna croissant and an egg croissant but I can't be sure! And something that looked like an English muffin but tasted like croissant with dairylea. Hmm. Next we wandered back towards the hostel to get the bus to Kyoto's East Side, where all the temples are. Claire was there asking the poor old Japanese lady behind us on the bus "Do you have to go up to the driver to buy a ticket? Do you pay when you get off?", and I can't say I was surprised when she replied "No Engliss." We managed with my handy phrase book - I said "Onegai-shi-mass?" (Please?) to the driver whilst pointing at the sign for a day ticket (which I only recognised cos it had 500Yen on it!) and although he seemed eager to get us off the bus he understood what I meant!

We got off at Gojazaka and made what we thought was our way to a place called Kiyomizu Temple, but in fact, due to our only having a city transport map we didn't arrive there at all until much later! Instead, we had a lot of fun exploring the little side streets of Kyoto without the aid of a map and having no idea what we were seeing along the way! Looking at the map now I think we ran into Yasaka Pagoda, the first fancy structure that we saw - I thought that was a temple but evidently not. It was a very pretty and tall pagoda at the top of a small street with equally small and quaint houses - it was made of brown wood and had about 5 tiers. We stopped at a newsagents nearby and got a drink (where I tested out my "Arigatos" and "Konichiwas"! (Thankyous and Good Afternoons). I shouted to Claire to come outside and check out these guys pulling carriages of people like a pack horse (I think their Sunday name is a 'tuk tuk') when she knocked over a box of chewing gum with her rucksack. It was funny.

Next we walked along a road which looked like it would host a market every once so often, which had steps leading up a hill on one side. We walked up to investigate, and I stumbled and fell over with shock over seeing this HUGE Buddha's head emerging on the horizon of the hill. Claire was like: "Ooh are you alright?" and I said "Yeah - I've just seen that!" and pointed. She gasped as though she'd just seen King Kong! It was, in fact, Ryozen Kannon Temple, a shrine to the unknown warrior in WW2. Despite this being hugely unpatriotic we simply had to go and have a look, and it was in fact a temple with a collossal concrete Buddha poised on top of it in the meditation position. The buddha was actually 24 metres tall (not including the temple below it), it's face being 6m tall and it's eyebrows 30cm. That's how big it was! We put some incense in the pit outside the temple and wandered around. There was a huge pond in the middle of the courtyard with Japanese Koi fish in it. Then there was loads of mini shrines, and a display of buddhas for each Chinese Year (of the dog, of the rat, etc) inside the Buddha, which you got to through an entrance in it's backside. Believe it or not!

Next door was Kodaji Temple ("sponsored by Hiatchi"), where there was an abundance of Japanese people taking photographs. It seems even Japan itself is not without it's Japanese tour groups! From here we wandered through the streets and past the little shops. Most of them sold trinkets like little purses, fans, and pots. They also had sweet shops selling that pink dough stuff we had on the plane, but in a variety of colours. It seems truly popular here actually! It's funny too - no matter how polite you try to be by speaking a few words of the native language you will always have people who really enjoy trying out their English on you! In one shop where we bought some postcards, the shopkeeper kept coming out with random things like "How are you?" in the middle of me paying! Then we pointed to my carrier bag carrying my dinner and said "Aah - Instant Noodles!" I'm not sure what his intent was there!

I couldn't stop taking photos of the streets - they were like the Japanese equivalent of the Shambles in York! By shear luck we came upon a busy shopping street, and decided to walk up the hill on one side of it and walk back down on the other side. In doing so we came across the Jishu Shrine and Kiyomizu Temple right at the top, which were beautifully ornate, bright orange pagodas overlooking a blooming garden of pink blossom trees. Walking up the steps, you got a vast view over Kyoto, and the presence of a thick, looming smog over the city was deeply disturbing. An obvious grey haze shadowed the city like nothing I've ever seen before. There were mountains in the distance but they were anything but clear, and it was the clearest, most sunniest day to be looking out to the horizon. It was truly shocking.

We walked back down to the main road, stopping at a hot food vendor for a snack. She was selling fish cakes by way of sausage shapes on sticks, and there was an irresistable 'Octopus and Perilla' flavour, which I opted for with zeal (I've no idea what Perilla is, for all I know I'm allergic, but it tasted great all the same!). After more browsing of the shops we got the bus back to the hostel to make our Aah - Instant Noodles.

Pretty much straight after we were on the train to Osaka. Getting around the station was annoying as it's not very well signposted even if it is in Roman letters too, and we thought all the ticket machines were in Japanese only (which we later found out that they're not - we just never had the balls to go and have a look!). We managed to get to Osaka Station in 30 minutes, though we had to stand up as it was busy and an express service. On arrival at the station we had to get a subway on the Midosuji Line, which was also poorly signposted (it seems that nothing is signposted until you're within 5m of it!). By this time I was getting very flustered and ratty as my bags (all 5 of them - Claire's carrying my souvenir one) are really heavy! My bag and legs are now a wreck!

We eventually got the subway to the Nakatsu district of Osaka, which took approximately 30 seconds! However, once out of the station we could not for the life of us find our hostel. We wandered into a 7/11 for help, who then relayed us to the police station (cos he thought they'd be better not cos he thought us suspicious or anything untoward!). At the police station a guy led us outside and for one fleeting moment I thought we were getting a ride in a police car, but as it turned out he was just giving us directions. The hostel was actually about a minutes walk from the subway station - down a tiny back street that we'd obviously missed.

The hostel is tiny - one dorm with 10 beds - and it's really authentic with sliding doors, bamboo blinds, with paper walls and shades and stuff. Very cosy. We set out to find somewhere to eat around 6pm, looking in the convenience stores for souvenir snacks first. In one store Claire wanted to use the ATM, which of course, had all its instructions in Japanese, and trying to get the shop girls (who were about 16 and spoke no word of English) to understand that she wanted 5000 Yen was hilarious. We got nowhere, needless to say. Luckily, there was one just down the road in the post office with a much-needed "English Help" button.

We found a quaint little eatery for tea, chosen by the delicious-looking pictures in the window. The waitress greeted us and bowed down while raising her arm forward as if to welcome us inside, but I thought she was pointing at Claire's shoes, wanting her to take them off! After a little misunderstanding we were seated and immediately presented with a complimentary glass of water. She gave us a menu, and to our horror there was not one word or symbol of English on the page. She pointed to one area which she said was rice so we ordered the cheapest of those each, and then chose the remainder of our meal from a special deals menu of small meal dishes as it had pictures on it! The chefs were laughing behind the counter as we ordered, so when the meal came I resisted the temptation to request a knife and fork and proudly attempted to use the chopsticks, which Claire and I both exceeded in. We did extremely well, and you could tell from the looks on their faces that they were disappointed they couldn't bet on who would end up with the most food down their fronts! The waitress was stood right over my shoulder, which was extremely off-putting, but it became evident that she was merely waiting for me to reach the half-full point on my glass of water so that she could rush right over and fill it back up for me! We also got free soup, which was nice!

Anyway, the whole day has been great, quite simply! One thing that's struck me is that it's extremely refreshing to have people going out of their way to help you out, even though they don't speak your language. Those girls at the ATM stayed with us trying to figure some sort of communication out until we gave up, not them. I've found Japan to be a very hospitable country and I'd love to come here again for a longer stay someday.

Well I must go as we have an early start tomorrow. Also, Claire has yet to write her blog and I'm hogging the computer. I can't believe my next post will probably be from England and I'll be home tomorrow. I'm looking foward to it now!