7 days in Kyoto

I've made it to Kyoto.  Instead of writing this up last night just went to bed around 6:30, qnd now I've had a good 12 hours of sleep and feel great.  Yesterday I woke up at popeyes around 5:30 to a lot of very noisy guys packing up.  Could here grumbling from some various booths because whoever was packing was dropping heavy stuff, clanging items, unzipping and stuffing stuff in their bag, 0 f's given to the people around them.  It worked out ok because I had forgotten to submit my work timecard when I left last week and Brody messaged me about it.  Sorry!  At any rate I got caught up on that.

I checked out at 7 and still had time to kill until the post office opened at 9.  The place to go was McDonalds.  There breakfast menu looks about the same but with minor tweaks like having lettuce on many breakfast sandwiches.  I got the bacon egg sandwich and sat for a bit.  Only noticable difference was the bacon was a single thickish slab.  

I headed over to the post office just after they opened.  The woman inside was suuuuper helpful and this was the first time I used google translate in person for a few sentences like "I need to send some items to America and I need a box". I got through it with a few mishaps that at least entertained them including filling out the instruction page of the form and saying, instead of "There is not a box", I said "There is not a tomb".  Technically that was correct there was not a tomb.  I sent out my tent, sleeping pad, and sleeping bag, keeping the bag liner for extra warmth at i-cafes in tokyo.  It was around 55 bucks.  And I used them 1 time to save abiut that much so I'll call it a wash.

Afterwards it was still pretty early and my checkin at the hostel in Kyoto was at 4, so I killed some time by going back to DenDen town to play some games.  I spent some time on a claw grabbing game for an anime figure, but gave up after 6 or 7 attempts.  I also played Taiko drum master on the rythm game floor section.  Its like dance dance except you're playing a tradition taiko drum.  

I then headed over to another train station to go to Kyoto.  This was by another train company, the JR line.  It had actual cushioned seats which was nice.  Took about an hour to get there, and on the way we passed what must have been the meiji candy company because suddenly there was a giant chocolate bar.  We also passed a suntory whiskey distillery but I didn't have time to smag a good picture.

After getting to Kyoto I was pretty hungry so I google mapped places to eat with good reviews.  The first one I went to turned out to be more of a souvenir and bento box place.  I
e. you'd  buy the hot bento and take it home with you.  So instead I looked for another place and Lo! there was a high rated sushi conveyor belt restaraunt.  It had a line which was also a good sign.  The way it works is you sit in a stool around a bar.  In the middle the sushi chefs prepare various kinds of sushi and put them on dishes on the conveyor belt, usually 2 pieces per dish.  If you want something you just grab it and eat it, keeping the plate.  The plates have different meanings.  There's the normal plate which is 160yen.  Shiny blue plates are specialty items at 360yen.  Solid blue plates have wasabi already on them, solid red do not.  You have a cup to add a green tea oacket to and a jot water dispenser in front of you as well as soy sauce, wasabi, and a menu.  You can also ask the chefs to make you something in particular, but I didn't.

I started with a specialty plate of extra fatty tuna, which was delicious.  Then I proceeded to have squid, salmon with onion, tuna wraps, shrimp tempura sushi, and regular tuna.  The big suprise was the onion and salmon.  I didn't know what it was when I grabbed it and the dollop of sauce in the middle turned out to be butter.  It was delicious.  Total was just under 10 bucks, pretty amazing considering how much I ate including the specialty item.  It was a great experience, would eat again.

I checked google maps to see the distance to the hostel.  It was 40 min away by walking but maps expects you to walk at 3mph the whole time so I figured cloaer to an hour.  Just outside the station I stopped at a pharmacy for more advil. I've been taking them occasionally now for what I've google diagnosed as tendonitus above my toe. The treatment is rest and ibuprofen.  While I was in there I was really temped to get some Sailor Moon cough drops that were shaped like the moon crest, but since I didn't have a cough I decided not to.

It was a relatively straight shot to the hostel that took me on a back alley through houses and some small stores.  The entire city so far is gorgeous, including the houses, which many look like they wouldn't have been out of place hundreds of years ago, except for the power lines criss crossing above.  After about an hour I got to Hitsuji-an hostel about 3 hours early.  I opened the door and said Konnichiwa questioningly.  I got a tentative konnichiwa? Back and this dude about 35ish-40 popped his head out sideways.  I told him I had a reservation and he was like ohhh...Is Japanese ok? I told him a little.  

So his name is Nori and he also speaks much better english than I do Japanese, and he's super awesome.  During our conversation he'd correct my Japanese if I said something weird or strange sounding.  It put me much more at ease using vocab or phrases I hadn't before.  While I was checking in he was frantically cleaning upstairs.  He came back and was like "where are you going today" and I said well I was going to stay here today, I'm super tired.  He said "you should go and come back, the rooms not ready for sleeping yet".  I asked him what he recommends and he whips out thos tourist map and starts ciecling all the cool things around and listing them.  He pulls out a pink highlighter and says, this is where Sakura blossoms have been spotted, theyre at maybe 50 percent bloom.  I asked if he goes flower watching, Hanami, and he says "no thats something you usually do with friends, and  I dont have any friends so...yeah" which cracked me up.  Gives me the map.  I say cool, any good places to eat? He pulls out a second map with stores and starts listing and circling them, crossing off the ones that have since closed.  Shows me the bus lines.  Super funny.

Aftwrwards he showed me the shower, bathroom, sink, fridge and food I can buy if I leave money there, the laundry room.  He said normally he charges 500 yen but since Im there 7 days I can use it but to just let him know.

He shows me the bed and the closet storage and he says ok thats it thats everything, and walks away.

So I left to go to Nijojo Castle.  Its 2 blocks away and is the former residence of the Shogun.  It shows the different areas of reception for the shogun and has his quarters and sitting room.  One very neat thing is the wooden walkway around the entire residence is built with "nightingale" floor joists.  These are metal rotating joists that are built to intentionally squeak when stepped on.  What this means is anyone ontruder or unknown person would be squeaking floorboards as they moved regardless of sneakiness.  As the groups walked through there was  lit of chirping going on.  As we got out of the castle and started walking around it I could see a crowd up ahead next tothe first cherry blossom tree I'd seen blooming.  I later found out that yesterday was officially declared the start of the season, as it was the highest temp of the year so far and trees were starting to bloom.  There were a total of 5 blooming trees I found out, and tents were being set up to sell ice cream and sake on the castle grounds.  They have cherry blossom watching there and night shows where they light up the petals.  I'll have to find a time to check it out.  Although as Nori said, no friends to do it with, so maybe I'll just grab ice cream and watch from a distance.  The river here is lined with the trees, so I'll head over there before I leave, and hooefully get a good view.

Finally I stopped at a ramen place before heading back.  It was Mangakyo Ramen where they have a specialty Kyoto Ramen with thicker meat I think.  It was just these 2 younger guys running it who were super polite.  I tried my best to slurp (just the polite thing to do). After I headed back to take a shower and get some sleep.

Also Kyoto is called "the walking city" on the map and I see why.  Almost everything is in range by foot.  There are a lot of western tourists here too amd almost everything as far as food and guide signs is written in english as well.