Kyoto

Stress levels rose considerably on arrival in Kyoto. All attempts to change money in advance of Friday's public holiday had been thwarted and so, yet again, I was running low on cash. Furthermore, due to the public holiday (and the failure of a certain guest-house to check its e-mails for reservations), I had considerable difficulty finding a room for Thursday night and getting one for the rest of the weekend seemed borderline impossible.

In the end I spent the first night at a guest-house with a somewhat draconian land-lady with her "You must turn the heater off"'s and "Curfew at 11pm, we lock door then and you won't get in after". I returned to the streets after depositing my rucksack and continued my fruitless search of guesthouses and cheap hotels in the area. I then returned to the place where I was staying and started ringing a few of the hostels further afield. After several attempts, I eventually found a place in the north of the city that the Lonely Planet said I could use "a space on the floor of a tatami room" - I wasn't even sure if I got a blanket never mind a futon.

Next morning started with a trek to the post office to try to get some money. Unfortunately, although the post office was open, this didn't extend to the cash service. I then traipsed across to the fancy hotel in the train station. They did have a currency exchange; but for guests only. However, third time lucky, I managed to exchange some money in the department store in the station and so I was ready for the off again.

Kyoto train station is a fantastic affair - about 12 floors high, with a few beneath as well; a run of outdoor escalators taking you up through the station to the top floor; an aerial walkway and lots of steel and glass. Anyhow, I wandered down to the Kobo-san market at To-ji temple which happens on the 21st of each month. I would have probably enjoyed this more if I hadn't had my rucksack on and if it hadn't been a public holiday. As it was, the place was bunged and I was sweating loads due to the increase in temperature into the teens and the fact that I was hauling around an extra 20kg or so of weight. After a while, I tired of it and decided to head on up to Tani House to see what my accommodation would be like for the next couple of days. It was about 45 minutes by bus to the stop, and then I got a little lost, but I eventually found the hostel and instantly loved it. The word 'quirky' just about covers it. A little maze of rooms, a kitchen with free tea, coffee and biscuits and a land-lady who was really friendly. Sure, there were 8 people on the floor of a room that would probably been suitable for about 4, but it was a public holiday and I was considering myself fortunate to even have a roof over my head!

That afternoon, I headed down to the Peace Museum which was quite interesting and looked at the events of WWII and the efforts that had been made to avoid such things happening in the future. Then I returned to the train station for dinner. Next day, I went to a temple in the NW of the city called Jingo-ji. The draw for me was that this temple was considered 'off-the-beaten-track' and involved people chucking little clay disks (called kawarakenage) down a valley like frisbees to rid themselves of bad karma. When thrown correctly, these disks could travel for quite some distance and I stayed for quite some time watching various people throwing them.

After this, I headed back to the city and across to the east to the temple of Eikan-do. The problem with this temple was that you had to remove your shoes to wander around the buildings and, because of the public holiday, they had run out of slippers. Paddling about on the wooden floors, even with the increase in temperature, was extremely cold on the old tootsies. Eikan-do also featured a Buddha looking over his shoulder, apparently because he had looked over his shoulder at one of the temple's priests and told him to stop dawdling. That evening, I headed to a Geisha spotting location and waited to photo a Geisha or Maiko - not sure which I got... After returning to the guesthouse, I decided to go to a near-by sento (public bath like an onsen). It was recommended in the LP and so I decided it might be nice to see. It featured a sauna, cold bath, herbal bath, wooden bath, normal bath and, unfortunately for me as it was the first one I got into, an electric bath. Avoid electric baths like the plague. They hurt. They hurt lots.

Sunday, I went to St Mary's Anglican church in Kyoto for their 8am English service. Although initially my arrival increased the congregation by 50 percent, a group of Filipinos arrived later in the service and increased the numbers to about 8. The service was a normal CoE communion affair, but afterwards we were all invited through for a lovely breakfast and fellowship. That was good ;-)

After this, I headed out to Nara, a city to the south of Kyoto. Nara has a huge temple complex which has several hundred tame deer wandering around its precincts. You can buy special deer biscuits (I declined) and, for maximum enjoyment, hand them one at a time to a small child who will then be terrified by the arrival of several deer to receive the goods. Child then tries to run and is pursued by several deer around the park. Much fun for all. The temple buildings were also all quite pretty, supposedly including the largest wooden building in the world. One of the pillars holding the temple up had a hole cut through it which was supposedly the same size as the Buddha's nostril and people would try to squeeze through the hole to gain enlightenment. This was reasonably straightforward for children, but watching adults trying to get through was often quite amusing.

By Monday, I was experiencing temple fatigue and so I rented a bike from Mrs Tani (at whose guesthouse I had extended my stay for another couple of days because it was fun) and cycled around Kyoto. I cycled around some of the backstreets to the West of the city and then cycled to the train station. From there, I cycled along the river to a Starbucks and, following a light lunch there, continued to Nanzen-ji temple. The temple itself was OK, lots of paintings and both a Japanese style and Zen garden, but I went more for the tea ceremony, which was quite pleasant. Then, I walked up the hill behind, finding the site of a place where pilgrims shower in a river (don't quite know why) and then on up the hill to a Christian cemetry, which was intereting to wander around.

Afterwards, I continued on my cycling journey and bumped into one of my room-mates. I suggested that it might rain. I should have listened to my own advice. Instead, I continued on up the river-side cycle path until I was well to the north of the city and the heavens opened. By the time I had circumnavigated my way across the mountain that separated me from the guesthouse and made it back down there, I was pretty much soaked. After drying out a while, I headed down by bus to anoter sento in the south of the city. This sento was over 3 floors with a roof-top bath, herbal bath, shower type baths, jacuzi type baths and even an electric bath (which I was able to spot and avoid on this occasion!).

Tuesday, I returned to a Starbucks and wrote some postcards before taking what was the fastest train in the world, the Nozumi Bullet Train, to Tokyo at 186mph. I think a maglev train in Shanghai now goes at about 250mph but only covers 19 miles... Anyhow, the Nozumi Superexpress was really fun and got me into Tokyo at 3pm. I whiled away some time in Ueno station's Internet cafe before heading onto the Riverside Capsule Hotel. I had wanted to try a capsule hotel at some stage and this seemed like a good opportunity.

After checking in, I then returned to the nearby train station and phoned Takuya to arrange for a farewell meal. We went to a restaurant offering Sukiyaki and Shabu-shabu - it was fantastic. If ever you have the chance to have some of this food, take it! After the meal, I returned to the Capsule Hotel. After washing in their 9th floor sento, I found my capsule and closed the blind. It was bigger than I expected and quite comfortable. The only slight problem was that the man in the capsule opposite snored extremely loudly. I only really got to sleep at about 1am and then woke at 5am again. Given that I had to get up at 6am to get the flight home, I didn't really go back to sleep. Eventually, at 6, I got up and headed out to the airport (a 90 minute journey!). It was only then that I discovered that my flight had been cancelled and that I had been bumped onto a later flight. Grrrr.

The rest of the flight home was hardly one of BA's best - the 747's entertainment system malfunctioned and so I could only watch the TV for 60 seconds at a time before I had to flick channels to get the program back again. My overhead light also didn't work and just generally it was a long and irritating flight. Once I arrived in Heathrow, it was 5 hours before I was due to get my train. I spent an hour or two wandering around before getting dinner. I then took the bus to the train station which took about an hour and then spent 2 hours sitting around the station. All really boring. Got home at about 10:30pm after getting up 25 hours earlier. Nice to be home!