We're Not in Tokyo Anymore ~ Gaijin Kid

“There’s, like, way less trains.” – Me, looking at a subway system that’s not Tokyo’s.

I recently returned from a trip to Kyoto, Japan, where I took no less than 342 pictures and hit most tourist spots in less than three days. I was tired. I had been a tourist for too long. But Kyoto, in all its tourist glory, was still somehow peaceful, somehow beautiful in the still dead, still cold beginnings of spring. (To be fair, though, I did take an uncomfortable amount of pictures of trees.)

The trip started out simple enough: three hours on the shinkansen, checking into the predominately foreigner hotel (what are all these languages in one elevator? Cool as **** that’s what), and then meandering off into Kyoto Gyoen Park. The park, or old imperial palace, or national gardens, there’s lots of names for it, was much larger than the Tokyo version and had some teaser plum blossoms that I thought were cherry blossoms at first. Overall it was a happy start to the trip. As immense as this park was, as long the stretches of gravel, as tall the walls, it was quiet and beautiful and you couldn’t help but smile. I was out of the city, I was starting a new venture, if even just a small one. And one guy certainly agreed with me:

The next two days I swear I saw every temple and shrine in Japan. I didn’t pray at too many of them, though, because I was informed that if I was too greedy the separate deities could start fighting and ain’t nobody got time for that. But really, I didn’t want to push my luck, I do want those wishes to come true. So we moved through, took pictures, and hoped for the best.

What’s most interesting about Kyoto is that one moment you could be crawling over other tourists, like at the golden temple (Kinkakuji), and then the next you could be slipping into a place of prayer, an intricate garden, a back alley suburban-esque street and find yourself completely alone in the silence of peaceful life: the only signs of Kyoto’s foreign attraction the occasional rickshaw with kimonoed tourists. Over all the souvenir shops, all the udon noodles (delicious if even impossible to eat with hashi), all the freaking people, Kyoto is nice. I tend to forget how busy and large Tokyo really is until I compare it to another city in another part of Japan—or even another part of the world. Parts of Kyoto could be the Maple Grove of Japan, no part of Tokyo ever could.

Turns out there are still a lot of things to see and a lot more pictures to be taken. But for now, enjoy a select few of my favorite places and things, and wait patiently for a more informed blog next time.