Day 2: Nishijin Textiles, Kyoto Imperial Palace, & Nishiki Market

After seeing the western Arashiyama district yesterday, today we visited central Kyoto -- most notable for the Kyoto Imperial Palace. It is only open for visit under a guided tour by the Imperial Family Agency, and they offer 2 tours a day in English (our turn is at 2pm). So first we're going to visit the Nishijin Textile Center on Imadegawa street, just half a kilometer away from the palace.

The Kyoto subway system, like the streets above, was extremely clean. Rarely did we see litter anywhere; in fact, trash cans were uncommon as well. Everyone lined up in an orderly, single-file line behind markers on the ground.

The train came promptly. We took the north-south subway line 5 stops; the train stations had signs in both Japanese and English, and made getting around possible.



The Nishijin textile center is a demonstration center for the making of kimono and ornamental obi clothing. We made it just in time for their kimono fashion show -- the clothes are so ornate and finely made. We noticed it is common for women to wear kimonos out on the streets as everyday wear (though more plain designs).

A lot of what seems to be a part of such an intricate outfit is how a woman carries herself -- she takes small, graceful steps, and wears these wooden platform shoes that looks to be 2-3 inches thick! The only thing that seemed to break the gracefulness of this show was this huge Chinese tour group that was making a loud ruckus, and taking photos of themselves in front of the models and making little peace-signs for the photos.

While they did not have a formal explanation or tour, we did get to see artisans work at different stations as they each made a part of the kimonos. I never knew it was so complex! Beyond the typical cutting and sewing together of the garment, an artist actually uses an ink and draws a very fine outline of the patterns onto the fabric. Then, the design is hand-painted within the outlined borders (see left), and while the garment is stretched on this small hem, the paint is heated over a stove and the colors slowly change. One of the artists was really nice and asked us our names, and then used his brush pen and wrote, in the finest handwriting ever (like size 1 font), our names on a piece of paper for us... oh, and his hand was not allowed to rest on the paper either. Watching them at work was really quite a treat.

Heading back towards the Imperial Palace, we stopped for lunch at this cute little restaurant along Imadegawa Street (could not understand the shop's name). We both got a set lunch: Karen's had a bowl of udon with fishcakes, tsukemono (pickled vegetables that seem to be sometimes the ONLY vegetable in the meal), and a bowl of rice with salmon and seaweed flakes. I got Tonkatsu (one of my fav's in the US), which is essentially deep-fried breaded pork chop in this really awesome sauce, and that came with a small bowl of udon. It seems that many set meals in Kyoto have both noodles and rice.

NOTE: To those who also love Tonkatsu, yes, this was better than what you can get in the US. Not really sure how just deep-fried pork can be any better or worse, but the breaded crust was flaky and airy, and the sauce just tasted really fresh.

Kyoto became the capitol in 794 A.D. when the emperor moved his administration from the nearby city of Nara where he grew a fear of loss of political control to the powerful monks. From 794 to 1868, the Kyoto Heian Palace, or daidairi, burned down numerous times from warfare, lightning, or household fires. Whenever a new palace is being rebuilt, the emperor’s family would reside in a temporary residence or sato-dairi. The Kyoto Imperial Palace is one such sato-dairi, and the original palace was never rebuilt after it burned down in 1177.

The palace area is huge (~1 square km) – the palace walls are surrounded by an inner courtyard, which is walled off and surrounded by an outer courtyard. Five gates allow access into the palace, of which one only opens for the Emperor, another is for the Empress and the children (which happens to be on the opposite end of the grounds), and another for visiting dignitaries. We entered through this last gate, but could only look through the windows as we were not allowed to go into any of the buildings. All the buildings were made of wood and paper – the roofs were carefully made of hundreds of layers of bark to insulate heat in the snowy winters (see photo on left), and the throne and resting places were open and airy for cooling in the summers. Supposedly, the design was based off of a palace in China, and so the throne faced the south. Despite its splendor, the furnishings seemed very sparse – the emperor laid on simple tatami mats, and appears to have slept on simple matting on the wood floor (the empress slept in a separate room). The cooks and kitchen were located in a totally separate, rock-lined area to reduce the risk of fires.

Interesting fact: Despite all these precautions, one year there was a big fireworks display in Kyoto, and one of the incendiaries flew 1.5km(!) and landed on the palace roof, and caused (again) another big fire. Since then, fireworks have been banned from the city. This current palace has stood since 1855.

The main “quad” inside the palace is constructed of sacred white gravel flanked by a cherry blossom tree on the left and a mandarin orange tree on the right. All the interior pillars are painted with an orange color -- I am unclear if the orange is the same Shinto orange seen in the Fushimi gates (see Day 4), but if so, it is meant to represent the sun and ward off the evil spirits associated with darkness and night. The white and yellow painted at the end of each wooden crossbeam was done to repel termites, but the rest of the surfaces are not treated… go figure.










After the palace, we took the subway to the Nishiki market, a street lined with 100+ shops selling sweets, teas, seafood, tofu, pickled things, and anything else edible for 4-5 city blocks.

Known as "Kyoto's Kitchen", this street has existed for "a few centuries", and many of the shops carried on from generation to generation. Imagine going down this street trying random free samples of each specialty... that was what it was like.

You might be wondering why Keith was smiling like he was in pure joy. It's because there was a shop that made donuts out of tofu. For about 350Yen (~$4 USD), we got a bag of 12 bite-size donuts.


They were quite plain with a little sweet, very slightly bean-y taste, and were very airy and not cake-like at all. Karen, who normally does not eat donuts, said they were "really good" (Karen) too! They were gone in about 47 seconds.


More photos... on the right showing what one of those pickled daikon looked like, and on the left a shop that had braised clams in some broth.












After a few blocks of aggressive food sampling, we got tired and took a break in a mochi shop :). This was an afternoon tea set with four different types of mochi -- warabi mochi on the right, and I can't remember the flavors on the larger plate. Not that it wasn't memorable... just that we ate so much it's hard to remember what was what.

There are a few other interesting streets nearby. There is a covered arcade filled with clothing stores (Teramachi Street), and one filled with restaurants (Pontocho). We went home to nap before heading out for dinner! Thus ended our 2nd day (post edit: much to our worry, our weight didn't change after that day)!

Hotel Granvia Kyoto / Day 2

Our hotel, the Granvia Kyoto, was built by the Japan Railways company. It is a modern, business-oriented hotel, and is situated right on top of the JR Kyoto station (so the business people can just hop right onto the Shinkansen downstairs). This is a view towards the west side of the Kyoto station -- to the left are all the trains, and in the background is the Isetan, a massive department store. It has 11 floors (the escalators on the right go all the way up to the top past the big christmas tree), and the top floor has 10 or so pretty high-end (and $$$) restaurants. The 10th floor is where the 7 ramen shops are located. There are also a number of coffee shops, boulangeries, and snack/sweets stores (those that sell pretty nice mochi box sets, for example) on the ground and 2nd floors.

The escalators heading down (center of the photo) takes you downstairs into a mall that connects the Isetan and the subway station, and is called The Cube. We happened upon this massive food court on the 2nd basement floor that had many, many stalls selling bento boxes, curry sets, unagi, you name it. For once in my life I was sick of seeing so much food everywhere!

Tourists can buy passes that allow unlimited use of the JR trains for a period of time. Similar passes also exist for the bus and subway. Even though we had things to see every day, we ended up not being able to save by buying these passes.

Train and subway tickets can be bought at kiosks such as these. Many of them are quite limited in English, however; usually you look at a map overhead, determine the cost (the farther you go, the more it costs), and buy the ticket value you want.

This is a view from the northern side of the train station. To the left is a large taxi and bus terminal; from here, we can catch a bus to pretty much anywhere in the city (as long as you can understand the maps in Japanese). The tall building in the background is our hotel, the Granvia. It has 15 floors (the city has a historical height limit to 3 stories, but somehow this was allowed), and there are some very $$$ restaurants serving kaiseki meals on the top floor. There are walkways and escalators to the station, and each morning we could walk downstairs, buy coffee and pastries, or figure out which transportation to take (given all of our choices!) to get to where we wanted. The location was really good for the end of the day as well, when we were tired and wanted to just get off the train and walk upstairs to our room. Oh, and I forgot: there are more restaurants and cafes outside the station within the block, but we didn't try them.

This is what I mean by the nice breakfast options downstairs (versus paying $20 for breakfast within the hotel restaurants). There is this Burdigala bakery in the train station, and they serve these wonderfully crunchy, somewhat-buttery pastries. This was an almond-chocolate croissant and a pear danish; for $8 (including a cup of coffee), she neatly packed it inside this take-out bag with a rigid cup holder to keep everything together. Why can't Starbucks be this nice?

Our room was on the 11th floor, and when we checked in, this nice Japanese bellgirl walked us up to our room, showed us different features in our room, and was extremely gracious. The staff's english was pretty good, and the concierge was able to point us to many things, make calls for us, and even find local cheap (very casual) foods for us (we wanted oyako-don one night). Our room was very comfortable, and it definitely deserved the positive reviews we read prior to choosing it (plus the price was quite affordable). The room lighting can be controlled from a digital panel next to the bed, there was a nice desk and flatscreen TV in the room, and the view can't be beat. They even brought us special things each day waiting for us when we came home: one day we got a yuzu fruit with a note saying that it is traditionally good luck to take a bath with it as it brings good health for the year! On Christmas day, they gave us a small box of chocolates. They also had one of those Zojirushi hot water dispensers in the room, and an electric clothes press in the closet.

Our bathroom was similarly modern, with a nice counter (we're bathroom snobs when we travel) and a very nice hot shower / bathtub. This was quite a pleasant change compared to this rather sad hotel we checked into in Hong Kong (see here). The most surprising thing, though, was the electric toilet that was there!!! It had this heated toilet seat that hums whenever you sit on it, and has 3 heat levels (it can get quite hot!). It also has a bidet spray function, and also a shower function -- I read about these in Japan, but have never used one until now. Unlike what I have read, though, it did not have an air dry function, and so our tails were left dripping wet after using it. Back to good ol' fashion toilet paper.











It also tickled, but after a few days of use it was a nice thing to have. Luckily, it had instructions in English or we would have had a pretty interesting surprise by pushing those buttons.

Alright, time to head outside for Day 2!

1st day in Kyoto

Our first day waking up in Kyoto... our hotel room on the 11th floor of the Granvia Kyoto Hotel looks over the southern part of the city. We could see the Shinkansen (Japan bullet train) and other trains pulling into the station below us on a regular basis, but we're so high up that we can barely hear them. It's forecasted to rain today, and today's also the last day of the Kyoto Winter Festival where they use lanterns to light up the Arashiyama (western hills) district. Hopefully the weather will cooperate... but look at the glorious sky! Aahhh.... what a way to start the vacation.

Given the cost of breakfast in the hotel, we decided to look around the Kyoto train station for other food. We found this little Japanese-French bakery called Vie de France in the basement of the shopping mall; surprisingly, people smoked inside the restaurants! No one at the counter understood any English, but luckily we could pick up the baked goods ourselves.

By 10am, we were ready to head out to explore Kyoto! Today's there's also a flea market that takes place every 21st of the month at the Toji temple... it's only a 20 minute walk from the hotel, so we figured we'd go there first and come back to the hotel for lunch. The streets were not too crowded at that time, but it was really interesting seeing how different the city is compared to say, Hong Kong or San Francisco. People drove very small cars (smaller than Mini Coopers) that fit in tiny little parking spots under or next to their homes, and many of the buildings seemed to be short (other than hotels) and quite old. The city is very clean, however, and there did not seem to be any litter on the ground.

By the time we got to the Toji temple, it was VERY crowded. As soon as we got to the main gate, we were swept in by the swarm of people. Rows and rows of merchants selling trinkets, food, and other wares under tents filled the temple grounds. Karen and I were just focused on hanging onto each other as we waded through the pushing and shoving.

We managed to get into a corner where there was room to stand, and lo and behold we were in front of a woman grilling battered octopus and fishballs. At 300yen a pop for something totally new, we had to try it. From then on, stall after stall of food, we went to look at each unique offering: fish-shaped waffles filled with red-beans, griddled batter balls filled with squid and cabbage, more grilled foods that we did not even recognize, and many many others.

This man was selling tiny little fish (they're about the size of this "L"), but there was a really long line of people waiting to buy bags of them...















No idea what these are, but no, they are not s'mores...










Fish-shaped waffles filled with sweetened red-beans (with her husband lighting up to keep her company)...


We did buy a box of these squid and cabbage filled batter-balls cooked in their griddles. They were very soft, were topped with sauce and dried onion flakes. Pretty good!













We also saw many vendors selling earrings, kimonos, pottery, and various hand-crafted trinkets (like these little dolls).


The Toji temple consists of several buildings, and was built in 794 by the Emperor as a "guardian of the south gateway" into Kyoto. Like many other wooden buildings in historical Japan, it was struck by lightning and burned down numerous times (the existing one was built in 1644). This 5-story pagoda is the tallest in Japan, but we were not allowed to enter. The grounds before it, though, was quite peaceful, and many people were resting next to the pond.

The other buildings (the Main Hall and Lecture Hall) housed many statues of Buddha, and were filled with people praying.

We got back to the Kyoto train station by around 1pm, and went to the 10th floor food court -- this floor consisted of 7 specialty ramen shops (with little dessert stores in between)! We could not read any of the menus, and so it was hard to know the difference between the shops other than that they represent the noodle styles from different regions of the country. We just found a store which seemed cozy and didn't have a long line.


The ramen floor works as follows: You pick where you want to eat, then go to a vending machine outside the entrance and buy a ticket for your ramen. Then, you line up (each shop had quite a line), and you enter whenever there is room after someone is done eating. Luckily, each shop had plastic food models in front of the windows so we could see what looked good, and try and match up the price of the display against the price of some Japanese name at the vending machine. While you're in line, a woman comes and takes your ticket, and places the order in advance. As soon as you get seated, your order is brought to you... so the only time spent inside the ramen shop is when you eat! Lucky for this efficient system, otherwise those shops with only 10-12 seats would always be full.

The ambience inside is great, and so was the food. We happily joined in with everyone else in creating the incessant slurping sounds as we ate our food. We have no idea what we ate (I think it was a pork-based soup, with pieces of pork loin, noodles, a soft-boiled egg, chives, and some bonito flakes), but the combination with their hot tea was quite good! Each bowl was also only about $8USD (at the existing ~90Y:1USD conversion), and was a quick local meal that was off the typical tourist path!

Whew! All that, and so far it's only 2pm on our first day! We're heading back to our room to take a quick nap before tonight's tour of the Arashiyama district... stay tuned.

1st day in Kyoto (continued)

Kyoto is set within a valley with hills to its north, east, and west. Arashiyama is the district at the foot of the western hills, and is known for its bamboo forests (scene in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon), wooded groves, and temples. We were able to catch the last evening to view Kyoto's winter lanterns in the Arashiyama district, we headed out around 4 p.m. and took a train from Kyoto station. It is considered to be a suburban area outside of the city, and would be an interesting view of the more "local" lifestyle.

Public transportation is good, and consists of an extensive bus system, a mix of JR (Japan Railway) and local trains, and a small subway system of only two (2!) lines. Luckily, our hotel is at a huge central hub (JR Kyoto station), and so we took a JR train out to Arashiyama, which only costs about $5USD round trip.

I found it interesting that we blended in so well... no one seemed to give us the foreigner eye, and many spoke Japanese to us (probably because we kept nodding quietly).

Our travels in Japan often required the use of 4-5 maps at any given time. A map to count the number of train stops before we got off (otherwise we would be lost trying to read the Japanese to figure out where we were), one to figure out where to go once we got there, etc. There were lanterns on the streets marking the path of the Winter Festival, so we could just follow the lanterns and wander through the streets. Getting around Japan isn't the most straightforward without understanding the language (some recognition of Chinese characters help, but not too much), but everyone we talked to were very kind and open to helping us out (although 90% of the time they only spoke Japanese, we only spoke English, and both sides eventually gave up, laughed, and bowed as we said good bye).

Tenryu-Ji, one of the eight(!) UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Kyoto, is a major temple built in 1339 by the Emperor after a dream about a heavenly dragon. This was quite a large complex with many little shrines, such as this one (right). There is typically a wooden box in the front where the worshipper can toss in money after they pray, and there is a rope attached to an overhead bell. Sadly, we know very little about Buddhism, but we saw many locals write prayers(?) on a piece of white paper, pray, and then rattle the bell by pulling violently on the rope.

I plea guilty to not having done more research on the local religion prior to this trip. I guess not every country has big signs in english explaining what we are seeing :).

There is a 14th century Sogenchi zen garden at Tenryu-Ji with many many types of moss (with labels we can't read) all over the place. It was very peaceful, and even has a beautiful lake next to a raked rock garden next to a big prayer pavilion. Many people were seated here admiring the sunset with the Arashiyama mountains behind the garden.

We then followed the lit lanterns to the Sagano bamboo forest trail, which was about 1km around. It was getting quite crowded, and the rain started getting pretty heavy. Different zones of the bamboo forest had lights on the soil floor illuminating the bamboo, and it formed a nice (albeit a bit eerie in certain spots) surreal yet calm night-time walk through the forest.

Of course, I went nuts trying to get a good photograph of this. Why didn't I bring my tripod? Basic faux pas in photography: Never try and hand-hold a shot when you could have had the discipline to do it the right way (with a tripod and shutter release). However, this was the best I could do at low-light:
I think it still came out okay. :)

By the time we got out of the forest and followed the path back into the main streets, it had become a torrential downpour. I had a semi-broken umbrella and poor Karen only had her raincoat, so we had to duck out in some tea-houses along the way. We were totally drenched, and rather than walking back to the subway, we headed towards a nice looking restaurant near the Tenryu-Ji temple that we saw earlier. We were looking for kyo-ryoji, a local vegetarian tofu meal eaten by the Buddhist monks, and found something similar (though given our inability to read the language we couldn't figured out exactly what we got into). The nice waitress, who spoke a little english, told us it was a special local type of tofu, with some pickled vegetables, a rice with some chicken bits in it, a bowl of clear broth with tofu skin, an egg custard with some mushrooms, and some fish cake. They lit a small burner under the hotpot, and along with the simmering tofu there was also this little jar of sauce that boiled along. We used a small ladle to get the chunks of tofu into a bowl, sprinkled on some dried herbs, mixed in this heated sauce, and ate it with rice. YUM!

The real surprise came at the end: warabi mochi. It is a common dessert eaten in the Kyoto Kansai region of Japan, and consists of a soft sweet made out of fernroot jelly and coated with kinako powder. So what, you might ask?

It was awesome. After rolling it around in the powder with this wooden pick-like utensil, it is very very soft (about as soft as a noodle that has been cooked too long), melts in your mouth like jelly, and the kinako powder tastes similar to peanut and sugar. However, the powder was SO fine that it must have been ground with a high-precision mill... there was no grit in it whatsoever. And it contrasted well with the green tea's bitter taste to round out the meal.

And thus, our first day in Kyoto is complete!