We’re in Japan for our yearly vacation. Our original plans, made nearly a year ago, involved spending about 2.5 weeks here. We were going to spend about a week in Tokyo, a few days in Kobe, and another week in Kyoto. Then, as you may have heard, there was a big earthquake, a tsunami, and a still-unresolved mess involving several damaged nuclear power plants. That started on March 11 and we were scheduled to fly to Tokyo on March 31. Skipping over the details, we eventually decided to shorten the trip and spend a week in Kyoto, which is 300 miles away from Fukushima and hence unaffected by aftershocks, power outages, and ongoing concerns about radiation leaks and other unfortunate events.
There were far fewer people than usual on the flight over. At a guess only about 1/3 of the seats were occupied; usually the plane is almost completely full. The customs area of the airport in Osaka was nearly empty. However, the hotel here in Kyoto is at least as busy as usual, if not more so. We haven’t seen anything here that reflects any indirect effects of the disasters, although Tracie observed today that there are fewer Westerners around than usual. On the other hand I think that there are more Chinese tourists here than last year.
We arrived late in the day, day before yesterday. Yesterday we traversed the route we’ve come to call The Yasaka Walk. This involves walking from Yasaka Shrine up to the giant statue of Kannon, hitting a couple of little shops on the way to obtain incense and other souvenirs. From the Kannon shrine we dropped back down the hill a bit and headed across to Kyo-Mizu Dera. (I’m going to be lazy and let you google these things if you’re interested; if you need specific pointers leave a comment below.) That evening I ate too much sushi and egg rolls (both take-out from the market in the bottom of Kyoto Station).
Today we visited Sanjusangendo-ji and did some shopping in the station. Tracie sampled hot cocoa at three different places; she still hasn’t decided which establishment makes the best cocoa so further research will be in order. I had a bowl of miso-flavored ramen for lunch. I’m firmly convinced that Japanese mouths have a greater tolerance for heat than Western ones. I managed to burn my tongue, and I eat about half as fast as the locals. On the other hand, I did see one Japanese woman fanning herself vigorously while eating, so maybe ramen-eating requires some practice. I tried a dab of a red-orange condiment that had an intense flavor somewhat like an odd combination of black pepper and celery. I don’t know what it was but it was quite striking.
I had a couple of more abstract observations in mind earlier, but I’m starting to succumb to jetlag and will have to stop here. I think we hit the sakura season just after its peak; some of the trees are spectacular.
