Day 1: Kyoto

On the evening of Tuesday 20th I caught the sleeper train to Kyoto. It was quite a comfortable ride, or at least it would have been if I had taken earplugs with me. I got to Kyoto at 6.30am feeling relaxed as if I had just spent the whole night on a massage chair, but tired and with that 'Did I really sleep? I'm not sure' feeling you get when you have had a very disturbed sleep. I had to wait until 7.30 before I could buy my Kansai Surutto Pass which made travel so easy for me for three days. As soon as I did I caught a bus to Kiyomizu dera in eastern Kyoto. It was a bit harsh wandering up the hill to Kiyomizu that early in the morning, but getting there before the crowds was definitely worth it. Always busy, this year Kiyomizu is more popular than ever because it has been shortlisted as a candidate for the New Seven Wonders of the World. But it was nice and quiet when I went there, and I had a lovely wander around the grounds. I discovered when I got there that, although the cherry trees were not yet in bloom, I had been lucky enough to arrive in Kyoto when the plum trees were blooming.

After I had finished looking at Kiyomizu dera, I went for a walk to the Gion bus terminal, taking a few pictures along the way. Then I went to Ginkakuji. It was very sunny and the gardens looked absolutely beautiful. Since it was late morning by that time, there were quite a few tourists. After I left Ginkakuji I walked south along the Philosopher's Walk. It was lovely and sunny, and there was a gentle breeze, and the birds were singing, and it was all just lovely. The cherry trees were not yet blooming so the trees were bare, but that meant that there were not too many people sharing the path with me. In cherry blossom season it must be difficult to keep from being knocked into the water below.

Next I caught a bus (well, actually two) to Nijo Castle. I tried to walk on the nightingale floors without making them squeak, but i couldn't do it. Nijo Castle is very big, and I spent quite a while just walking around it and the gardens.

After that I caught the subway to Shijo and transferred to the Keihan railway and went to Fushimi Inari. (All of these forms of transport are covered under the Kansai Surutto ticket, so I didn't need to bother with buying tickets or anything.) Fushimi Inari Taisha (grand shrine) is the head of all the Inari shrines of Japan. All the vermillion gates there are donated by companies of Japan. After I had done enought wandering around the hills behind the shrine, I went and ate kitsune udon at a shop outside. Kitsune udon is udon noodles cooked with a slice of fried beancurd on top. Fried bean curd is said to be the favourite food of foxes (kitsune), and Inari is the god/goddess of foxes, among other things. The noodles were very nice and warm and tasty after a day of eating rice balls. I bought some fruit, caught the train back to Kyoto station (unfortunately having to take the JR line, which is not covered under the Surutto pass) got my bag out of the coin locker I had left it in that morning and then took a Hankyu company train to Osaka to check into my hotel.

Pictures of Kiyomizu dera
A picture of Gion
Pictures of Ginkakuji
Pictures of the Philosopher's Walk
Pictures of Nijo Castle
Pictures of Fushimi Inari Taisha
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Fubuki

The weather over the past few days has been extreme. On Saturday the weather was bad. On Sunday it was snowy, freezing and so windy that the trains stopped running. Come Monday, it was still far too windy for the trains to run. Apparently there was awful trouble with the Sr. High Schools, the students of which rely on trains to get them to school. It wasn't an ordinary school day, either. It was a test day for the current students, and also for the kids who will be students there from April. I stood at the window of the staff room on Monday, looking out with wonder at the clumps of sea foam that were blowing about in the air and falling onto the school field. The school is not next to the sea.

On Tuesday when I went to Kamagadai I found that a lot of new snow had fallen. The whole time I was there it continued to fall heavily. I only had one class, so after it finished the vice principal gave me a one hour lesson on the koto in the music room. After work, I needed to go into Honjo to take back some DVDs. I hadn't been able to take them back over the weekend because the video store was undergoing a renovation until Monday. So they were due back no later than Tuesday and no earlier either. Unfortunately, the trains were still not running. I told the driver about my dilemma on the way back from Kamagadai, and he took me to the bus stop to check the bus times. We found when the next bus to Honjo would leave, but not where in Honjo it would stop. There are two places in Honjo that busses may stop, one place being a fifteen minute walk from the video store and the other being over an hour away. So I went home thinking that I had one hour before I had to start my horribly inconvenient and freezing trek to the video store and back. But then, I got a call from Machiko-san at the BOE. Apparently, the driver had gone there and told her about my problem, and she (as always) had a solution to it. Apparently her husband would soon be going into Honjo to pick their son up from school because, of course, since the trains weren't running he couldn't get home on his own. So Machiko-san arranged for her husband to come and get the DVDs from me and to take them to Honjo for me. I was so happy and relieved!

I had a very quiet day at the Elementary school yesterday. Apparently on Monday there was a continuous stream of second and third grade pupils going to the sick room with, uh-oh, influenza. All the sick kids were sent home but on Tuesday even more kids were sick. Yesterday, all the second and third grade kids were at home whether they were sick or not in an attempt to stop the virus from spreading, but unfortunately that measure had been taken too slowly and many pupils of other grades were absent too. Out of the other four grades worth of pupils who should have been at school, 56 were absent, 53 of them with the 'flu. Fully half of the first grade pupils had the 'flu, as well as about a quarter of each of the higher grade classes. All together, less than half of Konoura's Elementary school kids actually attended school yesterday. The lunch room felt very empty indeed.

Today the weather is much nicer, although it is still snowy and cold. I hope this cold snap does not bother me next week when I go on holiday to the Kansai area.