Kyoto, Lady Bear and the Volcano
Kyoto will leave you in awe. I think I can speak for all of us and admit that Kyoto did live up to its expectations. For a while, I thought it wasn’t going to be able to, but it proved me wrong.
We arrived on Saturday, May 28. We began by checking into our hostel, J-Hoppers, which I highly recommend to anyone visiting Kyoto that is reading this entry. We bought some bus day passes there and went on our way. The bus system in Kyoto is extremely efficient and easy to use. Buses can take you just about anywhere. There also really frequent which means that you never really get impatient waiting for one. However, in case you are person like me that cannot stand not knowing if the bus will arrive on time, there is a type of flip-board at most stops that alert you when the bus is over 3 minutes away and then counts down from there. Anyway, the first thing we went to see was Northwest Kyoto where the famous Golden Temple is. This was probably one building that was nice but perhaps did not really exceed expectations like all the other sights. Then, we went to a Zen rock garden which I have yet to understand. I definitely must read more about Zen Buddhism to get a better viewpoint. And then we went to one of my favorites, Ninna-ji, which had a pagoda which I really wanted to see.
We met up with Osa late in the afternoon. We returned to the hostel for a quick nap and then left for the Gion District. Gion is where all the high-end tea houses are situated. Thus, if you want to catch a glimpse of one of the infamous geishas or maiko (geisha apprentices), you have to basically just hang out at this street and try to catch a glimpse of one walking by. Well, we were lucky because we got there at around 9:00 and that’s when all the geisha were arriving via cab. It was amazing to see them fully dressed and scurrying off to the different tea houses to entertain wealthy men. Unfortunately, while we were there, there was a big group of about 7 or 8 foreigners (who I like to call geisha hunters) that were taking pictures like they were paparazzi and shouting tasteless remarks like ‘GOTCHA’. We wanted to turn the table and begin taking pictures of them.
Sunday we visited more sights. Among them was Kiyomizudera. This temple is probably one of the more famous ones. It’s huge and on stilts. It definitely has a commanding view of Kyoto. The only drawback is that it is one of the more crowded ones. The highlight of my day, however, was calling Osa “Lady Bear” (Osa is Spanish for female bear.) and letting our a growl with both of my “paws” up. I was quite amused by it. I can definitely say that Cristina was too. Wish I could say the same about Osa. Later that evening, we took a train to Kobe where we our Recontractor’s conference was being held.
The conference was at the Portopia Hotel on an offshore man-made island. Cristina and I were placed together and were given a great room on the 20th floor that overlooked Kobe Bay and City. It was amazing. Definitely beats the time where we had a view of the top of the Eiffel Tower looking sideways out of the fire escape in our Paris hotel.
The Monday after we checked in, we were free until 2:00, so we went to Himeji Castle which is the biggest most intact castle in Japan. I think it was built in the 13th or 14th Century. It is nicknamed the “White Egret” because of its wing-like roof and white walls. We were also really excited to go to Himeji because we heard that there was a Subway Sandwich Shop nearby. It was OISHII!
In any case, our seminar was somewhat informative, but really more of a chance to gather with other foreigners and have fun. I think that the JET Program knows this too and uses it as an incentive to get people to re-contract. The highlight of this trip was eating at an all you can eat and drink Brazilian beef restaurant and going out every night. My time ended on Wednesday though, when I returned to Osaka to return back home with Laura and Osa. Cristina and Elena went back to Kyoto to meet up with their uncle Juanpi who was arriving that evening.
The next 3 days, Cristina, Elena and Juanpi would run rampant around the streets of Kyoto. They apparently had a lot of fun, but that’s something that you will have to ask them. They stayed at a real traditional ryokan which looked really neat from the pictures.
On Saturday, I got a phone call from Cristina saying that they had boarded the ferry and were on their way to Shibushi (a town close to us) where I was supposed to pick them up the following day. Ten minutes pass and I get another call from Cristina. They had boarded the wrong ferry and were on their way to Beppu, a city in Northeast Kyushu. Cristina was freaking out about it, but I guess that Juanpi and Elena managed to keep her calm since they really didn’t mind. From Beppu, they just took the train down to Miyakonojo where Jill, Laura and I picked them up to take them hiking in Kirishima.
We arrived at Kirishima at 2:15 and were hiking by 2:30. We went up the tallest volcano. As we passed all the people on their way down saying their Konnichiwas, they also mentioned it was a little late to begin the hike. They also stared at us a bit from our lack of preparedness (and the fact that we were foreign too probably). I think that we were all a bit surprised by all the loose gravel (or volcanic rock). Juanpi was a but shaky for a time there after slipping, but managed to make it up another 15 steps to see the inside of the crater. From there, Juanpi and I returned to the bottom while the girls pushed on.
After eating lunch at the foot of the volcano, Juanpi went to get some things from the car to wash up his cuts. I noticed that some people were speaking to him, so I went to go see if he needed any help with Japanese. It turns out that the woman spoke perfect English. She wanted to know if we could give two people from their group a ride to their cars so they could return and pick the rest of them up. We decided to do our good deed for the day and took them. Thirty-five minutes later!!! We get to the parking lot in the middle of nowhere. Lucky for us, we still had to wait for the girls to come back down. So we followed the 2 cars back to the foot of the volcano to wait for the girls. While speaking to the large group of people who were thanking us for taking them, we discovered that one of the guys knew Spanish. Both Juanpi and I were surprised by his accent. I was also surprised by the amount he knew. Ten minutes later, the girls made it with daylight to spare. (We were a bit worried that night was going to catch them on the way down.)
After hiking, we went to eat at a conveyor belt sushi place in Miyakonojo before introducing Juanpi to Cristina’s humble town. Today, we will take them to play in Kanoya. Hopefully, they will enjoy 100-yen shopping and the rose ice cream. We will also take them to an izakaya (a Japanese pub) and to do some karaoke afterward! Let’s see how good their vocal talents are.
We arrived on Saturday, May 28. We began by checking into our hostel, J-Hoppers, which I highly recommend to anyone visiting Kyoto that is reading this entry. We bought some bus day passes there and went on our way. The bus system in Kyoto is extremely efficient and easy to use. Buses can take you just about anywhere. There also really frequent which means that you never really get impatient waiting for one. However, in case you are person like me that cannot stand not knowing if the bus will arrive on time, there is a type of flip-board at most stops that alert you when the bus is over 3 minutes away and then counts down from there. Anyway, the first thing we went to see was Northwest Kyoto where the famous Golden Temple is. This was probably one building that was nice but perhaps did not really exceed expectations like all the other sights. Then, we went to a Zen rock garden which I have yet to understand. I definitely must read more about Zen Buddhism to get a better viewpoint. And then we went to one of my favorites, Ninna-ji, which had a pagoda which I really wanted to see.
We met up with Osa late in the afternoon. We returned to the hostel for a quick nap and then left for the Gion District. Gion is where all the high-end tea houses are situated. Thus, if you want to catch a glimpse of one of the infamous geishas or maiko (geisha apprentices), you have to basically just hang out at this street and try to catch a glimpse of one walking by. Well, we were lucky because we got there at around 9:00 and that’s when all the geisha were arriving via cab. It was amazing to see them fully dressed and scurrying off to the different tea houses to entertain wealthy men. Unfortunately, while we were there, there was a big group of about 7 or 8 foreigners (who I like to call geisha hunters) that were taking pictures like they were paparazzi and shouting tasteless remarks like ‘GOTCHA’. We wanted to turn the table and begin taking pictures of them.
Sunday we visited more sights. Among them was Kiyomizudera. This temple is probably one of the more famous ones. It’s huge and on stilts. It definitely has a commanding view of Kyoto. The only drawback is that it is one of the more crowded ones. The highlight of my day, however, was calling Osa “Lady Bear” (Osa is Spanish for female bear.) and letting our a growl with both of my “paws” up. I was quite amused by it. I can definitely say that Cristina was too. Wish I could say the same about Osa. Later that evening, we took a train to Kobe where we our Recontractor’s conference was being held.
The conference was at the Portopia Hotel on an offshore man-made island. Cristina and I were placed together and were given a great room on the 20th floor that overlooked Kobe Bay and City. It was amazing. Definitely beats the time where we had a view of the top of the Eiffel Tower looking sideways out of the fire escape in our Paris hotel.
The Monday after we checked in, we were free until 2:00, so we went to Himeji Castle which is the biggest most intact castle in Japan. I think it was built in the 13th or 14th Century. It is nicknamed the “White Egret” because of its wing-like roof and white walls. We were also really excited to go to Himeji because we heard that there was a Subway Sandwich Shop nearby. It was OISHII!
In any case, our seminar was somewhat informative, but really more of a chance to gather with other foreigners and have fun. I think that the JET Program knows this too and uses it as an incentive to get people to re-contract. The highlight of this trip was eating at an all you can eat and drink Brazilian beef restaurant and going out every night. My time ended on Wednesday though, when I returned to Osaka to return back home with Laura and Osa. Cristina and Elena went back to Kyoto to meet up with their uncle Juanpi who was arriving that evening.
The next 3 days, Cristina, Elena and Juanpi would run rampant around the streets of Kyoto. They apparently had a lot of fun, but that’s something that you will have to ask them. They stayed at a real traditional ryokan which looked really neat from the pictures.
On Saturday, I got a phone call from Cristina saying that they had boarded the ferry and were on their way to Shibushi (a town close to us) where I was supposed to pick them up the following day. Ten minutes pass and I get another call from Cristina. They had boarded the wrong ferry and were on their way to Beppu, a city in Northeast Kyushu. Cristina was freaking out about it, but I guess that Juanpi and Elena managed to keep her calm since they really didn’t mind. From Beppu, they just took the train down to Miyakonojo where Jill, Laura and I picked them up to take them hiking in Kirishima.
We arrived at Kirishima at 2:15 and were hiking by 2:30. We went up the tallest volcano. As we passed all the people on their way down saying their Konnichiwas, they also mentioned it was a little late to begin the hike. They also stared at us a bit from our lack of preparedness (and the fact that we were foreign too probably). I think that we were all a bit surprised by all the loose gravel (or volcanic rock). Juanpi was a but shaky for a time there after slipping, but managed to make it up another 15 steps to see the inside of the crater. From there, Juanpi and I returned to the bottom while the girls pushed on.
After eating lunch at the foot of the volcano, Juanpi went to get some things from the car to wash up his cuts. I noticed that some people were speaking to him, so I went to go see if he needed any help with Japanese. It turns out that the woman spoke perfect English. She wanted to know if we could give two people from their group a ride to their cars so they could return and pick the rest of them up. We decided to do our good deed for the day and took them. Thirty-five minutes later!!! We get to the parking lot in the middle of nowhere. Lucky for us, we still had to wait for the girls to come back down. So we followed the 2 cars back to the foot of the volcano to wait for the girls. While speaking to the large group of people who were thanking us for taking them, we discovered that one of the guys knew Spanish. Both Juanpi and I were surprised by his accent. I was also surprised by the amount he knew. Ten minutes later, the girls made it with daylight to spare. (We were a bit worried that night was going to catch them on the way down.)
After hiking, we went to eat at a conveyor belt sushi place in Miyakonojo before introducing Juanpi to Cristina’s humble town. Today, we will take them to play in Kanoya. Hopefully, they will enjoy 100-yen shopping and the rose ice cream. We will also take them to an izakaya (a Japanese pub) and to do some karaoke afterward! Let’s see how good their vocal talents are.
posted by Jesse Montano at
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