Touring Japan (3) KYOTO

Kyoto:

On the morning of the 11th of January 2012, I took my back pack and hit the road from Shibuya station to Tokyo Station and off to start my journey around Japan for a week. My first destination was Kyoto.

As Mai advised, I booked a hotel close to the station. That was pretty convenient. I checked in and left my bag and off I went to visit the sites.

Upon the advice of Mr. Hiroshi Tajima, a Japanese colleague and friend, I started with the silver Pavilion… opposing to all Kyoto visitors who start with the golden Pavilion with its lavish gold Pagoda, I went to the Silver one first.

I arrived late in Kyoto that day and I didn’t have except one day to spare in the city. There was so much to see, but I had to make up my choices. I booked a one day bus pass…actually the guy in the bus information was kind to offer it. He didn’t know English, and naturally I didn’t know Japanese, but sign language and some written material helped a lot. I paid 500 yen and was able to hop in and out of buses as I please.

The first impression:

Kyoto, is a very big city. Very developed and impressive. The Kyoto Station is a city in itself. One can spend a whole day around it. I will speak of the station later.

The tourist information offices in the train stations are so organized and very helpful. People are mostly very nice and they can speak English. They provide visitors with English maps with touristic locations to visit and they are willing to address any questions by the visitors.

The hotel provided me with another map and detailed plan for bus routes to both pavilions in English. This was very handy as well but naturally I have improvised in the middle of my trip with bus routes.

I took the bus to the Silver Pavilion. On the way, the bus travelled in a boulevard where all the big designers were located, from Gucci to Louis Vuitton… all are here.

It was a bit of a walk to the Silver pavilion from the bus stop and in the pavilion itself… walking is a lot. It is a beautifully old wooden temple. Very well preserved as most things in the country. The sand on the ground was organized in an artistic manner. Also, the garden was organized very nicely on the Japanese style… some shrines were on slopes up a hill. I did a bit but not all when my knees started to suffer of my adventures.

I wanted to catch the golden pavilion, but thought it was very late. It was around 330 pm and I was at the other end of the city. So, I decided to stroll along the old canal towards the philosopher pathway. The small houses attached to each other along the canal definitely reminded me with Oshine and Memoires of a Geisha. I ended up in a bigger street, where I found a bus that can take me to the golden Pavilion. It was close to 4 pm but I thought I’ll bet on my luck to catch it before 17:00 which is the closing time to visitors.

I did it. I was able to catch the golden pavilion. The bus I took was one of these buses where their route is more of a sightseeing bus. It reminded me with bus no 13 in London. I was able to see the imperial garden where it hosts the old imperial palace in Kyoto and other very old shrines in between both Pavilions.

The golden Pavilion is impressive. The reflection of the sunlight and the golden building on the water in the middle of the greenery was so beautiful. I managed to do the full tour just before closing time.

Later, I had my improvisation skills on with busses. I took a bus in another route to see more of the city. I ended up in a bus terminal in somewhere in Kyoto that I don’t even recall its name. I hopped into a bus that took me back to Kyoto station where my hotel is. I strolled along the area and found myself in the middle of an electronic super store… a full flour for cameras and another for phones and computers… of course, I stepped in… spent some time browsing along the newest products of IT, which included the newest tablets and imitations of all brands to the apple ipad and Mac PCs. I saw the newest small Sony gadget… resisted to buy it after a long mental struggle… but it was worth seeing it.

I walked further down the road, where I have seen a very old shrine with huge wooden doors. The wooden doors reminded me with the doors of the homes of our ancestors in the country side. It was beautiful with very nice carvings. Later, I walked to discover the station.

Exchanging Money in Kyoto:
I was about to run out of cash and many places don’t use credit cards here. I have bumped into a bank close to the silver pavilion and went in to change the money. It looked more like village branches rather than the city ones. Opposing to my experience in Tokyo… this bank was small and shabby. It took a longer time to change the money and the guy was young and more casual than those in Tokyo. He didn’t stand up or bow when I was leaving. Although his boss while dealing with an old Japanese lady was more formal. I had a sense that the one who dealt with me didn’t do that because I was a foreigner.

The Kyoto Train Station:
This is by far the most beautiful grand train station I have ever been to. The architect who designed it is a genius in my point of view.
The station itself is huge with zillion trains fast and slow passing through it. The shopping area is like Shibuya, Shinjuku or Tokyo stations. Yet I felt it was even cleaner and more organized than some of them.
From one side outside the area of the tracks, there is a hotel and from the other side a department store. The layout of the ceiling or the top uncovered part of the station was so nice. From both ends of that part, one can take the stairs or the escalators up until the 15th floor. These have no ceiling. Watching the sky and feeling the cold breeze from the top, while one is surrounded by buildings feels different. On one side there is a restaurant and a bell on the top floor. From the other, a food paradise consists of many different restaurants from the left and the right sides. On the way up there are entrances to the department store and a café that overlooks the stairs and the other part of the station, where they had Burberry blankets on the chairs… just in case the customers feel cold… On top of that side, above the restaurants, a garden and a panoramic view awaits the visitor. It was such a treat to have a panoramic view of Kyoto from the station when you reach the top.

That station was impressive and definitely left a mark on me.

At the end, I had my dinner and retired to my hotel room which was very clean and I was impressed that anything one may think of as a visitor, one would find in the room.

Hotel rooms in Japan are not as big as those in the US, yet they are not suffocating small like those single standard rooms in Europe. The hotels I have chosen were affordable and except for the last 2, they were all very neat, clean and convenient.

What is impressive about the hotels in Japan?

1. The people…the staff everywhere are trained to be polite and helpful. Even in the hotels where they speak little English.. they will do what they can to assist you.

2. Rooms have everything…and the little things that customers always may ask for are there for them, like combs or tooth brushes.

3. Business hotels are well prepared for male visitors. It was very clear from the razors, combs rather than brushes and the colours of the might kimono.

4. Every hotel leave to the customers in the room a clean night kimono and slippers. The slippers are mostly reusable by other customers, so they put a sticking paper sole for the customer to use in order not to use it directly after the previous visitor.

5. TVs are with Japanese cable. No foreign language channels.

6. Hotels around train stations are not like most of the places I have been to. They are not for prostitution and they are not surrounded by drugs or unsafe activities.

7. The failure to speak the native language doesn’t constitute a major problem and hotels are pretty safe. Actually Japan is a safe place to travel in.