A Brief Visit to Kyoto

I was a bit ambivalent about going to Kyoto this weekend, but in the end I went and had a great time. As planned, I caught the 10:30 bus and arrived in Osaka the next morning around 6:00. From there I took two trains; one to get me to Kyoto, and another to get me to my friend Stephanie's neighborhood. She figured I'd get to Ichijoji Station around 9:00, but I actually arrived closer to 8:00. The plan was for me to call her when I arrived, but since I was early, I waited about a half hour before calling. I figured she might not be up yet.

After I called, it took only a few minutes for Stephanie to come down and meet me at the station. Her boyfriend's apartment was just down a block or two and around the corner. We went back to the apartment and she introduced me to her boyfriend. It was a convenient weekend for her to have me over because her boyfriend was going to spend Saturday night at school working on his thesis. Stephanie made breakfast for the three of us, and we planned out our activities for the day.

The trouble with visiting Kyoto is that there are hundreds of things to see. There are many famous temples and shrines, among other attractions. Since I plan on going back to Kyoto in December, I wasn't too worried about hitting the main destinations, and made plans more based on the mood I was in. Stephanie had two areas of town to suggest: Gion and Kiyomizudera, or Arashiyama. We decided on Arashiyama, which was on the other side of the city. Our first stop was Ginkakuji Temple, also called the Silver Pavilion. It isn't actually silver, but apparently it was originally intended to be covered in silver leaf. In any case, it was a very beautiful temple, and a good place to look at the fall colors. The Japanese maples were especially pretty with their delicate red leaves. Of course, since it was a weekend during leaf viewing season, the paths were extremely crowded. We didn't spend a whole lot of time standing around, but I felt like I got a good view of the temple. One thing I was particularly impressed with were the sand gardens. They were actually raised platforms of sand (kind of like a sand castle's base) with patterns raked into them.

After that, we wandered along the Philosopher's Path and found our way back to the main street. We eventually found the bus stop we needed and hopped on a bus toward Arashiyama. It was quite a long ride, and I was rather drowsy. I kept nodding off. At some point my ticket fell out of my hand and I didn't manage to find it again. It didn't really matter, though, since we would be paying the full fare in any case. Eventually we reached the last stop, which didn't seem to be where it was supposed to be. However, we were able to figure out which way to go by following the massive swarm of people walking in one direction. We went down a street that was flooded with people, and found the bridge that we needed to cross. We later figured out that the bus hadn't gone all the way to the end of the line because it couldn't have gone through the crowds of people to where the last stops actually were. I guess they have to alter the bus routes when there are huge crowds of leaf viewers.

There were two reasons we were going to Arashiyama: leaves and monkeys. Yes, monkeys. Up on one of the mountains, there is a monkey park. I was struck by the novelty of it and decided that was what I wanted to see. We reached the foot of the mountain and followed the monkey signs until we found the entrance. We paid the fee (about $5) and started the trek up the mountain. It's not like climbing the Sawtooths or anything, but it was a fairly long and steep walk. As we got higher up, we started seeing monkeys in the tree tops and hearing them screeching. Near the very top, there were monkeys running around not particularly far from us. Stephanie told me that when she had visited in the summer, they were lying on the path and visitors had to step over them. We arrived at the main viewing area, a flat spot on the side of the hill. There was also a sort of cabin with chain-link windows in the sides. When we arrived, one of the park employees was explaining (and demonstrating) the things visitors should not do. I was a little concerned when he stuck his face right up near one of the monkeys and stared it in the eyes. It bared its teeth a little, but didn't do anything more. I guess he knew which monkeys to mess with. Other rules: don't touch the monkeys and don't show them food. Pretty straightforward.

At the viewing areas, there were monkeys running all over the place. They would walk right past your legs, only a foot or two away. I made a point of not approaching any monkeys, but there wasn't a lot I could do about them approaching me. For a little while we watched the monkeys out in that area and took pictures of the city below. Then, we went into the cabin, which was actually a feeding station. There was an attendant at the door letting in the humans and keeping the monkeys out. Inside, you could buy bags of peanuts or sliced apples and bananas. I bought a bag of apple slices and went to feed some monkeys. All you had to do was approach the chain link fence, and the monkeys would reach their arms in and wait for you to bring the food to them. If they saw you with a bag of food, they would hang there with one hand extended, palm up, and wait. You could see their eyes darting back and forth from your face to the bag of food in your hand. It didn't take me long to go through my bag of apple slices, but Stephanie doled her peanuts out more slowly. She was pickier about not feeding the same monkeys repeatedly.

Feeding the monkeys from inside the safety of a cage was interesting. You could feel their leathery little fingers as they grabbed the food from your hands. There was occasional screeching as one monkey would chase another out of a prime feeding spot, but it was mostly peaceable. Of course, everything smelled like monkeys. Some of them smelled noticeably worse than others. One thing I discovered about the wild monkeys: they are not all that cute. The babies and smaller ones were pretty adorable, but the larger adults could be a bit creepy. Their faces and butts were red, and their teeth were yellowed. Some of them had crap caked into their fur. When one of them comes streaking past you, screeching, it's rather unsettling. While they're rather entertaining, spending time surrounded by a bunch of wild monkeys is maybe not the smartest hobby.

Once we had our fill of monkeys, we walked back down the mountain and decided to check out the stalls set up in the nearby park. There were many, many food vendors out that day. I saw grilled squid, grilled chicken, fish on sticks, pickles on sticks, candied fruit on sticks, dango, yakisoba, and okonomiyake. Stephanie and I bought some candied fruit on sticks. I had originally thought the fruit was just covered in a red glaze, but it was actually a layer of hard and chewy candy. Stephanie had grapes, while I opted for strawberries. Even without the candy, they were sweeter than most strawberries usually are. After that, we got some dango. Dango are chewy balls of rice flour dough on sticks. They can be sweet or savory. Stephanie got some that were grilled and covered in a sauce that I don't particularly like. I don't know how to describe it. It's sort of sweet and sort of salty, but the flavor is kind of strange. I got some three-colored dango that were sweet. There was one pink ball, one yellow ball, and one green ball.

At a store near the park, we also picked up some treats. I went a little overboard with the green tea Kit Kats, and we both bought packages of a sweet that was being sold in most of the souvenir shops. It was sort of crepe-like, but the dough was soft and seemed uncooked. Inside there were pockets of filling. Stephanie found a type that had a sweet and spicy filling. I also found some lucky cat charms that were particularly cute. I opted for the beckoning cat with a little pink heart; I think it's supposed to be for good fortune in love. We'll see how that works out.

After Ginkakuji and the monkeys, we were fairly tired. We'd done a good deal of walking, and I hadn't slept much the previous night. Rather than pack the day with sightseeing, we had decided to visit a sento in the afternoon. A sento is a Japanese bath house. In our attempt to get back to the train line, we got a bit confused and ended up walking all the way to the sento. We only stopped at the train stop to figure out which direction it was to the sento. When we arrived, Stephanie explained the rules to me. We almost started off by breaking a rule; we nearly crossed into a no-shoes area with our shoes still on. Oops. Fortunately we figured it out just before Stephanie stepped onto the clean floor. We took off our shoes and put them in shoe lockers, then proceeded to the front desk. It turned out that this was one where you pay after bathing, but they had to give us locker keys before we went in.

Stephanie had brought towels for both of us. They were small and narrow; one was for washing off with, and the other was for drying afterward. We put our stuff in the lockers and undressed. Earlier in the day, Stephanie had made a comment to her boyfriend about how this was basically our first date since we had only met briefly in Osaka at the Lindy Exchange. His (joking) response? "Sleeping over on the first date? Idaho girls are easy!" Well, I guess this would also be the first time I've gotten naked with someone on a first date.

I'm not especially used to being naked around other people, or even having a lot of skin exposed. For swimsuits, I'd choose a one piece over a bikini. However, in this particular context, being naked did not feel the least bit awkward. I suppose it was because everyone there thought it was perfectly normal. Since no one else was uncomfortable, I didn't feel like I needed to be, either. In Japan, bathing can be a social activity. Stephanie told me about seeing old ladies spend hours at the bath house with their friends, chatting and soaking. People go there with family or friends. There were a few women who had children with them. There are separate baths for men and women, but it seemed that little boys could go into the women's bath with their mothers.

The first step for bathing: take a shower. We went to the shower stations and scrubbed down thoroughly. This was a nicer bath house, so it provided soap, shampoo and conditioner. It all seemed to be fairly high quality, and was rose-scented. I rather liked it. Before you go into the bath, you have to get all the dirt and soap off of you. You also have to tie up your hair so it won't get in the bath water. The towel you use to wash with doesn't go in the bath water, either, but it's important to rinse it out well just the same. While you are in the bath, you can either hang the towel over a railing or fold it up and put it on top of your head.

After completing that step, we headed for the baths. This sento was not huge, but it did have several different baths. I think there were about eight. Some were like small pools, and others were basically just tubs big enough for one or two people. This particular sento was a super sento. According to Stephanie's boyfriend, a sento uses regular water, while a super sento pipes in water from actual hot springs. The first bath we went into had a TV mounted on the wall above it. The temperature was displayed on the wall, as well: 41.5 degrees Celsius. Generally speaking, Japanese people like their bath water very hot. Stephanie and I, on the other hand, couldn't stay in it for more than a few minutes. After that one, we tried a bath with water jets. There were chair-like indentations with massaging jets in them. Next to those, there were two that had bars to hold onto and a single very powerful jet aimed at your back. The bars were for you to lower and raise yourself to adjust where the jet hit you. I tried it briefly, and it felt like I was being pummeled.

In the main bath room, there was also a cold bath. This one had a temperature of 18.5 degrees, I think. It was good for cooling off after being in the super hot bath, but it was quite a shock to step into. A trick Stephanie taught me: take some of the cold water in a bucket and (outside of the bath) pour it over your towel. Then wring your towel out, fold it up and put it on your head. It was good for cooling off a little without actually getting into the cold bath.

In a small outdoors area, there were a few other baths. Each one had a sign saying which spring the water came from. Different waters are supposed to have different properties, but I don't know what these ones were. One of the baths was a moderate temperature bath more suitable for children. It looked like a rocky pool with a small waterfall. I think the temperature there was 38.5 degrees. It seemed like they were pumping gas into it, as well, because our legs ended up covered in a coat of little bubbles after sitting in it for a while. Nearby, there were two tubs big enough for one or two people each. The water in these tubs was a murky brown. Stephanie and I climbed in one and hung out there for a while. There must have been a lot of minerals in the water, because afterward I could taste salt on my lips. There was another rocky pool with murky water, as well. While sitting in that pool, Stephanie and I became the main entertainment for a pair of children. They found us very interesting. One of them kept saying to their mother, "Eigo no hito! Eigo no hito!" and pointing. "Eigo no hito" means "English (language) person". I couldn't understand much else of what they said, but the kids kept talking to/about us for a few minutes before they lost interest and moved on to other things. Near that pool, there was a flat area with a shallow layer of water running over it. That was for lounging in, by the looks of things. It was somewhat chilly outside, so I didn't try that one out.

When we went back inside, we decided to try out the salt sauna. When you went in, there was a big urn with a bunch of salt in it. You could take a handful of salt and use it as a scrub. We scrubbed down with the salt and sat in the hot, damp air for a little while, but neither of us were that big on saunas. So we went over to another urn full of water and dipped out ladlefuls of water to rinse the salt off with. That water turned out to be quite cold. At the exit of the sauna, there were also showers for rinsing off, and the water temperature at those was a bit more pleasant.

I'm not sure how long we had been at the sento, but after the sauna we hopped in one last bath before calling it good. So that we wouldn't go home smelling like sento water, we took another shower at the shower stations. At each station, there is a little plastic stool for sitting on, a plastic basin to splash water over yourself with, a mirror in front of you, and a shower wand. Taking a shower while seated felt a little odd, but it works out well enough. I found the shower wand to be the most efficient way of getting the soap off, but pouring a basin of warm water over my head was strangely satisfying. I probably spent more time rinsing off than was strictly necessary.

After showering, we went back into the locker room and dried off. I didn't think the little towel would be sufficient, but it turned out that it was. There was also an area with blow driers, so I dried my hair. Once we were dressed, we exited the locker room and went back to the counter to pay for the bath and retrieve our shoe locker keys. The whole deal cost 1,000 yen, roughly $10. Not bad for a day at the spa.

From there, we took a train back toward the middle of town and walked to a bus station. The plan was to take the #5 bus since it came very frequently. When we got on the bus, it was fairly crowded, but Stephanie assured me most of the people would be getting off somewhere downtown. Due to heavy traffic, the bus was moving extremely slowly. For a good amount of time, pedestrians on the sidewalk were moving faster than we were. We stopped at a few stops downtown, and more people kept getting on. After a few stops, there wasn't even room for more people to stand. My feet and legs began to hurt from standing in the same position for so long. Still, it was too far for us to walk, so we didn't have a lot of choice but to stay on the bus. Eventually people started getting off the bus and Stephanie and I had a chance to sit down. We were over a wheel well, so there wasn't much room for Stephanie's legs (she's fairly tall), but it was still better than standing. I'm not sure how long we were on the bus, but I think it was at least 45 minutes to an hour.

We arrived at our bus stop and walked back to the apartment. By this point in the evening, it was very cold. We were also very hungry. Rather than eating at a restaurant, Stephanie offered to make dinner. She had bought the ingredients for nabe (hot pot). There were mushrooms, meatballs, tofu, tofu skins, noodles and mochi. Not all of it could fit in the pot at once, so we started off without the noodles. It was very delicious. I didn't have a whole lot of room left for the noodles when they were ready; it was a lot of food. Though it wasn't very late in the evening, both of us were tired, so we got ready for bed. We read for a while before turning off the lights and going to sleep.

In the morning, we got up around 8:30. The plan was to try to see Kiyomizudera, a very famous temple, before I had to catch a train back to Osaka. However, after getting ready and making pancakes (hooray!), there wasn't really time for it. So we opted to take the bus downtown and walk around a bit in one of the covered shopping arcades. It ended up not taking long because a lot of the shops weren't open yet. We walked down to the river and sat around for a while, talking. Around 11, we went to the nearest station and said goodbye. I took the train back to Osaka.

It took about an hour for me to get back to Yodoyabashi Station in Osaka, and from there only a few minutes to Umeda Station, where I would be catching my bus. I made sure I knew how to get to the highway bus boarding point, then went to wander around a little bit. Last time I was in Osaka, I spent a good chunk of time wandering Daimaru, so I decided to go back there. This time, I only had about half an hour, and none of it was as interesting as the first time around. I went back to the bus station and my bus came right on time. After verifying with the driver that it was indeed the correct bus, I loaded my backpack into the cargo area and got on the bus.

The ride back to Kochi was long and a bit boring. I was very drowsy for the first few hours and kept jerking awake. After a while, I woke up more and looked around a bit. There seem to be more stops on the way back to Kochi than on the way up to Osaka. I guess because it's a day bus, they have more places to stop. I think it was about 6 hours from Osaka back to Kochi Station.

Overall, I really enjoyed my trip to Kyoto. It was maybe a bit silly to spend that much time on a bus just to have one day in Kyoto, but it was a convenient time for Stephanie, and I had nothing planned for the weekend. It turned out to be a very cheap trip as well, since I ended up paying for nothing more than bus and train tickets, entrance to the attractions, and a few snacks. Stephanie shared her apartment and even her meals with me. Plus, I had company and something of a guided tour. Stephanie is a fun and good-natured person, so I'm hoping I'll see her again before she leaves Japan. I think she'll be leaving before I do. In any case, this was a very eventful weekend. It's usually a sign of a good vacation when you come home tired.