Japan – Day 9 (Kyoto)

I was going to see my monkey buddies today, but the weather was spotty with random rain showers and climbing up a dirt path mountain is the last thing you want to do in Kyoto when it’s raining! So instead of going northwest, I went northeast with my first stop at the famous Kiyomizudera. The momiji here were at peak, and everywhere you looked was gorgeous. I was only planning on spending an hour here, but I ended up staying for three as I took a ton of photos of the gorgeous foliage. The main temple is completely under restoration, which was a bummer, but not a big deal since there was plenty to look at. A stray rainbow even popped up behind the pagoda at one point, which was great!

Tourism in Kyoto has definitely skyrocketed since I was last here, and some groups have been particularly rude and practically bully other tourists out of the way for their photos. I’m not talking about if someone gets in their shot, I mean someone is taking a photo and they will literally push people out of the way or tell them to move because they want the same location. I first noticed this back when I was in Yellowstone, I was baffled by their behavior at first, but it’s apparently an international problem with these people. They come in on multiple mega-buses and SWARM the tourist attractions and shove everyone else off. I’ve run into them enough times now that when they do try to bully me or others I push them right back, or if they shove I’ll just stand there and not let them take their photo until they politely ask (the only good thing about being a short and stout dwarf class is that you can stand your ground pretty well), or worst case tell them clearly and loudly: NO they can wait their turn. They back off quickly, of course. I never had a problem with these groups before and was rather indifferent towards them, but the Japanese are so polite and there are a LOT of bad eggs with these groups of people (based on my worldwide experience at this point, I’ve noticed it everywhere I’ve went) they’re honestly starting to piss me off. There’s nothing you can really do about it though, hard to be mad at tourists when you yourself are a tourist, right?

After grabbing some udon and relaxing on a tatami mat and watching the foliage and people cleansing in the water fountain for a while, I packed up and headed over to Yasaka Shrine. The foliage here was nice too, and it’s a huge temple, but not quite what I was looking for today so I moved along to Nanzenji temple. Along the way to all of these places I kept stopping at other less popular shrines and temples like Kodaiji Temple, Maruyama Park, and Chion-in. Everything is alive and colorful this time of year! Also since I had my big camera out people would come to me to ask for photos, this is not unusual and the same as in America and I think it’s hilarious. Like reverse paparazzi. So I spent a lot of time taking photos of other people and families with their cameras, so many cute little kids and Japanese babies almost make me want to reconsider not having children. That being said, I didn’t make it through my full itinerary for today. Ah well, that’s why I made sure I was staying in this area for 2 weeks!

After Nanzenji I braved the bus back to the hotel, since it was rush hour we were all jammed in right up against one another. Welcome to Japan! Back at the hotel, I jumped right into the hot deep soaker tub and tried an interesting pear cider which was pretty dang strong, and a weak alcohol orange soda of some sort. Then I spent some time clearing out photo memory cards because they’re already full! That’s the opposite of a problem though.

Edinburgh Day 2

Edinburgh is amazing, I loooove it. The place smells like baked goods and sweets, it’s fairly easy to navigate since there are so many big landmarks, there is so much to do, people seem happy and active. Sure it has its problems, it has homeless folks and petty crime and is expensive like any other major city…but I really, really like it! Today I stopped by an old church called St. John’s near my hotel and the huge old graveyard attached to it with Edinburgh Castle behind, then to Ross Fountain, and walked down to Holyrood Palace. The actual palace is pretty typical, it felt like walking into Windsor Castle all over again, but the destroyed abbey remnants were pretty cool and spooky, both from inside and out.  Despite no rain in the forecast, it started pouring fast and hard in between peaks of brilliant sunshine leading to a series of beautiful, big rainbows while I was at Holyrood. I jumped into a ramen shop and ate while one bad rain patch passed through, it was pretty good ramen…mid-level, a little bland, but good on the stomach.  It’s funny, the British really don’t use salt all that much considering how many people they’ve historically killed for it.  Anyway, once the rain cleared I hiked up Calton Hill to watch the sunset, then decided to call it quits early because it was super windy and cold! I needed to get my hotel and rental car scheduled for tomorrow (pray for me driving in the UK for the first time) and buy some new shoes because the walking shoes I got are apparently not waterproof like I thought they were.  Good thing they have normal shoe stores here, like Skechers, so I got some waterproof boots.  Then I went back to the hotel to pack up for the big trip up to the Highlands!

Edinburgh Day 1

I guess I was tired, since I slept until 8am before getting up and heading out.  I stopped at a cute coffee shop for a mocha then wandered over to a nearby church and headed to Edinburgh castle.  I ended up spending 4 hours at the castle, in part because it was gorgeous, but also because they have a military museum with family service and death records as well as a historical association that has researched over a million Scottish clan names.  Since I knew both Shelton and Booth are Anglo-Saxon names, I spent the better part of an hour just scouring through the records trying to figure out where my ancestors were primarily located.  Apparently, the Booth family were seafarers who often were lost at sea and were largely concentrated in the Aberdeenshire area, although they were located all over the region and were a combination of two huge families in the 12th-ish century.  There were a lot of military records to be found for the name Booth.  For Shelton I didn’t find that many, even though our name is of Scottish origin.  Turns out the Sheltons were big landholders and farmers in the Nottinghamshire area, and when people were encouraged to move to and occupy Ireland we packed up and went to Dublin and became government and law enforcement folks for a long time which is why we didn’t have much of a Scottish military presence.  It was all really interesting.  I also think I love Mary Queen of Scots, that lady had an attitude in a “big mood” way.  She openly criticized her husband and family, working her distaste for them into her needlework which is on display today.  It’s pretty funny, too bad she was ultimately betrayed by those same people and killed despite being a fair and beloved ruler of her people.  Anyway, after spending so much time at the castle I didn’t have time to go to the palace, so instead I wandered down the Royal Mile and ducked into the Angels with Bagpipes restaurant, a Michelin rated place, to try haggis neeps and tatties, a really good artichoke root based soup, and this local drink that was made from strong vodka, champagne and strawberry flavoring.  The weather decided it had no intention of clearing up, so after eating I wandered over to another graveyard and took in the spooky atmosphere before heading to my hotel to dry off and drop off my bag.  Then I headed back to Mercat circle to meet the tour guide to the underground catacombs around the former south bridge.  The tour was a perfect mix of informational and campy, and our guide Alex did a great job, it was really hilarious given the seriousness of the topic at hand.  The tour highlighted some of the killings, hangings, burnings, and the shitty way people generally lived back in the day including the poor conditions. Afterwards I trudged back to the hotel in the pouring rain and discovered that my shoes which I thought were waterproof are not, so add that to the list for tomorrow. I got my free pint at the hotel bar and went to bed after a hot shower to warm up.