33. Exploring Kyoto

the windows looked boarded up to me

Checking into the Hyatt Place went smoothly and we went to our room. Once there, I was shocked to see the windows all boarded up! This is a Hyatt and in Kyoto, not Compton. I walked over to check them out and luckily they just had individual screens that dropped down. The room was nice as expected and we left to see Fushimi Inari Taisha, the shrine with all the red torii gates. I thought someone built all of them at once, but it turns out this is a shrine to the god of business success so over the centuries, businesses have donated a torii gate to honor Inari and now there are about 10,000 gates. She was said to use foxes as messengers so the shrines have stone carved foxes guarding them. The gates are pretty and there are tons of tourists taking pictures so it’s impossible to get a picture by yourself, but the gates lead up to a shrine at the top of the hill and the further up you progress, the fewer people there are. About halfway up we were able to get good pictures of ourselves and decided we were ready to head down and go to Gion for spices and people watching. It had been a long day so far. On the way down there was a small store selling souvenirs so I got my sister Lisa a charm for good health and a hair band with a round disk covered in an old kimoto scrap that was 50 years old. I also couldn’t resist a postcard of cats and some little foxes with fortunes inside.

our Hyatt room with the window shades open

julia at the torii gates. note each has the name of the business who donated it

Foxes are said to be her messages so they guard the shrines

girl petting a cat lounging on a shrine

me at torii gates

lots of furikake variations

The spice shop in Gion was only a couple blocks from the train station. They were known for great furkake so we both got some and I also tried various furkake flavors and got some of those. They also were very proud of their hottest hot spice and I picked some up from my friend Sophie, who confirmed it was the real deal. She couldn’t feel her tongue when she first tasted a little! By this time we were getting pretty hungry and we decided to try some sushi. There was a highly rated place just a couple blocks away called. Taka Sushi. It was a small place so we had to wait in line about 35 minutes but it was worth the wait! Julia got set A which included miso soup, cucumber rolls, shrimp tempura, and assorted sushi. I don’t like cucumber and there are no substitutions so I went with salmon, shrimp tempura, eel, and some semi-fatty tune. Dinner was pricey (about $60 each) but worth it! Everything was so fresh and delicious. I don’t like wasabi, but even I had to be really impressed with the fresh hand ground wasabi that they prepared. After that we walked around Gion a bit then caught a bus home. It was after 10 but all 3 of the washer/dryer machines were taken.

the spice store in Gion

dinner at Taka Sushi

my dinner with half my salmon eaten and missing the semi fatty tuna that we wolfed down

literally fresh ground wasabi

julias dinner

Gion at night

me in the bamboo forest

The next morning we got up early to meet Gaelle at the Bamboo Forest. Unfortunately we got off early at the wrong stop and had to walk a kilometer to the Forest. However, that turned out to be a stroke of luck as we walked by a bus stop, we saw Gaelle sitting right there! The Bamboo Forest was there before we knew it and we took a couple pictures. It wasn’t as glorious as some of the postcards but perhaps they were taken in winter. That was when Gaelle cautioned me not to give up too early as the main forest is still ahead! Another 250 meters down the road was the REAL forest! It was glorious! And full of people but there were occasional moments where they were far enough away that I could take a selfie and block them out with my body.

kimono garden where vintage kimonos are displayed on poles

From there we walked to the kimono forest. These are old (50+ years old) kimonos that are displayed by wrapping them around a pole covered in clear plastic for protection. They are outside of a train station though not the one we were headed to (there are 3 different lines that go near Arashiyama). They line a pathway to a pretty fountain.

kimono forest outside subway station

Monkey Park ticket with warnings

Next up was the monkey park. We walked by the Cherry blossom shrine and Julia was interested in it but we didn’t have time since we needed to get back and check out by noon (though it turns out we actually did have time, sorry Julia!) The shrine was near the kimonos and the monkey park was across the river maybe ¼ mile away. We bought our tickets which included admonitions not to touch the monkeys, not to feed them outside the enclosed feeding area, and not to stare them in the eye which they will take as a sign of aggression and you do NOT want to challenge a monkey into fighting with you! No problem, we can avoid those. We walked in and were met with steps and a pathway much steeper than the one at Fushimi Inari Taisha. We started up and after awhile Julia informed me “If I don’t make it up, tell my family I died in the Monkey Park.” We did eventually make it up and there were monkeys everywhere! Not tons of them, but well scattered around the area mostly solitary but occasionally we found one grooming another. The feeding area was an enclosed building with fence around it an openings where people could feed monkeys through windows keeping everyone safe. These monkeys were very well behaved and polite as one would expect from Japanese monkeys. They would occasionally wander right by us and there was an adorable baby monkey on the roof that several of us took pictures of. The walk down went much faster and before you know it we were back at our hotel, though we did see a great sign posted on the streets of Arashiyama giving guidance to tourists as we don’t understand the unspoken rules of etiquette in Japan which includes not informing people when they are being rude. For example, on escalators, you queue up to get on and you stand on the left. The right is reserved for people to pass by walking up the escalator. As tourists we would forget and stand on the right as is customary in the US. People walking up will get to us and just STOP. They would never say a word such as “excuse me” or “please move foolish tourist” so they would be stuck there until we got off at the top. We did quickly learn to catch each other when this happened.

julia starting the climb up many steps to the monkey Park

at monkey Park

little guy on the roof

Kyoto finds it necessary to inform tourists of proper etiquette

people looking at the baby while an adult approaches

laundry in the Hyatt

At the hotel we had a nice surprise, one of the washing machines was done though the owner was nowhere to be found. We grabbed our stuff from upstairs and came down but they had not yet appeared. After waiting several minutes, we learned from the guy using the next machine that you can scan a QR code and it will show you all the information for each machine. It was been complete for 15 minutes! We waited another 10 then felt justified asking the front desk to remove the contents. A very pleasant young lady came over and removed it for us placing a laminated sign on it informing the owner to come get their clothes at the front desk. We were glad they were dry. Our load indicated it would be done in 2 hours so we checked out leaving bags at the front desk and wandered off to grab a quick lunch nearby. We decided to check out the much praised 7-11 egg salad sandwich and it was as good as promised! We grabbed some other food and found a bench in the nearby park.

our lunch from 7-11 with drink from McDonald

lunch in the park

after a week we finally
noticed these lines start on the
platform to guide you to your transfer

I tried a strawberry milk from a vending machine. it was good!

getting a cool Hard Rock shirt for Uncle Mike

Two hours later we returned to see there was still 15 minutes left so we hung out in the tea area near the lobby. However 30 minutes later, the cycle was done but the clothes were still very damp. Time to do a 30 minute dry only cycle and find something to do for another 30 minutes. We still had plans for the day. 30 minutes later it was just a little damp and we packed it all up to leave at the front desk before starting our errands: Julia to the tea shop and me back to Gion to get a cool Cherry Blossoms Hard Rock city shirt for my Uncle Michael. When I was paying for the shirt, I went to pull out my passport to do the duty free but it wasn’t there, odd, it must be somewhere else. I thought about it the whole 20 minute walk to meet Julia at a bus station bound for the silver temple. She thought I left it in the room safe but I couldn’t remember and was desperately hoping it didn’t fall out this morning when I had unzipped the pocket it usually resides it. My traveling companions consider me to be calm in stressful situations but I was feeling a bit nervous not knowing. Finally I tried calling but the local number went to Hyatt headquarters and the best they could do was give me an address to email, which I did. Once I did that I was able to appreciate the beautiful Silver Temple with its beautiful grounds, which were very peaceful with its giant sand raked areas and flowing stream. Now all those tiny zen gardens you see with sand and tiny little rakes for people to put on their desks makes sense. I didn’t realize there are actually huge life sized version of these in the world. Equally awesome were the shops leading to it! Julia wisely ordered a sakura ice cream cone, which was delicious! We saw some cute waving cats but the owner shooed us off since we had ice cream. On the return trip we bought some cats and a few other items. The next store was even better! I got myself a scarf to protect from dust on my safari trip, some cuter cats than the ones next door, and some chopstick holders of cats in various poses. Now I just need to have a small dinner party that uses chopsticks.

Sakura ice cream, yum!

view from the silver temple

silver temple zen garden

in the silver temple

Success! we arrived at a good sushi place that was open

At this point we were hungry and our plan was to go to a nearby sushi restaurant. We started that way when we realized it was cash only and we were low on cash so we headed to an ATM a couple long blocks away. Over halfway there, I realized my ATM card was back at the hotel so we had to abandon our plans for sushi in the area and head back to the Hyatt who had emailed success at finding my passport! By the time we got back to the hotel and retrieved my passport and backpack with my ATM card, we were starving and tired having walked over 25,000 steps that day. We went to the ATM but the sushi place near it was closed despite google maps claim they should be open. The other one we had scouted out was a bit further, 800 meters away. And since I had to get my backpack from the hotel to access my ATM card, I had that with me also. It’s heavy. We almost gave us but I really wanted sushi so Julia gamely agreed to head there. On the way we passed an occasional open business but most of them were closed. My backpack was getting heavier and heavier and we were starting to lose heart. If they were closed when we got there I think we might just burst into tears of frustration. I left the backpacks with Julia and went ahead to at if they really were open and they were! There was a couple ahead of us but they were about to open their garage area if we were willing to sit there. Heck we were willing to sit on a bench on the street, we just needed food at this point. I went back and Julia and I came with all our backpacks. A short wait later we were seated in the "garage". It seemed fine to me. We had a table and chairs. They have nice garages in Japan. The food was outstanding. Perhaps the place the night before may have been a hair better but this place was excellent. It was also half the price. We got semi fatty tuna rolls, two combo platters of sushi, and a combo platter of tempura. All for $60 which is about what we spend sometimes for dim sum at Koi Palace. Certainly a great price for lots of amazing sushi!

so glad to make it to dinner second night

mixed tempura

our dinner was in "the garage" which seemed fine to me

losing and finding everything: passport, suica card, fast charger

Now we were well rested enough to walk back to our hotel and make our way to the fancy Roku Kyoto LXR resort where we would stay for 2 nights. I added to my streak of losing things, which started with leaving my super fast charger in Hakone, then my passport, and now I lost my suica card with $40 on it! I bought a one-way ticket and then sure enough, I found my suica card. After that the trip there was pretty easy. Just one subway trip from the station right next door to the Hyatt Place. From there it's a bus then a 12 minute walk uphill but instead we opted for the 1800 yen ($12) taxi ride from the subway station. Worth every penny.