Went to Kyoto today to look at the plum blossoms. Not the famed Cherry blossoms, those are at the end of March beginning of April, but the plum blossoms, which apparently come at the beginning of March.
Two hour drive to Kyoto. Highways in this part of Japan aren't really highways at all. They are just two lane roads and we were stuck behind a slow ass truck for at least an hour. Oh, and did I mention that the roads are the curviest roads I have ever seen. I have seen two year olds scribble less loopy messes. I swear some of these roads make 300 degree curves. And that I was half hung over this morning after drinking until 3 am last night? Not the best combination for a wind-y bumpy drive. But after about an hour and some delicious Coke Zero I was doing just fine.
Pre-Coke Zero (man, wonder if I can get sponsored by them, all these free plugs) this is what I felt like this morning.
Our first stop was the Kyoto International Conference center. The one where they had the global warming conference a couple of years ago (must be about a decade by now) and the U.S. said "Go eff yourself, we aren't joining in any stupid helping the environment coalition" Yeah, people are happy about that I am sure. Oh, did I mention that the grocery stores in Tsuruga have started to charge for bags when you go to the store? Yup, 5 yen per bag. Trying to promote people bringing their own bags. So, I bring my own bag most of the time, but it is hard to remember it every time. Oh well. Its only 5 cents. Not that big a deal. But it is nice to see that they are trying to cut down on the bag use. Of course, now, if I knew how to ask, I would always demand the biggest bag possible for my 5 yen. I don't want that tiny bag, give me the double wide!
Tangent over, today was beautiful. I wore my heavy coat and a sweatshirt (aka my weekend uniform) and decided that the coat was too much to left it in the car when we got to Kyoto. And only after we were already on the subway did I realize I left my camera in my coat pocket. In the car. D'oh! So no pics. Well, a few, but just to illustrate a point, no real pictures.
Took the subway into Kyoto. Funny sign at the entrance of the subway. As you walk into the subway, and mind you this is the last stop on the subway line, the furthest out into the "suburban" part of Kyoto that the line goes, there is a sign that says "Thank you. Please visit Kyoto again" in English. Made me laugh.
Took the subway to near where Kinkakuji (The Golden Pavilion) is and went to a Hawaiian themed restaruant for lunch. Had a great ham sandwich and some fantastic fries and I was feeling great again. The miracles of good ol' American food. Everyone else had something that I can only best describe as a thin flat wide hamburger or Salisbury steak (since it had gravy, basically all hamburgers come with gravy in Japan if they aren't from McDonalds) with a soft fried egg on top and rice (duh! of course) and a pumpkin paste on the side. Looked pretty good except for the damnable egg. WHY MUST THE RUIN FOOD WITH EGGS ALL THE TIME?!?!?
Anyway, lunch was pretty darned good and not too expensive either. Thought it would be much more than it was. Went to the bathroom. A unisex bathroom. And the light was hanging down over the toilet just low enough to knock me on the head and make the light swing around wildly while I peed. It was....strange.
After lunch we walked along a nearby river since it was such a nice day. Saw a family playing baseball. A mother pitching to her maybe 4 year old son and her other son, a little older, playing outfield. Father catching. The mom was an ace pitcher, her kid couldn't make contact for shit!
My favorite part of the day. The river has several man made waterfalls and the water in the river, while very shallow, maybe only 1-2 feet deep, moves at a pretty good clip and the waterfalls were whooshing along. There were some ducks feeding in the river between two waterfalls placed close together. And they would duck (ha!) their heads under the water and try to feed while swimming hard enough to stay still in the current. And every once in a while they would either run out of steam of just lose their way or whatever and they would going rushing over the second waterfall and have to quickly flap their way back up to their feeding spot. It was retardily goofy and I loved every second of it!
We then hopped a bus to the shrine to view the Plum blossoms. Yay, bus. Note my enthusiasm.
I have no idea what the name of the shrine we went to was, but I know it was the one Jessica went to for her flea market adventure when she was here. Apparently, plum blossoms are a very big deal as I think half of Kyoto was inside the shrine today.
Note, all of these pictures were found on the internet, not taken by me because I am retarded, but they give a good idea of what the day was like.I can understand the appeal of the blossoms and the hanami parties (cherry blossom viewing parties, aka excuse to drink sake outside). It felt like spring today. The colors, the smells, the new flowers after having gray and dreariness for the past couple of months. Walking through the plum tree garden you certainly felt like it was a different season. And for a culture who values nature I can certainly see where they would love this occasion. Hell, I only half like nature and I had a great time today.
The only thing that confused me is that not a single Japanese person was taking pictures like the above one, of the tree and the scenary. No, they all took pictures like these:
Close ups of the flowers buds. Just a single bud, or a single branch of flowers, not a whole tree, not a scene. I don't get it. Hey! Guess that is why I am not Japanese. The other thing I liked is that tons of people would put their noses into the low hanging flowers to give a sniff. I can only imagine that those low hanging flowers smelled more like Japanese noses than plum blossoms.
With our ticket to the plum garden we got a free cup of tea and cookie. It was, shocker of all shockers, plum tea! Which I had never had before and really enjoyed. Going to look for it at the store tomorrow.
Then we went to the shopping district for a little while. Another super crowded bus ride. Super-yay. There needs to be a punctuation mark that is the opposite of ! to show just how little I enjoy riding the bus. Especially these Japanese buses, they aren't the big behemoths of America. They are skinny little buses, 20 seats max, yet still 50 people packed in. Fun.
Went to a shoe store where they had some great sneakers, and my size! Wow! I don't know what the sneaker style in America is right now, but in Japan they have some amazingly bright colored sneakers. Which I of course I cannot wear, I would be distracted by my own feet all day. They did however, have a pair of wine red Adidas shell toes that quite simply deserve to be worn by one Alex Trout. Whoo hoo! Oh wait, I didn't bring enough cash with me. D'oh! However they have a website and my friend said he can order the shoes through the site for me if I want. Yes!
And that was pretty much the day. Overall a very fun day. Enjoyed spending time outside. Always nice to go places with Japanese people because they know all the cool little places that tourists wouldn't (like the Hawaiian cafe). That is the one thing I regret about Jessica's visit. I think she would have loved to go to those "secret" places that most tourists wouldn't even know about.
Oh, and Kyoto women are not attractive. Yikes! I don't know what it is, but they are a bunch of unattractive women in that city. Thank goodness for the top-notch women of Tsuruga.
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