Archive for April 7th, 2009

In Kyoto now…

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

From Okayama, I made my way to Osaka, with a six-hour stop in Himeji to visit the castle and take pictures. I don’t have any to upload right now, as they’re all in the hands of the Japanese postal service right now.

Overall, I have to say that Osaka has very little to recommend it, other than the really cool ryokan that I stayed in. When I arrived and was shown to my room, there was a teaport, a container of tea, a thermos of hot water, and some Japanese sweets sitting on the table.

Oh, and they have just as much neon as Tokyo, but at least they do interesting things with it. This was taken about 3 blocks from my Ryokan, which took me from the “wall to wall girlie club zone” I was in to the “overpriced European brand name shopping zone.” They’re beside a bridge over a river, or at least they are now – it appears they’re trying to pave over the river or something.

Neon signs in Osaka, Japan

Neon signs in Osaka, Japan

I left Osaka this morning, and headed to Yoshino, which is another Japanese World Heritage site, which means temples galore. I even got to see a procession of monks on their way to chanting time.

I saw lots of pretty things in Yoshino…

Darren with Cute Girls in Yoshino, Japan

Darren with Cute Girls in Yoshino, Japan

And there were lots of Sakura as well – not as many as in Tsuyama, but still plenty.

Sakura Blossoms in Yoshino, Japan

Sakura Blossoms in Yoshino, Japan

I’m in Kyoto right now – My lack of advance planning has me staying tonight in a $200/night hotel, and tomorrow moving to the $25/night hostel.

On the train from Yoshino to Kyoto, there were a pair of girls sitting across from me who kept looking at me, then glancing away when I caught their eye. In good fun, I pulled out my notepad and pen and wrote 何を見ますか :), which means, or was meant to mean, “What are you looking at?” I then looked out the window, waited about 30 seconds, then flipped over the notepad so they could see it and looked back to see them collapse into a frenzy of giggles.

Once they had recovered, one of them pulled out a notepad and wrote Where are you from? in English. I replied (via my notepad) in Japanese, and for the next 20 minutes or so, we had a conversation in each other’s native tongue across the aisle.

Anyways, now I’m in Kyoto, and my first impression is “wow, there are a lot of white people here!” I’ve gotten used to seeing two or three other white people a day, and all of a sudden, there’s packs of five to ten of them.

I’m planning to spend a couple of days here in Kyoto, then off to Kanazawa, then back to Toyko. I only have 10 days left of my vacation! Auuugh!