I woke up this morning with bruises on my hips. This futon is more blanket than mattress. Sleep? Who needs it.
Danny’s cough is better! Hurrah.
Sweet baked goods and drinking yoghurt for breakfast and then out to the aptly name Nijo-jo Castle. Train and subway with Pasmo cards that are still functional.
It was sooo hot today and humid so it feels hard to breathe. The strength of the sun cannot be overestimated: any skin not covered up or slathered in sun cream prickles instantly and you can feel it burning.
A fascinating castle with nightingale floors that squeak as you walk across them. The rooms are full of weird representations of tigers, as though the artist had never seen a real one. Cranes, trees, etc. on beautifully detailed room sized paper screens. Gilt painted panels on ceilings undergoing restoration. No shoes, no photos inside and no air con.
Quick walk round green but hot gardens- mummy forgot the wet towels so she was in the dog house. Back out of the sun and onto the underground, then back to the food market for a very adventurous lunch; picking kebabs and nibbles from stalls: octopus, chicken, potato and cheese fishcake, followed by a kind of burger made with sliced beef between two halves of a potato croquette. All utterly yummy and easy to eat whilst walking.
Back to the house for bit of the “Grand Tour” (Amazon’ Top Gear) and a sit down to prepare for our half day walking tour this afternoon.
We met with our guide at 2pm outside the Machiya to start our tour. First stop via the local train was Sanjusangen-do Temple. This beautiful building was unaffected by 2nd World War bombing and hasn’t burnt down since the 1600s. Quite a feat for a wooden building that they still encourage people to light candles in.
It is 120m long and they still use the length outside for archery competitions: both professional and as a coming of age ceremony. Inside, there are 1,001 wooden, lacquered and gilded Buddhas. Each one is clearly built to the same pattern but each is slightly different, due to the 70 sculptors used to make them. Each face looks identical on first inspection, but the more you look the more differences you see. Each statue has 42 pairs of arms, each palm has an eye on to look out for people who need help.
Mila managed to get another stamp for her book and both children would probably tell you that their favourite part was the fan just outside blowing water onto the pathetically grateful visitors.
Our guide (whose name meant lucky books!) Then took us to have a wander round Higashiyama. It is a beautiful and clearly very old part of the city, where even Mcdonalds and Starbucks do not have enough corporate power to get full signage and ruin the atmospheric streets. She also took us to a shrine where they sell monkeys that are made from the leftover fabric from the kimono industry. The fabric did not look to meet that requirement to me, but there were lots of young people buying them and writing on them in sharpies to hang from the shrine.
Lucky explained why we have seen so many young people wearing kimono. Apparently, it is a government initiative to encourage the kimono industry and gives wearers discounts on taxis, restaurants etc. It just looks incredibly hot, but there is a huge market in having someone come to your hotel to do your hair and dress you in your rented kimono. I suppose the advantage is that you can give it back when it is sodden with sweat and stinky!
She found us a Toroto shop and we bought a key ring to add to our collection of Japanese memories. The stuffed one Mila wanted would have required its own seat on the way home!
Lucky showed us some Chinese yoof having their photos taken professionally in traditional Japanese wedding kimono on a decorative bridge. The poor boy was dressed head to toe in black and looked close to passing out. I hope their photo is good! The photographer’s camera gear wasn’t all that, either…! Lucky said that 99% of people wearing kimono and yukata in the city are in fact not Japanese at all – Chinese, Korean, and other Asian nationalities on their holidays.
She also found us an epic ice cream shop that had benches and air conditioning. Are you starting to see a theme?
Our next dose of culture was the Kodaiji Temple, built in 1605 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s second wife, who became a nun when he died and lived for 27 years consoling his spirit and praying to him. Maybe he didn’t have life insurance?!!! The actual building wasn’t that impressive after seeing the longest wooden structure in Japan earlier but there are 3 thatched tea ceremony buildings and a gravel garden which made our first Zen temple visit an experience nonetheless. My favourite part was the mini bamboo forest which was near the top of the hill and beautifully cool and breezy in comparison to the painfully still streets below.
The water level in the pond had sunk so low that the enormous (and apparently solitary) Koi carp didn’t fit and had to squirm along the mud in the bottom to make progress, with his dorsal fin exposed to the baking sun. My reference to microwaved salmon where a bit is cooked and the rest is not was deemed offensive.
By this time it was 5pm and the sun was sinking, rendering the temperature much more tolerable. We have used umbrellas borrowed from the Machiya for the last two days to try and protect us from the terrifying UV. Our bus stop technique is not elegant but is very effective!
We walked back to Gion through the Yasaka shrine, past rather buff young men in tight shorts pulling rickshaws full of giggling, yakata wearing girls.
Lucky told us the Japanese people see no conflict between Budhism and Shinto- using Shinto to celebrate births and weddings and Budhism to commiserate with deaths.
We had tried to book a restaurant for tonight but the one Keith wanted was completely booked up. Fortunately Lucky had a plan and led us around the warren of narrow streets. Unexpectedly we saw a Geisha and a Meiko heading off to an appointment! The Meiko can be as young as 16 and are apprentices. They can’t become full Geiko until they are 20. Lucky was very surprised to see them and we were all slightly saddened by the rash of tourists with cameras and smart phones pestering them. We stood and stared for a few seconds!
Then Lucky took us to a Teppanyaki restaurant where you could queue for your table in air conditioning sitting on chairs. Blissful.
Sat on the floor around a hot plate, the food was almost incidental but managed to be spectacular anyway- fried noodles tipped straight onto the hot plate, fried potatoes, beautiful buttered corn, steak and chicken thigh. We even had a Japanese radish salad and a big bowl of rice. Danny noticed that there were miniscule fish decorating the salad and then continued stuffing it in his face. I think we have cracked that one- he even tried the octopus at lunchtime!
Our stagger back to the Machiya included a detour to get yet more water and irritate a poor man in a sweet shop, where Keith counted out his pennies to pay for something worth 500 Yen. We had to leave quite quickly, but we had acquired some very crunchy biscuits and a rice-y peanut brittle that I would happily die for. Oh that reminds me… Danny has been hanging out for wasabi peas since we got here and today we managed to source some wasabi nuts. Very tasty, if a bit spicy, but anything that encourages us to drink can only be good.
Breakfast for tomorrow was also purchased from our favourite Familymart and includes yoghurt, fruit, sweet bread things and granola. Fish and rice would be easier to find!!
I am hoping that the double layer of mattress we have requested for tonight will leave my hips less bruised tomorrow!!