I <3 Kyoto

May 31, 2008

It feels really good to have gotten some sleep, although I only managed 3 hours somehow. Some sort of weird jetlag thing? Hopefully I'll be able to force myself into a normal sleep schedule soon.

The hostel's got really nice facilities and we happen to be staying in the newer building so it's all really nice. Didn't really get around to exploring the older side but that doesn't really matter. Went to the washroom and experienced one of those shiny plugged in toilets. The ones for guys have heated seats and a butt spray button. Seriously, it says "oshiri" in hiragana which means butt, and you can even set the water pressure! The womens' and shared toilets also have a "bidet" button and "flushing sounds button". I later found that the flushing sounds button was installed because Japanese women used to flush the toilets all the time when they went because it was embarrassing for them to hear themselves to the washroom. This practice was wasting a lot of water, hence the button.

Walked to Kyoto Station at around 7 to check out the area. It's pretty dead right now and nothing is open at all. Explore an underground mall but once again everything is closed. The rain started coming down a bit harder after we got back from our mini morning excursion. Need to wait until 9 so I can go some money exchanged at the Nippon Travel Agency office right by the northern main exit of Kyoto Station. I feel a bit helpless at the moment seeing as I have lots of travelers cheques and a bit of cash on me but nothing that I can actually use to pay for anything yet.

Went and passed out for a bit from fatigue. Winston came to wake me up and introduced me to a girl he met by the name of Jen. We walked to a restaurant to get some breakfast. Things work differently at some restaurants here, you pay for your food first through a vending machine like ticket dispenser then hand that ticket to the cashier and they bring you your food. I got beef udon. Tasty.

Walked back to Kyoto Station to get to the post office to check if the currency exchange was open so we walked into Nippon Travel Agency or something in Kyoto Station and I got some travelers cheques exchanged for a pretty decent rate. It's Saturday so the banks and post offices are closed until Monday. Travelers cheques are trading at about 2 yen higher than cash so you might want to make a note of that. USD was trading at 102 yen while CAD was at 98 yen strangely enough. 104 yen for my cheques. Sweet. I have spendable currency in my pocket; I'm no longer dependent on on Winston for cash, joy. Winston only has CAD so he's getting pretty screwed on the exchange rate.

After that we went and bought our tickets for the Noh Festival that's taking place June 1st and 2nd, and bus passes for the day at the tourist information center in Kyoto Station. The bus pass was surprisingly cheap (500 yen), and you enter buses at the rear entrance and pay when you leave at the front. Missed our bus so we had to wait an hour for the next to get to Tofukuji Temple.

Got a bit lost right after we got off at our stop and ran into a very nice old Japanese man, who also spoke English and Mandarin. He pointed us in the right direction and got us to follow some ladies who were also headed for Tofukuji Temple. I dubbed him the Wise Old Man. Vending machines were documented on our walk. It was really confusing navigating the back streets of Kyoto before we arrived at Tofukuji Temple. It was pretty cool but most of the buildings at the site were closed so we just took a few pics and left for Fushimi Inari Shrine.

We got a bit disoriented along the way since the bus schedule map was not at all accurate in its depiction of distances between different sites. Found another old man on the street and I asked him how to get to our destination. He says we're heading the right way and we know we're close when we start seeing stores selling shrine related souvenirs. Behind the entrance is a pair of giant fox statues and apparently they supposed to be symbols that protect agriculture. We don't manage to get through the whole thing since it's starting to get dark and all of the Shinto gates block out a lot of light as well. The stairs in the area are covered in bits of moss and slimey stuff so we decide to head back while it's still some light out. Random back streets of Kyoto v.2. I purchase my first onigiri and screw up opening the package and end up losing a piece of seaweed that surrounds the rice. Next time, Gadget. Next time... Jen is amused by our inability to properly open our onigiri.

The bus arrives and we head to a shopping district called Teramachi in the middle of town. Holy crap Batman, this is nothing like a North American mall. It's like the ultimate strip mall with lots of rows of crowded little shops and roads between and connecting streets. Bought a taiyaki thing I think (it was a pancake filled with some creamy goodness). We buy stuff and stop for dinner at a kaitne conveyor belt sushi restaurant. There were crazy things making their way around, like squid, some blue thing that I wasn't even ready to be near let alone eat and some weird tail looking thing. It looked cool but I wasn't about to eat it. Winston and I can't eat that much since our bodies are still adjusting so Jen pretty much destroyed us when it came down to amount of food consumed.

There's an adventure and a half looking for shampoo and some detergent. More bus antics as we just and I mean just miss the number 5 heading back by the hostel. It was right across the street but the light was red so we sat our asses there until the next one showed up.

Things I remember digesting:
-ramen from Daiichi Asahi - A+++. If you're even in Kyoto, eat here at least once. Best ramen ever!
-Aquarius Zero - basically lemon flavoured water that came with a little figurine
-beef udon - hot and tasty
-salmon onigiri - the packaging is tricky to get off
-Pocari Sweat - it's not that great. Has bit of a salty aftertaste
-taiyaki/pancake fish - hot and cheap snack
-sushi:
-squid
-beef
-there were a few more dishes that I forget
-sweetened yams with sesame seeds for desert

Hostel:
http://kshouse.jp/kyoto-e/index.html
There's also the Zen Cafe attached to the first floor of the hostel that's got a buffet from 8AM-1PM.