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In preparation for our time in Japan, we had purchased the Japan Rail Pass, a train pass for foreign visitors that has to be purchased from a travel agency outside Japan. Thanks to Andrea L., we realized this just in time and got ours in Bangkok. From Tokyo to Kyoto, we enjoyed our first skinkansen (bullet train) experience. The Rail Pass itself seemed a bit expensive (around USD 350 for two weeks), but turned out to be well worth it: convenient (free reservations), comfortable, and very punctual.
With few places in Kyoto offered on airbnb.com to chose from, we decided to go with the “centrally located tatami room” in the apartment of three students (all male). They advertised that they were “LGBT”-friendly, which suggested to me that they were tolerant, and so that (and the cost of less than USD 25 per night for both of us) sealed the deal. When we received directions to their place, they referred to the “homo” or “gay” house in every paragraph, sometimes more than once.
The overuse of those two words prompted us to check their ad again, noticing that there were no reviews from mixed gender couples. At this point, we were very curious to see what we’d gotten ourselves into. Upon arrival however, there wasn’t the slightest reference, not even a rainbow flag… the only hint was when one of our roommates started singing the theme song of the 2013 Disney movie Frozen (I haven’t seen the movie, but read about the song being discussed frequently as some type of gay anthem, whatever that means). A bit far-fetched, I admit; so maybe they were just referring to “homo” as human, and were a happy (ie “gay”) bunch of young men? Another Japanese mystery that may remain unsolved, as I was too polite to ask. I later did some research online on the subject, and learned that while recent trends suggest rising tolerance levels, the Japanese are overall still very closeted.
In any case, we ended up having an excellent place to base out of, and spent the next few days discovering Kyoto, known for its previous status as Imperial City, lots of temples (there are some 1600 Buddhist temples, 400 shinto shrines), and many Unesco World Heritage sites.
Wandering around town, we came across a geisha in the ponto-cho district (one of the city’s five geisha districts), passed a few hundred of the aforementioned temples and shrines, and enjoyed just aimlessly wandering in and out of little side streets. Knowing how easy it is to overdose (in Kyoto’s case, on temples), we temple-paced ourselves (often only doing a quick walk-through, as at the Golden Pavilion that was teeming with tourists). And our favorite spot? The Ryoanji temple, a Zen temple, where we sat on a veranda overlooking 15 stones arranged in a rectangular garden and relished the tranquil atmosphere. Even Phil quieted down for about 90 seconds 🙂
One afternoon, we participated in a Japanese tea ceremony, marveling at the many steps that all go into this meaningful practice, before visiting the International Manga Museum. It turned out to be one huge library of 300,000 manga novels, and not all that interesting for us. We were able to get our portrait done by a manga artist, though… one of the rare occasions where we purchased something as a souvenir!
After extending our time in Kyoto because we’d lost a full day to work, I booked one night at the Nine Hours capsule hotel. One of many smart Japanese concepts, capsule hotels were designed to provide basic, cheap overnight accommodation. Ours was very “sci-fi:” a white, spaceship-like environment where guests left shoes in boxes at the entrance, and then separated according to gender, each assigned its own elevator. A towel and kimono were waiting in every personal locker near the showers and toilets, and the capsules themselves turned out to be quite comfortable. Neither of us slept much, since we felt a bit lonely, but after seriously considering sneaking over to the boys’ room, I decided against it. Who knows what would happen if caught, and since we’d gotten ourselves kicked out of a church in Copenhagen last year, I wasn’t interested in finding out.
Wow, loved the photo of the Geisha….was she real? She looked like a doll. And how did the person who left the comment know her name? And the ones of the 9 hour pods….what an unreal experience……so fascinating……and did Phil really get quiet and meditative for 90 seconds? What was that like? I am trying to visualize him in this state and it’s hard to even imagine it! Thanks for sharing another fascinating adventure.
Apparently these Maikos (Geishas in learning) are quite the superstars, and their Geisha graduation a big thing. What we didn’t show in the pictures was the throngs of people standing around her… I really just got lucky and shot her while she was posing for all the cameras. As for 90 seconds of quiet-Phil, I am not sure it could be categorized as “meditative”, but he was close!