Kyoto and NATURE

The last segment of my 3-part visit to Kyoto is about the sheer beauty of its natural geographic location. This encompasses not only the city's topography, but also its flora and fauna. Being that Tokyo is an enormous metropolis city that stretches for miles and miles, one really doesn't get a chance to see any of Japan's natural facets unless a train is taken out of the city.
 That being said, in truth, I've only ever been exposed to Japan's nature twice: once in Kofu, and this time, in Kyoto.

This umbrella makes things look more epic.

To start off, Kyoto is nested closely by several mountains. Not tall ones, mind you, but mountains none the less that would be troublesome to populate. In reason of this, the city fades out around the edges in order to give place to a springy, mostly untouched, wild life. The transition is not jarring; it's one that gradually seeps in. Skyscrapers give place to residential areas, then turn into woods as you reach the foot of one of the mountains.  At the foot of one such mountain, Arashiyama, could be found a bamboo grove! Here, the bamboo was harvested for use in the building of fences and furniture and whatnot.

One of the mountains in the Arashiyama area is also famous for its Japanese macaques. Whilst ascending the mountain, various signs can be seen throughout the path, instructing visitors not to show the monkeys plastic bags, not to touch them, or even to make eye contact for more than a second or so. How vicious the monkeys actually are, I can't tell for sure, though. Japanese macaques are known for adopting very human traits, such as bathing in hot springs (the artificial ones intended for humans) and rolling snowballs for fun (in northernmost areas.) The monkeys in this particular mountain had been exposed to humans for so many generations that they no longer gave a shit whether you approached it or not. Hell, they were just chilling. And would you look at the number of them! They were everywhere; climbing on the roofs and the fences, sitting in the branches. I was certainly impressed.

WHAT'S GOING ON?

We were actually indoors,
this monkey was outside.

Mind you, I wouldn't necessarily call them cute (not nearly as good looking as Cortez, the squirrel monkey I owned in Peru.) They're downright ugly bastards, with crimson red faces and asses, and feverish looking yellow eyes. Looking back at some of the pictures I took, I was immediately reminded of the opening scene from 28 Days Later.

Nonetheless, they're lovable in their own way, I guess. At least, the littles ones were.

And that about sums up my Kyoto trip! It's been a good ride, and I certainly wouldn't mind visiting again - but there's still a lot left in Japan to see. I have my eyes turned towards Fukuoka, Okinawa and Sapporo. But Ken and I are back in Tokyo for now, where, even still, many adventures and discoveries lie in wait for us.

Kyoto and CULTURE

A very serious toast.

The second great facet to my Kyoto adventure is that of culture. Be it through food, tradition or simply the way things are done, Kyoto's various cultural assets offer a legitimate taste of what most people outside Japan perceive the country as (was that a difficult sentence to follow?)
 In Kyoto, one doesn't have to look too hard to find traditional Japanese pastries and the like. I got to enjoy the green-tea flavored soft-cream I've been craving for a while now. Ken took the black sesame flavor. Seriously, where the hell else are you gonna find black sesame flavored soft-serve ice cream. I'm amazed.

Speaking of food, Kyoto is known to offer a very legitimate green tea. Every thirty or so meters around the outskirts of the town, one easily stumbles upon a cafe where one can enjoy the traditional tea in the way it had been prepared for centuries before today. Granted, it's not cheap (at least, not for the regular price of tea), but it is worth tasting.
 We had ours in a quaint little tea house within the grounds of the Golden Pavilion (which I went into more detail about in the HISTORY section of my Kyoto tour.) It came with a small piece of pastry topped with gold leaf. For 7$ you can EAT GOLD.

That's not a hat, it's his hair.

Food aside, Kyoto also has a number of bathhouses and ryokan inns. The former are similar to the one I visited in Kofu, whereas the latter are traditional Japanese hotels that offer a more traditional place to stay. They have the tatami straw mats and the thin futons and all that.
During our own stay, Ken and I spent a night at a lovely little ryokan run by a man who looked suspiciously like a voodoo shaman lord. Though we didn't spend much time in the place, it was quite a nice experience. Humble is a good word to describe it, I think. But I mean it in the best way.

This picture oozes of paparazzi.

And of course, I can't talk about Kyoto and culture without at least going over the geisha. Though we didn't stop to watch an actual geisha show (it was kind of pricey) we did catch a few on their way out of the geisha training school. I figure you all know what geisha are without knowing what exactly they do, so, put simply, they're entertainers. They dance or sing for rich patrons. It's a very simple way of life, I think, but one that requires somewhat of a passion for the olden ways. It was hard to get a good picture! They walk fast to avoid the gaijin paparazzi (such as myself in this case) and they tip their umbrellas low. One smiled at me and tipped her head as she walked by! It was flattering.

This picture would've been so nice if the cat had stayed.

And that was it for my culture segment! I will be updating with the last of the three parts of my Kyoto trip, NATURE, tomorrow. It was my favorite part of the visit, by the way, so be sure to check it out. It's got MONKEYS in it.
(Spoiler alert: I didn't buy one, this time around.)

Kyoto and HISTORY

By the way, my umbrella is shaped like a katana.

Alas, I have returned from my expedition with Ken to Kyoto. And what an adventure it's been! There's just far too much to say about the two days I've spent in the city to summarize into one post, so I'm splitting my visit into three different parts: History, Culture and Nature.
 Let's start at the beginning, shall we?
 I've read somewhere that Kyoto and the neighboring region houses 1600 different temples and shrines. All of them stand intact: unlike many of the other cities of Japan, Kyoto had been left untouched by the ravages of World War II.
Today, it stands as a huge historical site that draws in a bunch of tourists throughout the year.

Needless to say, I did not visit all the 1600 temple and shrines (or even 800, or 100 for that matter) but my trip has been highlighted by the occasional temple or castle here and there.

I took this picture stealthily. I wasn't allowed to.

One such temple was the famous Sanjuusangen-dou. Shaped like a long hallway, the temple houses 1000 Buddhist Kannon statues made of brass, all seemingly identical in all features; and each as beautiful as the next. Row upon row of the statues line up from one side of the lengthy hall to the other, standing in an almost eerily dimly-lit space. Nearby, the chanting of a monk and the flickering of candles. Spaced evenly in front of the brass Kannon statues are figures of 28 Buddhist Guardian Deities as well as the local deities Fujin and Raijin, each beautifully detailed.

Another notable temple was the Kinkakuji Golden Pavilion and its surrounding garden. Considered by most to be a huge highlight to Kyoto, its gold-leaf coating doubles as a gaijin-magnet. Though you can't really make it out through the picture here-standing, a bronze figure of a phoenix sits upon its roof. We first mistook for a rooster. Cue in jokes about solid bronze cocks.
 In all seriousness, though, it was the combination in beauty of the temple itself and its garden both that made the visit so radiant and worthwhile. At the price of a small entrance fee, one can take a stroll around the temple and enjoy its garden, but from what I gathered, it's not possible to enter the temple's interior. Unless you're like, some kind of feudal lord or some shit. Or maybe the emperor. I bet he can enter.

Oh look, a mouse shrine!

Of course, these are just strawberries on the shortcake. Like I said, Kyoto contains an unbelievable amount of such national treasures, as well as the occasional little hidden shrine just off the side of the beaten path. I'm not such a history buff myself, but I did enjoy the historical aspect the city had to offer. But those weren't the topmost highlights of my trip. There's a lot more to come. Geishas and monkeys, to name a few things.

Here's What I've Been Doing Lately

The last few days have been rather quiet. Though I haven't been doing too much out of the ordinary, I have been kicking it back with friends every now and then. Here are a few pictures of what I've been up to in these uneventful times.

I've been visiting Erika and Maxine once in a while lately. We watch movies 'til late at night.

"Well I heard there was a secret cord
that David played and it pleased the Lord,
But you don't really care for music, do you?"

This photo best summarizes the way I interact with
children in general. Even at work.

This one's pretty good, too.

I tried introducing Mori to Kagaya bar. He was too shy to sing his order!

Once in a while the tenants get together on the 4th floor common room and chat.

I taught the female tenants how to play poker.
The girls in the apartment call me "Nakagawa-san", "the Fitness Teacher", or "Gaijin-san"

And that's just about the gist of it. I'm leaving for Kyoto tonight, though, so expect some temples, geishas and hot baths and the days to come.

It's Like a Zoo in Here

The other day, after work, I went to a large pet shop just to see if there was much of a difference between the choices in pets and their prices. Turns out there is!

Look at that! It's an honest-to-God stingray! The sheer variety of animals a Canadian like myself would consider "exotic" was nothing short of fascinating, so I easily spent forty minutes to an hour just looking through the aisles. Like I said though, this place was big.

Now, prices were all ass-backwards, too. Things you would expect to be expensive (mostly the reptiles) were actually quite cheap. There was a basilisk lizard for sale for 80$ or so, which I do believe is a little cheaper than they would go for back home (though I may be wrong?)
However, get this; a cat would cut your wallet down at least 1000$. One. Thousand. Dollars. Dogs are even more ludicrous when it comes to pricing. I can think of a lot of things I would rather get with that kind of money.

Post-script; here was the strawberry on the shortcake. Axolotls are awesome.

Brief Note: Visiting Kyoto

Since my job has so graciously given me a 3 day weekend, Ken and I will be visiting Kyoto on the 22nd. The  discounted bus prices are a real steal (50$ as opposed to 150$, courtesy of Ken knowing his stuff.) In the meantime, here's a picture of a big-ass bowl of noodles.

Yes please.

Pisces

Yesterday had me turning 21 and celebrating my birthday along with Erika, a friend of Ken's I was introduced to one week prior. We're likely to hang out in Ueno, all of us together, sometime soon, so I figure I'll introduce her to you guys here.
 Erika's a terrific singer, half-american, a real hippy if I ever met one, and the mother of an adorable one year old baby named Maxine.
 Maxine is...well, a baby. So she doesn't really do stuff (or does she?) She tried to feed me cake though, so she's pretty cool too.

As for the birthday party itself, it was more of a celebration of Erika turning 22 on March 2nd, but I'm super glad I got invited along. I met a bunch of nice people from Ken and Erika's English-Speaking-Japanese circle of friends, and they offered to pay for my food and drinks and karaoke since it was my birthday. I declined, but a lot of pictures were taken of me posing with the whole group, so if anyone asks I can pretend I'm really popular, which is a gift enough.

Left to Right; Mika, Sasa, Ken, Erika, Myself, Jun, Kengo, David.