Kyoto Megapost Part 1 – In which we set the scene…
Well friends and family it’s been a while. I could have written earlier but I wanted to wait until the epic event that was my trip to Kyoto had occurred. Now it has, it’s eclipsed everything else so far and I can’t remember what I was going to write about! This post shall be in several parts as A LOT happened. But our story begins a few days before when my very first visitor from the UK arrived last Friday…
Pre-Kyoto – Friday 17th November
Christ, was it only a week ago? It feels like years! On this day I was struggling to keep my composure in the staff room as all my ninensei (2nd Years) had gone on a trip to Okinawa for a week leaving me with a grand total of 5 classes all week, none of which were on Friday. I somehow managed to employ myself in a vaguely productive manner before leaping up at 4pm and hurrying home. I only had to wait an hour before (drum roll please) STEVE arrived!!! Promptly took him out for sushi with K and P where we discovered he was going to struggle being a vegetarian in Japan, but he accepted becoming a pescatarian for a week with good grace and we had a great time! Afterwards we grabbed some sake and beer on the way home and caught up.
The next day we had a very chill day to give Steve a chance to recover from any jetlag and in preparation to get up at 5.30am on Sunday to catch the 7.30am bus to Kyoto. I did however, insist that Steve have an onsen experience (the ‘everybody be naked’ place), so E and J kindly organised a trip to Shimobe Onsen near Minobu. A very fancy place, not as crowded as Mitama Hot Springs and very old school. A little sad but even though it was very relaxing, every time J and I entered a bath the occupying Japanese ladies vacated. Oh well, c’est la vie.
Kyoto Bound – Sunday 19th November
As mentioned before, Steve and I were up at 5.30am to get ready and walk to the bus for 7.30am. It was a 45min dawn walk to Kofu Bus Station and I must say, very refreshing. Fuji-san was looking lovely and the world was quiet. I’d like to talk about the majestic Japanese countryside as we drove through it but for the first time ever I slept on a moving vehicle! I woke up occasionally but for the most part I was dead to the world. I’m rather thankful, as it was a 7hr bus journey and we arrived a little after 2pm. First stop was our hostel accommodation a lovely little place called Guest House Kyoto Inn which was very well situated, and the manager was super friendly. After a short breather we decided to go to the Kyoto Aquarium as we had walked passed it on the way to the hostel and it looked interesting. We had a lovely wonder and I made a little seal friend! The Aquarium is half outside and half inside which I thought was cool. Don’t worry folks I will be posting photos of my adventures!
To wrap up the day we went for udon and then found an izakaya for some drinks which turned out to be an ordeal in itself! We kept walking into places that were already full, but one looked intriguing to we made reservations for Monday and found somewhere else. The place was called Kyo Suishin and the sake of choice was ‘Tamagawa’. Despite having a distinct whiskey flavour, it was still very nice and we managed to finish it off before heading back to collapse into bed.
End of Part 1