Welcome to Kyoto
Well, I arrived safely at the Osaka/Kansai airport (apparently this airport has the "worlds longest terminal" which is 1.7 kilometers long) and I made my way to the ticket machine for the Kyoto express train. After fumbling around for about 10 minutes trying to figure out which one was the correct train, I was on my way to Kyoto. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard, so I wasn't able to get any decent pictures of the train ride, but as we zipped along I caught sight of a few sweet graffitti tags. So far, so good.
Now, I hadn't done too much research on Kyoto, but from everything I had read, I was expecting a quaint, quiet town with many gardens and the occassional geisha. But as I stepped out of the massive Kyoto Station in search of my hotel I was greeted with this surprising sight:
I had stumbled into a virtual Mecca of taxis, all sitting in a nice little bunch, who, with the wave of your hand, would whisk you away into the surprising urban sprawl of Kyoto. I didn't take many more pictures because, as you can probably see, without a tripod it was impossible to get a decent shot in that night's rain, but this gaggle of taxis continued for about 300 yards and wrapped around the building to my right. Um, wow. When the Japanese do taxi stands, they sure do it right.
Allow me to make a quick comparsion, for those of you who have never been to Japan. Take Chicago, replace 90% of the apartment buildings with businesses, bars and restaurants, then compact everything into an area that runs from the bottom tip of the South Loop to the bottom tip of Evanston. Oh, and get rid of all the trash, homeless people, and make the L a whole lot more convenient. Welcome to Kyoto.
I spent my first night wandering up and down the main drag adjacent to my hotel, determined not to go to the McDonald's right down the street to fill my aching belly. Finally, I found a place that looked friendly (i.e. had picture menus) and, with the help of my trusty index finger, pointed my way to a delicious dinner consisting of dumplings, ramen, and a ball of chicken fried rice. After stumbling back to my room, more full than I have ever been in my life, I passed out in a heap at about 9:30 PM.
I woke up the next day around 6:30 AM, about 2 hours earlier than I had hoped to. The Japanese administrative assistant for the T.T.T. program was going to show us around Kyoto and how to get to the art center at 3 PM, so I had a lot of time to kill. I was able to blast through to the end of Learning to Bow, a travelog/novel about an English teacher's year teaching English to junior high school children in a small rural city a couple hundred miles outside of Tokyo. The book is a bit dated, but it provided a good general view of culture and life in Japan, as well as an excellent review of the school system, which was actually quite interesting and informative.
After taking a quick shower and a customary soak in the tiny bathtub, I wandered around the gardens surrounding the Imperial Palace, which is literally across the street from my hotel (hence: The Palaceside Hotel). It was still raining and August isn't the best time of year to see the gardens, so I didn't catch a glimpse of anything particularly beautiful, but there was a tiny pond full of scary dark brown fish who followed me around, expecting something tasty. I also saw two quite shabby looking feral cats who I started to go pet, but then thought better of it. No need to get rabies on my second day in Japan.
continued...
Now, I hadn't done too much research on Kyoto, but from everything I had read, I was expecting a quaint, quiet town with many gardens and the occassional geisha. But as I stepped out of the massive Kyoto Station in search of my hotel I was greeted with this surprising sight:
I had stumbled into a virtual Mecca of taxis, all sitting in a nice little bunch, who, with the wave of your hand, would whisk you away into the surprising urban sprawl of Kyoto. I didn't take many more pictures because, as you can probably see, without a tripod it was impossible to get a decent shot in that night's rain, but this gaggle of taxis continued for about 300 yards and wrapped around the building to my right. Um, wow. When the Japanese do taxi stands, they sure do it right.
Allow me to make a quick comparsion, for those of you who have never been to Japan. Take Chicago, replace 90% of the apartment buildings with businesses, bars and restaurants, then compact everything into an area that runs from the bottom tip of the South Loop to the bottom tip of Evanston. Oh, and get rid of all the trash, homeless people, and make the L a whole lot more convenient. Welcome to Kyoto.
I spent my first night wandering up and down the main drag adjacent to my hotel, determined not to go to the McDonald's right down the street to fill my aching belly. Finally, I found a place that looked friendly (i.e. had picture menus) and, with the help of my trusty index finger, pointed my way to a delicious dinner consisting of dumplings, ramen, and a ball of chicken fried rice. After stumbling back to my room, more full than I have ever been in my life, I passed out in a heap at about 9:30 PM.
I woke up the next day around 6:30 AM, about 2 hours earlier than I had hoped to. The Japanese administrative assistant for the T.T.T. program was going to show us around Kyoto and how to get to the art center at 3 PM, so I had a lot of time to kill. I was able to blast through to the end of Learning to Bow, a travelog/novel about an English teacher's year teaching English to junior high school children in a small rural city a couple hundred miles outside of Tokyo. The book is a bit dated, but it provided a good general view of culture and life in Japan, as well as an excellent review of the school system, which was actually quite interesting and informative.
After taking a quick shower and a customary soak in the tiny bathtub, I wandered around the gardens surrounding the Imperial Palace, which is literally across the street from my hotel (hence: The Palaceside Hotel). It was still raining and August isn't the best time of year to see the gardens, so I didn't catch a glimpse of anything particularly beautiful, but there was a tiny pond full of scary dark brown fish who followed me around, expecting something tasty. I also saw two quite shabby looking feral cats who I started to go pet, but then thought better of it. No need to get rabies on my second day in Japan.
continued...
posted by Matt Hooks at 12:00 PM
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