Kansai Trip Part II: Kyoto and Kobe

On a ten day vacation, the first five or so days are all honeymoon, and after that, one becomes quite tired. It is amazing how exhausting vacations can be. In total, we took more than 138,752 steps across four cities, as calculated by my Nintendo DS Activity Log. In retrospect, a couple days in Taiwan or Singapore sounds lovely.

I will make my Kyoto and Kobe summaries as short as possible, which likely means that they will be long-winded and meandering. Our first day in Kyoto was spent checking into the worst of our four hostels, bAkpAk Gion. Apparently there is a much nicer affiliated hostel down the street. I won't go into too many details, except for that I booked through a hostel booking website and their information was wrong so I ended up sharing a twin bed with my husband for three nights, while having to pay more than budgeted too, and that it felt more like someone's apartment than a place where guests are welcome. I shouldn't start this post off by complaining, sorry. We also saw this man feeding pigeons and hawks near the river. If I were a painter, I'd paint this:

We meant to visit Kiyomizu-dera Temple near the hostel but took a strange train and ended up exploring a mountain area. We saw a giant orange torii in the distance, and followed it to Heian Shrine, which was crowded and beautiful on New Years Day. It's one the largest torii in Japan! Sometimes the best adventures are the mistakes that you couldn't possibly plan as well as they turn out.

The next day, we made our way to Kiyomizu-dera Temple after all, but it was even more crowded than Heian Shrine the day before. We couldn't enjoy many of the sights because of the long lines and big groups of people. As much as I enjoyed the architecture, I more appreciated the walk up to the temple on narrow streets of traditional shops and restaurants.

We did the Philosopher's Walk on our last day in Kyoto, named because of a professor and philosopher at Kyoto University is said to have walked the same path every day. It runs along a canal, past various shrines and temples. The most surprising sight was this man, the Pied Piper of cats, who rang his bike bell and summoned a clowder of cats from the neighborhood and fed them.

We ate sandwiches for lunch by the river, casually throwing pieces to pigeons. What I am going to say next is in no way an exaggeration. All of a sudden, a hawk swooped down and took my sandwich. Right from my hand. One minute my sandwich was there, and the next, my thumb nail hurt a little and the hawk was flying away with my sandwich! I was utterly stunned, and glad that the hawk had great aim. Now I know why Japanese people on the bridge were mumbling disapprovingly about people feeding the pigeons...tens of hawks perch upon buildings near the river, awaiting the pigeon swarm that results from a person who feeds them with the best of intentions. The unknowing people watch bemusedly as the pigeons, and then some hawks, swoop down, displaying aerial feats to catch the gifts in midair. And everyone has a good time, that is, until the hawks find the source of the food and swoop down...

We took the train to Kobe the next morning, and checked into our final hostel, R2 Hostel. I kid you not, one of the staff members was walking around barefoot and drinking vodka. And even though it's winter, the windows in the bathrooms were always open, but the toilet seats were heated so I guess I can't complain. The lodgings were tolerable, even though our room was located right in the middle of the mixed dorm.

We were quite tired at the end of our trip, but rented bikes and ventured forth anyway. We headed for the arboretum, but, improvising, it took us about 30 minutes by bike, 45 climbing a mountain, and 10 hitchhiking to get there. The arboretum was lovely, even in winter; I can just imagine the place in spring or fall! On the way back, we couldn't manage to hitchhike a ride, so walked about an hour as the sun neared setting to the spot where we left the mountain's summit trail. We saw a beautiful sunset vista of Kobe, better than any of the tallest buildings downtown could have charged us for. I enjoyed that someone wrote, "Freeeeeedom" on the sign at the top of the mountain.

On our last day in Kobe, we tried a city onsen (no shampoo or soap and a lot of old people actually using it as a public bath and not a relaxing spa), ate a standing meal of soba noodles, and trudged around Harborland too tired to enjoy a lot of the touristy things.

Our trip back to Hokkaido started by train, taking it to the Bay Ferry which sailed across Osaka Bay to the Kansai Airport. Then, we took a shuttle bus to Terminal 2, boarded our plane, and arrived safely at New Chitose Airport. We took the shuttle train to Minamichitose and finally the train home to Yakumo. Needless to say, I had plenty of time to beat Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (with Tom helping me beat some of the bosses. What? They're too hard for me).

In the end, this vacation was one of various learning experiences. From the culture and traditions surrounding the Japanese New Year, to how to not embarrass yourself at temples and shrines, to the fact that you can't stand casually in the middle of an escalator because people will want to go around you. I figured out public transportation in Japan, how to use functional Japanese, and travel on a budget.

I learned also about my own travel limits and expectations, and the challenges and joys of travelling as a couple or part of a group. And finally, every time I travel, I discovered how easy it is to pick up and go somewhere new for a few days or a week and a few days, and the complete pleasure one feels upon returning home to your own bed.