36 Hours in Kyoto per The New York Times

While I highly recommend spending longer than 36 hours in Kyoto, this travel article from The New York Times highlights some of the best ways to experience the city.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/travel/25hours.html

It's time for cherry blossoms! (this time in D.C., not Tokyo)

I just read that Tokyo's cherry blossom season has officially begun. Last year, I had the fortune of timing my Japan trip to coincide with the opening (Kyoto) and closing (Tokyo) of cherry blossoms. It was such a lovely experience. The impermanence of the cherry blossom season, which appears and then vanishes within 10 days every March/April, always reminds me that life is short and should be seized and treasured. 

This year, my friend Carli invited me to visit her in D.C. to view the cherry blossoms for our National Cherry Blossom Festival. I've been on bloom watch via this site and looks like this weekend will be perfect for a visit. Carli said she's been seeing blooms here and there, so hopefully it warms up and they're all in full view soon.

I haven't been to D.C. for fun since college when my roommate and I would stay at her aunt's in Maryland and take the train in to go to our favorite museums like the Freer Gallery and the National Gallery. (I've always been a museum nerd. Most kids spent all their money on booze in college and I was the dork buying prints to frame.)

Can't wait for this weekend!

Love Letter to Japan

My favorite new song by The Bird & The Bee...

Reflections

I’m four hours into the 13-flight from Tokyo to Newark and reflecting on how to savor details and feelings from this trip. I’d like to prolong what I’ve experienced -- balance, personal growth, contentment, accomplishment, appreciation — so that come Monday after a full work day, these feelings don’t disappear like the cherry blossoms that are falling from the trees.

I’ll miss using chopsticks (even though I STILL don’t hold them properly), making fun of the people on our language tapes with Gina, random acts of kindness (presents!!!!), nods of respect, warm toilet seats, experience meals (shabu shabu, yaki-tori) and cherry blossoms. Thank god it’s getting warmer because walking outside is a beautiful thing!

As a bonus, I hope my Japan adventure has stimulated my motivation to finally finish our Asia-inspired guest room. I’d like to get back in the habit of framing pieces I’ve bought instead of shoving them in a closet until inspiration strikes at a later date. I’ve got a bunch of stuff from my D.C. trip a year ago, Bangkok in the fall and now my Japan souvenirs. Michael’s, here I come!

Ten days for this trip appears to be a perfect length. I’ve had a wonderful time with a great traveling companion, and now I’m ready to go home. I haven’t heard my husband’s voice in 10 days, and that is an eternity. I definitely have a shelf-life when traveling if he’s not with me.

When I told friends and family about my plans to visit Japan, many people wondered what the allure was for me. I hope I’ve helped to give you a flavor of the beauty, tradition and culture that drew me to visit.

Ryokan Nakajimaya in Kyoto

Gina-san and I loved the ryokan (pronounced (l’yokan), that we stayed in during our Kyoto visit, which I found through the Welcome Inn Reservation Center when I was investigating accommodation options. It’s centrally located in Kyoto, close to the subway, clean, cute and inexpensive. The owner, Nakajimaya-san, is very kind and full of laughter, and she speaks a little English.

Since it’s a traditional Japanese inn, our room on the second floor (check out the steep stairs) had tatami-mat floors and comfy futons for sleeping. Every night, we received a fresh tin of loose tea and a thermos contraption that spewed out hot water whenever we pressed the button on top, although it didn’t plug in. Not sure if the tea originated from the inn’s small tea garden or not.

On our first night, we had sweet bean paste pastries waiting for us and a small gift, honking big toenail clippers inscribed with the ryokan’s name and phone number. We also were given kimonos to wear to bed, which was fun.

No meals are served. Bathroom and showers (2) are for common use, which never proved to be a problem (there are only seven rooms).

Since the ryokan isn’t listed in guide books, here’s the address, contact info and directions:

Ryokan Nakajimaya
075-351-3886
Bukkoji-agaru, Takakura-dori, Shimogo-ku

Use the south exit from Shijo station on the Karasuma subway line (to your right when you get off the train), which will let you out at the intersection of Karasuma-dori and Shijo-dori. Walk straight out of the exit on Karasuma and then turn right on Shijo. Walk a couple minutes until you see the Louis Vuitton store on your immediate right and make a right onto Takakura. Follow the alley almost to the end (Bukkoji). The inn is on the right.

Miyako Odori (The Cherry Blossom Dance) Part II

After blogging last night at the weirdo Internet/comic café from a declined recliner??? in a little cube (I could barely reach the keyboard), I kept thinking more about Miyako Odori before I fell asleep. In my last entry, I don’t think I really captured what it was like, so here’s a little more detail. And, since photos were prohibited, I snapped some pics from my program to give a better flavor (sorry, the photos suck).

Gina and I thought we would kneel on tatami mats for the tea ceremony that preceded the performance (see my sweet bean paste pastry) and during the 60-minute show, but we sat at short tables for the tea ceremony and then in plush seats for the show.

The stage was beautiful. The curtain, which was really a large, sliding screen, was hand-painted a pretty floral scene. When the show started, screens went up to the left and right of the stage to reveal 10 maikos in matching powder blue kimonos with a cherry blossom pattern playing various instruments (left) and 10 older women in plain black kimonos without geisha makeup or hairstyles who played shamisen and sang (right).

The eight acts all portrayed seasonal scenes with hand-painted backgrounds of famous Kyoto shrines and landscapes. Each one involved maiko and geisha in exquisite kimonos with intricate hairstyles and hair ornaments who danced to convey famous Kyoto folklore stories with their fans and flowers. As they danced, two older women sang parts for the performers to accompany all of the music from the musicians in the side boxes.

The whole experience was enchanting, and I’m so glad we were able to attend.

Miyako Odori (The Cherry Blossom Dance)

Every day in Kyoto keeps getting better, and this is one that I’ll remember forever. Sometimes it’s the random acts of kindness I’ve experienced while traveling that are just as memorable as the cultural sites.

Each year in April for the past 137 years, all the maiko and geiko in Gion perform the Miyako Odori, the Cherry Blossom Dance. The performances are advertised in illustrated posters all over Gion (the geisha district). I first learned about Miyako Odori from my favorite book, Memoirs of a Geisha.

Gina and I got up early to wait in line for tickets, and not only scored great seats for the evening show, but met a kind, older gentleman who entertained us as we waited. He doesn’t speak English and we barely speak Japanese, but he chattered away while we attempted to grasp a word now and then. We found middle ground with numbers, and at one point, the three of us all loudly counted to 10 in Japanese while we waited for tickets.

We hoped to see him at the show tonight, but had no idea which performance he planned to attend. To our delight, he found us in the lobby of the theater after the tea ceremony portion of the evening, said hello and then disappeared.

I ran into him again later while browsing around the lobby, and he handed me two bags. He had purchased us gorgeous bound programs for the performance that included English explanations for the eight scenes to be performed. I couldn’t believe it! It was such an enormously kind gesture. Then he motioned for us to follow him, and he led us outside in the garden to a room that showcased some of the kimonos that the dancers/musicians wear for the show. All of them featured cherry blossoms in the various spring patterns.

The show was phenomenal! It’s my favorite experience from Kyoto. I never in a million years ever thought I’d be able to see a Miyako Odori performance. The scenery and costumes, which changed for each of the eight scenes were exquisite, and the audience oohed and ahhed several times during the show. The older woman next to me kept dabbing her eyes. We counted 63 performers over the course of the show.

Although Miyako Odori overshadowed all else, we had another sunny day of sightseeing, including Nijo Castle, built in 1603 with beautiful gardens (it has two moats), and the Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji), which is a temple that “floats” over a pond of koi amidst beautiful grounds and is second to Mt. Fuji as Japan’s most famous site.

We also tried skewered rice balls with a soy glaze and ground ginger, yummy udon noodles with browned tofu and what we like to call “bean paste bears” for dessert.

Tomorrow morning we’re taking a fan-making class, and then we’re headed off to Hakone.

Rain, rain: go away!

Yesterday was sunny and warm. Today, not so much. Hopefully we will see the sun again tomorrow.

This morning, we left our ryokan early to visit Fushimi-inari-taisha, bright orange shrine gates (torii) from the 8th century that are dedicated to the gods of rice and sake. A pathway wanders a couple miles up on a thickly wooded moutain, and it’s quite a sight to see.

For our sushi class, we were picked up in a taxi. The drivers are much more formal than in the States. They wear an official uniform including white gloves and a cap, and the backseat is covered in a doily-like fabric. You can’t open the doors yourself since they are operated automatically by the driver. Pretty cool.

We had a lot of fun cooking with our host and her daughter. The program is run by WAK Japan, which is an organization that helps housewives and other women to build a business by teaching Japanese customs like ikebana (flower arranging), kimono-dressing, cooking, etc. It’s an amazing program, and we were happy to support it.

We prepared spinach and sesame, sushi (eel, cucumber and crab), rice (see the pic of Gina fanning it and me mixing it to ensure it’s the perfect sticky consistency), tempura (fried veggies, including lotus...our host said you can see the future through its holes) and miso soup.

We’re getting used to feeling like celebrities since so many people stop to stare at us, so we didn’t blink an eye when our hosts asked to take photos with us. Fun!

Jetlag started to set in a bit today, so we napped at our ryokan and then visited Shiori-in, a machiya (old town house) with a beautiful garden that I read about in a book at the library before our trip. The machiya is a dwelling and a workplace since kimonos are hand dyed, embroidered and sewn on-site. It’s also open to the public as a museum to view the garden, beautiful Japanese screens and kimonos. The fabric was gorgeous! I floated room to room completely enraptured by all of the gorgeous colors and patterns.

After dinner, we browsed through some arcade shops and bought woodblock prints and Japanese pastries made from sweet bean paste. It sounds weird, but trust me, they are AWESOME! One of the shops had a baker in the front window making the cakes. Mmmm!

Tomorrow, we’re going to try to get tickets to Miyako Odori, the annual maiko/geiko performance during cherry blossom season. Fingers crossed! Since it’s our last full day in the city, we also hope to see Nijo Castle.

Chopstick Taboos

Here are the four primary rules for handling chopsticks. I have broken half of them just today.

• Skewing chopsticks: don’t impale food with your chopsticks (whoops)
• Pointing chopsticks: don’t gesture to people with your chopsticks
• Double chopsticks: two people should not eat food from the same dish (guess Gina and I weren’t supposed to eat tonight’s dinner family-style)
• Standing chopsticks: don’t stick your chopsticks in your food and leave them there. This position is associated with death because of the similarity with incense sticks offered to the dead.

I’m guessing that not twirling your noodles on your chopsticks like spaghetti would be another one. Guilty as charged.

Lost in Translation

For the most part, Gina and I have been doing a bang up job of maintaining conversations via the few Japanese words and phrases we memorized. However, there have been a few laughable exceptions...

At Chion-in yesterday, a woman in kimono came up to us and asked us where we were from. When we said Ohio (which, incidentally, sounds like “good morning” in Japanese), she said she had been to Pittsburgh and asked us if we heard of Century Misery.

Translation: St Louis, Missouri

Our guide through Gion last night was making suggestions for restaurants to visit and mentioned dishes with squirrel eggs. I went right along with it (???) until Gina called her out and said squirrels don’t lay eggs; they’re mammals.

Translation: quail eggs

At dinner last night, our server didn’t speak much English. After ordering, she asked us if we wanted sourdough. We were curious about the Japanese version of bread, so we said yes.

Translation: salad (“sa-ra-da”)

(In Japanese, “r” is pronounced like “l,” which keeps throwing us off. However, Gina today actually said Flank Lloyd Wright (instead of “Frank”) without even thinking. Hilarious!)

And, Phil might just have a new nickname, ganko, which is my new favorite Japanese word. It means stubborn, old man. Ha!

Geisha paparazzi and cherry blossoms

So, it is a Friday night, and I am hanging at the Interneto Cafe-o wa with comic book nerds. Yes, this place features a bazillion comic books for people to read and sit in a booth while chain smoking (I miss Ohio anti-smoking!).　I am learning how to read Japanese on a computer, but I cannot figure out how to use apostrophes, and I keep hitting a button that turns my writing into Japanese. But I digress...

Gina and I have experienced our first full day in Kyoto, and we are having an amazing time. I cannot believe everything we have seen today.

Our ryokan rocks! It is quaint, reasonably priced and in a perfect location. The innkeeper speaks little English, but we are communicating just fine with the bits and pieces of Japanese we have learned.

We slept great last night and got up early to go to Murukama Koen, a park famous for cherry blossom viewing. The buds are just opening, and it is a sight to see! At the park at 10 a.m., tons of people had already spread out tarps and were staking ground for parties this evening beneath the trees.

The park hosts Chion-an, a temple that was built in 1234. The massive gate at the main entrance is the largest in Japan. There is a beautiful pink pagoda there and an ornate Buddha shrine.

Next, we walked a couple miles to Kiyomizu-dera, built in 798!!! to drink the Otowa-no taki spring of "golden water for healthy, long life," and visit the Love Shrine and Tainai-meguri, the belly of Buddha. At the Love Shrine, you walk from one stone to another 18 meters away with your eyes closed. If you succeed, you ensure success in love. I am happy to report that we each successfully navigated around the throng of tourists to accomplish our goal.

At Tainai-meguri, we walked down into darkness and navigated our way to turn the Buddha stone for good luck by holding onto a giant bead for guidance. It was unnerving, but really fun. I kept bumping into the girl in front of me, so I practiced sumimasen (excuse me) quite a bit.

On the way to Kiyomizu-dera, we spotted our first maiko (geisha-in-training). They were sweet and took a picture with me. Later this evening, we hired a guide to take us through Gion, where most of the geisha live. We walked down alleys to see the okiya (geisha boarding houses) and catch glimpses of maiko and geiko (how the Japanese refer to geisha) as they scurried on their way to appointments at tea houses. We stopped back at the park to sample octopus puffs (you can barely taste the suckers) and sweets. Then we walked down Pontocho, a famous alley in Gion by the river and headed back toward our inn to grab some dinner.

We felt like we were waiting for our check for a while when, like a rock star (per Gina), I remembered that you signal to your server that you want your check by making an X with your index fingers. It worked! We finished our sake and came here.

Tomorrow is our sushi cooking class at the home of a Japanese woman and more sightseeing.

Kombanwa (good night)!

Toilet humor

So, people, this is what a Japanese toilet looks like. Basically, it is a hole in the ground that is shielded by porcelain. It completely freaks me out. When we got to our subway stop near our inn after 29 hours of travel, I really, really had to pee. When I saw this bad boy in the subway restroom, I turned around and walked out. No freaking way.

After we found our ryokan (Louis Vuitton guided us well), I was relieved that we have a Western loo (albeit shared among guests in the seven rooms) and was pleasantly surprised by the heated seat (awesome). I told Gina when I got back to our room, and she looked at me like I was crazy because she thought the toilet was only a slight improvement from the subway one. Hours later, we realized that there are two toilets and she had been using the Japanese one. Hysterical!

Are we there yet?

We’ve been up for about 26 hours, with the exception of a couple cat naps on the plane, and we’re finally on leg four of five of our journey to Kyoto. Right now we’re riding on the Nozomi bullet train that travels between Tokyo and Kyoto and it is about 7:30 p.m. on Thursday (13 hours ahead of Cleveland).

I loved my first foray into first class for my flight from Cleveland to Houston. But, I felt like a loser when I asked for a mimosa (I thought you could get anything???) at 5:45 a.m. and the flight attendant turned me down. Apparently they don’t have sparkling wine. Pshaw!

I’ve had lots of questions about how to pass the time during a 14-hour flight, so here’s a snippet of my Tokyo flight:

Hours 1-3: read magazines, eat meal one of three, read even more magazines (ask Chuck about how many I pack for trips)
Hours 3-6: Watch Australia, bawl during four scenes and look like an idiot
Hours 7-8: Read one of Gina’s books on Kyoto
Hour 9: Eat meal #2, which reminds me of $2 Tuesday Chicken in Basket lunches in high school (w/o fries), sip a Mr. Pibb!!!
Hours 10-11: Watch Lost in Translation, feel relief that the sign in the movie for Kyoto Station is in English
Hour 12: “sleep”
Hours 13-14: reacquaint myself with my language guide, get really stir crazy

So far, we’ve navigated the trains pretty well. We took the Narita Express from the airport to Tokyo Station and it only took us three tries to find the correct seats. J (FYI, the Tokyo Narita Airport is as close to Tokyo as Toledo is to Cleveland.) From Tokyo Station, which was insanely busy since we were there during rush hour, we hopped on the Nozomi that I’m riding now, which will take us to Kyoto Station. We should be passing Mt. Fuji soon (or Fuji-san as the Japanese affectionately call it), but it will be too dark to see. Thankfully, we’ll have up-close views later on our trip.

Once we get to Kyoto Station, we’ll take a subway line a few stops, get out and look for the Louis Vuitton store since that’s the landmark our Ryokan owner gave us. To be continued…

Sayonara!

Tomorrow starts my 10-day Japanese odyssey with my friend Gina. I've got cherry blossom fever big time, so I can't wait to get moving despite the 30-hour journey from Cleveland to Kyoto. BUT, I found out that I've been upgraded to first class (for free) for the first leg of our flight tomorrow to Houston, so I'm psyched. I've never flown first class before! Hopefully we can convince the folks at check-in to let Gina accompany me. Now if only we can score deluxe seats for the 14-hour flight from Houston to Tokyo and the four-hour train ride to Kyoto... Here are some highlights of our itinerary:

Kyoto: April 2-6
- Visit Nijo Castle and as many of the 19,000 temples in the city as possible
- Go geisha watching in Gion
- Breathe in the cherry blossoms (check out the blooming forecast...perfect timing!)
- Take a sushi cooking class

Hakone: April 6-7
- Explore the Venetian glass museum (the blogger who reviewed the museum in the link helped us to plan our transportation for our trip. Thanks Sandy!)
- Ride the Hakone ropeway by Mount Fuji

Lake Kawaguchiko: April 7-8
- Admire kimono at the Itchiku Kubota Museum at Mount Fuji (Canton currently is showing kimono from this museum, and I saw a preview of the exhibit in San Diego)
- Sample the hot spring by our hotel

Tokyo: April 8-10
- Ogle giant tuna at the Tsukiji Fish Market
- Poke around the Imperial Palace
- Grab coffee with a reporter at Time magazine in the ginormous Mori Tower

FYI, since we're staying in Japanese ryokans for most of our trip, I won't have reliable Web access until Tokyo. I'll do what I can to find Internet cafes every couple days to blog, and I'm hoping I'll have Web access on my work phone so I can send travel updates via Twitter (check the home page of my blog on the right side). The phone's on the fritz, so I'm doubtful that will happen since I can't make or receive calls at this point. So, DON'T WORRY if you don't hear from me for a while. We're going to have a great time, and we're visiting very safe cities.

Back to packing...

When I grow up I wanna be a maiko

I finally pulled the trigger on my Japan trip in April during cherry blossom season. The stars aligned when flight prices came down (although the Honolulu connection is now out the window), and my friend Gina signed on as my travel companion. (You might recognize her hand or elbow from some of my Heights Observer restaurant photos from my reviews since she's always a great sport about tagging along with me.)

We'll be spending a few days in Kyoto, then will take the train to the area around Mount Fugi and will end our visit with a few days in Tokyo.

Rooms have been hard to score in Kyoto since the time we're visiting is enormously popular...cherry blossoms only stay open for about a week. But, we found a ryokan in our price range, so we're good to go. I found this site really helpful for finding places to stay with traditional Japanese rooms.

Now I'm obsessed with hanging out with maikos, apprentice geisha, when we visit Gion. But, alas, I can't fulfill all 10 requirements:

1. Become an apprentice of professional female entertainer

2. Be between 15 and 17 years old (nope)

3. Be shorter than 63 inches since the okobo add another 4 inches (nope)

4. Weigh more than 95 lbs. to handle the heavy costume (definitely not an issue)

5. Have parental consent

6. Demonstrate fondness of traditional Japanese entertainment

7. Demonstrate fondness of Japanese life style (ask me after the trip)

8. Overwhelming patience (patience is not one of my virtues)

9. Be accepted by an okiya to cover monthly fees

10. Commit to a 4-5 training period

For now, I wonder if Gina will let me do something like this. She really doesn't know what she's got herself into...

Turbo planning mode for Japan

Dear family:

It’s too late…you can’t stop me from going to Japan this spring. I’m not waiting until next year because Continental is dropping the KIX airport as a destination on May 1, and I want to gobble up as many miles as I can (and take advantage of my super sweet Silver Elite status). Even the PD travel editor says you shouldn’t let the economy derail your travel plans (love Susan Glaser)!

Plus, the annual Cherry Blossom Festival is April 10. Remember how I used to take weekend trips in college to D.C. in April just to see the trees?

I already have about two dozen travel books and language CDs from the library, so there is no turning back now. Even Phil knows this. (Side note: it is insane that the Rosetta Stone language program is $400!!)

So, here’s the plan. First, visit Kyoto, one of the most exclusive and well-known geisha districts in Japan (my favorite novel is Memoirs of a Geisha). Next, take a train to the Mt. Fugi area to visit the Itchiku Kobota Art Museum (got a taste during my trip to San Diego). And, finish off with a couple days in Tokyo since passing through without a visit to and from Bangkok was torture.

I even found a flight with a one-night stopover in Honolulu. HONOLULU!!! Now I just need the price to come down…

Love,
Christina

P.S. Thanks to the shout out from Always a Bridesmaid. Check out her blog for hilarious musings on her single-girl status.