Kyoto! But no Geisha

Forget about Geisha. I`m not super pumped to find them, and they are really few and far between anyways. However, there are tons of places that you can pay lots of money and they will dress you up and parade you around town, complete with a mini camera crew to document the experience.

Doesn`t it seem a bit odd though? I mean, Geisha are so huge in western culture, so popular with tourists, maybe because of that book, maybe because it`s an quintessential image of beauty, or what have you. However, these are women that are paid to whore themselves out. Not necessarily sexually, but they basically are paid to keep guys entertained, and be beautiful company (arm candy). So, all of these strong, independent, `feminist` women are so enamoured with the concept of the geisha, yet pride themselves on some sort of feminist ideology. It seems completely contrary.

Anyways, back to the trip. I took a shinkansen to Kyoto, no hassle there, although a good 2.5 hour trip. Bought a new Murakami book (highly recommended by the way, `the wind up bird chronicle` Imagine magical realism (100 years of solitude, house of the spirits), but way more modern and japanese). I checked into the hostel (sister of the one in Tokyo, and the same high quality and numerous australians), and invited myself along with this nice British girl on her Lonely Planet `essential walking tour of Kyoto.` It was nice to have company for the day, as it was my 9th day in Japan, and I haven`t had a travel buddy all trip. I`m not complaining, but I like meeting new people and hearing new stories/ideas/viewpoints, you all know that. Anyways, she has been on a huge trip: teaching english in madagascar (sound familiar, boston peeps?), Australia/New Zeland (why does that look spelled wrong... oh well, deal with it.), somewhere else too.. I don`t remember, we talked about many things for basically the whole day.

So, Kyoto is a city put on a grid, with every section kinda different. There`s the old wooden pretty `old school japan` section, the modern `normal people live here` section, the Kyoto University section, the `crazy shopping wants to be like tokyo` section, and many others. Surrounding the city on all sides (basically) are huge mountains (not huge, but big), and these mountains have giant Japanese characters carved into them (maybe for seasons, maybe for directions, I don`t know Kanji). All the main temples are around the mountains (because they like religion and nature, remember?), and all the museums and shopping and restaurants are in the city. And it`s HUGE. Sprawling. I walked around the past few days, and that might have been a mistake. With Maddy (British girl who doesn`t have an Australian accent, even though I`m ignorant), we hit half of Eastern section of Temples and Shrines, and they were beautiful. Again, it`s difficult to write about, harder to photograph, you have to see them for yourself. We walked in the `old school` section of Kyoto, down alleys with lanterns and bamboo everything, unmarked places you just knew were private restaurants, or various other things that normal tourists would never be allowed access to. It was a cool place, hugely atmospheric.

We tried to find Geisha, we saw a bunch of the fake ones, and yeah, that was that. I did convince her to do Kaiseki (look it up), and that was probably the best meal so far. Absolutely amazing, and even cooler because I actually knew much of what was being served. (they love that, when you can identify food in Japanese.. they get this huge smile...)

Walked home, crashed. Woke up today, went to Nishiki Market, kind of like a huge food market in Kyoto. Absolutely stunning. All sorts of food, entire stores just for Bonito, Konbu, Rice, Pickles, etc. I went a bit early, but I did find the artisigu shop (knives... hehe), and saw how much damage it`s going to be later in the trip (not too bad.. you pay for the quality). Then I walked around the normal people part of Kyoto. It was ok, but not terribly exciting. Went to the Imperial Palace, on a hardcore guided tour. That sucked. Oh well, my fault for doing a guided tour.

I made it up to myself by walking along the Kyoto University area. There are two rivers that meet right by there, and it had this awesome chill vibe where all the students were, very nature-filled.. Walked along the philosophers path, saw a bunch of cherry blossom trees, but no blossoms.

It was a day of quiet meandering, with some cool pictures. No cool stories, except for dinner. I went past a cheesecake place, and had a craving, so I bought a piece. While there, I asked the lady where the best Unagi was (eel). She walked me 1/4 mile to this place, and read the sign for me... ``Number 1 Unagi in Kyoto``

It was good. Really good. I didn`t know Unagi tasted like that.

Anyways, back at home, going to go out drinking with the hostel peeps, haven`t had a night out yet, should be fun. Tomorrow I might be meeting some Japanese people I contacted through couchsurfing, so I`ll let you know how that goes...

Oh, by the way, no pictures until I get back. I didn`t bring the cable with me, and I`m not spending time uploading for your benefit. You get my witty typing, you can wait a bit for the amazing photography. =)