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Japan – Day 21 (Kyoto)

Well, I was a bit bummed today. I was going to go back to Hikone and see the teachers at JCMU, but I got an email from them this morning that the reason their schedules were clear this week is because it’s finals week and the students are all doing their conversation finals in the afternoon. I completely forgot about that, I think I mentally blocked that out; but as soon as I read the explanation I had like PTSD flashbacks of giving those presentations and how they were back-to-back and just uggggghhh, oh nooooo, yes I understand. Poor kids, and poor teachers. I’m frustrated at myself for not checking in at JCMU earlier, I could have gone last week, but hindsight is 20/20. I seriously thought none of them were there anymore!

With my plans for the day dashed, I started thinking of what else I could do today when I heard thunder outside so I opened the blinds and sure enough it was POURING outside. Maybe not going to Hikone wasn’t a bad thing (15 minutes walking to Kyoto Station, 1.25 hours on the train, 40 minutes walking to JCMU in pouring rain…) So I pretty much just stayed in the hotel and played video games and relaxed on my bed.

Finally around 4pm the clouds broke just in time for sunset. I was getting hungry at this point, so I got dressed and walked to Kyoto Station to pick up my train ticket to Tokyo for tomorrow then went down into the sublevels for food. I was looking for donburi of some sort, but ended up finding a taco place! I can’t recall ever seeing a taco place here, so of course I got some chicken tacos. Then I went a little further to a gyoza place where they make it all from scratch and got some of those.

After eating, I decided I didn’t really want to go back to the hotel yet, and I’ve read that Fushimi Inari is cool (and kind of creepy) at night rather than the crowded daytime hours, so I got on the train over there. I’ve been before and it wasn’t on my list for this trip because even back then it was so crowded you could barely move, but it hadn’t occurred to me before to go at night since it’s open 24/7. Sure enough, there was hardly anyone there, and it was really cool and creepy. I didn’t climb all the way up to the top of Mt. Inari, my legs were actually pretty sore from all of the climbing at Mt. Hiei yesterday, but I got halfway up to the viewpoint that overlooks Kyoto then made my way back down with a nice couple from Taiwan. At one point a shrine cat spotted us and walked in front of us for a while until we reached his exit, so we all patted him before going the rest of the way down. I got back on the train and walked to the hotel, then started packing up for the trip to Tokyo tomorrow.

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Japan – Day 20 (Kyoto)

I woke up to a gorgeous sunny morning and sat by the window drinking coffee and watching the sunrise for a while, then booked hotels and stuff for the next few days in Tokyo and rearranged hotels for the Iceland trip. Once all the adulting was done, I showered and dressed and headed northeast to Mt. Hiei known as the birthplace of Japanese Buddhism since the oldest buildings are from around 800 A.D. Once again the Kyoto buses failed me and I ended up walking to the trains and lost about an hour, gah! But the trains are almost always on time, so I made it up to the cable car and ropeway to the top of the mountain. I took the bus (that only does a loop so no way to get the wrong one) to Enryaku-ji, a Tendai monastery towards the top of the mountain. I didn’t know that the main temple is undergoing massive reconstruction for the next 12 years so it was completely covered. You could still go inside though, and it was funny because you could see where they had removed the metal decorations because the paint still looked fresh underneath versus where it was exposed to air and people. The whole mountain has temples and shrines scattered across it, but I mainly focused on the two bigger areas including Konponchudo Temple (the one that was covered up), Daikodo Temple, Amidado Temple (which has a really cool golden Buddha inside but you can’t take photos of it) and Hokkesojin-toto Temple. Supposedly there’s a monkey temple up there somewhere, but the sun was setting and I wanted to get to my next stop. I made my way back down the mountain and watched the sun set from the ropeway and cable car, the sky was pink and orange and the mountains were blue and purple so it was really beautiful.

Once down, I hiked about 20 minutes further north to Nyan-Nyan-ji. For those that don’t know “nyan” in Japanese is the equivalent of “meow” for us in English; it’s the sound a cat makes for them. Nyan-Nyan-ji isn’t actually a temple as the name suggests, it’s literally this guy’s house with the front part of it converted into a little tea house, gift shop, and in the back a shrine he built and dedicated to his cats. He is head over heels in love with his cats, and decided everyone else needed to worship them too so he built his shop and dresses his cats up in little monk outfits and lets them play with guests. I thought that they also took in shelter cats, but that turned out to be a rumor. They do take donations for the local shelter though, and they support local artists by selling their original cat themed artwork in their gallery. The owner’s son is also a very gifted artist who’s basically an art prodigy and won his first major award at 12 years old, and he painted all the cats everywhere in the interior of the building. The son was there today, so I bought one of his art books and had him sign it with his pen name. Who knows, maybe it will be worth millions one day? I picked up some other original art from the commission gallery, and sat with the cat of the day named Lon for a while until it was time to catch my bus downtown. I was a good hour out by then, so I just sat back and relaxed until it was time to get off then grabbed some food and went back to the hotel. Man, I love these deep soak bathtubs I’m really gonna miss this when I go home after this week…I can’t believe it’s already December!

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Japan – Day 18 (Kyoto)

I got up and packed for the trip back to Kyoto. I wasn’t in a rush, so I took a cheaper local train back. I liked the hotel I stayed at last time, so I rebooked with them and dropped my luggage off at the counter. Since it was near closing when I went to Nishiki Market last time, I walked back over there and took my time strolling through the shopping center. I was feeling jealous of all of your lovely Thanksgiving turkey photos (seriously you guys, you all outdid yourself this year every picture everyone posted looked amazing!) because turkey isn’t really a thing here. So instead I went to an A5 wagyu beef restaurant and had a sirloin steak. It was pretty delicious, I think Kobe beef is still the best but A5 wagyu is pretty dang close! I picked up some souvenirs at the market, then went back to the hotel to check in. I was a little nervous when I walked up and my bag was no longer in the bag storage area, but turns out they went ahead and carried it up to my room for me once it was ready. Since this was my second stay here in two weeks they moved me up to the top with a gorgeous view of the garden across the street. After settling in, I took a seat by the window and watched the sun set over the mountains in the distance.

The only thing I don’t like about Kyoto is that there’s not much night life. There’s arguably only one real “bar” area, and most stuff around here shuts down after dark. One of the few places with things still to do and see is around the Gion district, and since I hadn’t properly explored that yet aside from Yasaka Shrine I decided to hop on the train and take a walk. I didn’t have any luck spotting Maiko, but I did stumble upon a Hard Rock Café I didn’t even know existed so I got my travel pin, and wandered back over to Yasaka Shrine and picked up some street food. Then I headed back to the hotel and jumped in the soaking tub for a bit because dang it got cold FAST. I need to get one of those installed wherever I decide to settle down!