I need to learn Japanese....

Yesterday we woke up at 5am to catch the 6am train to Kyoto. After recognizing the problems in trying to maneuver eight people around a foreign country, Jason and I split ways from our group once we were in Kyoto and headed into the city. First off, the Kyoto train station is an architectural marvel. I felt I had stepped into the future. Once I was able to pick up my jaw, we went to the visitor center to find a Japanese ryokan. A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn, which is completely different than any western hotel. After speaking for a few minutes with the friendly staff, we were booked and on our way. Kyoto was very different from the districts of Tokyo. It was very quaint with small, narrow streets lined with traditional homes and hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Periodically the streets would lead you to Shinto and Buddhist shrines. It reminded me of small towns in Europe (except for Buddhas, there are virgin marys).

Train station:



Here is one of the temples we stumbled upon. Unfortunately it rained all day, but it didn't take away from our appreciation of the beautiful architecture.



We couldn't check into our ryokan until three so we spent a few hours walking the streets. We stopped in at a delicious restaurant that specialized in sobe noodles, a picturesque coffee shop, and tons of shops. I bought some postcards and stickers for the elementary school I am doing Vicarious Voyage with, as well as a BEAUTIFUL ___ for my parents (they can't know yet, and since they are reading this neither can you!). We also went into what we believe is a gaming/casino place. These places are everywhere in Japan so we decided to try it ourselves. After getting the equivalent of $5 stuck in the machine and causing a pretty big scene when the employee physically had to remove it from the wall and bang our coin out, we sat down to play. It involves tiny steel balls. That is basically all I can tell you because we had absolutely no idea how to play or what the object of the game was. All the Japanese people were very enthralled though.





At three we headed back the ryokan and began our adventures. We were greeted by two very sweet Japanese women, who although spoke very little English, were very accommodating and enthusiastic. Once we had taken off our shoes and changed into our slippers, we were guided to our room. The room consists of a foyer area which after passing through a sliding bamboo door opens into a spacious room with bamboo mats, a table, and seat cushions.



Japanese tea, a Japanese sweet, and a comfy robe are waiting in the room when you arrive. The innkeepers then sat down with us and told us about the ryokan and asked when we would like dinner and breakfast.



After exploring our room and inn for a bit we went to the bath house. The bath house consisted of two showers and a giant wooden basin filled with steaming hot water. You had to wash off sitting down on a stool, and then you could enter the water. It was incredibly relaxing after trekking along in the rain the past couple days.

Promptly at 6:30 our eleven-course meal was served. They gave us a menu with an English translation and we were also asked to reflect upon each course after we ate it by writing down a few words about what we liked best. I didn't put a single negative, not even mediocre comment on the page. It was the best sushi, rice, fish, soup, vegetables, and whatever else there was I have ever had. After two hours, I was so full and so satisfied. Below was just our first course:

















Here is me about to eat a whole fish, yummmy!







After dinner they push away your table and take out mats and blankets from the closet and lay them in the middle of the bamboo floor. I took a video of this elaborate production so unfortunately I don't have a picture at the moment. Sleeping on a mat felt similar to camping, just in a heated hotel room with down comforters and Japanese writing on the wall. So basically it was nothing like camping.

In the morning we woke up and had a traditional Japanese breakfast. I could not tell any difference from dinner. It was quite an experience waking up to more raw fish, pickled I don't know what, and wasabi tofu.















Annecdote

2/11/2010: In Japan they either have the hole in the wall toilets (like I previously showed) or either elaborate heated seat, bedet, water fountain, music playing, noise eliminating thrones. This toilet was featured in our ryokan. I was feeling a little bit adventurous and decided to test out the many features. I pressed the button for what I assumed the bedet was and suddently came a jet of water. I had had my fill after about 2 seconds and began to search for the off button. Before turning the bedet on I did not take notice of how every button was labeled only in Japanese. I began randomly choosing buttons to turn it off. As the shooting stream of water turned into a firehose and the temperature changed from luke warm to below zero degrees I began frantically pressing every button on the side of the toilet. Water was spewing all over the bathroom, I couldn't get up because then it would spray directly into the door, and Jason was pounding on the door asking why I was screaming. Finally after about 20 button pushes later I found the stop button. Completely soaked and scarred, I realized I probably should either learn Japanese or not press buttons where I have no idea what they mean.