Kyoto is a fairly pretty little place dominated by temples and gardens. So it was nice to be able to hire a bicycle and ride around the whole place in one day and catch a glimpse of most of the more prolific temples. There were also plenty of hidden gardens to be found. One major disappointment however was the museum of modern art. 2 floors and the bottom floor was dominated by (literally) blocks of wood. Near the museum was some kind of convention going on involving those crazy harajuku types. Ironically there was probably more art to be found in their wild goth/punk fashion styles than there was in the actual museum.
So temples and gardens were pretty much the run of the day. However I finally hit a wall and realised that maybe I didn't need walk around the whole of Kyoto everyday getting hot and worn out. That wall was Sarah. She was half Vietnamese, half Londoner who had been on the road (so to speak) for 11 months and 3 weeks. Her around the world ticket was coming to an end and after travelling through almost all of Asia, as well as Australia and New Zealand she had come to Japan for her final week. She too seemed saturated with Asian culture. We played cards until 6 in the morning and then whiled the day away watching films. It felt good to just relax and indulge in a little Englishness. I realized that all of my holidays hadn't involved much relaxing, everyday had consisted of getting a (sometimes) complicated bus or train somewhere and then walking around for hours on end. So it was nice to just kick back and relax.
Spanish, English, Australian, Half English Half Vietnamese. Throughout the day new people joined in with our movie watching fest. The Spanish guy was especially entertaining, he was the archetypal Spanish man except with a small quirky edge and a love of English trip-hop! Also the couple from Singapore were brilliant. Teaching me how to play Chinese poker and their English was adorable (sorry I didn't want to use that word but it really was...)
BakPak hostel in Kyoto is a "by name and by nature" kind of affair. Most of the people staying there are hardcore travellers who have been going from place to place just as the wind took them. The people I met had been going for at least 9 months, or about to start 12 month stints and that made my existence in Japan seem somewhat... sheltered.
On the first night a small party on the balcony took place and I finally gave in to my "white man aversion" disorder and engaged with the group of 2 Australians, 3 Scottish, 2 Welsh 2 Japanese and 1 Korean. Almost instantly the conversation turned to toilet humour, smut and enough swearing to make a nun weep. And it didn't really stop, after spending 5 months in Japan, meeting people has been a very cordial affair with very soft topics of conversation. But as soon as you get a bunch of 'whiteys' together it just goes down the plughole. I am not necessarily saying that it is a bad thing but it is interesting to observe.
So the first half was off to a good start but the second half held even more surprises!!!
2 comments:
As always inspiring to read your blog - thanks for your perseverance in keeping it going. I looked up your hostel on the net -it said it was £10.50 to stay there tonight -seems pretty reasonable. Is it expensive to eat? if you want to prepare food yourself, is there recognisable produce to buy i.e you might hae some idea as to how to prepare it?Is sushi readily available . is it like 'sandwiches' or is it only available for the better off? Is fruit readily available. Jess is now vegan, how will a vegan fare in Japan?
It is very reasonable. Japan is not as expensive as everyone percieves. It is merely one of the most expensive countries in Asia. I think food is generally the same price as England. Even a good restaurant meal will only set you back 1000 to 2000 yen (£5 - £10). Rice is eaten with every meal except breakfast and sushi is normally not ready made but preared fresh. As for vegans there are a lot of tofu dishes and even a tofu restaurant chain. I think that is everything... oh and loads of fruit (their apples are almost double the size of ours!!!)
Hope that helps.
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