Arigato Sushi
Inspired by the sushi bar I ate at on my second night In kyoto.. mmm I can still taste the flat fish, octopus and eel ones!!
Hmm so where was I? Yup, my last day In kyoto was probably the most hectic. I had reached my hostel late night (after stuffing my face with eel et al). The first few days had been sponsored by the conference so I was staying in the hip hotel but now I was back to my Phd (ie zero) finances and decided to move into a backpacker's hostel on the other side of the station. From outside the place (J -Hopper's international hostel) looked close to a disaster. It's a 4 storeyed narrow buidling no frills only rooms! But the man at the counter with his big smile made me feel very welcome and the cute had-drawn maps of all (cheap) things and places that matter added to my happiness! I took off my shoes (as is the rule there) and trudged up the 3 flights of stair (no elevators) to my 6- bed girls dorm. The dorm was quite crowded but I liked the common rooms, kitchen and the cute signs, pics and posters all around. The best part of staying in a hostel is that you are forced to meet people - so I did and in 5minutes i had chatted up with a British girl and a Scottish guy who agreed to accompany me to Nara the next day.
So Nara it was. Nara was the ancient Imperial capital until the capital moved to Kyoto and has many World heritage temples and teh famous Nara park. I was scared we may not find all the places since we didnt have a map but it';s hard to miss anything in Nara esp if you go when a truck-ful of school kids are also visiting - you just get herded to the right places along with the crowd! The best part about Nara are the deer that roam around not just freely but almost aggressively. If you dont feed them they come and butt you with their funny horns till you have to! ENter a temple and there under the Budhdha would be a lone deer resting!
We were too broke to go into all the temples but we did manage to see Todaiiji the temple with the largest Buddha statue, the tunnel in the pillar and the Heal all God (app'ly if you touch his body part and then the corresponding part in your body - your ailment there gets cured!) I didn't really follow the instruction too well - so ended up touching his knees although it was my head that was aching... Ah well!
Hmm so where was I? Yup, my last day In kyoto was probably the most hectic. I had reached my hostel late night (after stuffing my face with eel et al). The first few days had been sponsored by the conference so I was staying in the hip hotel but now I was back to my Phd (ie zero) finances and decided to move into a backpacker's hostel on the other side of the station. From outside the place (J -Hopper's international hostel) looked close to a disaster. It's a 4 storeyed narrow buidling no frills only rooms! But the man at the counter with his big smile made me feel very welcome and the cute had-drawn maps of all (cheap) things and places that matter added to my happiness! I took off my shoes (as is the rule there) and trudged up the 3 flights of stair (no elevators) to my 6- bed girls dorm. The dorm was quite crowded but I liked the common rooms, kitchen and the cute signs, pics and posters all around. The best part of staying in a hostel is that you are forced to meet people - so I did and in 5minutes i had chatted up with a British girl and a Scottish guy who agreed to accompany me to Nara the next day.
So Nara it was. Nara was the ancient Imperial capital until the capital moved to Kyoto and has many World heritage temples and teh famous Nara park. I was scared we may not find all the places since we didnt have a map but it';s hard to miss anything in Nara esp if you go when a truck-ful of school kids are also visiting - you just get herded to the right places along with the crowd! The best part about Nara are the deer that roam around not just freely but almost aggressively. If you dont feed them they come and butt you with their funny horns till you have to! ENter a temple and there under the Budhdha would be a lone deer resting!
We were too broke to go into all the temples but we did manage to see Todaiiji the temple with the largest Buddha statue, the tunnel in the pillar and the Heal all God (app'ly if you touch his body part and then the corresponding part in your body - your ailment there gets cured!) I didn't really follow the instruction too well - so ended up touching his knees although it was my head that was aching... Ah well!
A couple of school kids grabbed my "white" friends and wanted to :interveiw" them and learn some english. Ofcourse, my brown face was a deterrant and they frowned at me with obvious disbelief when my Scottish friend told them I knew better English than him! They reluctantly said "hello" and my "hello" and "what's your name" legitimised my "english-ness" and they allowed me to click a few snaps with them!
Got back from Nara late aftrenoon and was exhausted after being on my feet since 7 am but then I knew it was my last day in Kyoto so I stopped being a princess, grabbed a quick sandwich and boarded a train to Inari. Inari was not really on my itenary but my british room mate had told me it was un-missable. Inari is 2 stations away from Kyoto on any JR train on the Kyoto-Nara line and seriously IS un-missable!
Ya, it's not world heritage (and hence it's free!) but do check it out. Unlike Kyoto and Nara, Inari is a small place and not touristy. The station itself is amazingly quaint and the temple is conveniently located just across the station gate.
The high points of this temple are the hundreds of bright orange gates with balck and gold lanterns, the maze -like layout, the 10000s of stairs up a hill, with a stream running along side and the top with a brilliant view of kyoto and the setting sun. Could you ask for more? Ofcourse I went crazy with my digi cam and clicked hundreds of pics and movies and in my excitement ended up getting lost in the maze. There are maps to guide you back to the right path but in Japanese so...! I was all cheery and adventurous for the first 3 hours (and 15 miles) of my trek but once the sun set and the gates started casting funny shadows and i realized i was the only one walking aorund in a 700 BC shrine in a place where no one knew my language - I started panicking. Thankfully a German tourist appeared and saved me! In spite of the last few minutes' trauma - the trek was more than worth it!
posted by Amrita Pande @ 3:15 AM
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