Last i wrote, i was describing my mother and sister's stay here, so i would be remiss not to continue the tale. On their fourth day here, i got up early and had a go at jogging around the Imperial Park. I had wanted to stay at the Uno House partially because of its proximity to the park, but i discovered that the paths within the place were all gravel, so i contented myself with attempting a lap around the park instead. I failed abjectly on sunday, but accomplished the feat on tuesday, the day of our trip back to Sanbongi. But onto the rest of the trip.
Sunday we got up late and sauntered over to Kyoto Station, where we were overjoyed to find a food court with a McDonalds, Subway, and Panda Express. We ate our first meal at the Cube for the rest of our stay in Kyoto. After thoroughly gorging ourselves, we traveled to Himeji, site of one of the only castles in Japan that wasn't completely decimated during World War II. An English-speaking native was our tour guide through the castle, and he told us many interesting facts about its construction and defense. My sister and i can now recite many of them on demand. :-) For example, the castle appears from the outside to have five stories, when, in actuality, it has seven or eight. It was constructed like that to conceal the actual number of soldiers held within. Our guide also gave a lucent description of harakiri, the Japanese method of self disembowelment. According to him, the Japanese people of yore believed that their souls resided in their stomach, so harakiri (or seppuku) symbolically was a display of your soul to those around you. The person who committed harakiri was saying "Look at my soul. Is it pure or is it dirty?" in a final reckoning sort of way. A few days later, at Narita Airport, my sister and i helped her marshmellow bunny peeps commit harakiri, and their souls were pure white.
After the castle tour, we returned to Kyoto and ate at a Chinese restaurant on the top floor of the Cube. Returning back to the Uno House, we decided to take an expensive bus tour of Kyoto the next day. The tour, which started just after 1 in the afternoon the next day, took us to, Heian-jingu, Sanju Sangen-dou, and Kiyomizu-dera. Heian was somewhat strange, what with a bright orange temple, but we stopped there primarily for the japanese garden. Next up was Sanju Sangen-dou, with featured a 1,001 statues of a Buddhist god, each with 25 arms. Interesting in and of itself, but the hall also features a Japanese archery tournament every year that dates back to a long time ago. Last stop was Kiyomizu-dera, which was absolutely gorgeous. Situated at the base of a mountain, the temple is surrounded by trees. I believe my mom took a few pictures, but i forgot my camera, naturally. The pathway up to the temple is a huge chain of tourist traps, so i had my mom pick out a japanese umbrella for a friend back home. My sister also picked up a japanese fan near the temple, iirc.
That night, after wandering along Kawaramachi-dori, the main shopping street in Kyoto, we stopped at an English-style pub called the Hub, where i had fish and chips, as well as a Guinness and Carl's black and tan. Nice atmosphere. The next day we returned to Sanbongi. My sister lost her rail pass on the way, but it wasn't really much of a problem, as defrauding Japan Rail isn't exactly the hardest task you can think of. On Wednesday we took the bus into Furukawa, where we shopped at the Hundred Yen Store and Jusco (Japanese supermarket chain). Bringing a ton of food back with us, we ate, sat around, watched tv, and ate again. I cooked up some late night okonomiyaki (pancakes with meat and seafood cooked in), and we slept the sleep of the stuffed. The next day we rode down to Narita Airport, ate, after a final meal at an faux-italian place, my mom and sister left. It sucked to see them go, but we had a great time together. So that was my spring vacation with my family.
been listening to: shadow gallery, my dying bride, built to spill, emperor, depeche mode, and radiohead.