Sunway - before & beyond

Day: 13

Location: Shinkansen between Shin-Osaka and Hiroshima

Kyoto

As predicted Ed and I did reunite in Kyoto after a few hours and nervous train journey from Matsumoto and through Nagoya. I was not sure whether to wait at Nagoya or stick to the original plan and get to our hostel with the speed of an Amazing Race contestant. I opted for the former though it was unsuccessful. It was very difficult to find out when the train from Matsumoto came in after the one I’d been on and I left a frustrated and confused platform attendant in my wake. After making it to Kyoto I took a wrong turn out of the station, ending up half an hour away from where I needed to be. It was raining, I was lost and alone in a foreign country but I didn’t mind at all. I sang some Aloe Blacc and eventually arrived at the hostel where Eddie had been for 15 minutes having been an hour ahead.

Let me tell you, our city of churches has nothing on this town of temples. They are everywhere and we certainly didn’t see all of them in the three days we had there.

Having been the country’s capital city until 1869, Kyoto remains a cultural and religious capital of Japan to some extent. We did manage to visit the Imperial Palace (home to many emperors including Hirohito before another was built in Tokyo), both the Gold and Silver (may or may not contain actual silver) Pavilions, Ryoanji Temple, Sanjusangendo Temple, Fushimiinari-taish Shrine, Nijojo Castle and Hosomi Museum.

                              



In the ‘Artsy East End’ of town (as dubbed by Time) happened upon the Weissraum Gallery. From the street it was as the name would suggest – a white room. This room had floorboards, white of course, and some signs in Japanese as well as caution tape across the front of it. We peered in. The floorboards groaned and creaked and began to lift from the far end of the rectangular room to the front as if being pushed up and apart by invisible under-floor people. Went in through a door a little further down the street and saw the rest of the gallery.

                                           

Can you guess what it consisted of?

                                           

Indeed, another white room. This time we could go inside it though. One wall was made of material and paint rollers pressed against it, rolling own the ‘wall’ from the other side. This time it was invisible inside-the-wall people.

Attached to the gallery was a warmly lit bar with tins lining shelves towards the back and oil drums for tables. It was great to indulge in some of Kyoto’s alternative culture and without intending to, much. Indie Japanese times indeed.

On Wednesday night we met Emma and Josh from Canberra in our dorm which turned quite quickly into a great night of dinner and karaoke. I do try to refrain from public displays of song as a general rule due to a distinct lack of tone, despite my best efforts. It seemed rude not join in though, especially given the locale.

                                       

I should mention something about our accommodation in the various places we’ve been so far in that we have been most unadventurous. There is a chain called K’s Guesthouse that are conveniently located in Tokyo (x2), Hakuba, Kyoto and our next destination – Hiroshima. So consistent has our patronage of K’s been that we now have a members’ card that comes with discounts the more of their hostels we stay in. Each one that we’ve stayed in has been unique in some way although consistently clean, quiet, well located and with genuinely lovely and helpful staff. Definitely worth a look-in if you’re on your way over any time soon. http://goo.gl/PyiAA

ITINERARY UPDATE
The next two nights we will spend in Hiroshima with a day trip to Miyajima. After a tip-off from Jake and Christian, our Welsh/English-West-Australian room mates in Kyoto we will now go to Nara for a festival on Saturday night that involves setting a hill on fire. As you can imagine it was hard to convince me to go. Our rail passes will expire on Sunday so we have to be in Osaka then in order to fly out on the 30^th.



... and on the imminent university timetable: my darling Monash and its ugly cousin Allocate+ has left me with an inconvenient arrangement whereby my grand total of nine contact hours per week must be spread over four days of the week and not only that, those days are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday meaning that travel on the weekends and into the week will be restricted. Hopefully two of my lectures will be recorded and I will be able to listen to them at a convenient time thus bringing the number of days with classes to two!