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While strolling out of the palace, we noticed a sign for ceremonial tea. It was a little expensive for tea, $7.30pp, but Jax had said she was wishing for a tea garden drinking like that in the Japanese Tea gardens in San Francisco. Thus, we took advantage of the opportunity and headed that way. Women in kimonos served us a small, but electric green and frothy tea in bowls, along with a Japanese doughy treat ball. We enjoyed the view of the little stream, rocks, and garden in front of our tea building while it rained and we sipped our tea. It was relaxing.
We wanted to catch a geisha dance show in the Gion part of town (as we didn't have the business connections nor the couple thousand to spend on having a geisha entertain us alone :)). We grabbed a subway and, after a short walk, purchased tickets at the Ponto-cho Kaburen-jo theatre for $18pp. We were a bit confused as to when entertainment started and whether we had reserved seats, as the show started at 4:10pm, but the box office person wrote down 3:10pm "in", and people had lined up for the show. Confused, we walked in, and then were assisted by a partially English speaking person - which may have just confused a bit more :). We decided to wait a bit, left the theatre, and walked down the street to find a quick drink of sake (hey - isn't that what everyone else is doing on a sat. afternoon?:). Well - the answer to that question was no - the bars and restaurants on the street were all closed until 5pm. We headed back to the theatre, purchased a few "weird" things to snack on from the theatre's snack shop, and waited for the show to begin.
We headed back to our guesthouse, and retired early after a pretty long day. We're hoping for a sunnier day for our final day of the trip part 1! Day 137 - Kyoto < | Index | Photo Galleries | > Day 139 - Kyoto and Wrapping up Japan © 2007 Blue Ocean Studios, LTD. All rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Services | About | Contact Prints | Return Policy | View Cart World Travel Galleries | World Travel Blog | Links |
Our sleep was better for some than others. The Japanese mattress/rug beds were comfortable for Jaimie and I, but didn't go over so well with Jax and Tom. We slept happily until 8am while T&J woke up early. Maybe we were just used to a few worse accommodations :) The guesthouse/ryoken we're staying at has traditional Japanese style rooms, and as such, there's no bathroom in the sleeping room. We have a shared bathroom for 3 rooms, and a shared shower/bath area for the house. Thus, it took a bit of time for the showering process to complete, and after that, we were off to breakfast. We had skipped out on the Japanese breakfast by our hostess, and are opting for it for tomorrow (fish and rice, etc.). Instead, we found a coffee shop around the corner - they had the best french toast - rivaling the ones we had a Jack's cafe back in Peru! :) A good start for the morning.
What wasn't so good, was the constant rain that had even picked up while we ate breakfast. Instead of taking the bus to our first destination as planned, we walked the 4 minutes back to our guesthouse, and picked up some very much needed umbrellas provided by our hostess (we were already soaked from the 4 minutes!). From here, we decided to stay close to see what happened with the rain. We walked a few minutes to Nijo-jo castle. On the way, we observed many locals biking in the rain - with umbrellas!! It was interesting to see a guy with a suit holding his briefcase in one hand, and an umbrella in another - while biking! :)
Nijo-jo castle was built in 1603. There are 2 palaces within the castle walls and outer moat, along with cherry-trees, plum-trees, and beautifully laid out gardens. Before we could see the palaces, we were "attacked" by a couple groups of junior high-school kids from Tokyo who needed to talk to tourists in English for their class. We obliged of course, had a few pictures taken, and we're back to touring. We entered the first palace, Ninomaru Palace. The crowded tour buses seemed to like touring this palace, so it was difficult to get started walking around. So, instead, I chose to go against the "route" signs, and we took off against the crowds (there were fewer people that way). As we walked, the floor boards squeaked like a bird sound. They named this the Nightingale floor, as the shogun who built it had the boards float on nails, so that when pressure was applied, the board would squeak and thus announce any intruders. The inside of the palace was out of a Japanese kungfu movie - pretty exciting to feel like a few samurai were going to crash the window next to us at any moment :). Instead of the samurai, we found a lady who had an arm band that said Nijo-Castle, and she directed us to turn around, and follow the route flag. We were about half-way through, so, we would have to walk all the way around to see the rest. That didn't seem reasonable, and after walking around another corner, we were able to hop over a rope, and continue our backwards tour :) Americans never follow the rules (?) :)
We continued on to the Honmaru Palace, which is only open for special viewing a few days in the fall, so we could only get an outside view. The palace was actually part of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, but then moved a few blocks down the road to Nijo in 1893, as the original palace in Nijo had been burned down in 1750. 
After our tea session, we headed to the JR (Japan Rail) station to rebook our train to Tokyo's Narita airport. We had looked up our flight home, and it was leaving a little earlier then we had thought. We decided to take a train back to Tokyo Sunday night, instead of early Monday morning. Since Jax and Tom had a 9pm flight instead of our noon flight, they decided to stay in Kyoto the extra night. 
It took me half the show, and Jackie telling me that the one woman in the yellow outfit was supposed to be a guy, and the girl had fallen in love with him or something like that. I guess it wasn't what I expected. The second half of the show was more just Geisha dancing, which Jax and I found more interesting. All in all, I can't say I would see it again if that helps define the experience :) Despite the under expectations show, we hadn't had our Geisha fill, so we walked into the Gion district - which our hostess had described as "like a Hollywood set". She was right, it was similar to a scene from Memoirs of a Geisha - the buildings lining the street were over 300 years old - and spark ideas of just what you would think a small Japanese town would look like. Many people were hanging out in front of one of the larger buildings, and there were business men dressed in suits out front as well. Every few minutes, a Geisha showed up, either by taxi, or on foot, presumably entertaining the business men, or just finishing an appointment. It wasn't all that exciting, and after up and down the street, we decided it was time for dinner.
Our last official dinner in Japan, and with Jax and Tom, we of course had to have our Japanese favorite - sushi. We hadn't been to a sushi train place yet, and had passed one last night on the way to the noodle bar. We had to go back, and we enjoyed similar to an all you can eat sushi bar :). At a sushi train bar, you just pick up the sushi you want off of the conveyor belt which goes around to all the tables. The chefs create the sushi in the middle, and then just add more plates as they're consumed. It was pretty good, and we got our fill. We were surprised at the price - it totaled to only about $6pp, which was super cheap for the amount we had eaten. 