Wednesday, May 29, 2013

RTW Trip: Day 90-91 (5/24-5/25) - Kyoto



Day 90-91:

Kyoto was sold to me as the anti-Osaka, a secondary Japanese city with a more traditional Japanese style. With its many temples and shrines and traditional Japanese fair, it embraces the Japan that modern technology has left behind. Kyoto is probably the second most famous and oft-visited tourist destination in all of Japan, and from reading reviews, for good reason. I left by train late on Thursday and got into my hotel in Kyoto around 10:00 PM. My hotel was near the glistening Kyoto Station. While that sounds nice, it would have been nice if the Kyoto station was near most of the sights in Kyoto, or even the nice restaurants. Anyway, being close to the station at least gives me some options.

I slept in after a quick meal that first night as I had to leave early morning to get to my scheduled Toyota Plant Tour in Nagoya, about 90-minutes away. The factory tour is free, of course it would help if the Toyota Factory was reachable by public transport. It isn’t, so I had to go by cab, which basically ruined the whole ‘the tour is free’ thing, since cabs in Japan are muy expensive. The factory isn’t located too close to the main train station in and out of Nagoya, either. I reached the tour in decent time, tired after little sleep. Thankfully, the tour would wake me up well.

The Toyota Factory tour was quite well attended, as we were in a group of around 30, and extremely well done. The guide spoke great English, was far more humorous than I could have imagined (though that may be simple stereotyping at work). The tour was quite thorough, necessitating most of the two hours allotted for it. The tour took us through many different large rooms that were all as clean and efficient as I imagined coming in. Toyota’s infamous production system, utilizing Just-in-Time inventory management was  something I had studied before, but it was great to see it in real action. I have a feeling, much like they do with the Wine Cellar Tours, the real production goes off in busy, crowded, steamy warehouses that are not the same ones that we were shown. Before I knew it, the tour was over. I never once felt bored, or that the guide was dragging us along. And as a person who isn’t a car nut (though in a family that owns multiple Toyota’s), to say that is quite good.

I didn’t really want to eat in Nagoya, a place that isn’t known for its food, so I had some quick Ramen Noodles, which I learned are a real thing in Japan, not a convenient excuse to eat salty noodles cooked in a microwave as they are seen as in the US. It wasn’t very filling, and by the time I reached Kyoto, I was starving, so I decided to go to one of Kyoto JR Station’s many eating options. Like how Tokyo Station has a Daimaru basically built into it, JR Kyoto has an Isetan, the same department store that my Mom and I visited in Kuala Lumpur. I went to their basement, but was quite disappointed as they had almost only desserts and alcohol, along with the usual grocery fare which was useless to someone in my condition. The station does have a slew of restaurants on its top floor, floor #11. The station really is an Isetan which just so happens to have a JR Station inside it, rather than the other way around like in Tokyo.

From the top, I got an amazing view of the staggering size of the building, as the middle area is open, with a long, multi-tiered stairwell patio leading down to its Ground Floor railtracks. The restaurants at the top offered a good mix of food, with everything from sushi, to traditional Japanese lunch food (noodles and fried meat), to Italian food. I, because of price considerations, chose the Italian place, which in this case was the cheapest. Their Pizza Lunch special (and considering the place was mostly full around 3:30, it’s fair to say it was still lunch time) was quite good, as they made a brick-oven seafood pizza of a decent size and more than decent quality for 1,200 Yen. They also had draft of Asahi’s black beer. Asahi is the largest of the three main Beer distributors in Japan, with the other two being Sapporo and Kirin, and is by far the most commonly served on tap, but their dark beer is rarely served. This placed had the ‘Super Cold’ (which they kept cooled to under 0 Celsius on tap) dark, which was served in the chilled beer mug, standard operating procedure in Japan, making it about as good as conventional draft beer can be.

Because most tourist sites in Japan close at 5, and most of those only allow entry until 4, there wasn’t much time to do anything else of note. I had mentally scratched away this day completely towards Nagoya, so I wasn’t disappointed in the inability to do anything else touristy, but still a little dismayed to have this much time and this little to do. I had already set my dinner plan, to eat at Chifaga, Kyoto’s best chain Japanese Korean-BBQ place, with their 2,800 all you can eat menu (and a 500 all-you-can-drink combination special), which will finally allow me to eat at a Japanese Korean-BBQ to my hearts content.

Until then I strolled around the most urban but still traditional area of Kyoto, the Hanigabiyashi District (there is a nontrivial chance that I spelled that very, very wrong), or the Gion district. They are right next to each other, serving almost as a duo. I’m not sure which one takes precedence, but they are both located on the East end of Kyoto Central. Gion is the more urban area, with busy streets, but they are as far from the busy streets of Tokyo as you can get. Gion is really what traditional Japan, I’m assuming, looked like, with small houses, traditional craft stalls, geishas appearing every now and then to do little shows. It isn’t as touristy as it sounds. It isn’t the Kyoto version of Chowki Dadi in Jaipur (which seems like a lifetime ago). It is just a normal street with normal businesses, but one that also shows the older side of Japanese life.

Higabiyashi is a larger area, but the main attractions are all surrounding the large park that runs through it. There are the Yasaka Shrine and Yasaka Pagoda (along with a few other traditional Japanese buildings whose names I am forgetting). Higabiyashi park also has many of the things that the other large parks in Japan have, like fountains, ponds with scores of interesting looking birds, and even a few outdoor coffee shops, but it is the Yasaka shrine that is the real attraction. With my business in Eastern Kyoto basically complete, and my legs tired and weary and myself sweaty (the cool air of Tokyo was gone in this landlocked city), I returned back to my hostel, passing through the glowing Kyoto Station again. The station is located in a very average part of the city, but the station itself is beautiful.

My reservation for dinner was at 8:30. I wanted it at 9:00 or 9:30, giving me a little time to relax before I had to head back out, but the staff on the phone just kept repeating ’eight-zero-zero and thirty minutes’ over and over again. Either I was dealing with the most stubborn staff member ever, or they only had an opening at 8:30. I decided to relent and just assume it was the latter, because even I was getting tired with conversing with him in his broken English when his responses were that of a broken record. I left the hotel and returned to Kyoto Central, which isn’t a long walk, but just long enough for it to be a little annoying. I had good luck in both Osaka and Tokyo to be within five minutes of a train station, so the 10-12 minute walk here wasn’t great.

The restaurant was packed, so I think my man on the phone was justified in his sole ‘8:30’ response. I got my table, they lit my grill and so it commenced. I honestly don’t remember everything I ordered except that I decided to stray away from the cheaper and more unique innards and stranger meats that I feasted on before. Now that it was an all-you-can-eat setting, the more expensive but larger portion sized skirt steak, loin and tongue was on the table, and soon was on my table. This being my fourth or fifth rodeo with this type of food, I was at the point that I would consider myself rather talented at maneuvering the grill and the meat on it. The meat was good, and endless. The beer wasn’t great, as this was one of the few places in Japan that didn’t give you chilled glasses, but I wasn’t planning on having a lot anyway, trying to save space for the meat.

After a while I was pretty much done, ready to go back towards the station area and sleep early to get a good night’s rest. Tomorrow will be a busy day, with a lot of sites to see. I still wasn’t sure how I Sunday was going to play out, as I am supposed to return to Tokyo that day. My plan then was to see as much as I could tomorrow in Kyoto and play the hand I’m dealt the day after.


So what happened on Saturday? Well, a lot of things. I did see as much of Kyoto as I could, emphasis on the ‘I’ part because I’m sure if I was my dad, I would have seen more. Anyway, I got up around 9:00, avoided the urge to watch the Heat-Pacers game (Go Pacers!!!), and left the hostel to the furthest sight possible in Kyoto Central, to the Golden Pavillion (the real name is something in Japanese which translates to Golden Pavillion) on the North end of the City. The Golden Pavillion is a really secluded Pagoda area on top of a pond. The place is covered in a Gold layer. I’m not sure how pure the Gold is, but it has a beautiful sheen emanating off its exterior. There were few more gorgeous settings that I’ve been to on the trip. Nearby the Golden Pavillion are two smaller, less popular temples that are less popular for a reason, but even they were well maintained and secluded enough to be extremely peaceful. I always find it amazing that deep inside Japan, a country known, possibly unfairly, for its incredibly busy, work-centered culture, that there are these perfectly pristine, peaceful areas. I finally understand what zen really means, I guess.

From there I took the train back to the center of the city and went to a Sushi place for lunch. The sushi here wasn’t quite as good as the sushi in Tokyo, but in fairness Kyoto isn’t really known for its sushi. I only chose this place because it was close to The Nijo Castle, the other major site of Central Kyoto. The Nijo Caslte isn’t quite as large as the Himeji, and not as well preserved, but in that lack of preservation is a realness missing from the Himeji. This place isn’t famous for its beauty but for its authenticity.

There's really too much to describe in the castle, and this is already long enough. Just make sure to go there, and get there early. Last entry was 4:30, and it needs a decent amount of time (ie, don't be the last entry)
 
After I finished with the castle, I returned back to Kyoto Central to scout out my dinner option. One of the treats of Japan in late spring and summer are the plethora or Beer Gardens, rooftop buffets with all-you-can-drink alcohol. Obviously, the draw is the beer, but most serve standard cocktails and liquor as well. Many hotels in Kyoto (or Tokyo) have these Beer Gardens, but from what I read through varied Google Translated websites, reservations are suggested on weekends. I finally chose the Kyoto Tower Hotel, for 3,000 yen (which is the standard late spring price – it usually goes up to 3,500 starting in June), with a view of the Kyoto Tower on top. I made my reservation for 7:30. These places are more of afternoon types, which open at 5:00 and close at 9:00, so 7:30 was about as late as I could make it and still get full use of what was offerend.

I’ll be honest, the food was disappointing. The reviews actually complimented the food, but maybe the real good food only starts in the Summer, when these places are at their most popular and most expensive. The beer was great too, but I only had two glasses of ice cold Asahi dark (up there with Milk & Honey as the best beer of the trip – and by far the best mainstream beer I’ve had), I tried the more Japanese alcoholic fare. I’ve never really liked Sake, but Sachu, their fermented grain alcohol was quite good, and far better than most of the unique hard grain alcohol I’ve had, like the cashew stuff in Goa.

I met an interesting group of Japanese guys and girls at the place. They knew English and I guess were intrigued with me eating solo. It started with them asking me some questions about what I was doing and what America is like, and then ended with them asking me to come out to drinks with them, which I gladly obliged. The night was interesting. I’ve decided not to talk too much about my night exploits, but Kyoto was a lot more fun than it seemed. The alcohol was cheap and flowing, the places weren’t too crowded, and given that this was a Saturday Night, was pleasantly surprising.

About Me

I am a man who will go by the moniker dmstorm22, or StormyD, but not really StormyD. I'll talk about sports, mainly football, sometimes TV, sometimes other random things, sometimes even bring out some lists (a lot, lot, lot of lists). Enjoy.