Some Traditional Culture

Trip Start Jul 27, 2006
1
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Trip End Aug 2007


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Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Ok. Bright and early we head to Kyoto. Its about an hour by train from Kobe. Both of us nap on the train which was probably a mistake because it was one of those naps that you wake up more tired from, but the problem with that was we couldnt sleep anymore cause we were in Kyoto and there is an obnoxious amount of things to see there! All of which are very cool from what we saw. Another mistake to our day might have been eating pastry for breakfast and ice cream for lunch. We were basically running solely on sugar but didnt realize this cause we were so wrapped up in everything to see. The first place we went to was Nijo castle. Our hostel was only like a block away from there so it was a must do. This place was pretty damn great. The grounds surrounding the castle were beautious. The arched entry ways were gorgous with such intricate architecture and designs. Inside the actual castle there were amazing paintings on the sliding doors in the large number of rooms. And the cooridors were made out of Japanese Cyprus and stained a deep brown. I LOVE IT! And the floor boards were made to squeak to warn the kings etc of intruders. They are called nightingale floors. We spent like 2 hours exploring the castle and its grounds. Saw some ladies in Kimono. You dont see much of that in Nagoya so it was pretty exciting. Its crazy how the old mixes with the new. Now by this time we are pretty hungry and decide to head to Gion first and then try to find some food. Gion is the part of Kyoto famous for the Geisha. We get there and walk like 2 blocks down every street outside of the subway station before we figure out which way to go for the main part of Gion (it turned out to be the first way we were going, go figure!). 01. Nijo Castle
01. Nijo Castle
 We get there and are instantly distracted by the temples and lights. We go in one temple lookin thing that turns out to be very festival eseque. At least we were able to get a snack to tie us over for a bit. We walk and look at the shops, I wander to what appears to be the end and stumble upon some samurai competitiong. I watch that while waiting for Jess. Finally, we decide we have no option but to find something to eat! We are on the verge of complete starvation now! We head down the lighted street with tons of shops and continue to get distracted and stop in a craft shop for like 5 minutes before we again realize we are starved. We carry on. Every place we look at just doesnt seem appetizing for one reason or another. It seems like most of the places we looked at only had raw stuff but you can never be too sure cause we could only look at pics. We are not in the mood for raw. Somehow, in our starved wandering we get off the main road and stumble upon some little tea house area. They have food, the only problem is its like 100 dollars a meal. Yeah, like we can pay that. I was so hungry though we did contemplate for a minute before returning to sanity. We find our way back closer to the main street and see a noodle shop that we almost stopped at but got distracted by a hostess in a wedding dress looking thing. And started wandering towards her. This turned out to be good luck cause we found a little New Zealand Cafe! Jess was pumped I was excited cause it had sandwiches that were not raw! We go in! Yes!! Food!! The guy up there who owned it was really cool too. So we sat there for like 2 hours just eating and talking and basically regrouping. It was needed and fantastic. The food was just right too and if you ever get a chance to try Hokey Pokey Ice Cream DO IT!!! Holy s%*t it is good! Now, off to coherently wander Gion. Wandering seems to work well for us cause we ended up seeing 5, yes thats right, 5 Geisha. They were amazing. They dont talk to you or anything cause they need to scurry to appointments pretty quickly but it was so exciting. Jess and I totally tripped over each other when we spotted the first one. And I was shaking more than I would have been if it was a celebrity spotting. We must have looked hysterical! After the Geisha spotting we met up with Becky, a friend from MN I met on the plane ride over and we hung out for a bit. While crossing a street we run into some boys and start chatting. It turns out they are staying at our same hostel! What are the odds! Kyoto is too huge to have something like that happen! Jess and I decided there is no possible way we can stay out any later and we head back to the hostel. Those boys were already back and we ended up chatting with one of them, Vincent, till like 3 am!! I have no idea how we stayed up so late. But, it was cool. Gotta love hostels. Finally, its time to sleep.
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