Kyoto - girl

My abiding memory of Kyoto will always be of walking through the streets in the pouring rain. With only two days to see one of Japan's most beautiful and traditional cities it would have been a travesty to allow a bit of water to keep us inside. So we went out. C very sensibly wore his waterproof walking boots. I not very sensibly, wore trainers. It rained for about 36 hours without letting up once. By the end of our day walking my shoes felt like small swimming pools on my feet. The worst was that to enter a wonderful Zen temple we had to take off our shoes. My socks, by this point, looked as if I had picked them out of the washing machine and put them straight on. So uncomfortable.

 

Given that the rain just would not abate, we left Kyoto city on day two and headed for the countryside. Two small villages a 10km walk apart are renowned for their traditional beauty - they have been kept in the Edo-style in which they were built. Definitely worth the three hour train ride to stroll in the (only slightly damp) countryside and see a different side of Japan.

 

Particularly interesting in Kyoto, is that the tradition of geisha has not abated. I think it's one of the few places left in Japan where one can still see them in the streets. Geisha are not to be confused with traditional kimono wearing women who are also abundant in Kyoto. They can be distinguished by the geisha's heavy white make up, long obi (sash) and her hairstyle. On our first night in the city we saw a few women who were either trainee geisha or tourists dressed as geisha. We don't know. On our last night we were lucky enough to see the genu-ine article - geisha going from tea house to tea house with corpulent businessmen in the famed geisha area of town.

 

We woke up, on our last day in Kyoto, to blue skies and decided not to go straight to Osaka but to spend a few hours seeing the Inari shrine. We didn't know it was the inari shrine when we were tempted by tales of beautiful walks around the complex. Inari are the delicious fried sweet bean curd pockets filled with rice with which C and I have a slightly unhealthy obsession. Obviously it was fated. I was less than impressed with the amount of uphill walking C expected of me but managed it with only a little grumbling and him bribing me with promises of lunch after.

 

Despite the rain, I think we got a glimpse of the Japan we were supposed to see - traditional, cultural and delicious. The day out in the country added to this but I certainly don't feel that I'm any closer to understanding Japan or its citizens. To a traveller or holiday maker the culture seems enticingly out of reach. I know the food is delicious, I know the system works, I know the country is wealthy but that's it. I wouldn't even know how to scratch the surface. And, like any developed nation, the people aren't interested in tourists so there's relatively little interaction possible outside of transactions and hotels. Without spending time living in the place, there is not much hope of understanding Japan. Sadly.