Friday April 22, 2011
Memoirs of a Geisha…and Kyoto
I had a bit of a restless night of sleeping with bad body aches and joint pain. My friend’s daughter has been ill with a fever and cold so am wondering if I got a little bit of something from her. Now you can all laugh at me but I am actually really paranoid that I have dengue fever!!!! From Bangladesh….I exhibit no signs of a cold but my body is so sore and I am so very tired. I slept for ten hours the night before and woke up tired and needing to urge myself on to get out of bed and dressed ready for the day. I had planned to head on a local train with my friend’s wife to the small and quaint nearby city of Kyoto by local train. It had been nearly 5 years since her last visit there and she wanted to visit a particularly popular temple…of course, I welcomed her wanting to come with open arms. She asked her mother to come over to babysit while we went on our outing. It is so fun practicing Japanese with Yorioko. She is an absolute delight and I know will thrive in Australia when her and the family make the planned move down under next year. Together, we learn each other’s culture and language with the translating dictionary ready at hand. I am so excited for her. The train took around 1 hour to get to and as we got out of the station were greeted with light rain – my first in Japan.
Walking down the streets, I could tell the city was a well visited spot by tourists and locals alike. There are many many temples and shrines throughout the city and the one that Yorioko wanted to visit was one of the most popular that overlooks the city. One particular street we walked down was well known for geisha houses and I was fortunate enough to see quite a few “Meikos” around. The difference I learned is that “meiko” simply wears the traditional dress and make up and a “geisha” dresses and performs all the traditional skills.
I was surprised that there were sooooo many different aged school children around (wearing their cute uniforms). Yorioko said that they were most probably visiting from various parts of Japan all over the country. Now with the Shinkansen (bullet train) that is no surprise! The rain got heavier as the day wore on but we continued walking up towards the temple passing many local stores selling traditional pickled vegetables, green tea and geisha dolls. Each day I also get to try new Japanese foods made helpful with Yorioko there. Today I tried a steamed vegetable Manju flour bun. Very tasty and served with green tea. In fact, all places you eat at will always give you a clean hand towel to wipe down your face and hands, as well as a glass of water or green tea! I love it!
The temple was very crowded with heavy foot traffic mainly of school children. I continued enjoying taking photos of the students posing for photos since I find their uniforms adorable and their well known poses with a peace hand sign fun to capture on camera. The shrine had holy water that came out of a well which you could wash your hands with. I wanted to take Yorioko to lunch in Kyoto but we had to get back home in time so her mother could get to her work (Japanese restaurant) on time to prepare the food for the night’s business. I ended up getting some ramen noodles and sushi on the way home for us to eat, but bear in mind that their ramen selection is phenomenal and sushi quality probably better than ours in stores like a “7 Eleven”. We got home around 3 pm for a late lunch and I was so tired again that I showered and slept for 3 more hours – my body still aching. I woke around 8pm to watch some tv than slept again for the night. My plan the next day was to wake early (7am!) and head out to the main station to catch the bullet train to Hiroshima a day’s adventure.
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