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All week long, I’ve been meaning to fire off this Blog post which is a summary of our 4 day trip to Kyoto…and everyday, still, I can’t seem to find the time.  Today is a National Holiday celebrating the Official Korean language (Hanguel) and the kids don’t have school and generally all businesses are closed, though Bill is going to the President’s Cup Golf Tournament with some Citi clients. It’s a beautiful Fall day and I’m tied to the house since Bill and Mr. Choi (driver) took the car and our cable service needs repair and I await a service technician who will come between 1-6pm…this at least feels familiar to the US!

Kyoto!  It is just a “hop, skip and a jump” away from Seoul…less than a 90 minute plane flight which is one distinct advantage to living here.  We flew from Gimpo which is the old airport near the center city and thereby avoided the crazy highway traffic to/from Incheon Airport that is legendary.

Duty free shops are not nearly as enticing here as you can see from the seaweed display in the first picture. Stupidly, and oddly for this “expert planner”, I didn’t really think through eating on our travel day which was a bummer since the airport cafes were not an option. The airport bathrooms were very clean, of course, and they even had this monitoring system that showed occupancy/vacancy info for the various stalls as one waited in line.  Bill however commented that he is still struggling with “PP” (pee performance” in Korea since usually (at his Citibank offices, the airport, etc) there are little old ladies cleaning the bathrooms right along side of his urinal…no privacy whatsoever and a challenge at his age (ahem)!! No pictures to go along with this bathroom chatter, I’m afraid.

We arrived in Osaka to an extremely long line in customs full of other Koreans taking advantage of the Chusoek (KoreanThanksgiving) holiday and as you can see from the picture of Zoe goofing off…we stuck out just a bit!  Once again, we were struck by how patiently and orderly the Koreans waited in the 2+ hour long line…young kids, old grandparents, etc. without a word of complaining.  We did get a kick out of the opportunity to “people watch” and liked the couple ahead of us (see photo) who wore matching clothes, sneakers and hats.

It’s a trend among the young to dress alike that Bill read about in his book and we’ve seen it on the streets. It reminds me of those two old SF ladies, who were actual twins I believe, and were always riding the MUNI buses, impeccably dressed alike.  The young couple near us even had matching HICKIES on their necks which really GROSSED OUT Daphne and Zoe and caused several giggles.  After our long wait in line, we were met by a private car and driver who drove us by van for another 2 hours to the Westin Hotel in Kyoto where we were THRILLED to find a hotel restaurant still open at 10:40pm.  And it served hamburgers and fries!!!  We were very thankful that we had decided to stay in a “Western” hotel and arrange for the car service since both Bill and I were suffering from head colds and the train/taxi combo we had originally found attractive for cost reasons would not have gotten us to a meal before the 11pm restaurant close!

After a long sleep, relaxing breakfast with mostly familiar food, we had no agenda for the day and strolled out of our hotel to check out Nanzenji Temple nearby.  Kyoto is a small charming city, certainly so when compared with Seoul, and was the capital of Japan for nearly 1,000 years.  Remarkably, there are roughly 1,600 Buddhist temples and about 300 Shinto shrines in this small city since of the 50 or so different Buddhists sects and even more sub-sects, most of them have their headquarters, and therefore a temple, in Kyoto.  All these beautiful temples and gardens make Kyoto feel very quaint and we fell in love with this city.  The entire city is ringed by beautiful green hills and mountains, and most all residents ride bikes with cute baskets to school, work, go shopping. No bike locks needed and no helmets seen except on children in bike seats.  Hmmm.  We were fortunate to have glorious fall weather each day and we relished the lush landscape and abundance of water that gushed down from mountainsides, dropped into waterfalls, flowed by in canals and/or trickled quietly in little streams.  Kyoto is very, very peaceful and most rock walls and tree trunks are moss covered which only adds to the ‘green-scene”.

  

The bright orange/red Torii gates which announce Shinto shrines and sacred grounds are a beautiful contrast to the greenery and to the dark, almost black, wood of the temples.  You’ll see in the pictures that the Japanese temples are made of cedar or cypress and the color of the wood is much darker than that which we see in Korea…almost as if burned by a fire. At all the Shinto shrines, one has the opportunity to write a little prayer on a piece of paper or wood and hang it on a clothes-line at the entrance.

Both Daphne and Zoe copied down Japanese characters on wooden sticks at one temple as you’ll see in the photo.  Some Japanese tourists commented on how near their calligraphy was and I asked what exactly they had written.  Zoe had asked for “safety while traveling” which was SO perfect because she is a very, very anxious plane-flyer!

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There’s a photo of a cafe menu in English which was an opportune find after our temple visit and it had sandwiches!!!  Lunch consisted of egg salad, tuna and cheese toasts…and ice cream, of course, hit the spot and revived the troops. (All of us commented on how Japanese characters are MUCH, MUCH busier/harder to read than Korean ones and there isn’t nearly the signage in English in Kyoto that we are fortunate to have in Seoul so this cafe was truly a “god-send”.)

As is typical in our family, we had been having fun at Bill’s expense all morning…this time mostly about his hair which you can see in the AWFUL picture of him (the “before” shot) standing next to one of the many beer vending machines on the streets.  He was in serious need of grooming and we were ruthlessly calling him “Senor Fluffers” (may he rest in peace) and asking when the “caterpillars” over his eyes were going to make their cocoons, etc.  Finally, he just couldn’t take it anymore and suddenly darted into a local barbershop.  Aside from the rough start when the hairdresser almost buzz-cut off ALL the hair around his ears with an electric razor and Bill had to put up his hands and say “stop!”, it turned out pretty well for him as you can see in the “after” shot.  He is much braver than we give him credit even though he does look a bit like our driver (Mr. Choi) now with his Asian-style coiffe! Good ol’ Bill does not mind being called Mr. Choi in jest, but he DID NOT like it when I called him Mr. Choi in the bedroom….!

There are a few street photos from our post-lunch stroll that include adorable cub scouts marching by, one of several “lucky” raccoon sculptures that are everywhere and the dressed up(?) ancient Buddhist stone slabs (didn’t really figure out what these were). We saw several girls dressed in kimonos, mostly just for fun, but some elderly  “Kyoto-ans” do still wear traditional dress.

Our walk led us to Ginkakuji Temple also known as the Silver Pavillion and a UNESCO Heritage site. This temple has yet another gorgeous garden, wooden buildings that blend into hills beyond, rock gardens and a famous sand sculpture meticulously maintained to look like Mt Fuju.

Afterwards, we decided not to go to the Gion District across town where we probably would have seen some real Geishas, but the “new and improved Amanda/mommy” knows when to dial it down and listen to her tired troops!  (It has only taken 50 years….)  Daphne and Zoe were happy ordered room service while Bill and I went to a lovely Italian dinner in a historic Japanese house.  We ended up catching a glimpse of some Geishas getting out of a black car the next night anyway.

The next day we hired a professional guide since our Japanese language skills were lacking and we wanted some historical perspective.  With her help, we rode the subway, buses, and small train/teams and enjoyed the opportunity to compare Kyoto to Seoul.  The mass transit is just as efficient and clean, though the signs full of crazy Japanese characters are terrifying and I’m very glad to be struggling to learn Korea which has 2,000 less characters than Japanese language!

All of us noticed that there is considerably less cell phone usage by all ages which is really nice.  We didn’t have service so I can’t comment on the speed of the internet and how it compares to super-fast Seoul.  We also all noticed that, in general, there’s less homogeneity among the Japanese population than among the Koreans: the “Kyoto-ans” had more varied lengths and styles of hair (even men with long hair which we have never seen in Seoul!), more patterns and colors in clothing and we heard a bit more music than just K-POP.  With the guide, went to Nijo-jo castle where we learned about shoguns and some history of the Edo Empire,.

Afterwards, we got quick lunch on the street and Daphne bravely stepped out of her comfort zone and had a meat sticky bun!!  This was a huge step for our timid eater who really, really misses American food. Hunger can be very motivating we’ve found!

Our next stop was the famous Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion and another UNESCO Heritage site). this temple is truly beautiful, the setting very picturesque with its amazing gilded building serenely blending into the surrounding ponds, mountains and gardens.   The new Bill Stanton, with his smart phone (vs. dinosaur blackberry), now takes pictures everywhere and currently has the Golden Pavilion as his screen saver. 

After a short walk, we arrived at Ryoanki Temple which is famous for its 500 year old Zen rock garden. There are only 15 rocks expertly placed in 5 groupings in a space as large as a swimming pool. Only 14 are ever visible no matter from which angle the garden is viewed. We sat and meditated on the beauty. I wasn’t able to capture the garden (at all) with my camera so stopped trying and just sat and appreciated its beauty and simple elegance.  I did buy a packet of professional photos that we will put up in our office.  All of these sites are “must-see” for anyone who visits Kyoto…after stopping off to see us in Seoul!

 

Mid-afternoon, we split with the guide and rode a cute little tram to the Ashiyama region of Kyoto which is nestled on the edge of the city near a river.  There, we found our lodgings…a traditional Ryokan hostel which was a bit of a shock since it was very Japanese, sparse and simple. No internet, TV so everyone felt quite at a loss for awhile. Here are photos of the river and boats nearby and the simple accommodations.

We decided to try the public baths and over came our modesty to slip on Kimonos (we look good, don’t we?!) and sink into the warm soaking tubs. Scrubbing and washing on small stools butt-naked was scary at first, but the baths were single sex (phew!) and we usually had them to ourselves.

It was definitely an “out of the box” experience for all of us, but lovely and we slowed WAY DOWN to the pace the Ryokan suggests. Bill and I spent the late afternoon, reading by the windows overlooking the bridge while Daph and Zoe spent a LONG time bathing/coiffing.

When we checked in, we were asked something about our meals, but we couldn’t really understand and just went with the flow by nodding a lot.  At dinnertime, a girl dressed in kimono rearranged our room to set up the table for dinner.  See photos.  We were then treated to an amazing, 7 course all-fish shabu-shabu style dinner which meant several courses of sashimi elegantly presented and some fish we guessed should be cooked since she brought in small burners and placed them under the water-filled rice paper vessels that had us baffled. Daphne was very brave and tried most everything except for octopus. She even liked the one cooked fish dish! Only I was brave enough to sample the mysterious stew beautifully presented in a baked apple though I think it contained eel (?!!), scallops and shrimp. I’m still not sure and get a bit queasy thinking about it.  All the pottery was pretty and the meal was truly a work of art.  We didn’t know what the heck we were doing, but laughed a lot at the culinary adventure.

Dessert was less than satisfying so we skipped out to a 24 hr convenience store for nourishment. Daphne visibly shrank while we were in Japan but she did try foods out of sheer desperation that she had been able to avoid in Seoul This was definitely the silver lining of our Japanese adventure.  As we strolled back eating ice cream cones and congratulating ourselves for our culinary bravery, we found ourselves longing for the comforts of Korean cuisine.  In fact, for the first time, Daphne and Zoe referred to Seoul as “home”…!

The same maid transformed our dining room back into a bedroom at nighttime and we all slept on the cotton mattresses in quilts a la Japonaise.  It was not the best night’s sleep to say the least but better than I expected and not cold.  Breakfast was tough!

Photos say it all.

The only non-fish, non-bean item was a small bite of cold scrambled egg (upper right). Tea and no coffee was the tipping point that sent us to Tully’s Coffee Shop near the train station at 9:30am.  It was a long wait for that first cup of coffee but it sure tasted gooood!

We had no particular plan for the next day and were enjoying the more relaxed pace of this quaint corner of Kyoto.  The girls wanted to feed the monkeys nearby so we hiked up the hillside and were rewarded with spectacular views.  Daphne and Zoe took hundreds (literally!) of monkey photos with various photoshop effects to post on Instagram while Bill and I sat and enjoyed the view over Kyoto.  The landscape reminded us of Mt. Tam.

            

We then hired one of the little boats to go up the river for an hour and got a kick out of the remote control boat with Barbie’s waving that came alongside at one point.

We walked to another UNESCO temple and rock garden nearby which was again, peaceful and lovely with a hint of Fall colors in the foliage.

                               

Bill and I signed up for a massage in the room while Daphne and Zoe decided to rent a row boat for an hour before headed to the tubs for extended baths.

Bill and I signed up for a massage in the room which was…unique…!  Two tiny, 70+ yr. old ladies showed up and told us to lie down on our sides, facing each other, on our mattresses.  We were in our kimonos and stayed fully “clothed” throughout the entire treatment.  We were massaged as we lay on one side, and then the other and finally for 5 minutes face down.  They used no massage oil and always had a little towel to place on areas of bare skin so our skin was never massaged directly.  My masseuse clacked her dentures around in her mouth the whole time like a cow chewing cud while Bill’s masseuse fielded 3 separate, chatty phone calls all the while massaging. I was afraid to open my eyes for fear I’d meet Bill’s gaze and we’d both end up in hysterics!  They were both strong and the massages pretty darn good, a “B+” according to Bill.  Both of us slept well that night so clearly the massages were worth it!  Dinner that night involved thin slices of beef and veggies that we assumed were to be cooked together in the pot of water that was placed over a burner. It was a one course meal and quite good, though Daphne did not enjoy the emphasis on various mushrooms. After much discussion, we decided we actually liked the 7-course raw fish meal better than the single course beef meal much to our surprise.

We had an uneventful trip back to Osaka and Seoul which felt familiar and our beds very comfortable! Kyoto is definitely worth a stop on an Asian agenda in our opinion!