Bicycle tours and temples

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  Kyoto, Kinki, Japan
Thursday, May 8, 2008

So, on we go..............
We travelled South from Tokyo to Kyoto by "Shinkansen", the Bullet Train. This is an expensive way to go, but it`s worth every penny. The trains are frequent, comfortable and incredibly fast (up to 300Km Per Hour). The train pushes you back in your seat when it accelerates, just like a jet aircraft - the first couple of times it happens, you are waiting for it to take off. It`s not as fast as the French TGV, but in some ways it's better because it`s a bumpier ride, so there`s more of an impression of speed. The lines themselves are quite a feat of engineering as well. On my second bullet train ride from Osaka to Fukuoka a few days later, a good third of the journey seemed to be underground - that`s about 100 miles of earthquake and typhoon-proof tunnels and it`s only about 1/10th of the network.
As a bonus (and if you`re lucky with the weather, which we were) sitting on the right hand side of the train heading south from Tokyo, gives you a good view of Mount Fuji

Bullet train to Kyoto

. It`s difficult to take a photograph out of the window at that speed, but I eventually managed it - after about 10 attempts.
There are more Japanese people than I imagined; about 125 million of them, which is over twice the population of the UK. Travelling by train takes you to places that you may only be dimly aware of, and some of them are huge. My geography is reasonable, but the Chukyo Metropolitan area which we travelled through on the way down to Kyoto has a population of over 9 million people, and I`d never even heard of it.
Our Kyoto hotel was quite close to the station, but long trains need long stations, and we weren`t quite sure which end we should be at. While we were trying to decide, a guy who looked to be in his 60`s wandered up and asked where we were going. We told him, he gave us a map of the city and walked us there personally. He may have been one of what they call "Goodwill Guides" in Japan, but we weren`t completely sure. Anywhere else, and you`d immediately be suspicious of someone pouncing on new arrivals to a city and offering their services. You don`t feel like that in Japan though - it just isn`t that type of place.
Kyoto itself is a delight, and has more World Heritage sites than you can shake a stick at. We settled into our hotel and went for a walk to some nearby temples and their gardens, ending up at a Buddhist temple called Higashi Hongaji

Mount Fuji from the train

. At the back of the site is an enormous shed, which looks like a factory of some sort - wrong! The shed is there to protect the main temple while it is being restored (I think it gets removed later this month, as they`re nearly done).
The temple under restoration turned out to be the largest wooden building in the world, and it`s an amazing place. Some of the stuff there is quite hard to get your head round - literally. For example, some fairly hefty ropes were needed to transport the timbers for the construction of the temple, but the hemp ropes that were originally used weren`t of good enough quality - the timbers are massive and weigh tons. The faithful donated their own hair which was then spun into ropes. Oh, and we`re talking 70 metre long ropes with a diameter of over 30cm here - and there were more than 50 of them.
Day 2, and we hired bicycles and pedaled our way round Kyoto. One big surprise in Japan is that everyone cycles on the pavement (and there are a lot of cyclists). It`s safer cycling than walking, because it reduces your chances of being mown down by a bike! The city is fairly flat, which makes for easy pedaling, and when you are off the pavement and actually on the road, the motorists are very considerate.
Most Japanese follow a combination of Buddhist and Shinto beliefs. The history of Buddhism in Japan is really interesting, but all you need to remember if you're touring round is that the shrines are Shinto and the temples are Buddhist

Temple Gardens 1

. Our first stop was Sanjusangen-do Temple which dates from 1164 A.D. The biggest draw here is that it houses 1000 standing Buddha statues all in one room, that surround a giant seated Buddha. It is impressive to say the least, but no photography is allowed. Follow the link for an idea of what half of it looks like: http://static.flickr.com/41/114530993_816299f74f.jpg
We visited various other places (see the photographs - it all starts to blur after a while) including Nijo Castle, which was where the Shogun lived when Kyoto was the capital of Japan. Eventually the saddle sores took over and we called it a day.
Mary`s flight back to Bristol was from Osaka not Kyoto, so it was back on the train the next day to change cities. One thing we hadn`t sussed out earlier is that Kyoto and Osaka are only 1/2 hour apart by train, so we would probably have got away with staying in Kyoto. I`m glad we went to Osaka though - it`s a city about the same size as London, but totally different to either Tokyo or Kyoto. The photographs may give you some idea.
So, tomorrow it`s all change again - Mary flies back to Bristol, and I move down to the city of Fukuoka on Kyushu, the Southernmost of Japan's main islands.
9th May
I made it to Fukuoka, and it's pouring down

Sanjusangen-do, Kyoto

. Time to collect my thoughts before I move on to South Korea in the morning. A few things about Japan that never made it into my earlier posts that may (or indeed may not) be of interest:
Pachinko: something you see lots of in Japan is a thing called Pachinko, a sort of cross between pinball and a video slot machine. Pachinko is big business in Japan (3 Trillion Yen spent every year) and it's played in arcades called "Pachinko Parlours" which are everywhere. They can be huge (I had a look round one in Osaka, and counted seating for over 500 people), and the noise is indescribable. For those familiar with "A Day in the Life" by The Beatles, take the discordant orchestra sounds before the last note of the song, pump it up to about 500 decibels, draw it out for hours on end and you're beginning to get there. Still, about 1/4 of the population play regularly, and 30 odd million Japanese can't be wrong. Can they? 
Teeth: If you arrive in Japan from California, one of the first things you'll notice is Japanese teeth. Californians spend a lot of money on dental care, but Japan seems to be full of people with teeth straight out of Monty Python. When they smile it can look a bit like piano keyboard lids being opened, and it takes some getting used to.
Gadgets: Mentioned earlier, but sometimes it's hard to get the point of it all

J&M. On our bikes

. Like the restaurant machines where you put money in the slot, and press a button with a picture of your meal on it. This issues a ticket, which you give to the waitress, who will deliver your food. After a while, this sort of thing seems normal - note to self: this is not normal.
Culture and psyche: You could spend a long time here (and lots of money, as it's an expensive country), and never get to grips with what's going on inside people's heads. For all the flash neon and Western look of things, most Japanese visit a Shinto shrine at least once a year to pay homage to stone statues of monkeys, foxes and the like. In terms of culture, Japan is a place where Hotel Receptionists need to go on courses to learn the precise angle to bow on each and every occasion.
Manga: Ah, now here's a thing. Manga is Japanese for 'comics' and it's a huge industry here. Everybody reads comics, and it's strange to see middle-aged Salarymen on the Metro with their heads buried in them. At first I wrote it off as pornography (and there's plenty of that), but there's another side to it. I sheltered from the rain in an Internet/'media cafe' in Fukuoka and it was like entering a cathedral to Manga. The place is open 24hrs a day (you can sleep in there), and there's a whole library of the stuff, floor to ceiling comics and DVD's, all sorted and catalogued - one place in Osaka boasted 50,000 items. It really is another world in there

Temple gate, Kyoto

.
Racism: Japan is a deeply racist society (the word for foreigner translates as 'hairy barbarian'), and one of the most homogeneous societies in the world - 99% of residents are ethnic Japanese. This is a country where an entire industry has been created around investigating whether prospective in-laws have any Korean ancestry, which would dilute Japanese DNA.........and yet, during our stay here (as a pair of foreigners), we were met with nothing but kindness, courtesy and consideration - the Japanese were absolutely lovely.
Bullet Train (again): The trains have reached their maximum speed now in Japan. It's technically possible to make them go faster, but there is a major problem with the tunnels - when the trains exit the tunnels at high speed, they create a sonic boom, which drives the locals slowly nuts....... 
 
Now it's time to move on again. During recent days, I have begun to abandon my jay-walking habits and now find myself standing on the pavement with the rest of them, waiting for the lights to change - and not a car in sight.......anywhere. Inevitably:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2ktds5k4j1Y  
or if you prefer the Manga version:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8rCALKT1-Y4

Catch up with you in Korea.............

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Schoolkids, Kyoto	Osaka at night	Bullet train approaching Kyoto	Nijo Castle. The Shogun`s gaff
Bad craziness, Osaka	Kyoto tower	Higashi Hongaji, Kyoto	Temple Gardens 2
Shinto shrine, Kyoto	View from our room. Dai-Ni Tower, Kyoto	Wild boar. Shinto shrine, Kyoto	Random temple, Kyoto
Nijo Castle 2	Killer carp, Kyoto。They`ll gum you to death	Kyoto from the tower 1	Kyoto from the tower 2
Bicycle mayhem, Osaka	View from our Hotel, Osaka	Osaka at night 2	Osaka at night 3

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