Wednesday February 5, 2003 ....
Today I had some time to explore the City of Kyoto to see what it is all about.
While the city has maybe only 500,000 people as a halfway educated guess. Kyoto it
would appear is the second most popular tourist destination after Tokyo. Though not the first
capital of Japan, Kyoto is recognized as being the Old Capital city of Japan. This was
before the government picked up and moved to Tokyo (formerly know as Edo) in the mid
1800’s. Kaori grew up, has family and friends here and she really likes living here. It
was my impression that she is not interested in moving anywhere else. She said Kyoto is
big enough and cozy enough for me. If she needed more excitement she can always go
to nearby megalopolis of Osaka. I must confess that this is a difficult concept for me to
grasp. Being the nomadic sort myself, having moved quite a bit around America already.
It is strange for me to realize that I am most likely not the norm. I assume everybody
wants to and should pick up and live elsewhere to see the world. But I guess many people
are happy and content living where they grew up. Fortunately for Kaori I thought that
Kyoto was one of the top 4 cities that I visited.
So off I went on my walk about... I concentrated on shopping and seeing the everyday
modern culture of Japan. I walked past another nearby Toyoko Inn that I could have
stayed at also and then I found the Two major covered shopping streets which were off of
the main street that I was on. After doing the trusty Mr. Donut for breakfast I mulled
around the wide variety of shops seeing a variety of Old souvenir stores to Hip modern
clothes stores, Army navy clothes -- My God those German army green camouflage jackets
really do travel all over the world ha ha ha maybe they don’t even make them for the
army but only to export to surplus supply stores around the world. I came across Stores
that sold only Buddhist shrines / alters, some stores that sold Cheap trinkets and others
that sold better upscale items. Head shop types of intentional world market stores with
reggae blaring. and restaurants scattered here and there. these two parallel street really
had a nice blend of interesting stores for the tourist crowd. Maybe 5 - 6 times in my
wanderings in these streets of shops I would come across temples and shrines just
interspersed in between the shops. I meandered a little of the beaten path of streets and I
found what I was really looking for....
Having a little bit of a Graphic Design sense I think I really appreciated the occasional
paper goods store I would come across.. I think the Japanese are masters at taking such
a simple idea like paper and really making fantastic creations by mixing patterns and
folding the paper certain ways. I really liked the paper store in Kyoto that I visited and I
probably spent 45 minutes looking around and I dropped some money there buying gifts
too --- it was really cool. As I Found my way back to the two major shopping side
streets I also came across a gallery that sold really interesting modern reasonably
affordable wood sculptures I appreciated that also. But then I heard the Colonel calling.
and I recalled seeing a KFC tucked away. I Enjoyed Kentucky’s finest and After about
4 - 5 hours I emerged back on the main street.
In a previous map I saw a Kyoto craft center that I wanted to investigate. SO I worked
my way down the street towards that. I Crosse a river and I say an interesting structure
and took a picture I guess it is a famous Kabuki performance center. I found the Craft
center and It was Closed. Apparently Wednesday were the 1 day a week they weren’t
open -- go figure. I looked at the end of the main street and I saw a big temple. I figured
Well Kyoto is famous for all of its temples so lets say we checked one out at least. Being
the lay person uneducated simple Sort. I noticed that this temple compound had a lot of
orange themes going on so I call it the orange temple. It was nice inside and interesting
to notice many of the individual shrines that were there. I noticed a woman going from
shrine to shrine praying I suppose and clapping her hands together now and then. wile I
was there at about 3:30 - 4 PM a quick rain storm / sprinkle passed. I saw a raven in the
trees close to one of the temple buildings. I tried to capture an Edgar Allen Poe / six feet
under type of picture but I think the sky was too overcast and I don’t think it came out
too well ha ha ha. after I took 12 pictures I decided to head back towards the hotel.
As I back tracked I noticed a side street that was interesting and just different than most
of the normal side streets. so I walked down it to investigate, then I saw her! I had
become accustomed to seeing the shop keepers wear Kimono type clothes and I had
actually seen 2 or 3 women on the streets wearing a real Kimono. But here in front of me
approaching was a real life Geisha in full attire Kimono, white face, and I think they
wear wigs too. She spoke a few words in Japanese to someone else on the street ( general
greeting). I said once again Sumimassen shashin desu ka -- excuse me can I take a
picture? But by the time I could whip my small camera out of my jacket pocket she
kept on going quickly, I got 1 last glance and poof she disappeared like a leprechaun. I
gave her the benefit of the doubt rationalizing that it was nippy out and she didn’t want
to hang out so another god damn tourist can take my picture. It would have been nice to
have gotten the shot but I have seen many pictures in travel guides and calendars. I
walked to the end of the street where I found a temple complex that was while and I took
some pictures there for 15 minutes. I headed back to the main street stopping to take a
picture of a small pond outside of a restaurant. I looked up in the distance and I saw
another geisha walking ahead of me. She rounded the corner onto the busier main street
and I followed maybe 10 second behind. poof she also disappeared with no sign ha ha ha.
I made it back to the hotel by 6 and Kaori met me there by 6:30 PM We were going to
meet with her best friend (who has an interest in pastries also) for dinner. Satoyo worked at
a nearby bank and with the help of Kaori’s cell phone we all connected and we had
dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant. The girls and I got a pitcher of beer and a lot of
Chinese food. We had a great time talking about many different things. I mentioned that I
had seen the two Geishas earlier in the afternoon. They said that I was lucky as they are
not easy to see. I read that there used to be 50 - 60,000 Geishas in Japan but now there are
only 7 - 8,000 of them. Kyoto I have read, is probably the most famous area to find
them. I mentioned that many Americans think Geishas are prostitutes. but I knew that they
were singers and entertainers who are highly educated. I pondered that while I think it is a
noble profession to continue why would a modern girl want to be a geisha unless they made
a lot of money entertaining? they said it is considered a honorable profeession highly
regarded. Satoyo mentioned that her younger sister wanted to become a Geisha at one
point but their family grew up outside of Kyoto and the parents nixed the idea. Kaori didn’t
even know this. We also talked about Kimonos. Satoyo did not own one but he had worn
one at Kaori’s place previously. she was unaware however that Kaori’s mother teaches the
Kimono ceremony.
After dinner we walked a few blocks back to my hotel and I showed them my web page
with pastry items. they posed together for some pictures we hugged good be and they left.
I thought they were really cool girls but there was no connection otherwise.
