Sauntering Sunflower

So far we`ve attended two very different events here in Japan. In both cases, there were several distinct differences from how we do things back home.

The first event we attended was the Aoi festival. It was going to be a procession from the Imperial Palace to two Shinto shrines in order to do a couple of important rituals. As it was called a `festival` we were expecting a somewhat festive atmosphere. We knew that thousands attended the event and went early to avoid the crowds. I was expecting crowds and people standing as close as possible to observe the beautiful costumes and event characters as they went by. I was also expecting music, children, cheering, laughter, etc. Much of what we ended up seeing was the exact opposite. No bands or music of any kind unless you brought your own MP3 player. Except for a brief and quiet round of applause, there was no clapping or cheering. And the crowd willingly left a nice wide pathway between the seats at the front and the standing room at the back so that people could get by. There was very little necessary by way of crowd control at all. There were more information people than police officers. And there were almost no children present at all. Granted it was a school day, but with thousands of people, at least a few must have taken some time off work to attend. About the only normal thing compared to back home was the presence of booths selling food, drinks, souvenirs, etc.

The sumo festival we attended today was a bit more `normal.` People showed up in good numbers to watch todays bouts. There was some more cheering for the sumo wrestlers as they entered the ring for their match. Children were there with their parents calling out the name of their favourite sumo wrestler. Lots of merchandise and food available (much more reasonably priced than GM Place too!) However, there was almost no security present (and almost none necessary). And, all of the people who were dressed in security uniforms were women. That was almost the only official presence of women in the entire tournament – vendors, cleaners, admission staff, and . . . security? It seemed a little odd. They were dressed with official hats and wore skirts and heels. They would hurry over to an aisle if someone stood there to take a picture or if any part of the crowd looked too `excited.` The sumo wrestlers would walk right past the front seats into and out of the arena and despite their obvious status among the Japanese, no one tried to reach for them or yell at them as they passed by. There didn`t even seem to be much animosity between east and west. I was a bit nervous at first since we decided to root for the western wrestlers and Tokyo is in eastern Japan. But we didn`t get any dirty looks at all as we cheered on the western wrestlers.

If not for the fact that the Grand Sumo tournament was being held in Tokyo while we were in Japan, we probably would have skipped the city entirely. And that would have been fine.

All of the culture, all of the history, all of the unique identity that has made Japan such a great place to explore and visit is absent from the city. It is row upon row of skyscrapers, and streets filled with young hipsters. It is, in point of fact, just like Vancouver but with taller buildings. I suspect more English is spoken here.

The Grand Sumo tournament, though…that made visiting Tokyo worthwhile.

It was, in a word, awesome. In more words, it was like taking awesome, wrapping it in awesome, and serving it with a side of awesome for garnish.

We arrived at the tournament about 8:30 am and bought our general admission tickets. Since everyone was working on a Monday, we did not sit in our own seats. Instead, we picked the best, inconspicuous seats available overhanging the balcony and trusted in the Japanese preference to avoid confrontations.

The tournament lasts two weeks. There are two teams, basically. Nishi – the west, and Higashi – the east. We decided to cheer for Nishi for several reasons. First and foremost, Tokyo really sucks. Second, we would be cheering for the visiting team in the home team building. Third, cheering for the east of Japan would be like cheering for the east of Canada. Which is like cheering for Toronto. We would never cheer for Toronto. And finally, we were not sitting in our own seats and we wanted to be inconspicuous.

The early morning was for the aspiring sumo wrestlers. It was a continuous series of bouts that lasted until about 3:00 pm. At the end of the two weeks, the wrestler with the best record earns the priveledge of competing as a genuine wrestler at the next competition. Competitions are held about every two months, from what I could gather.

I grabbed a few videos of the events that I will be happy to share when we get home. There was an opening-ceremony ceremony, a ceremony before each match, a ceremony before the official bouts, and a closing ceremony. I wish sumo were more accessible from Canada. It was all fantastic, even if slightly incomprehensible.

Afterwards we joined the crowds and headed back to Shinjuku.

Today we are leaving Kyoto.

The city was nice. Easy to navigate, with lots of great nooks and alleys to visit. We easily had our best experience last night when we visited a small restaurant we had discovered on an earlier foray. It was situated along a small canal, not too far from our ryokan, lost amongst the houses.

It was probably on our first night here that we passed the restaurant. The sign out front had declared okonomiyaki and teppanyaki. We had declared that we should try the place out. And so it was not until our last night visiting that we actually found the time.

After the Gion Corner show, we hiked across town to the small restaurant. The entrance was a frosted-glass door that slid, opening into a small room with a raised tatami floor and five small tables arranged upon the mats. The place was surprisingly full and the owner directed us to the only remaining table.

Dinner was cooked one dish at a time by the owner, and with about twelve people in the restaurant, he had his hands full! Especially since the first group ordered such varied food. But we were content to wait. We ordered our food and some cold sake and enjoyed the ambience.

The owner had an impressive collection of fish, arranged in three or four tanks. And the fish were not small, either! I wondered if perhaps some were kept on hand to serve…

We both ordered Kyoto style okonomyaki. It was similar to Hiroshima style, with noodles cooked into the mix, but the dough was thicker and more like a very thin pizza. The only true similarity was that the servings were huge!

As we enjoyed our meal, the proprietor brought a small journal to the table. It was filled with well-wishes from all the previous visitors to the restaurant from all over the world. It seems we were not the only tourists fortunate enough to find his small establishment over the years.

Neither of us was able to finish our meal, so the owner gave us a small take-out box to bring the remainder home with us. We were happy to oblige! And, for each person who visited the restaurant, he also gave a parting gift of fruit. It was a really nice touch!

We stayed and chatted with him for a little while after we were done eating, telling him a little about Vancouver and complimenting him on his very fine food. The restaurant was Kawa. It was located along the canal near the river to Gion. If you ever visit Kyoto, you are doing yourself a disservice not to visit this remarkable establishment.

Today we toured the Uzumasa Eigamura – a studio film park where they make a lot of the Power Ranger-type shows. I do not actually know what any of the shows were, but I did recognize various incarnations of the Power Ranger team and a giant size statue of Voltron. That was pretty cool.

The park also had a variety of Edo-style buildings and the like for filming a whole range of Japanese cinema. We chatted with a lot of Japanese children who were required to practice english with foreigners for school.

Tonight is our last night in Kyoto. We still want to see Kobe and Okayama out west, Tokyo in the east. And somewhere in the mix it would be nice to fit a full-blown traditional ryoken onsen stay. But we are running out of days to see everything we want.

Maybe we will just stay another week…

Making our way to and from tourist spots has brought about many different realizations and a few minor hazards. A great part of the crowding at these sites comes from the hoardes of Japanese school children who are also touring famous spots. They are often `spirited` bunches, seldom rude, and often curious about the foreigners. The braver ones say hello. The ones with homework march right up to us in a big group and proceed through a script in one of their workbooks. So far, we`ve been the subject of four such assignments. We`ve given signatures, peace messages, messages to Junior High Students, and provided our thoughts on Japanese cities, food, and culture. In exchange, we`ve received a few nice hand-drawn student `name cards` and had a few nice group photos with the school kids.

On a random bike ride, Jennifer and I passed a vending machine dispensing 1 litre cans of Kirin draft beer in Kyoto. When I later returned to purchase said 1 litre beer, I discovered the machine was not in operation. It was a very sad moment. There were tears.

Yesterday we did the walking tour with Johnnie Hillwalker. It was an excellent day. The tour wends its way through back street of Kyoto (and past our ryokan, incidentally) to tour the less-well-known historic spots of the city.

We visited a Buddhist temple that is actually used for practical Buddhism, several Shinto shrines, and numerous small merchants in the area. We saw the building where Nintendo began its days as a playing card company, sampled some Inari zushi and had Japanese sweets. The tour took about 5 hours altogether.

Afterwards, we visited Kiyomizudera temple. It was nice. One of those must-see attractions that is much too busy to be properly enjoyed. The serenity of the temple in its moutain setting is lost amid swarms of sight-seers and tour groups.

The streets on the way to the temple were packed with merchants. Pottery was the big attraction.

Weird moment of the day.

After visiting one of the temples in the Gion quarter, Jennifer and I were hungry and decided to stop for lunch. The cafe that we chose turned out to be a house. The residents installed a diner on the bottom floor and lived on the upper levels. The house was older than the country of my birth.

I had the omelet rice and Jenn had the curry rice. She cooked the whole meal right in front of us.

As we were finishing up the meal, another couple walked into the restaurant. They were french, had little english and absolutely no Japanese. After a brief struggle, I ended up interpreting the broken english of the french into broken japanese. It was surreal.

We awoke early this morning and walked the 3 kilometers to the Imperial Villa. We toured the grounds for a while, then staked out an excellent viewing spot for the Aoi Matsuri. We were not really certain what to expect. It turned out to be a parade of people in old costumes. The people of Kyoto have been doing this parade for a very, very long time.

The entire procession took about an hour to pass our vantage spot. The participants had a five hour trek ahead of them under a hot afternoon sun, decked in layer upon layer of heavy fabrics, with stops for special ceremonies at two shrines. We went for ice cream. It was cool and refreshing.

Afterwards we headed over to Kinkakuji – the Golden Pavilion. It was very gold. And busy. While the gold leaf on the temple was impressive to behold, the moss gardens around the palace were much more enjoyable.

And you can always tell when you have reached the end of the tour, because a gift shop and ice cream kiosk awaits. We bought some souvenirs from the Golden Pavilion kiosk – not one of which had anything to do with a golden pavilion – then ventured off to Ryoanji temple.

Ryoanji temple is famous for its rock garden. And I must admit, the rocks were really impressive. They remained still for our pictures with the austere gravity and dignity that only a rock can muster. The gravel around the rocks was superbly raked. The entire experience was tranquil. We headed on.

Our third stop proved impossible to get to by transit. After some struggles with the bus system, we finally gave up on visiting Power Ranger world at the Toei movie park. Kyoto theatre was doing a presentation of Osamu Tezuka world (remember Osamu Tezuka? this is a paragraph about Osamu Tezuka) and we decided to travel there instead. Sadly, the presentation was not really a presentation so much as a gift store. With tears in our eyes and an expensive Astro Boy key chain in my pocket, we headed off into the sunset to find a computer and write our blogs.

We rolled into Kyoto a day ahead of the Aoi Matsuri. We booked rooms at an inexpensive ryokan called the Higaiwa. It is a lot more quaint that the previous ryokan we visited and with none of the frills.

After examining the travel maps of Kyoto, we realized the city was far to spread out to explore properly on foot. The city sprawls through the mountains over several kilometers and hidden amongst skyscrapers and business parks are thousand year old temples and vast green spaces.

We decided to rent bicycles to explore the city. Not as fast as traveling by transit, but a more intimate way to investigate the city. The bikes were very affordable.

We set off west, traveling lazily through the Gion quarter. The streets were narrow and slightly crooked, each building boasting tremendous gravity and history. We stopped to visit a couple temples. Since the Gion district is somewhat elevated from the rest of Kyoto, the temples afforded some beautiful vistas of the city.

When we finally tired of our exploration, we returned to the ryokan to sate ourselves on senbei and Pocky.