Ahhh, a new city. I loved Tokyo, but it was nice to have new surroundings and somewhere to embed ourselves for a few days. The weather was beautiful here too, albeit a drop in a few degrees. Our plan in Kyoto was perhaps a little more lax than it had been in Tokyo. Today we’d have a wander to a couple of temples and shrines, a walk down Philosopher’s path, a trip to Gion; as long as we made it to our tea ceremony at 6pm. THAT’S RIGHT.
Sticking to our unwritten ethos of “…ahh, let’s just walk”, we headed for Nanzen-ji. Immediately we faced with trees of blood-red leaves that we hadn’t seen in Tokyo. I know the cherry blossom is where it’s aaaaaat, but the autumn colours are quite breathtaking. Coupled with the ‘portrait’ mode on Julie’s camera phone, and we were basically world famous models.
So, I’m not really sure what the different buildings are at Nanzen-ji, and I would only Google it and copy and paste what I find, so; sorry about my idle descriptions. The first, err, hall thing we came to had the morning’s prayer taking place. There was only a short gap in the door and it felt a little voyeuristic, but it was cool to see what was taking place. What was taking place? I mean – well, there was some sort of monk-esque droning low voices, punctuated by hypnotic drumming. Will that do? Is that enough for you? I’ll research it properly, but not, at the point where I’m actually writing about it, is not the time.
Across from this, umm, chalet (?), was another wooden building which maybe was the actual temple? Maybe the prayer bit was a staging area? Anyway, you could climb up this one which was nice. We took off our shoes and climbed the death-trap steps. You could walk all the way round the platform, giving lovely views of the trees and the other monk-chant-drone-hut-thing.
Pretty good. Prettaaaaay….prettaaay good. We walked north towards Philosopher’s Path, a lovely serene waterfront path, lined with little independent shops, of which Julie went in all of them. On our way to the path, we bumped into a nice lady who decided to speak to us entirely in Japanese and ask us to follow her; I think she was trying to show us where the path was, or perhaps she was leading us to our death but eventually backed out? Chicken. We dove into a lovely little cafe where I had a hot chocolate and Julie had a glass of dark frothy green. There was also a humorous moment where the American chap next to us said “Is that a 2000?” (i.e. a yen bank note, though curiously there’s no such thing), however what I heard was “is that muir2000?”, i.e. Julie’s Instagram profile. I mean, CAN YOU IMAGINE? But no – just a chap talking about fake bank notes. Which I very much can imagine.
We found our way to the end of the path and were met with another path with street food and souvenir shops on each side. Here, we had our first and only rice ball. It was nice. At the end, another lovely garden called Ginsyadan. We paid our way in, and it was unbelievably picturesque. Get some pics up ya..
We jumped on a bus and headed over to Gion. Now, Gion was pretty touristy (I’ll say) and was rather busy (I’ll say!). Alright parenthesis guy (or girl!!), chill out. The town is famous for its geisha culture, and we saw hundreds of women dressed in beautiful kimonos. Some walked in threes and fours with their friends, others had their partners taking their photos.
We walked up a narrow, hilly lane up past Yasaka Pagoda towards the Hōkan-ji temple. This area was jam-packed with people. To be honest, I expected the whole holiday to be like this, so we were lucky it was our only experience of it thus far. On the way up this path, we came to a Japanese sweet shop. We hadn’t really tried any Japanese sweets and given that there were about 8 separate people giving out free samples, now might be a good time. We tried quite a few things, none of which I can remember the name of despite them being amazingly delicious; look, this isn’t a food blog, ok? There’s literally thousands upon thousands of food blogs on the net, and I am not a sheep. I’m not a conformist. This is a travel blog.
We reached the top and had lovely views of where we’d just come from, surrounded by more kimono-klad people. Well worth the trip.
Oof! What a day! Plenty of walking, as usual, and perhaps time for a bit of relaxation. Perhaps involving a pot of tea. *ethereal synth pads* . We found our way to a house down a little backstreet in downtown Kyoto; ‘Samurai Tea House’. We had pre-booked to take part in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, whilst wearing kimonos. We were separated to go and get changed, with the older chap taking me to the men’s changing room. He let me pick out the full length garb, the jacket, and the belt, much to my delight. Once dressed up, he gave a me a look up and down, and tried to hide my t-shirt by pulling the jacket up, and trousers by pulling the legs up. Given my penchant for incredibly up to date fashion, I was wearing brown chinos and they just would not go up my leg. “Maybe it’s better with pants off” he proclaimed. “Is that right!” I thought. I was 97% sure he had learnt the American translation, so I whipped off my trousers, leaving my underwear where it was. He gave a little nod of approval (at my actions, you dirty scamp!) and I put the costume back on. Perfect.
I headed back downstairs to the lounge area, a lovely dining table was the centrepiece, surrounded by beautiful plants, a sword, a koto, and a huge window to a garden. I was left alone as Julie would be a little while because women take ages getting ready am I right lads?? He came straight back in and asked whether I’d like some photos. Errr, fuck yes? He asked me to stand in a variety of poses, in front of a variety of backgrounds, holding an actual samurai sword.
I sat back at the table, alone and awaited Julie. But then.. a knock at the front door. The old chap let in an American couple, who came and sat down at the table opposite me. We weren’t introduced. So – this was awkward. I looked down at my kimono. Do they think I’m running this session? Do they think I came here dressed like this? I decided to speak up. “Hi – are you guys doing the tea ceremony too?”. That’s right, I said too. Honestly, there are police detectives around the globe who are giving me a standing ovation for that. I added another layer; “gosh, don’t I feel overdressed!”. Not only had I made it clear that this was not my usual get-up, I had demonstrated my magnificent humour. We were now best friends. Julie eventually arrived looking glamorous AF, and we had a few photos together. Now it was time to get down to business!
The lady who had got Julie ready was to run the show tonight. She talked through the traditions of the building and the ins and outs of the ceremony itself. Once we knew what the fuck was going to go down, we moved into the tea room. Now we are talking! Flick your way through this video to get a good idea of what down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tt7NBIVeMY . It was great fun, like 45 minutes of real life ASMR, but with delicious tea and sweets. She then did a traditional Japanese dance for us, and showed us the koto and me and Julie had a play. What a pleasant evening!
..but the evening didn’t end there! We walked back to down town Kyoto, and went our separate ways for 30 minutes while I ran (literally towards the end) between record shops trying to find some specific Japanese stuff. No dice. We met back up and headed back to the hostel, starving to DEATH. We found a late night noodle place (it was ace) and then went back to our hostel. It was here that I received a message from my colleague saying ‘Congratulations xx’. Huh? I also noticed my WhatsApp was blowing up. It was the work work group, and everyone couldn’t believe I’d got married. I’m sorry – WHAT. I mentioned this to Julie and she said “Ah yes, I pretended we got married on my Facebook group”.
Well, you didn’t make it very bloody clear, Julie! Now 126+ people potentially think I’m married. Remember, I’m not a sheep. I’m not a conformist. I’m in a hetrosexual monogamous relationship.
15 days in Japan. 