Day 7: Friday, November 28
(Written on Friday, posted on Saturday)
It poured again in Nikko today. We woke early and began the morning with a yoga class with a Zen Buddhist monk; the monk chanted at the end of the class during a brief meditation, while the rain kept pouring down outside. (Andrew had been resistant to the class, until it became clear that I was the only one in the lodge who had signed up; being the nice husband that he is, he agreed to go with me.) After breakfast, we took a brief walk in the rain to "Nikko beer," which Andrew had hoped would involve a brewery tour; but there were just a few things for sale in the shop. The walk was very moody; fog was settling over the mountaintops, and wet leaves were matted along the roads and sidewalks. It was perfectly silent except for the raindrops in the trees.
We headed to the train station around eleven; the mountains we spotted in the distance were snow-capped. We saw a white loon lightly stepping its way across a small river. Along the way we had two snacks on the way, a curry bun and a bean-paste bun, both delicious. By the train tracks was a perfectly shaped tree, its leaves shockingly red. When our train arrived, a big crowd of Japanese travellers ran off and instantly began photographing the tree--we weren’t the only ones charmed.
We spent the first part of the ride back to Tokyo half-convinced we’d gotten on the wrong train; fortunately, we were fine. Once we got back to Tokyo, we took two subways to Tokyo station, where our shinkansen (bullet train) would depart for Kyoto. We picked up one more snack there--a meat bun. I could eat steamed buns exclusively for the rest of my life and be perfectly happy.
The shinkansen was amazing--hurtling through the countryside at 200mph, women pushing carts of snacks through each car and bowing each time they reached the doorway to the next car, their outfits of jaunty hat and prettily tied neck scarf. We bought a bag of rice snacks to eat while we planned what to do when we arrived in Kyoto.
Getting from Kyoto station to Pension Kotomu--a small guesthouse--was the part of this trip I’d thought would be most complex, mostly because it involved taking a city bus. It did take us a while to find the right bus--very little was marked in English, and what was marked was a bit ambiguous--but eventually we sorted it out. We even found our stop with little problem. As we started walking up the road that would lead to our guesthouse, we could see the Koyomizu-dera temple at the top of the street, brightly lit with a spotlight.
After settling the bill for our room and listening to the owner’s instructions on wearing slippers in the hallway, taking them off before stepping onto the tatami, and controlling the heater in the room, we instantly set off for the temple. We’re in Kyoto at a lucky time--for the next week or so, a handful of temples stays open late and allows visitors to roam their magically lit-up grounds. The Koyomizu-dera also had spotlights illuminating the beautiful fall foliage; lanterns lined every walkway. Crowds of Japanese visitors were flocking into the temple, snapping pictures at every turn; the temple had the air of a holiday festival. Our pictures can’t do this justice--the temple is breathtaking to begin with, and with the lights and the leaves it was just spectacular. In the distance was the Kyoto skyline, with the Kyoto Tower brightly lit. Of course I had our temple book with me, procuring perhaps our most prized stamp yet. It was the perfect start to our Kyoto adventure.
We stopped for a quick dinner at another cook-it-yourself pancake restaurant (Andrew had an omelette with green onions; I had fried udon noodles with vegetables), then headed back to our guesthouse. Our room at Pension Kotomu--where I’m sitting right now, typing this--is at the very top of the building, like a little attic room. Tatami mats cover the floor, and we have quite a large balcony from which we can look out over Kyoto and even see part of the Koyomizu-dera. The room is entirely empty except for a low table, two flat cushions, a small lamp on the floor, a coatrack, and a small TV on a stand. The materials that will become our beds tonight are folded neatly in a closet. In the morning, the owner of the guesthouse will knock on our door and show us where the shower is. Our time in Kyoto has begun.
No pics again--I'll add some later on.
It poured again in Nikko today. We woke early and began the morning with a yoga class with a Zen Buddhist monk; the monk chanted at the end of the class during a brief meditation, while the rain kept pouring down outside. (Andrew had been resistant to the class, until it became clear that I was the only one in the lodge who had signed up; being the nice husband that he is, he agreed to go with me.) After breakfast, we took a brief walk in the rain to "Nikko beer," which Andrew had hoped would involve a brewery tour; but there were just a few things for sale in the shop. The walk was very moody; fog was settling over the mountaintops, and wet leaves were matted along the roads and sidewalks. It was perfectly silent except for the raindrops in the trees.
We headed to the train station around eleven; the mountains we spotted in the distance were snow-capped. We saw a white loon lightly stepping its way across a small river. Along the way we had two snacks on the way, a curry bun and a bean-paste bun, both delicious. By the train tracks was a perfectly shaped tree, its leaves shockingly red. When our train arrived, a big crowd of Japanese travellers ran off and instantly began photographing the tree--we weren’t the only ones charmed.
We spent the first part of the ride back to Tokyo half-convinced we’d gotten on the wrong train; fortunately, we were fine. Once we got back to Tokyo, we took two subways to Tokyo station, where our shinkansen (bullet train) would depart for Kyoto. We picked up one more snack there--a meat bun. I could eat steamed buns exclusively for the rest of my life and be perfectly happy.
The shinkansen was amazing--hurtling through the countryside at 200mph, women pushing carts of snacks through each car and bowing each time they reached the doorway to the next car, their outfits of jaunty hat and prettily tied neck scarf. We bought a bag of rice snacks to eat while we planned what to do when we arrived in Kyoto.
Getting from Kyoto station to Pension Kotomu--a small guesthouse--was the part of this trip I’d thought would be most complex, mostly because it involved taking a city bus. It did take us a while to find the right bus--very little was marked in English, and what was marked was a bit ambiguous--but eventually we sorted it out. We even found our stop with little problem. As we started walking up the road that would lead to our guesthouse, we could see the Koyomizu-dera temple at the top of the street, brightly lit with a spotlight.
After settling the bill for our room and listening to the owner’s instructions on wearing slippers in the hallway, taking them off before stepping onto the tatami, and controlling the heater in the room, we instantly set off for the temple. We’re in Kyoto at a lucky time--for the next week or so, a handful of temples stays open late and allows visitors to roam their magically lit-up grounds. The Koyomizu-dera also had spotlights illuminating the beautiful fall foliage; lanterns lined every walkway. Crowds of Japanese visitors were flocking into the temple, snapping pictures at every turn; the temple had the air of a holiday festival. Our pictures can’t do this justice--the temple is breathtaking to begin with, and with the lights and the leaves it was just spectacular. In the distance was the Kyoto skyline, with the Kyoto Tower brightly lit. Of course I had our temple book with me, procuring perhaps our most prized stamp yet. It was the perfect start to our Kyoto adventure.
We stopped for a quick dinner at another cook-it-yourself pancake restaurant (Andrew had an omelette with green onions; I had fried udon noodles with vegetables), then headed back to our guesthouse. Our room at Pension Kotomu--where I’m sitting right now, typing this--is at the very top of the building, like a little attic room. Tatami mats cover the floor, and we have quite a large balcony from which we can look out over Kyoto and even see part of the Koyomizu-dera. The room is entirely empty except for a low table, two flat cushions, a small lamp on the floor, a coatrack, and a small TV on a stand. The materials that will become our beds tonight are folded neatly in a closet. In the morning, the owner of the guesthouse will knock on our door and show us where the shower is. Our time in Kyoto has begun.
No pics again--I'll add some later on.
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