I've figured it out, Japan is a huge shopping mall

A beautiful and diverse one, but still, I can't get over how many stores there are and how many people are constantly filling them. There are huge arcades with stores on every side. In the busy streets, filled with young and extremely stylish patrons, you go with the flow of the crowd and there is little else to be done. It's not a jostling frenzied flow, it's very easy going and colorful. It's fun just to walk around and people watch or to gaze at the myriad products overflowing into the street. You can walk for miles in any direction and never fear that you will run out of arcade.

Unfortunately with everything up to about $5 being in coin form, it's easy to drop a few coins here and there without thinking about it and feel like you're getting a great deal with your pocket change.  This isn't half of what is in my pocket, and it doesn't look like much, but if you were to hand over the change to the left you would be spending 666 yen or about $6.66 (there is a 5 yen piece hidden there, sorry).  The large gold coin in the middle is worth 500 yen alone. 

More specifically...

The other day I was determined to make it to downtown Kyoto. I thought it would be quite a walk, but I had not trekked far when I came to a brightly colored temple across from a busy street filled with shops. It didn't take me long to realize that this was the tourist shopping district. Every other shop sold gift boxed mochi, the rest sold decorative fans, sandals and replicas. Though there were few white devils, there were many MANY asians with cameras. Ok, stereotypes aside, it's all true. ;-)

I walked down this street until I reached the Kamogawa River (Kamogawa = Duck River). Perfectly positioned with a cool breeze blowing off of it, it blocked out the sounds of the city and was lined with young couples. I'm serious. Every two or three meters was a couple sitting side-by-side. Like everything else here, it was incredibly kawaii. Other than the two old fishers (with 10ft poles), I seemed to be the only single visitor.

After my rest at Kamogawa I went back to the street and crossed the bridge. On the other side of the bridge the street changed. Here it was no longer tourist gifts and mochi. Here it was fashion, phones and never-ending youth. And if I thought there were a lot of people on the tourist street, there were many more here. The stores all play english pop music (ahem, Spears and Timberlake) and are overflowing with merchandise and trendy young Nihonjin. There is so much to pay attention to and it goes on forever. If you aren't deep into sensory overload you'll be gently surprised by quiet shrines that are tucked into the explosion of youth culture. They are all over Kyoto, but tucked into the buzzing fashion halls they seem somehow even more venerable.

Warning, not so PC:

They all drive prii and skinny little cars, cuz they're all skinny little people. It's strange relative to the US where one is used to seeing so many large people. Granted, the bone structures have something to do with the contrast, but all those figures about this or that percentage of Americans being clinically overweight really starts to sink in when you're in Japan.

Oh, and yes, they really do talk like that. =D

Technorati Tags: japan, shopping, mall, kyoto yen culture temple

Japan - Clouds Went Away

And I caught a stomach bug. I was starving when I woke up this morning, but no sooner had I eaten the little pastries than I was regretting having walked so far from the guest house. Upon returning I alternated between my bed and climbing up and down the two stories to the restrooms, this became exceedingly difficult. After a couple trips I returned to my bed and lay there hating the impending feeling of doom that was nausea. I thought even throwing up would be better and tried to distract myself with other thoughts. Eventually I fell asleep, and eventually my nausea grew to the point where it woke me up and doom fell. Bleh. Any way, the rest of the day was spent something like that. I tried blogging at some point, but it took too much energy and I went back to sleep. I regained my appetite sometime after dark, but didn't feel up to leaving the guest house to find beef broth. I think I'm feeling better now having stayed in bed and fasted for almost 24 hours. I'm still very weak, dehydrated, and bed sore, but I'm hoping to remedy all of those gradually.

More importantly, my experience before tucking tail and returning to bed:
Saturday was cloudy, but not wet and I headed out with the intent of seeing downtown Kyoto. My first stop was a little cafe run by a rojin (elderly) couple. They very politely sold me a couple of pastries and a crustless sandwich cut into small pieces. I walked toward downtown Kyoto looking for a place to eat (it's rude to eat while walking). Eventually I wandered to a small parking lot and sat down to eat. As I ate a small elderly woman walked by and stopped to say something to me. My Japanese is almost nonexistent and so I told her that I didn't understand. "Sumimasen" I said. She looked very apologetic and returned my "sumimasen" before continuing down the street. As I was finishing and packing up the woman returned with a steaming cup of green tea. I didn't understand everything she said, but what I did understand was basically that she thought it was cold out and I should have a hot cup of tea rather than the cold bottled tea she had seen me drinking. =D She was so extremely friendly and polite, something I keep seeing here. It's heartwarming to say the least.

Technorati Tags: japan, food poisoning, rojin, nice

Japan - An Easy Day 1

My first day in Japan.  It's raining and so I feel like I have a little time to get the feel of being here before doing any hardcore sightseeing.  For breakfast I walked down the street until I reached a sign that said "Garden Cafe".  Inside, away from the traffic there was indeed a garden.  I walked in to find a waterfall and a stone path through green plants.  Inside the cafe my view through the garden was of a trellis structure highlighted by pink blossoms.  

The young woman inside the cafe was very polite and happy to accommodate me in-spite of my bumbling Japanese.  She smiled and answered with such enthusiasm that it was fun being frustrated.  She asked me something that has so far been the most common question: "Hitori?" Everybody asks with a little disbelief.  When I answered "Hai", this young woman exclaimed to herself: "Sugoi!"

Later I meant to ask if I could take pictures of the garden and she replied positively and then followed me out.  This was a little awkward for me until I realized that she was going to take my picture.  So I smiled and posed in front of the garden.

After my breakfast of a pancake with a scoop of icecream I wandered on down the street and came to a temple which I spent some time at, then wandered the streets some more before returning to the guest house to plan the next day's wanderings. Eventually I went out again for dinner and stumbled across the geisha street, though I think the woman I saw was not a true geisha.

Oh, and I like pigeons:

Technorati Tags: japan, garden, temple, pigeon