Japan Day 5

Day 5, December 25, Christmas Day

To Kyoto! We rolled out slowly and grabbed some coffee and pastries from the coffee shop downstairs before heading out on our journey to Kyoto. Before I get into the details of the trip, let me tell you that Kyoto is probably 50 miles from Osaka.

We had decided not to take the bullet train, but to take two different subway lines to get to the JR Rail line and take a commuter train into Kyoto. So we pack up our small rollers each and start heading down to the subway. About 30 seconds in and I am covered in sweat. I started stripping off my coat, my scarf, my fleece and mopping my face with a Kleenex as we shoved our way onto the first train. And yes, it was crowded because the Japanese were headed to work just like any other day.

We get off the first subway and pick up our suitcase, which, by the way, are at least twice as big as the average Japanese suitcase, and walk up and down and up and down and up some more to get to the next platform. No escalators. I thought I was going to cry. We finally made it to our train and slightly randomly picked one that seemed to be headed in the right direction. Many stops and about 2 hours later and we arrived in Kyoto!

Our hotel was fabulous. The Westin, which we got for free on points, and amazingly few at that. We walked in the front door and there was a Boyz II Men Dinner Show sign posted. Wait, what? Can we get tickets? We headed to the concierge and asked about the show. I thought, yeah, it's random, but what a fun thing to do on Christmas! The concierge says that we have to call another office to buy the tickets, but let's see what they cost. So he pulls out a poster and looks at it . . . and starts laughing. He points out the price - 40,000 to 70,000 yen. Each! That's about $400 to $700 per ticket! We both started laughing and said never mind!

We had a little while to kill before getting into our room and we were both hungry after our adventure, so we chose the Chinese restaurant for lunch. We had dim sum, an appropriately Jewish meal on Christmas Day. It was fabulous! The chef just made his specialties and sent them out. It was so much food, but truly amazing! The one really weird thing was the black dumpling stuff with shark fin. It was very fishy.

Then we headed out on the Philosopher's Walk. It's a "mile" long walk that a philosophy professor at the university used to take daily to think. I say "mile" because that's how it's advertised, but it's anything but. It was quite beautiful, though. There were traditional Japanese gardens along the way, the mountains rising next to us and a canal to walk along. We learned the difference between a temple and a shrine. A temple is Buddhist and a shrine in Shinto. Shinto was the local religion, similar to what we might think of as paganism, before Buddhism arrived. The people pray to gods of various things, mostly from nature, to protect them. Shrines appear all over the place and are usually small. Buddhism arrived in the 6th century and really took hold for a long time. It virtually disappeared when Japan closed itself off from the rest of the world and began to really take hold again after WWII. You can practice both at the same time and most people in Japan do. Some of the statues at shrines are bibbed in red. It looks kind of funny, but it's done by women who have lost children or babies or miscarried to protect the baby's soul.

So we walked and walked and looked at all kinds of shrines and temples. We walked for probably 2 hours before we decided to quit. And we had only made it about 1/8 of the way along the walk! I wanted to walk back to the hotel and check out the neighborhoods along the way, but Jon hailed a cab and hopped in before I could protest. And good thing because seconds later, thunder pealed and the sky opened.

We rested for a bit before heading to the Gion district where the geisha hang out. There is a huge, amazing shrine in the Gion district. We walked along the back alleys behind the shrine where the traditional Japanese tea houses are. It's so quiet and secluded - you can't see anything from the street. Then we headed down the main shopping strip. We saw 3 real geisha hobbling down the street! I took the picture of the back of one of them. I was very excited! Jon was embarrassed.

And then we started hunting for a restaurant. I had read in the guidebook that a lot of the restaurants in Gion won't even acknowledge you unless you have the proper introduction. We had to try 3 different restaurants before we found one that would take us. The first two said they didn't have any room, which they obviously did. The last was a little noodle place that was amazing.

We finished up our day in the hotel bar for a couple of drinks. Two Japanese women came out in evening gowns and one started playing piano while the other took up the mic . . . and started singing in English! It was funny. She probably didn't really know English, but had memorized the jazz songs. It was fun anyway!