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Day 5, Monday: Kyoto Again
So it was only on returning to Kyoto the previous day that I realized how close I was staying to the old imperial palace and I thought this would be a good day to see it. It turned out to be in the center of a very large park that had once been part of a much larger area belonging to various nobles and high ranking people. The palace itself was monstrously huge, covered a large area, and had a great big wall around it. Sadly, the palace itself did not open to tourists so I had to content myself with a long walk around the wall. I did get to see a little old lady gardener painstakingly weeding out little bits of grass growing between the pebbles in the paths around the palace. Since she wasn't wearing any kind of uniform or anything that made it look like she worked for anyone there I got the impression that this old lady did this in her free time and I thought it was a little sad that she bothered at all, but also a little touching that she cared so much.
The rest of the day wasn't much to write about. I did a little more window shopping, bought a couple of fashion magazines and some manga, looked at the artbooks including the Ghibli ones for the movies I hadn't seen yet, and generally took it easy after all the walking I'd been doing up to this point.
I did get a bit of a surprise in the evening when I stopped by one of the movie theatres that are often on the top floors of department buildings. I'd figured I would use the time watching a movie to relax and maybe have something to eat. I wasn't all that interested in seeing any movies that were showing.
Then I saw this:
And my heart did a little dance. It was the most recent Studio Ghibli movie, Kokuriko-zaka kara. I had no idea that this movie was even playing. It was also one of the movies they had artbooks on display for in the store I was at earlier, which I had thought was strange since it hadn't made sense to me why they would release the art for a movie before the movie itself.
I was a little worried when I saw that it had been directed by Miyazaki Goro since he had done such an uninspired job with Tales of Earthsea. Without going into too much detail, the movie is about a seaside town of Japan (set in the 50s or 60s?) and the families of a few students at a local school. Kind of slice-of-life material, and an adaptation of a manga from what I understand. The movie started off a bit slow, though this would probably be due to my not-at-all-perfect Japanese so I'm sure I missed quite a few things, but it got better as it got going. Overall I was pretty satisfied by the end.
Since I was on a bit of a Ghibli high I went and bought Arietty, which had already come out on DVD. The great thing about Ghibli's releases is that they come with English subs and dubs (except no dub on this one as it's not been dubbed yet, not that mind) so there's only the pesky region locking to overcome, or not, if you go the blu-ray route since America and Japan are in the same blu-ray region. (b'')b
Day 6, Tuesday: Return to Osaka
Having not been completely satisfied with the amount of money I had been spending on this trip so far I decided I needed to go back to a certain store I found in Osaka this day and shell out another couple hundred dollars on clothing.
Before I even got that far I had to stop in at a little store I saw which had a giant poster of this image:
Under which this video was playing on loop on a giant flat screen
The sign said this artist was being produced by Nakata Yasutaka (of Capsule and Perfume fame) so I was pretty interested. I guess this is one of those instances where advertising pays off because I wouldn't have even known to look for this if there hadn't been an 8-foot tall poster telling me about it.
So, back to that one store. I bought more things there (though I already posted the pictures of most of them so there's nothing new to show) and the lady who was there the first time was there again and I'm sure I saw her smile when I came in again. Not sure what that smile meant, but I am sure she was happy to take all my money again. I actually bought more the second time after I was sure the sizes fit me, though I'm still a little disappointed that I couldn't find a single petticoat in my size. I don't know why they were all so small when they clearly had other things in the store which were in larger sizes. Maybe there was a run on them, I dunno, but anyway, I left with more heavy bags weighing me down.
Only other thing I can remember from that day was stopping in a little pastry shop called Chococro, ordering a cream and chocolate crossaint, and having something like 10 glasses of water since their cups were tiny, tiny things and I had a big thirst to quench.
Day 7, Wednesday: Lost in Translation in Kyoto
Probably this was the worst day of the entire trip, which is really sad because it was the last full day I had. It was meant to be the day I got to spent time with the friend I came to visit. She had so much going on in preparation for the wedding that there was no way I was going to see her before and that's why I planned my trip so I'd arrive just before the wedding and with some time afterward.
Since there were still two other foreign guests like myself hanging around we decided that for this day we'd do touristy things and go to one of the
But did this day ever start off badly. The day before the lot of them all came down with colds, or the flu, or something and they were all half dead at 9 in the morning when we were supposed to leave. I ate some breakfast I picked up at the konbini the day before and waited until 10 or so when they shambled out of their rooms and we headed off to the temple. Or so I thought. It seems that the two friends hadn't eaten breakfast so we had to get them fed and they insisted on looking around the area for a cafe. Then they took forever deciding what the eat and, cutting this part of the story short, we arrive at the temple around noon when we should have been there at 9:45-10.
It is bloody hot and we have a bit of walking if we want to see anything. It's a gorgeous area with hills and mountains and a river running along the little town the temples sit it. They even have a boat rentals so you can go rowing. So we're walking across this large bridge heading toward the center of the little town when the two others say they want to go for a boat ride. My friend and I want to see the temples and things so we decide to split up. That was a very bad idea, though we didn't realize it at the time. We agree to meet up at the ice cream store on the other side of the bridge at 3 and go our separate ways.
So we go and walk around the temples, looking at the pretty things and taking it easy. 3 o'clock rolls around and we go to get ice cream and pick up the others and guess what? They aren't there. We wait a little and then start to worry a little. We'd left two people who spoke no Japanese, who were Chinese and so blended into the crowd, and, on top of everything, couldn't swim. On top of this, the only phone we had died so we couldn't contact them. (Note to self: never, never ever go traveling without a phone again.) Thus began the two hour Hunt for the Lost Travelers. We go to the boat rental place and the guy says they just left. Where did they go, we ask. Oh, that way, he says. Great. We run around and around. We even try to find a store that sells phone batteries, but no go. So I suggested we try the station where we arrived since it was a place they knew, even if they didn't know how they got there, and there would be a police box nearby... just in case. D:
And to keep this from getting too long, they were there, standing around waiting. They said they had been at the ice cream place at 3, but in the back. If you're going to meet up with someone, why wouldn't you sit where they can see you!?! Anyway, it's already past 5 at this point. I'm hot and annoyed. I had meant to do some last minute shopping this day because I had expected this temple trip to take only until 1 or 2 o'clock at the latest. There were gifts I need to buy for people and some stores I wanted to see and I really hated feeling like I wasn't going to get to do any of that.
The worst part about this was that our two lost travelers didn't even feel a tiny bit embarrassed and didn't even offer the smallest apology. And they wanted to go find some expensive sushi place to eat dinner. I thought: hmm, wander around for an hour with some people who've already been such an inconvenience and then pay lots of money while I wait another hour for them to decide what they want to eat by which point all the stores will be closed? No. So I said: "Great you're safe. I gotta go."
Now, the store I want to see is called Baby, The Stars Shine Bright and it's a more high-end lolita fashion store. I've got the address, the hours it's open until, and the nearest subway stop. I make a little bit of a rush to get there and arrive with about an hour to spare. Not as much time as I'd prefer, but still good. When I get to the building (which, coincidentally has an HMV I want to look through to get some music I couldn't find elsewhere) I find that it's closed. It's the one day of the month where they close it.
With feet aching, my heart downtrodden, and probably a sunburn, I go back. The only consolation I have is that the same store has a shop in San Francisco which I can visit and that I can at least order music over the internet. But still. THIS IS NOT HOW I WANTED MY LAST DAY TO GO.
Day 8, Thursday: Flying Back
Not too much to say about this day. I'd spent the night packing up my things and got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. My plane was a little late, which is unusual for Japan, but it was only 5 minutes and I didn't worry.
I had to fly to Haneda airport in Tokyo first and then take a bus to Narita airport which is about an hour outside of Tokyo, in Chiba prefecture. Annoying, but I knew about it and I've done it before and I had 4 hours between flights so I wasn't worried.
What I hadn't expected was that while coming in for a landing in Haneda our plane would suddenly pull up and start circling over Tokyo for almost an hour. One of the flight attendants said that Haneda had closed, but we eventually did land. Only we didn't taxi to our gate like we normally would. They just stopped on a runway and brought out buses to pick us up. I suspect that there'd been an earthquake, but I'm still not sure. That would account for everything stopping.
So I kind of had to rush through everything else to make sure I made it to my overseas flight out of Narita, which was a slight shame because the baggage claim area had an area in one corner which, of all things, would give you a flying Pikachu for your game if you connected to the wifi there.
My flight back to San Francisco wasn't very good. American service sucks compared to Japanese service. The guy who made announcements during the flight didn't seem to have a script and wouldn't shut up. "That sound you heard means the seatbelt light is on. This means you need to return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts. We turn this on when we hit a patch of turbulence, or when our radar detects some turbulence up ahead. Sometimes other planes tells us about upcoming turbulence..." and on and on. My god, are Americans so unable to follow instructions with this much explanation? On a Japanese flight they just make the seatbelt chime, turn the seatbelt light one, and say "Please fasten your seatbelts." I was sitting next to a Japanese woman and I could tell she was not happy about how they were doing things.
So.... that's my trip. That'll be the last time I'm in Japan for quite a while unless I happen to find a pot of gold under my bed.
