Japan has been a heavy gale through my bank account. They even have a word for it.
But when I realised that this weekend gave me more time off than I would see till Christmas, I popped onto (meaning spent an hour on the phone in broken Japanese trying to buy a ticket) the bullet train to Kyoto. After an unnervingly quick 2 hours, I arrived in the Kyoto rain at night fall. I weaved through the shady part of town and found my hostel tucked away in some dark narrow street. It was warm and friendly with free (instant) coffee, and after drying off I grabbed one of their umbrellas waiting for me and headed out to the East Kyoto region of Gion, which traditionally was a "floating world";an area of tea houses, theatre and geisha. These traditions remain vibrant today, but around these tiny secret streets has grown a bombast of modern entertainment: clubs, bars, restaurants etc. Going down these quieter streets I was excluded numerous times for not being Japanese, which is disheartening. After eating at some lonely ma & pa shop with baseball photos everywhere, I ended up in some such bar. I wanted a beer before heading out to what Rough Guide calls an "underground music student bar" in North East Kyoto, but before i knew what was happening, some woman was coming over to talk to me, and she was definitely paid to do so. I had had about a sip of my beer before realising what kind of place I was in. I tried to rush out of there, my hands shaking like Holden Caufield's, and they wanted me to pay them 5000 YEN (50 bucks) for that sip. There was security everywhere, and I was blustered and sore as hell. They told me that by coming in I had agreed to stay for an hour for all I could drink, which I had not understood at all. I wasn;t shaking anymore but just angry and powerless as I passed them 5000 YEN. I vowed not to get myself in anymore situations I couldn't get out of, and I got out of Gion for the student bar, but I was there about an hour early. It was 9pm but now I was completely wiped and completely done with Kyoto. I had vague thoughts of escaping the town right there and then, but I went back to my hostel.
In the morning was beautiful beautiful sun, "Ooh La La" on the radio, two friendly guys from Albany who were biking across Japan (which sounds like something to try), an old rented bike with a bell, and a new map that wasn't illegible from the rain. I then headed back to East Kyoto straight off to go see its traditional Buddhist temples & Shinto shrines. The picture above is from a Shinto shrine called Heian-jingu. It is of a sacred tree that represents the divine consciousness and the spiritual space that we have entered into in the shrine. Quick notes:
-I walked along the 2 kilometre philosopher's path to a few Buddhist temples (Honen-in, and Ginkaku-ji where girls walked with their boyfriends up the steep rocky paths in high heels) in the east hills where all of the facilities were arranged like a garden with the surrounding forests and streams. Nothing seemed imposed but just perfectly placed and tranquil even though it was constantly maintained.
-met a guy from Trois Rivieres and we were both excited to speak French
-took a bath in a public bathhouse naked middle-aged men all around
-biked as fast as I could down a busy shopping street listening to Sloan too loud
-biked along the river and saw my closest sight yet to poverty in these Japanese cities - a old man setting up a tent to sleep by the river for the night
-felt like this song many times
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