Kyoto - Where prayers are answered

Sunday morning and we set off early to get this sightseeing thing underway. We had helpful suggestions from my sister Mary and Kyoto is so full of beautiful ancient Japan it is hard to go wrong.

Not finding breakfast near our Ryokan we jumped on the subway, getting off a couple of stops closer to our destination and discovering, as we had hoped, breakfast options. We chose a small cafe where the round tables were the size of a medium to small pizza, with minimal seating room.

Japan teaches humility and self-containment. You are constantly having to confine yourself, even to diminish yourself, to avoid creating nuisance and chaos around you. Brashness just doesn't work. You learn to stand in crowded buses and trains, pressed up against others all around but in a way that minimises interference with their personal space. We've walked through countless crowded streets and station concourses and I have been bumped into properly twice, both times by other foreigners.

Breakfast finished we caught a bus which took us up to Hiei-Zan, or Mount Hiei. Clearly in anticipation of the difficulty it would cause tourists in the future, many of Kyoto's attractions are built on the hills that surround the city. Hiei-Zan is a series of temples and the bus drops you at the highest and you work your way down to where a cable car can take the sensible tourists down to the mountain foot.

On Hiei-Zan

We had a little insight into the religious establishment at one of the temples where daily rituals are held honouring ancestors. There were a couple of priests / monks waiting at a side entrance and then very well polished black limousine with a gold chrysanthemum badge on its grill pulled up, the driver jumped out to get the door, someone came rushing for the other door, and a couple of fully regaled priests got out. No simple monks here.

Waiting for the man

After view a few of the temples we decided to head off. There is a cable car that can take you down but being (ex in my case) Wellingtonians we weren't interested and began to walk down the wide concrete path. I was sure that, like everywhere else in a few hundred metres there would be a rest stop, souvenir shops and probably a bus stop to take you the rest of the way down the mountain.

Still thinking it was a short pleasant walk...

Remember when a day or two ago we had prayed for a challenge? Well, the gods were about to have some fun. As we proceeded down we noticed exhausted looking people coming the other way. It was steep but I was privately scoffing at their lack of fitness. After all, how could a few hundred metres of concrete driveway be that hard? Then the concrete gave way to gravel and dirt. Looking back it was very steep and we didn't want to do any unnecessary climbing up hill so we pressed on.

Well, the gravel and dirt gave way to just dirt, then it became, effectively,  a steep rocky stream bed with fist size rocks and great gouges out of the earth where the water, which I am sure comes down I great torrents in the rainy season, had had its way. This was not easy going for anyone and although we passed a few people going up, no one else was going down except one man who was training for his forthcoming hiking trip in the alps.  Rosemary had her walking stick and I was able to help her by holding her other arm. Stopping to get my bearings I let go and a few seconds later she tripped and went flat on her back, bumping her head. We pressed on.  A couple of hours (yes hours!) later we came out at the bottom where paving resumed. We then caught a bus to the nearest station, a train bad to Kyoto central and a taxi to our Ryokan.

Although it might embarrass her I have to say that I thought Rosemary was amazing. Despite having a sore head (she now has a minor but painful whiplash), it being very hot (in the high 20°s), and having to scramble, albeit slowly, down this precipice, her willingness and good humour did not fail. I worried that I might have to get help or carry her or similar and was sure that our trip would be suspended for a day or two while she, and me to an extent, recovered. However, after a rest while I shot off to do the washing at a coin laundry, she was ready to go out to what had become our local for a plum wine and the next day we were back on the trail. Amazing. Slow Japan is clearly about doing what you can at the pace you can and making the most of every moment (some more pleasant than others!).

Kyoto - arrival

It seems to that the success of our holiday so far is not only slow Japan but unplanned Japan. A few days ago I was worried we might struggle to get accomodation in touristy Kyoto, particularly arriving on the weekend when the Japanese have the audacity to see the sights in their own country. I spent quite a time looking online and it was tedious, confusing and unproductive so I just gave up. As it turned out, this was clearly the best thing to do.

We duly arrived in Kyoto after a pleasant train trip from Matsuyama on the island of Shikoku along its northern coast.

Take the fast train to Kyoto
I'll meet you at the station ...

At Okayama we had 15 minutes to get to the Shinkansen which leaves from a different set of platforms entirely. 5 minutes after our train arrived we were sitting in our reserved seats. Cursing the drama free efficient nature of this place - travel is about adventure after all - we jokingly again wished for some real challenge. As always on this pilgrims' journey of ours, our prayers were to be answered, this time by the next day.

Kyoto station is new, huge and busy. We left the station and started approaching likely hotels. They cost over twice what we have been paying and so we returned to the station and found the tourist information office to ask about business hotels like and the like. Even they were too expensive and we contemplated the need to break the budget. Then the helpful (of course) lady wandered off and after a while came back with a leaflet for a ryokan (Japanese style accomodation) which she offered apologetically, noting its Japanese floor sleeping and shared bathroom. We accepted and headed off in a taxi, our first on this trip.

Rosemary's priority in Kyoto was to walk the small canal side alleys that exist in this city still, with their little lanes and old style housing.  So, of course that is exactly where our accomodation was, right in the middle of such an area.

Our host was effusive to an extreme. And I mean extreme. Like Basil Fawlty fawning over the suspected hotel inspector but times ten. I can not do him justice in print other than to say that his obsessive compulsive welcoming and greeting was such that we immediately began strategising how to come and go without encountering him. We have failed at this as, after all, he has home court advantage. One benefit of an OCD host (I would be most surprised if he was not genuinely diagnosable as this) is extreme order and cleanliness. If you can get over your slippers being tidied away before you've taken them both off then this is a bonus.

After a rest we took a walk around where we were staying ending up in a nearby small restaurant for some food and, for Rosemary, plum wine.

Leaving Shikoku

Our plan was to leave Shikoku via the city of Matsuyama in the northwest corner of the island. The standard way to have done this would be to retrace our steps on an express train from Kochi. However, we wanted to explore the west coast and so this meant a ride of about an hour to Kubokawa, a 2 1/2 hour stop there and then a 2 hour slow train to Uwajima, changing there after half an hour for the final 1 1/2 hours to Matsuyama.

Kubokawa was a small town whose claim to fame is that it is on one of the few undammed rivers in the country. We walked a little found a lovely temple where there was the usual procession of Shikoku pilgrims. We sat inside the temple for a while and a group of woman, and one young girl, came in, went to the alter, made various offerings and the began a chanting session that went on for some time. They then proceeded to the next building in the complex where they repeated the ritual, mixed in at times with the individual or group prayer chanting of the pilgrims.

Pilgrim at Kubokawa

Boddhisatva for babies?

I wasn't completely sure about our local train option but what a delight it turned out to be. The local train was a single carriage with inward facing bench seats and 5 or six people on board. One asleep stretched out on the seats with her shoes neatly on the floor in front of her and another a trainspotter with a camera. The track followed the Kubokawa river (I think it was that) and often we were perched high above it going through the trees and occasional tunnel. Slowly. Often at 40km/hr (I could see the speedometer in the drivers cab) and mainly not faster than 60km/hr. Stations were tiny platforms among a few houses and rarely did anyone get off or on. After an hour we stopped at a station and all got out and stretched our legs, then back on the train for the next part. Towards the end of the ride groups of school kids began to get on and by the end the train was packed.

We both thoroughly enjoyed the ride it was just what we had been looking for, a slow cruise through rural Japan on a local train with spectacular scenery. At one station there was a huge rope or wire strung right across the wide river and secured high on the hill beyond. From it flew dozens of large Koi kites, their mouths gaping in the breeze that kept them afloat in the air. These are traditionally flown for boys day.

The rest of the trip by express train was comfortable but more mundane in comparison and we arrived in Matsuyama, found a hotel next to the station and were given a large room overlooking the square and the station itself. A good day's travelling.

Kochi

We liked Okayama, but then we have pretty much liked everywhere we have been. From Okayama we headed South to the Island of Shikoku. Visiting here has been one constant in our planning for no reason, I think, other than we have not been before. Our destination is Kochi, the city at the south side of the Island which you enter from the north crossing a bridge from the mainland. Below the bridge I noticed rips and eddies and all manner of sea current goings on, later reading that here, where seas meet, is known for its turbulence.

The train then enters the hills and mountains of central Shikoku. More rural and occasionally wild than the mainland. We are travelling on a comfortable express train, the Nanpu. All the express services seem to have names. We are given reserved seats with our passes but I have noticed when we get to the platform there is a bustling and queuing at the appointed spot for the non-reserved carriages as people line up to get good seats. Slightly unnecessary given that the trains are half empty. Our reserved carriage is usually filled with older or business like passengers who are happy or able to pay the extra cost for reservation. Only recently did it occur to me that we might see and meet a different sector of Japan if we sat unreserved (all sorts of word play possible here - go for your life). Our situation is a bit like relying on the people you meet in the Koru Lounge to set you straight about real New Zealand. Who could be arrogant enough to do that?

Kochi is where a hotel clerk found us a room elsewhere after we declined her hotel due to price. Our hotel was a small hike from the station, including a bridge crossing. My guess is that Kochi is  an ex delta and the rivers and channels that run through it, and there are many of them, are a result of containment and reclamation.

After checking in to the hotel we had a chat and Rosemary went down to book another night. Our first two nights in one place. The room comes with a complementary drink in the restaurant in the evening and breakfast with n the morning. Our waitress for the drink had her face coated in the white face paint I associate with Geisha. To be honest, the effect was actually slightly alarming. For the morning breakfast service her face was back au naturelle.

Two things stand out for me from Kochi. The first was Godaisan, the Temple and garden complex that is in the hills above Kochi and which you access on a half-price for foreigners bus pass that can then take you out to the coast and back into the city by a different route.

The ride up to Godaisan provides great views of the town and rivers but the temple itself was lovely with many little shrines and the like and hundreds of boddhisatva statues, all dressed with little hats and/or capes and situated between the trees. We sat for a while and could hear the occasional gong and the jingle of the bells on the walking sticks of the pilgrims who dress in white and travel between each of the 88 temples on the island. I enjoy this side of Japan very much.

The other noteworthy aspect of Kochi was the nightlife. At 9pm electronic airport like bells chime and the city turns to night mode marked by the ceasing of the crossing signal sounds which are ubiquitous and persistent. We had our windows open and during the evening there were bursts of Karaoke and shouting and laughing. A boisterousness that is entirely absent in the day. This went on all night (although not in a disturbing way) and looking out the window after 5 in the morning I saw two women and a man, arm in arm, weaving their way down the street and across the road, ignoring the lights (what?!), and the traffic (even more what!?), talking and laughing loudly. This is the famous Jekyl and Hyde nature of the Japanese as perceived from the outside. Orderly and reserved during the day and then, adding alcohol, boisterous and outgoing at night.

Dinner both nights was at a cafeteria style restaurant where you buy the components of you meal individually. There were people of all ages, school kids through to elderly, families and people on their own. There is even a row of tables for woman only, designated by different coloured chairs which, of course, we were sitting in as we slowly tried to translate the sign that was telling us we were breaking the rules.

Kochi is a much slower city than even Okayama. The sky is blue and clear and at this time of year the weather is perfect.

Japan Easy

Japan must be one of the most benign countries to travel in. It is ridiculously easy really. I could speculate about why this is. There seem to be obvious reasons such as the homogeneity of the people, the structured nature of the society etc, however, I am learning that it is really foolish to seek to understand Japan on a superficial level. So, how is Japan so benign?

Rail Travel: Ridiculously easy. With a rail pass, even more ridiculously easy. Everything is in English, on time, clean, orderly. There is a quick and accurate English online route planner site (see WiFi below). The position of the train doors are marked on the platform. Numerous boards display all the details you need to know. Outside of the Tokyo commuter system the trains have not been full at all. The trains themselves usually display each station, often in English (and Korean). The ticket guys seem to understand even our unusual route requests immediately and produce little (good for the pocket) tickets with train name, departure and arrival stations and times, often together with a printout of transfer times, platforms etc. Or, in 'remoter' areas such as we are now, handwritten notes with this helpful additional information. Buses and trams also run on time, have copious information displayed  and have patient and helpful drivers, and passengers. Stations and platforms are loaded with packaged food and drink for the trip if you want it and in case you missed out the longer trips have a service cart that comes through the train.

WiFi: Everywhere and easily accessible in most train stations, cafes and restaurants and certainly in the hotels. Lots of free WiFi hot spots in general and a helpful app to fine them all. There are also some easy mobile WiFi options if you want to buy a temporary device for your travels

Helpfulness:  Now we are into the really ridiculous part. Helpful doesn't do it. Our worst experiences in seeking help have resulted in people politely and patiently doing their best to help us and, generally, succeeding. Past that it is simply above and beyond. Like the courier girl in Tokyo who was asked by the guy we asked for directions and then got her phone out, found our destination and walked two blocks with us while leaving her courier motorbike running on the side of the road; or the information guy who tracked us down at a station to update the advice he had given us earlier; or the hotel check in lady in a hotel that was too expensive for us who found one that wasn't, phoned them and made a reservation etc.; or the bus passengers who, after I had chased a bus down (racing behind it along the street and with my lack on my back) and boarded it at the lights when I thought I had left my glasses on it, all started looking around their own seats for, whatever, when they realised I was looking for something, even though they were in a totally different part of the bus and had no idea what I was looking for. (My glasses weren't on the bus but in my pack).

Clean: Ridiculously clean. I've noticed that there are few public rubbish tins but still the place is virtually litter free, both in the city parts and the suburban or country parts. In towns it seems smoking in public is banned with designated smoking spots where smokers congregate to puff away urgently while looking at their phones. And if you need further evidence of cleanliness, then this => I saw an old woman walking her dog. She carried a plastic bag like we do. The dog stopped to poo, like dogs do (forgive pun please - sumimasen [see below]). Then, unlike us, the lady rushed up and placed the bag under the dog's butt to catch whatever came out. Lucky it was a small dog as she did not look that strong. This is the home of the Japanese fighting Tosa dogs down here in southern Shikoku, which are quite big, and so it could have been much worse.

Language: my father's experience in Japan would indicate that it is possible to get by with 3 words, left, right and straight ahead, all useful for a taxi. More fluent speakers such as myself can get by on about 8 words. If you chose the right ones you can combine them and, as long as you say them them with a sufficiently quizzical or other appropriate expression, you will elicit the required helpful result (see above). In fact, it is possible to get by in Japan with one word: sumimasen - meaning excuse me. Add quizzical expressions etc to this word with copious pointing at clues on maps or signs etc and chances are you will get a broken but adequate English response. And if you want have a crack at the language then this has to be the only country in the world where people routinely speak clearly and, relatively slowly. This is not just during announcements or at information kiosks. I have eavesdropped on the occasional intra-Jap (hand up if you cringed at 'Jap', I did and I wrote it) conversation and the language remains relatively clear. I am sure that there are enormous variations and dialects and accents, but public spoken Japanese is beginner friendly.

In fact, overall our travelling has all been so easy and straightforward that Rosemary and I joke about trying to make challenges for ourselves. I suggested getting up and leaving our passports behind but that was stupid as it would only result in at least one person pursuing us trying to restore them to us, probably along with an apology for disturbing us in the process.

But there is an exception. Toilets. Yes, that old bugbear, toilets in Asia. But not the usual problems, these are worse. Here, toilets are terrifying. They are, predominantly, western style and have more technology connected to them than you could reasonably expect when having a dump on the International Space Station. In addition to the seat (frequently warmed) and cistern they usually have an extended armrest type thing with an array of what can only be called irrigation options and, well, God knows what else. I'm too terrified to experiment. Public toilets frequently have hands free flushing where you wave your hand near a pad on the wall. (This caused a minor hiccup in a hotel room when I used the wall pad which turned out to be an alarm instead of the ordinary flush lever that this toilet had). Women's toilets can have a baby seat attached to the wall so the young one can watch mum pee (I know this directly having been encouraged into the ladies to look by a very impressed and socially indifferent mother of my own).  Some toilets also begin a trickle flush when you sit down, presumably to avoid the humiliation of another human being discovering that you make noise when you pee. One particularly alarming occasion involved a toilet whose lid slowly gaped opened when you opened the door to the toilet, like a hungry Hippopotomus that was daring you to make waste in its mouth. In hotels there are an array of hand wash options in pump action bottles, or at least I thought there were until I realised I had been washing my hands with hair conditioner (no knots or tangles in the hair on the back of my hands!)

Nara to Okayama

We are now at the part of our plan where we head down to Shikoku, one of the main islands that make up Japan. Looking at the maps it was clearly possible to do this in one journey but it would be quite a long day and it was time to go even slower.  So we decided to go as far as the town of Okayama. This required a couple of local trains to get us to Shin Osaka station where we could get the Shinkansen to Okayama. The plan was to arrive in Okayama and either stay there or take a local train to the possibly more picturesque locations nearby. 

Housework can't take long 

Arriving at Okayama we wandered around the station looking for food and eventually found what we wanted - a Teishoku restaurant where you pay for your meal through a machine that swallows your yen and responds when you tap the picture of the meal you want. Teishoku is simply a meal on a tray comprising your chosen main portion and little dishes with rice, tofu, pickles, miso and other things. 

The famous story character, Momotaro, and one of his desciples

Crouching Pigeon, Patient Monkey

Earlier Rosemary had found a list of cheap hotels and rather than traipsing around we went to the information office and asked them to phone for us, ending up with a booking at a Toyoko Inn hotel. 

Street near our hotel wi everyone going to work or school

Toyoko Inn is chain of business hotels throughout Japan and overseas. Like the Super Hotel Lohas in Nara there were two of them, one more expensive than the other. We were in the cheap one. Arriving get at the hotel I noticed a commemorative poster recording the Guinness World Record for the largest hotel chain to be 100% occupied over a 24 hour period. 

We had arrived at 3pm and they have a strict policy of 4pm check in. We gave them our bags to store with the intention of exploring Okayama before returning to our room but when we sat at the lobby tables that, in the morning, double as the breakfast restaurant, to plan our,excursion we decided we had done enough. There was Internet and 4pm rolled around soon enough. 

The room was spacious with opening windows and separate and huge (for Japan) bathroom and toilet. It was only later that it dawned on me that we must have been in an 'accessible' room, thus all the low handles and alarm cords and buttons (one of which I managed to push when trying to flush the toilet). 

I was a bit surprised to find that there is much done here for those with disabilities. The raised lines and bumps on the footpaths for the blind are everywhere and I saw a few blind people walking solo using them. Here they are continuous, not just reserved for intersections and corners. Wheel chair access is ubiquitous and I saw a school boy in uniform in a wheelchair heading off, presumably to school. Later on as we walked through a small park I noticed that it was being tended to by a group of men and women who were [whatever the non-pejorative term is for those who, as kids, we called Mongols, a word that, given my admiration for the achievements of Genghis Khan and his descendants, I would today consider a substantial complement]. 

Asuka to Nara

This was the sight on awaking in our farmhouse at Asuka. This is the internal wiring for the house. Exposed wiring with cute little insulaters as they cross the beams. Luckily Japanese houses aren't

made of thin materials and paper otherwise it would be really dangerous. This farm house consists of a few separate buildings joined together with bits of wood and plastic sheeting with bits and pieces, including plumbing, sticking out everywhere. But it works  I have looked at a shop and house or two under construction or renovation and the materials are very light and small.  Where we might have 100x50 timber frame they have 50x50 or less and very thin ply. All the less to crush you with during the next earthquake I guess.

It was a bit of a mission planning a route from Asuka to Nara that would use our Japan Rail pass. We were, because of my mistake, on a private rail line which also has its own stations. After trial and error I settled on changing trains in a small place called Uenbi where the rival stations were close. All went according to plan and Uenbi station was almost a model for a tiny country village station with old sloping tiled roof architecture and ancient looking wooden beams. The ticket office was bordered over and there were no officials (unusual in our experience) and just a few passengers. Rosemary and I were pleased to see the back of the private Kintetsu line and be back on Japan Railways, even though the Kintetsu Corporation had shouted us a comfortable ride from Ise.

Soon we were in Nara, Japan's first (?) permanent capital. Our booked accomodation through Air B&B had come to an end and so we needed to find somewhere to stay. We settled on a Super Hotel Lohas, having visited another Super Hotel Lohas a few 100 meters away and found it too expensive. This seems to be a pattern with business hotels. There are two, quite close together and with identical names, one cheaper than the other.

Super Hotel Lohas, version 2

This is my first experience of a business hotel and I find them fascinating. Even in a touristy place like Nara they are designed for businessman (mainly men but also a few business woman) and have strict check out / in times of, say 10am / 4pm. Arriving earlier in the day we had no option but to leave our bags to be collected when we returned at the appointed time.

On offer at the check in desk at the Super Hotel were a selection of pillows or different firmness. We were also invited to help ourselves to five products from a couple of draws of lotions, powders, hair nets etc. God knows what most of it was. By now I have learned (re-learned?) that the correct thing to do, even when I wan't none of it and don't really know what is on offer, is to simply comply. I reached  in, grabbed a couple of items, smiled and bowed a bit and then everyone was happy. Social cohesion above waste and consumerism every time.
Breakfast is included and comprises a free for all self help breakfast in the lobby which is transformed into a restaurant for the occasion. You help yourself to all you want, clear your tray and dishes and even wipe your table down with the cloth provided. Well trained business people in Japan. I hate to think of the mess this would create in New Zealand. It just wouldn't be worth the bother but here, after breakfast, it is as clean as tidy as if the breakfast melée hadn't happened.

The afternoon comprised a visit to the Daibutsu, the giant Buddha, which was the primary purpose behind our coming to Nara. It is huge and, at least for me, very impressive. We were able to sit for a while to just look at it and it's impressiveness just grew and grew.

There are thousands of tourists, mainly Japanese and many of them schoolchildren,

 visiting the Daibutsu and the surrounding temple grounds which have hundreds of (mangy) tame deer wandering around gorging themselves on the biscuits you can buy to feed them with. 

I was going to get something from this vending machine but I was worried it would be quiet deer.