Japan trip report, day 12
September 7, 2007
Finally on board the shinkansen for Tokyo. We checked out of the ryokan this morning, but left our luggage while we spent a final few hours traipsing about Kyoto. We bought day passes for the Raku 100 sightseeing buses again and set off for Nijo-jo.
The most interesting aspects of Nijo-jo were the original wall paintings, liberally done in gold, and the nightingale floors. The shogun who built this castle had at least a healthy bit of paranoia, and so installed floors that sing and squeak whenever they are trod. In fact, the squeaking did sound remarkably like birdsong. The gardens were pleasant as well.
Next we hopped on the bus again for Kyoto Gyoen, the gardens surrounding the Kyoto Imperial Palace. There was a cute, secluded little garden near where we entered, and there were some nice groves of fruit trees (peach and plum), but otherwise I found it kind of unremarkable. The wide avenues between patches of green were entirely covered in gravel, which wasn't especially appealing, and the inner palace area was behind a large wall. Enh.
Back on the bus...we returned to Ikoi-no-Ie, collected our belongings, and took another bus to Kyoto-eki. We wanted to eat first, so we went looking for Kaiten-zushi Iwara, a conveyor-belt sushi joint. First we found Mister Donut and Café du Monde (yes, that Café du Monde) on the second floor in the station, though, so we snagged a few donuts and beignets. The oddest of those was the savory curry donut. The filling was, in fact, a savory curry, and the donut itself was not sweet at all. However, it did have a nicely crunchy texture on the outside. Trowa also got a pack of 6 donut holes, served with a little pick for spearing them. The beignets were freshly made; we got cinnamon-sugar flavor.
We set aside one donut and a few beignets and found the sushi place. Yay, conveyor belts! I got some kappa maki, tamago, and inari-zushi; Trowa also got some ika nigiri and tako nigiri, and maybe some other fish nigiri. Cheap and fast and tasty.
I'm sorry we didn't have at least another day to explore Kyoto. There's so very much to see and do, and we only just barely scratched the surface. On the other hand, I think Trowa was getting a little tired of temples and shrines. I would gladly have seen more of them, but I can understand the need to do something different for a while. If you see too many similar attractions too close together, they can all sort of become indistinguishable in your mind.
Not terribly long from now we will be passing the Mt. Fuji area. It's not severely overcast today, so we may have a chance of seeing Fuji from the train, if we're lucky. Then we'll need to figure out how to get to our ryokan once we pull into Tokyo-eki.
Hey! We finally saw Fuji-san! Not for long, though. We got a decent view for a few minutes, and then it was obscured by clouds and factory pollution. You wouldn't think a mountain that large would be so difficult to spot, but it is awfully elusive.
As we rode on to Tokyo, we acquired a seatmate, a nice Japanese man who spoke pretty good English and engaged us in conversation. He told us about when he had lived in California, and we told him about our travels through Japan. And when it became clear that we were going to be very confused by the quite complex JR and subway lines in the city, he very kindly showed us the way personally. We thanked him profusely, but all he wanted in return was a chance to practice his conversational English.
Our ryokan, Asakusa Shigetsu, is very close to Asakusa-eki, the Kaminarimon gate, and Senso-ji. Asakusa is an older section of town and still retains some old-time charm amidst the modernity of Tokyo.
We checked in and then went off to find dinner. Our guide book recommended a DIY okonomiyaki joint about 10 minutes away, so we found that place, called Sometaro. You order your preferred set of ingredients from the menu -- they had a few all-veg choices -- and bring you the ingredients in a bowl. Then you mix them, grease the flat grill built into your table, and dump out the batter to cook. Finally, you use your spatula to turn the pancake until cooked, brush on the special sauce, cut it up, and eat! Okonomiyaki may be my favorite Japanese food now -- I'm really going to miss it!
After dinner we returned to our ryokan and took advantage of the public hot baths on the top floor. They're sex-segregated, but we could hear each other with the windows open. It was the traditional kind, where you soap up and rinse first, then enter the deep, hot tub. There were wooden planks laid atop to keep the heat in while not in use, and, if I stood up, I could see the 5-storied pagoda at Senso-ji from the window. The hot water felt awfully good after a day of schlepping. And that was the end of our day.
Finally on board the shinkansen for Tokyo. We checked out of the ryokan this morning, but left our luggage while we spent a final few hours traipsing about Kyoto. We bought day passes for the Raku 100 sightseeing buses again and set off for Nijo-jo.
The most interesting aspects of Nijo-jo were the original wall paintings, liberally done in gold, and the nightingale floors. The shogun who built this castle had at least a healthy bit of paranoia, and so installed floors that sing and squeak whenever they are trod. In fact, the squeaking did sound remarkably like birdsong. The gardens were pleasant as well.
Next we hopped on the bus again for Kyoto Gyoen, the gardens surrounding the Kyoto Imperial Palace. There was a cute, secluded little garden near where we entered, and there were some nice groves of fruit trees (peach and plum), but otherwise I found it kind of unremarkable. The wide avenues between patches of green were entirely covered in gravel, which wasn't especially appealing, and the inner palace area was behind a large wall. Enh.
Back on the bus...we returned to Ikoi-no-Ie, collected our belongings, and took another bus to Kyoto-eki. We wanted to eat first, so we went looking for Kaiten-zushi Iwara, a conveyor-belt sushi joint. First we found Mister Donut and Café du Monde (yes, that Café du Monde) on the second floor in the station, though, so we snagged a few donuts and beignets. The oddest of those was the savory curry donut. The filling was, in fact, a savory curry, and the donut itself was not sweet at all. However, it did have a nicely crunchy texture on the outside. Trowa also got a pack of 6 donut holes, served with a little pick for spearing them. The beignets were freshly made; we got cinnamon-sugar flavor.
We set aside one donut and a few beignets and found the sushi place. Yay, conveyor belts! I got some kappa maki, tamago, and inari-zushi; Trowa also got some ika nigiri and tako nigiri, and maybe some other fish nigiri. Cheap and fast and tasty.
I'm sorry we didn't have at least another day to explore Kyoto. There's so very much to see and do, and we only just barely scratched the surface. On the other hand, I think Trowa was getting a little tired of temples and shrines. I would gladly have seen more of them, but I can understand the need to do something different for a while. If you see too many similar attractions too close together, they can all sort of become indistinguishable in your mind.
Not terribly long from now we will be passing the Mt. Fuji area. It's not severely overcast today, so we may have a chance of seeing Fuji from the train, if we're lucky. Then we'll need to figure out how to get to our ryokan once we pull into Tokyo-eki.
Hey! We finally saw Fuji-san! Not for long, though. We got a decent view for a few minutes, and then it was obscured by clouds and factory pollution. You wouldn't think a mountain that large would be so difficult to spot, but it is awfully elusive.
As we rode on to Tokyo, we acquired a seatmate, a nice Japanese man who spoke pretty good English and engaged us in conversation. He told us about when he had lived in California, and we told him about our travels through Japan. And when it became clear that we were going to be very confused by the quite complex JR and subway lines in the city, he very kindly showed us the way personally. We thanked him profusely, but all he wanted in return was a chance to practice his conversational English.
Our ryokan, Asakusa Shigetsu, is very close to Asakusa-eki, the Kaminarimon gate, and Senso-ji. Asakusa is an older section of town and still retains some old-time charm amidst the modernity of Tokyo.
We checked in and then went off to find dinner. Our guide book recommended a DIY okonomiyaki joint about 10 minutes away, so we found that place, called Sometaro. You order your preferred set of ingredients from the menu -- they had a few all-veg choices -- and bring you the ingredients in a bowl. Then you mix them, grease the flat grill built into your table, and dump out the batter to cook. Finally, you use your spatula to turn the pancake until cooked, brush on the special sauce, cut it up, and eat! Okonomiyaki may be my favorite Japanese food now -- I'm really going to miss it!
After dinner we returned to our ryokan and took advantage of the public hot baths on the top floor. They're sex-segregated, but we could hear each other with the windows open. It was the traditional kind, where you soap up and rinse first, then enter the deep, hot tub. There were wooden planks laid atop to keep the heat in while not in use, and, if I stood up, I could see the 5-storied pagoda at Senso-ji from the window. The hot water felt awfully good after a day of schlepping. And that was the end of our day.