Morning in Kyoto! My plan for today is basically to do a lot of walking. If you read yesterday's post you might recall that Yu-Mi, the very helpful receptionist at my hotel, suggested that I go to the famous Philosopher's Path. She had given me directions and had told me where I could get on the right bus to get there, so I headed out a bit before noon. I got there a bit after noon and started walking towards the beginning of the path.
Rickshaw runners waiting for their prospective clients.
Below is a picture of the entrance of the Philosophers Path. For those who are wondering, the Path is named such because of a famous professor of Kyoto university who used to walk it for years as his morning meditation. I walked it's length four times today, I felt that I should walk the length and back once before I took photos. The atmosphere of the path is so peaceful I cannot describe it in words. I only hope that some of the beauty of this place can be communicated through my photos.
The Japanese name for the Path is Tetsugaku no michi, pronounced "teh-tsu-gaku no mii-chii"
As I started along the path I noticed that the river that it runs along was filled with huge fish like the one above.
The path and the views from it inspire artists, and I saw many people like this man making sketches or paintings.
There are more photos on my flickr account, as always, plus I did indeed upload the few sights I saw while getting lost in Kyoto last night.
It was getting late in the afternoon when I decided to go back. I got to Kyoto station and once again, the trouble started at the ticket counter. A friend of mine here told me that if you ask for a certain line you can get a ticket for a much cheaper price, so I decided to try it out, and maybe save some money.
This, technically, was a mistake.
I had forgotten my cardinal rule of sticking to English, and began asking the man behind the counter about the cheaper line. He immediately started rapidly talking to me in Japanese and gestured to a machine in the corner that looked like it could dispense tickets. I walked over, bought a ticket from the machine, and turned around to see that my "helper" had vanished. I wasn't to perturbed as I thought that, since I had my ticket, I could go to my soon-to-be-departing train. No such luck. As I confidently strode through the turnstile the barrier swung shut and an attendant rushed over to see what was amiss. I explained that I just wanted to get on the train and I showed him my ticket.
He looked at my ticket.
He looked at me.
I looked at him.
We both looked at my ticket.
Five minutes until my train left.
It was as if I could see his thought process, the exact moment when he realized that I was about to take up much of his time. He asked me to come with him and began speed walking over to the ticket counter where I had started this debacle. He handed my ticket over to the man on the other side of the counter and spoke rapidly in Japanese, looking at me expectantly. The man on the other counter looked at me with the same amount of expectancy. Perhaps the silly American was going to do a trick? I looked at both of them and said slowly, "Train".
I've never seen people so eager to do their jobs and yet so eager to not be doing their jobs at that very moment in my entire life. Well, perhaps that one time a few weeks ago when Viktor and I walked into a convenience store in the middle of a typhoon soaking wet.
Three minutes until my train left. What happened next I can only describe as confusing and delightfully fast paced. Somehow I got another ticket, again in first class, and was refunded one thousand yen more then the original price of the one that I bought. I got on the train just as it was about to roll away from the station.
"Domo arigato gozaimasu"(Thank you very, very much) I said to my helpers as the doors closed. They smiled and bowed slightly, and then walked away quickly just in-case I decided to stay longer in Kyoto.
I got off at the station I thought I needed to transfer at, but instead was told by a conductor that I needed to get back on the train and that I had ten more stops until the transfer. This suited my fine, as I was told to go into the train equivalent of first class. Here I met this little fellow.
This kid would not stop staring at me. He must have been around four or five and he kept gesturing at me and telling his okasan(mom) to come look. I, of course, was the mature adult and did not encourage him in the slightest.
OK, maybe I made some funny faces and played peek-a-boo, but only in a mature adult manner. I was wearing a suit after all. After a good twenty minutes the kid got bored and I was free to enjoy some of Japan's stunning landscape from my window. It was sunset, and the trees were just beginning to turn.
Scenery like this, with the sunset on the turning leaves, makes me long for New England autumns.
After I got home I collapsed for a few hours from all the walking I've done today. After rousing I started working on this post and now it's 3 in the morning. Japanese classes start "today", so I should probably head to bed. Night.
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English: How are you?
Japanese:おげんきですか？
Pronunciation: oh gen-kii deska?
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Best Wishes,
Dan
