Off to Kyoto
Trip Start
Dec 24, 2006
1
4
8
Trip End
Dec 31, 2006
Kyoto,
Japan
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Japanese Breakfast
I wake up in the morning to a full Japanese style breakfast. I was to leave at 8am to catch the train but Mrs. Muraki woke up at 6am to prepare the meal. Once again I felt really touched by their hospitality...
Seaweed
Breakfast was a feast. We had Japanese wasabi sausages. These had wasabi herbs mixed into the sausage. We had ground sashimi cod over rice. This was eaten with a high grade sushi. Essentially you were making your own hand roll using the rice, seaweed and cod. We also had a small plate of pan fried salmon, some pickles and some fruit. After breakfast they made a small pot of high-grade coffee. Coffee was especially good because of the care that went into making it. Mrs. Muraki explained that for good coffee it all starts with good water. Therefore it's critical to use highly pure water or else you can ever get good water. (BTW, I use tap water in the US...what I big contrast!). They also don't use machines to brew the coffee. Coffee is brewed in personal sizes using a ceramic filter that looked like a funnel. A high grade filter lines the funnel and is used to filter the grinds. You don't just pour the hot water and coffee together. You first line the filter and pour some hot water until the filter is completely wet. They you grind fresh coffee and put it in the filter. Finally you pour water and wait for the coffee to drip through the filter. It's low-tech, labor intensive but extremely good. You can definitely taste the quality.
Leaving the Muraki's
I was sad to leave the Muraki's. I've never been shown so much hospitality by any family and I greatly appreciated it. I have to say that my experiences with the Muraki's over the past 24 hours have more than justified my trip to Japan.
As I was leaving, Mrs. Muraki hands me a lunch bag. She had prepared a lunch for me on the train. I was surprised and did not know what to say. In addition to the lunch, she gave me a package of high-grade seaweed. She remembered my comment about never finding high grade seaweed in the US. The seaweed was from the village where Mr. Muraki grew up in Hokkaido and was renowned for its quality. I was once again surprised at the hospitality. I was left speechless and all I could do was to thank them profusely. They invited me to come back to visit them the next time I visited Japan (whether Shino was there or not!).
The Road to Kyoto
Subway
Fortunately for me, the weather was really nice today and I took the subway into Tokyo station. Traveling at 8am on a weekday was a challenge since it was rush hour. As we got closer to Tokyo station the train became more and more crowded. I got a few stares when people saw all my luggage. It was out of the ordinary for somebody to take the subway with all the luggage. I didn't care what they thought and just ignored them.
The subway took about 1.5 hours to reach Tokyo station in central Tokyo. I from there I boarded the Shinkasen train to Kyoto. The Shinkasen is the bullet train run by Japan Railways (JR).
Tokyo Station 3
It was the mode of travel between all the major cities in Japan. There were two different types of train. There was the regular train that made multiple stops along the way and there were the express trains that only stopped in select cities. I took the Express train to Kyoto.
Mt. Fuji
The distance between Kyoto and Tokyo is about 600km between the two cities, about the same distance as San Francisco to Los Angeles. The bullet train was an amazing piece of engineering and reaches a maximum speed of about 200km per hour. It takes about 3 hours to reach Kyoto from Tokyo and I reached Kyoto by 3pm. Fortunately for me, we were to pass Mt. Fuji and I was able to see this famous landmark from the train.
Kyoto
Temple 2
Pagoda 1
Kiyomizudera Temple 3
Gion1
Kyoto Station
Kyoto Tower
Kyoto is much more difficult to get around than Tokyo. First there aren't any maps of the subway. Secondly there aren't any English signs so getting around is definitely a challenge. Finally none of the locals actually spoke any English. You were really on your own out here.
I took my map from the tourist package and just wandered around Kyoto. It took me half and hour to figure out the Subway but I finally figured out where to go. I just took it to Gion (old Geisha district) and just wandered around to various landmarks. Unfortunately nothing was draw to scale on the map so I walked for quite awhile to reach the destination. Anyways I ended up at a Temple, a Pagoda, and Kiyomizudera (pure water) Temple. Check out the photos section for more pictures.
ATMs - The Japanese Post Office??
The weird thing about Kyoto is that none of the commercial banks took foreign ATM cards. For awhile I thought I was stuck with only ~$20 in cash for the next 2 days. Fortunately for me, I found out from the hotel that the Japanese post Office took foreign ATM cards. For those of you who don't know much about the post-office in Japan, it does much more than deliver mail. The Japanese Post Office is the largest savings and loan institution Japan. It is an international institution like any commercial bank. I have to say it's weird to get cash at the post office but hell I was super short on cash and Kyoto was mainly a cash-only city. Thank goodness the hotel was next to the Post Office!!
