Of Kyoto and Temples

I arrived in Kyoto yesterday, and let me just say that it's been a blast. Kyoto is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever visited. Unlike a lot of big cities, there is green everywhere. And even though you know it's a big city, it feels a lot smaller due to this. Don't get me wrong. I loved Tokyo, a lot. It's a really great place, but I think some of the other large cities like Tokyo, Chicago, and New York could take a page from Kyoto and add a little more green space to their city.

Actually, arriving here was a little interesting. I left Tokyo, which I didn't really want to leave and boarded the Shinkansen for here. The conductor talked very quietly. When I could hear him, I could understand him no problem, but if he was too quiet, then I had no idea what station we were at. So actually, I tried to get off a station early, but there was no way to exit the train. So I waited another 20 minutes or so, and finally got off.

When I finally got off, I went searching for a taxi, which wasn't that hard considering all of the signs. It was a little far, but these stations are huge in Japan. They make our big airports like Chicago O'Hare look small. I've never been to Grand Central Station in New York, but I think it could probably fit easily inside some of these train station and have some extra room. Anyway, so I finally got here, found a taxi and got in. I handed the taxi driver my address, but he couldn't find it in his GPS. So he pulled out a map, but he couldn't find it on the map. So I searched for a phone number, and after about 20 minutes, I found one. He called the dorm, and after some very polite どうもすみません-ing, we headed off. In this context, it comes across as both I'm very sorry and Thank you. Really, it's a little difficult to translate, but I think it'd come closest to, "I'm very sorry to have troubled you on my behalf. Thank you for everything you have done for me."

The taxi driver and I struck up a great conversation, which is really strange considering the fact that normally you never talk with the taxi driver here. He acted as my guide, pointing out historic sites, and telling stories of the mountains, movies, and McDonald's. All McDonald's here are required to be brown. The city didn't want them to stand out and look ugly compared to the rest of Kyoto. Actually, I saw some brown, and quite a few black McDonald's in Tokyo, but it's interesting that it's a law here. If you were wondering, apparently KFC doesn't have the same requirements. Their buildings are a blinding red. Anyway, after that, we talked about movies. He really liked American movies, especially Arnold Swarzenegger ones. Overall it was a great taxi ride, and we finally arrived at my dorm safe and sound.

That day, I filled out some paperwork, unpacked, and met people in the dorm. I explored the main street of our area of Kyoto that night, and we found supermarkets, convenience stores, ramen shops, and bakeries. It was a good experience and it helped me to get adjusted a little bit.

Today, I woke up late unfortunately. I thought our meeting was at 9:30, but it ended up it was at 9. I had just woken up and sadly I had to go before I'd done more than the basic hygiene sort of stuff. I met three of our student buddies. They took us by train to Ritsumeikan to fill out paperwork for the Alien Registration Card and for Japanese Health Insurance. It will be two weeks before all of that is done. Personally, this seems little a counter-productive. Japan is trying so hard to attract foreigners as it increases its presence in the global economy, but it makes it very difficult for people to be here.

The buddies were very helpful and a lot of fun though. We talked mostly in Japanese, though there was some English every now and then. They want to practice their English as well of course.

After we headed to Rits, we went to the ward to go turn in the paperwork and to get some of it processed. Until all of this is done though, it's a little difficult to get a phone. Oddly enough, I ended up translating at the ward. One of the girls here was having difficult with Japanese, and she knows English much better. Unfortunately, she was talking to a government official who really didn't know English. So, I was asked by one of the buddies to go help her. It ended up that the official was confused because her hometown and the hospital that it stated where she was born were different. After listening to her, I did my best to explain to the official and to the buddy standing next to me. Then, he clarified just a couple things for her. I was really proud. Right now, I still feel that my Japanese is miserable, so it was nice to know that I'd been understood and that the official knew what I was talking about from my explanation.

Finally, after that, I made another trip to the supermarket, which I visit every day. Ingredients are fresher this way, and I'm just starting to get used to. Then, I headed off with a bunch of other people from the dorm to go tour temples. There are tons of them here, and it's only right to go visit them. We went by bike, which was something of an adventure because I'm pretty much the only one in the group whose biking skills are probably at that of a 5-year-olds.

First we headed to 退蔵院 (Taizou-in). We didn't enter the gardens at the time since we really didn't have much cash on us, but it was still a lot of fun. This temple is very famous for a painting called 紙本墨画淡彩瓢鮎図 (Catching Catfish with a Gourd) which is now in the Kyoto museum, and as a very old Zen Buddhist temple. It was rebuilt, but it is still very beautiful, so I thought you'd enjoy a few photos. If you still want more information, you can check the temple's link here: Taizou-in.

There were a lot of other temples around the area as well, so we visited them as well. The images below were on the same path, but they're from different temples.

As always, there's more to tell you, but I think I'll end this post here. It's getting a little long, and some things can wait until later to tell you. I'm planning to head to 金閣寺(Kinkakuji) tomorrow, which is known as the Golden Temple. Pictures will be up soon of that if that's the case.

The placement test is on Tuesday, so right now, I have to head off.

Later!

Michelle