Visit from Mom day three

Well, my mom only got through two days worth of stuff. And you know why? Because we were freaking BUSY the entire time she was here! For an entire week it was non-stop, and I know I was exhausted, so I bet she was too.

My mom left on Monday morning. Monday afternoon I had a barbecue at the beach, which was great, but still made for a long day. And Tuesday, today, I did ABSOLUTELY nothing. I mean, nothing! I got up, I watched tv. I took a nap. I woke up and watched tv. And then I took another nap. That is all I have done all day. Now it is ten pm and I am still doing nothing.

I guess she wrote about the first two days of the trip, so I will continue from Wednesday.

The first thing we did was get up too early and go to Kyoto. We decided to go to Fushimi-inari which is a shrine with hundreds (if not thousands) of torii gates.





The toriis are just one after another going on and on for kilometers. They are so closely packed together that it is like walking through orange tunnels. Which is pretty cool for a while, but, honestly, gets a little old at some point. It is just the same thing over and over and over, and you are climbing up this mountain for an hour thinking that you were at the top, and it just keeps going. Eventually we just gave up and turned around. I think we had had enough, and besides, we had to go do other things. I am glad we went early though, because on the way down it was a parade of people all walking up through the gates.


A nice, if hazy, view of Kyoto from halfway up the mountain. Ahh, the old city. Looks pretty modern to me.


Almost got crushed by a horse (statue).


One of the more interesting things about the shrine was that all of the torii gates are donated by local businessmen, and on one side of the gates they have their names and the date that the torii was added written on them. And what the weather was like. The kanji on almost every one of the gates reads somthing similar to "This gate was added on X day. It was a beautiful day." At least that is what they say according to my translators.

We then headed to another shrine, Taozin, which was supposed to have a lovely garden (since on Monday and Tuesday all Mom wanted to do was take pictures of flowers everywhere we went).



It was a beautiful garden full of flowers and trees and traditional Japanese garden "stuff." Yes, I am an English teacher, and a wordsmith.
Flower with a bee in it.



The entrance to the garden was framed by two rock gardens. I am sure the rocks mean something and the way the rocks are raked are symbolic as well, but hell if I know. Just looks cool to me.


The main attraction of the garden was a waterfall and pond area. It was absolutely beautiful and it was easy to imagine being in 18th century Japan just sitting there and being a rich bastard enjoying my day. Very peaceful. And, just behind the garden, Kyoto city. One of the most amazing things, to me, about Japan is the separation they have between the historic and modern parts. Everywhere you go there are traditional spots which are peaceful and look like they were transported directly from the 18th century, and on the other side of the street, modern buildings. Yet, it works, and like my mom said at some point, it is amazing what a few feet of shrubbery and trees can do to muffle the sound of modernity.


After this shrine we decided to head for home. Mom was getting tired, and we had plans to have dinner with my Japanese teacher that evening. We were both hungry, and one of the worst parts about being me here is that I can't really read menus. I can read the words, unless they are in Kanji, but I don't know what the names of dishes are, and it takes me for-freaking-ever! for me to read anything. So, even though we were hungry, we knew we were having a good dinner later and decided to stop into the McDonalds near Kyoto station.




Delicious for me, maybe boring for my mom.


Dinner that night at my Japanese teacher's house. I of course forgot my camera, and I guess Mom forgot to take pictures too, so I will just have to paint the scene with words. Lucky you.

My teacher decided that we should make the dinner that night. Guests that night included Mom and myself, as well as my two Japanese classmates, JETs in the local middle schools near Tsuruga, Lucia and David.

Lucia had recently gone back home to NYC for her spring break and brought back cornbread mix, which she decided to make that evening. It was fantastic.

Dinner that night consisted of Teriyaki chicken on a bed of lettuce, rice mixed with various kinds of fish and vegetables, home made bread, potatoes, and of course tons of alchohol. It was delicious and Lucia and David are good conversationalists, as well as the Ikedas (my Japanese teacher and her husband) so it was a pretty good night.

And that was Wednesday.