Day 18: 18 April 2009

LOCATION: KYOTO (NORTH WEST)
MOOD: FRUSTRATED
LISTENING TO: MR J MEDEIROS - KEEP PACE

JUST LIKE RIDING A BIKE:

It being the weekend and with the sun high in the sky, Clement and I decided to go and hit up some of the sites around Kyoto. Semester had only just started a few weeks ago, and as he had been busy with the process of adjusting to student life he hadn't had the chance to do much sightseeing, so it made sense for us to go together.

The first destination on our itinerary was one of Kyoto's most iconic – Kinkakuji, the Gold Pavilion. However before we could get there we had to figure out how to get there. Kyoto's public transport being as woeful as it is (and Clement being as indigent as international students are) we decided to bike it. Clement had recently purchased his own bike, and In-Yeong agreed to lend me his old bike. So, in one of the great ironies of the trip to date, I ended up as a cyclist.

I haven't rode a bike since I was around 9, and although the saying goes “just like riding a bike” I have to admit I struggled at first. It took me about forty five minutes to actually get to the point where I was comfortable riding along the footpaths, and even then there were a lot of near misses. Particularly difficult were the oblivious primary schoolers and immobile grandmas. Much sweat and many expletives later, we arrived at Kinkakuji.

In the interests of preserving what little shreds of dignity I have left I decided not to take any pictures of myself riding a bike. Suffice to say I was pretty happy to get my feet on solid ground again.

ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD:

Kinkakuji was actually quite a spectacular sight. Unlike its underwhelming cousin Ginkakuji, this pavilion was actually plated with gold. The heat was sweltering and the sun blazing, and the sight of a shimmering gold temple perched elegently on the edge of still waters was actually very poetic. The only thing that broke the tranquility of the scene (apart from the searing heat) were the bees. Kyoto's bees are unlike anything I'd ever seen before; they are quite literally the size of your big toe. Add to this the giant ants and the jumbo sized carp and you started to wonder whether you'd stepped into the Japanese equivalent of Ripley's Believe It Or Not.

Conspicuous consumption writ LARGE. Out-bling that, playa.

Not exactly a Geisha, but that girl was pretty cute.

I wonder how many times I can use the MTV Cribs joke before it gets old.

More gargantuan fish. Couldn't get a photo of the bees.

As with Ginkakuji there was also a small garden annexed to the pavilion, but it wasn't anything to write home about and inevitably found itself dominated by the pavilion. Unfortunately the pavilion wasn't open to the public, but I imagine that apart from the exterior there wasn't really anything special about it.

They had a nice little pool but I'm pretty sure swimming was prohibited. I was hot enough that the thought crossed my mind, though.

Nothing shows your piety and devotion like a fistful of 1 and 5 yen coins.

Of course the more appropriate display of religiosity appears to be forking out several hundred yen for protective charms and amulets from the gift shop.

YES, YOUR MAJESTY:

The next stop was the Imperial Palace, which was unfortunately on the other side of town. As you can imagine, many more expletives were uttered on the way there. After having lunch we decided to take a look around. The palace itself is divided into a number of compounds, ringed by a set of individual gardens. Unfortunately we found out that to tour the palace you actually need to make a written application, and we were amused to find that a loud-speaker alarm system was used to deter other less cluey tourists from mistakenly treading where mere mortals ought not.

One of the side gates to the palace compound.

The parks and buildings are separated by wide gravel paths, presumably made so for the Emperor's lengthy retinue.

Apparently the anti-tourist defence system worked.

The gardens were actually much nicer than the facades of the palace buildings.

Each of the gardens had a different theme. I can't remember what this one's was supposed to be.

We spent a while here just chilling and kicking around pine cones. Simple entertainment for simple minds.

It was mid-afternoon by this point, so we decided to sit in one of the gardens for a while and enjoy the shade. It was really quite an idyllic experience; the palace grounds are quiet and secluded (despite being in a busy part of the city), and it was interesting to just watch the people go by. Some of the random things we saw that afternoon included:

• A real life Kodak moment: a good looking young family (one boy and one girl), with dad playing baseball with the son and mum picking flowers with the daughter.

• A pair of high school girls randomly singing and dancing as they weaved their way through the woods.

• A guy practicing his shakuhachi (Japanese flute). He clearly hadn't been learning for long.

• An old dude riding around on a bicycle with a dog perched precariously in the basket on the front.

• A tour bus for Japanese professional wrestling

We didn't take pictures of all of them, partly as we were exhausted by that point and partly because we didn't want to get arrested. Even I don't feel confident in my ability to talk my way out of being found in the woods taking pictures of little kids. If Bill Henson can't get away with it, what chance do I have?

For some reason Japanese kids (particularly girls) like to wear their school uniforms even on weekends and holidays. Some people tell me it's because they think it's cute, others have told me that it's a status thing (especially for students of top-class schools). It's probably a mixture of both.

The presence of this bus in the palace parking lot was pretty random, but after a couple of weeks in Japan you get pretty used to the constant stream of non-sequiturs.

PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC, YELLOW BOY:

There were still a million and one other things to see, but by that point we were pretty hot and tired so we decided to head home. It was at this point that we realised that Clement had lost his bicycle key, meaning that one of the bikes was now useless. I took the train back (luckily there was a station within walking distance), while Clement rode In-Yeong's bike home. We made a bet over who would make it home first, and unfortunately I lost. The 2km walk from the nearest station to Clement's place was probably what killed my chances.

As I was walking home I did manage to find this restaurant, apparently operated by long lost relatives from my clan. Would've stopped in to ask for a bite but I had bigger fish to fry.

We ran into Clement's friends in the lobby and we decided to do something that night, so after going upstairs and having a shower and a bit of a breather we headed out into the cool evening night. Clement's end of town is a quiet one, but a short stroll revealed a faint ebb of night life. We eventually settled on a local karaoke bar which, although more expensive and run down than other places in Japan, was much better than anything I'd experienced in Melbourne.

A noodle shop that we passed on the way there. Apparently it's a hit with the local student crowd.

Our initial plan was to sing for an hour, but it took around two hours for us to completely get things off our chest. The song selection was pretty decent (even for English songs), and thanks to In-Yeong and Song-Yi I got a crash course in Korean pop music as well. The drinks were pretty ordinary, but with these sort of things it's the company that counts.

The Kyoto Uni Crew. From left to right: Rex, In-Yeong, Clement, Song-Yi and yours truly.

High notes: if it doesn't hurt, you're not doing it right.