Monday 9th April. I got up fairly late, did some washing, and
caught the ten o’clock shuttle bus from the hotel. Paul, Heather, Dee, Elly, Jane and I got off at the Kyoto Hotel stop. We
walked over to the Old
Imperial Palace.
The buildings of this complex were built in 1855 after the fashion of the
original ones (built in 794) had burnt down.
The grounds were
huge, with wide gravel walks, trees and two main complexes of buildings – one
of which was open (free admittance today). There is a set route you have to
follow, otherwise you’re jumping over ropes, mucking up the raked gravel and
getting arrested.
The buildings were of the typical Japanese
style, but also on show were some paintings and flower/tree arrangements. I was
picked up by two girls who wished to practise their English. They asked me if I
was a ‘courageous student.’ No, I’m not a college student any more. They told
me which was a ume tree (plum), and a sakura (cherry). It was quite fun
talking with them.
After the Old
Imperial Palace,
we went down a couple of blocks to Nijo
Castle, which is closed
on Mondays. Before getting to the site, we stopped off at a preschool to take
pictures of some kid playing. They seem to have much more character than the
Chinese children, much more appealing.
Seeing that the castle was closed, we walked
a few kilometers to the Heian Shrine, stopping off to have a businessman’s
lunch at a coffee shop – Japanese food for the first time, ¥680.The menu was
written in Japanese but someone had added the English translation – ‘cofue ôre’
for Spanish coffee (café au lait), ‘coca cora’, ‘stroubrry’ and ‘cora froht’
(cola fruit?) [cola float].
The Heian Shrine is considered the most
fabulous and beautiful shrine in Kyoto, even
though it was built in 1895 to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of
the transfer of the capital to Kyoto.
There is a huge red torii (gate) a block away from the entrance which is
actually part of the shrine. There is a large quadrangle inside the entrance
and a typical Japanese garden at the back and sides with its pathways and lakes
with a covered bridge. Very serene and peaceful, large fish in the water (where
else?). (We sneaked into the garden without paying, tee hee.)
The exhibition buildings near the shrine were
also shut so we went back to the bottom of the Imperial Palace
and caught the subway to Marutamachi-
Dori St. The subway is very clean, the train very
quiet and the seats are finely upholstered (so too are the public buses, but
the trains have more standing room). We got out at Kyoto Station, went to the
Tourist Bureau and then up Kyoto
Tower (¥530 with a
discount). The view is impressive and lots of photographs were taken. I had an
orange drink up there. Paul and Heather left to get back to the hotel, and the
remaining three, Jane, Elly and Dee, had a look at mechanical robots [Cybot Hall, or something like that] in the
amusement corner and went back down to the ground.
Kyoto is the
third highest tower in Japan
after Tokyo’s
and Nagoya TV Tower. It is 131 metres high from ground level, but there are
nine floors underneath (ground floor being the first). It has two observation
platforms, and usually costs ¥700 to go up.
We went then to Kyoto Station because we
wanted to get to the other side of it. But we had a while to wait for the next
shuttle bus so we had a look around the shops above the station concourse. Then
it was time to catch the shuttle – to the pedestrian subway, under the tracks
and out again. The shuttle was very crowded but nevertheless we got back to the
hotel and had dinner dare I say at the McDonald’s at the hotel. Nothing like
the compartmented box (bento) we had our businessman’s lunch in – the Japanese
chopsticks are smaller and easier to use than their Chinese counterparts.
I then went upstairs to write some of this blasted
thing, which brings us to… [10th April]
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