Loading ...Kyoto & Nagoya, Japan
Written by Brian David Crane on April 2nd, 2008
Picking up where Tokyo P.1 left off, I picked up a bit of a cold after spending the night in the Kyoto internet cafe with Haji & Kataro. We didn’t stay at Kataro’s house because he lives with his parents (he recently moved back to Japan after living in the Atlanta area for 15 years) and they really didn’t have the space for both of us. It was a weird night in the internet cafe. All five floors were packed with people until about 4:00 A.M. The cafe had some couches and private internet booths where all three of us slept. They even had showers in the building. Apparently, there is a national Japanese social problem of kids living in these internet cafes (which doesn’t surprise me) as there were a couple other young Japanese guys sleeping on the other couches as well. You pay roughly 17 dollars for the 11 PM to 8 AM time slot so its cheap to stay there. However, after three hours of sleep and a weird sleeping environment, I had the beginnings of a cold (which has progressively gotten worse since).
Kataro had to work the following day (he is teaching English in a Japanes public school) so Haji and I went into Kyoto by ourselves to explore. If Tokyo represents the new part of Japan, then Kyoto represents the old part. Filled with almost 2000 Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, it is probably most famous in the West for the Kyoto Protocol on global warming that was written here. The temples in the city are truly beautiful. They are built on the high points overlooking the city. Haji and I went to the most well-known of the temples, Kiyomizu-dera. Not knowing or understanding much about either Buddhism or Shintoism, I thought the temple was beautiful and had great views but not a lot else. It was PACKED with Japanese tourists.
We visited several other temples and shrines throughout the city as we sort-of aimlessly wandered (this was the first time Haji had been to Kyoto as well). The city is much older-feeling than Tokyo and the small houses and older-style roofs reflect what Japan used to look like. We also came across a lot of street vendors/festival vendors who were cooking food - such as fried squid on a stick - for the cherry blossom parties coming up later that night.
We walked around Kyoto looking for geisha women and found several (pictures forthcoming). Kyoto is also famous for its geisha. While Haji has been a great tour guide, he doesn’t seem real interested in Japanese history or culture as I would ask him about the history of the geisha or the importance of Shinto shrines without getting much of a response. Regarding Shintoism, it seems to me that the majority of the shrines are dedicated to good luck - especially in business - and that the incense burned out front of the shrines also contains good luck as people purposely stand in the middle of the smoke in order to try and absorb some of the smoke’s good luck. Kinda odd; I have some video that will give a better explanation.
As the day wound down, we went back to Kyoto’s main train station (I cannot say enough good things about the trains here!) and met back up with Kataro for dinner before Haji & I headed to Nagoya to visit a friend of mine, Tomomi. Speaking of the trains, it is about 500 km (300 miles) from Tokyo station to Kyoto. We covered this distance on the Shinkansen in approximately 2 hours with maybe 5 stops. Haji and I showed up at the train station 15 mins before the train was scheduled to leave (a train departs every 30 minutes) and we were in the center of Kyoto roughly 2 hours later. No driving. No security checkpoints. No checking your baggage. None of that and we covered the distance from Atlanta, GA to Jacksonville, FL in about half the time (and we both got to sleep as well!). Amazing.
We left Kyoto on the Shinkansen and headed north to Nagoya (where Toyoto is headquarted) to visit a Japanese friend of mine from the Univ. of TN named Tomomi. She studied at UT back in 2004 - 2005 and we have kept in sporadic contact since I left for Argentina. She is working in the import/export department of a subsidiary of Toyota. It was awesome to see her as she really hasn’t changed a bit (actually, I think her English might have gotten a bit better since I saw her last!).
Tomomi, Haji, a friend of Tomo’s named Saeko and I all went out for dinner when we arrived in Nagoya. Haji basically orders for me every single time we eat as I like just about everything he picks and everyone seems to eat in a more communal manner. This is good because I am trying a bunch of new Japanese food but also bad as I can’t ever remember the names of the dishes I am eating! I have lots of pictues though and hopefully he can help me label the dishes when we are back in the States.
After dinner, Haji and I went back to Tomo’s apartment with Tomo where she lives with a Chinese guy and an American guy. Chris, the American guy, just bought an English school here in Nagoya (the largest private school system that taught English recently went bankrupt). Sleeping quarters were cramped but Tomo’s flatmates were really cool and, as I said before, it was great to see Tomo.
The next morning, Haji and I left Tomo’s for the famous Nagoya Castle, which is crowned by two huge golden Japanese dragons. The castle is similar to some of the feudal castles in Europe (albeit with a Japanese twist). It burned down during WWII and was rebuilt by the Japanese in the 1950s. Speaking of the 1950s in Japan, I would have loved to have been here during those booming years as the Japanese rebuilt their war-torn land. From what I can tell, the pace and speed at which things were rebuilt seems mind-boggling.
After the Nagoya Castle, Haji and I were both ready to get back to the big city of Tokyo. While it was very cool to see the older parts of Japan (and learn a bit of Japan’s history in the process), the lights and action in Tokyo are so impressive that even when you are in a city the size of Nagoya (2.1 million) or Kyoto (1.4 million), you feel like you are in a small town! We left Nagoya in the early afternoon and arrived in Tokyo later on Tuesday, where Haji had already set up a birthday party for a Taiwanese girl I met in the train several days before named Becky.
And so the story of Kyoto & Nagoya ends; Tokyo P.2 might wait until I get back to the States as I only have two more days here in Japan!
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