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| Kiniyoshi’s Ukiyoe of Rain |
This is my last - 1/2 day in Kyoto. The hotel has 11am checkout which is a rare luxury so I am at a local Tully’s sipping an iced honey latte. The coffee culture is strong in Japan as is the coffee. In fact it has spoiled me for my homemade stuff - i have taken to adding chicory—google it.
It’s summer and the weather in Kyoto is cooler ie under 30. Prob cos of the rain - it’s been raining everywhere in Japan typhoon-ish season. My gf in Chiba, Diane reported getting emergency warnings during early hours last night - she’s in Chiba which has had some landslides etc.She’s safe as she lives in an apartment block 3rd floor.
Can’t decide if I want rain and cooler or not. Rain isn’t great for sightseeing. But it’s perfect for my kinda sightseeing. Thinking on it, I don’t really do much sight - seeing. I am at home in museums and art gallery type places. And tbh, I’m not a religious person so temples and churches get cursory glances from me and mainly for the architecture. Do you know the difference between a shrine and a temple - physically and spiritually?
So what did I do in Kyoto - first “day” - when will tourists realise that a ‘day’ isn’t really a full day by the time you arrive and get booked in most of the day is gone. When I see those ridiculous itineraries on TikTok etc that have 5 to-do things—arrggh. You feel inadequate and stressed. And I think they’re mainly bs drawn from a list of other people’s to do list. Anyhow - Kyoto is a big fucking city and if you manage to get 2/3 things done then congrats to you.So below is my lazy arse way around Kyoto - remember I have been here several times and was here for 2 weeks, 6 months ago.
Thursday - afternoon wet - so undercover shopping it was. I bought a pair of Spingles at Teramachi —not a pair I’d planned. My white sneakers are dying - another tip for travel: wear an old comfy pair of shoes, wear them to death, throw away and replace with a locally-made new pair. Spingles are made in Japan from kangaroo leather so I feel doubly virtuous.
Teramachi is an undercover shopping street that’s been added to Nishiki Markets - used to be a fishmonger alley selling fresh sea produce.Few of those stalls exist now.It was crammed with tourists - no surprise - who feel they can stop and chatter or take photos or just block a very narrow alley way. Why is it that people are so unaware of the space they inhabit? One guy threw his arm up to point out something and nearly hit me in the face. As Bill calls, it the mall phalanx - families led by male - with wife 2 steps behind and children clustered around her.
When did shopping become a family activity? No wonder small children throw tantrums - I would too. Can’t one person stay home and ‘take care’ of the kids who would much rather be doing something else - but that’s a Generation Jones view.
After browsing Hands (a great dept store to visit if you’re ever in Shibuya too) and a few other shops - I found a donut place selling Harry Potter donuts.
After 16k steps my arse was killing me - showing me how little my glutes have been doing in the past month.
Friday - perfect day for Kyocera Art Museum - drizzly = not too much to get wet but enough to wanna be indoors. The museum is in a beautifully restored art deco building. There were two main exhibitions - they don’t seem to have a permanent one. A bit expensive - all up about AUD50 for entrance to both. The first was Japanese scrolls and paintings (Nihonga) inspired by poetry - sounds boring but was exquisitely curated and the paintings were ‘dream-like’ - all mist and seasonal. The second was of Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s ukiyoe - block prints - they were fantastic but there was no English labelling nor was there an English audio guide. So I was pretty pissed at first and glowered at the images. To be fair, there were labels but as if to punish English readers they were in the tiniest print. Anyway, I came to really enjoy the pictures so much I spent more time than I thought I would. They were really funny and some were super “gothic’.
Loved it. Of course, I now discover the next exhibit is one I’d really like to see - luckily Osaka is only 1 hr train ride away so I’ll try to come back and see it later this week. And I promised myself I won’t be pissed if there is no English.
Saturday - was a sunny day so I got up super early and trammed it to the Bamboo Forrest. I love the Randen tram - it’s one of the main reasons I stay in Ms Hotel - it’s just opposite. For 250Yen about $2 - It’s a lovely 30 minute journey. Air conditioned and not too crowded. I listened to a podcast about Dolly Parton. So I’m always going to equate Arashimaya with Coat of Many Colours, and The Bridge (one of her sad ass songs that you must listen to).
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| Cute - hey? |
The rain had the not-so-fun effect of making the ground soggy and steps potentially slippery 0 given my recent fall, I decided to be conservative about my walk and after 1/12
hours I headed back to the tram.
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