Final day in kyoto
Trip Start
Oct 20, 2008
1
50
93
Trip End
Jan 31, 2009
Kyoto,
Kinki,
Japan
Friday, December 12, 2008
i take every opportunity to visit rural areas. in general it`s quite difficult. you don`t know how to get there; even if you get there by extreme luck, you wouldn`t be able to communicate with the villagers there. the only way it tends to work is when there is a historical sight near a village, because that makes it automatically more accessible to tourists. this is precisely how i ended up in ohara today. rode the bus up north for an hour. then, got off at a farming complex situated between mountains. for some reason i thought that such scenes didn`t exist in japan, but there it was
Rural Temple
. old Japanese ladies collecting beet-like vegetables with their heads covered. reminded me of Turkish villagers. the only difference was their slanted eyes and the traditional Japanese looks of their 2-storied houses.hiked up the hill to get to sanzen-in and raigo-in. although these temples were surrounded by dense forests of green, red and yellow trees, i didn`t enjoy them. there were way too many Japanese tourists. also, i think i`m about to overdose on temples. i preferred getting lost in the residential areas of ohara.
had lunch at seryo-jaya, which was highly recommended by lp. i ordered the nishi soba that basically was a noodle soup with some fish. 1,000 yens. the river fish called nishi was absolutely revolting. i ate some of the noodles; drank some black tea, and left immediately. right outside the restaurant, i saw a stand selling white sauce covered balls on a stick. hoping that these would help me get rid of the terrible aftertaste of nishi, i bought one. these rice dumplings weren`t any better unfortunately. i gave up searching for hot food; bought an apple and a tangerine.
as i was typing up my entry at the ryokan, the 70+year-old owner saw my moleskine. he was really impressed that i could write in the Latin alphabet. the old man was so surprised that he invited his daughter over to take a peak. only then, i realized that the Latin script looks as bizarre to them as the Japanese one does to us.
