Reflections on Kyoto and on Japan in General

I'll be honest... in general, taveling around Japan hasn't lived up to our expectations. I should be more clear. I think what I mean is that Justine and I are still trying to figure out what we're doing out here. We're having a good time, but it has taken us some time to realize what kinds of experiences we're looking for and in the mean time, I think we're not using our time efficiently.

For most of the first part of our trip, we were seeing the many excellent sights of Japan. How can you notin a place with a history as rich and exotic as Japan's? But seeing many of those historic sites ended up being a bit dissapointing since so many of them are re-creations and are over-run with vendors hawking their cheezy wares. Additionally, some of those quintessential Japanese sights were difficult to find or were so crowded that they were almost un-enjoyable. Take a place in Kyoto known as the silver pavilion, Ginkaku-ji. The place was amazing and it had excellent views of the city, but even near dusk, the place was so jammed full of tourists that the Zen garden was impossible to see!

As a result, whenever we asked each other what the best thing about Japan was, it was always interactions we had with other people (other travelers like Nick, Chris/Nichole, or Japanese residents like Hiroshi-san) or the food, which continues to amaze us. I think I've mentioned this before, but Japanese food in America is nothing like what we eat here: Check out yaki-udon (grilled udon noodles), okonomi-yaki (like an omlet that you cook yourself at the table), or hoba-miso (grilled mountain vegetables in miso paste, served on a magnolia leaf) if you ever get the chance. The point is, it's generally so easy to say that the food is the thing you remember most about a country because that's the closest many people get to living and interacting with the people and customs of the place you're visiting.

What we're figuring out, however, seems so obvious: Sight-seeing alone does not allow one to experience enough of the country, nor does the eating. The best days we've had were the ones where we did some sight-seeing and something else that was more interactive. For example, one of the best things we did in Kyoto was participate in a Japanese tea ceremony (called chado). And one of the best day we've had in Japan overall was on Sunday. Justine and I got up around 10 am after having stayed up late chatting with other travelers in the youth hostel we were staying at. We cooked our own breakfast in the hostel's kitchen and then went to Kungyokudo, an ancient incense shop (official site, in Japanese). This place has been in the business of selling incense for over 400 years, from the same spot, in front of Nishi-ji temple in Kyoto. And even though we didn't get to do the actual incense ceremony (called Kodo) or play the Genji-ko game (based on The Tale of Genji), we spent a bunch of time there chatting with the workers and learning about the games and various ways of making and burning incense. We then had a late lunch at an Italian/Japanese fusion restaurant, and hiked to the top of the Fushimi-Inari temple at sunset (pics posted at a later date, but for reference, it's a 4 km hike through thousands of torri gates to the top of a mountain in SW Kyoto, and we did it in about 25 minutes). To top the day off, we went to a hole-in-the wall yaki restaurant near the hostel for dinner. Everything about the day was outstanding, and I guess that's what made it so much fun.

Today, 4.Sep.06, we left Kyoto and came up to the Mt. Fuji area. I can only hope that more of our travel experiences are as good as yesterday's.

-Mike.