May 2008

That was the key thought floating through my mind as I lay on my bed in the dormitory at 11pm last night. Two people from denmark, one from French Canada, and two from France, and all having very lively conversations. At one point, the danish people tell the french people that they can speak French, and everybody is happy! Except me, sitting in the corner grumbling in my own strange language...

The highlight of that day was a tour/meditation in a zen temple. Finding it was a challenge, as I attempted to hop from one temple to the other on foot...big mistake. Kyoto has a habit of switching North with West, and West with East, and I spend a lot of time retracing my steps after walking in the wrong direction for several kilometres. And I don't think I'll ever be able to navigate the maps of Kyoto. Still, I do eventually find my way to the temple after an hour or so.

My companion from the tour is a very nice guy from Berlin. It is nothing like I had in mind; I thought it would be fat Americans yelling their way around a temple "Look hun, they've got them paper door things!". But instead, me and Christoph (That's what I call him, he looked very artistic) spend hours chatting in English with one of the monks. Christoph is a artist/musician from Berlin, and his enthusiasm for every painting and picture is contagious. Check out his website http://www.chrisgertges.de/ and his myspace http://www.myspace.com/chrisgertges

Being shown a temple in depth is an amazing experience; we are allowed into all the room that would usually be marked NO ENTRY, and are pointed out every detail and secret. There are quite a few of these, and what seemed like an ordinary gold screen painting turns out to be fascinating. One of them is 250 years old without a single restoration, yet still amazingly vibrant since the pigments are made from rubies, ivory, emerald and gold. One painting contains a visual illusion based on which side of the room you sit on, where walking from one side of the room to the other the perspective changes.

Another contains secret Christian symbols, dating back from the time when Christianity was persecuted in Japan, and this Zen temple harboured secret practicitioners. A rose in winter symbolized the birth of Jesus, a white Lily symbolized Mary, and even the holy trinity found a place as three birds, one of which was white (the holy spirit). We also see the bell hidden within the temple for over 400 years, which the Japanese army attempted to recquisition for its iron, but the head priest intervened to protect it. A committee is currently deciding whether to designate it a "National Treasure", and members of the Vatican are soon travelling in Japan to see the bell. But for now, its just me, Christoph, and the bell, which the monk rings several times for us. A sound of rebellion that has echoed through the ages...Having always seen Christianity as orthodox, the idea of Christianity as an underground, secret religion opens up a whole new perspective for me.

We go into the tea room and talk for hours more, about anything that comes to mind: Zen, Mayan spirituality, Japanese art, and so forth. The monk who shows us around is a bit of a jet setter, having just arrived back from Seattle, and holds a degree in Psychology. He has been all around the world, and much of the conversation between the two focuses on European places I have never heard of. And if I ever go to Berlin, I have a place at Christoph's house :D.

After walking around for about a million more hours (lost of course), I find my way to a beautiful park in time for sunset. I talk to a Japanese woman who uses a very thick Kyoto dialect, making most of what she says incomprehensible, but it still sounds nice. After my day of wandering, I soak my feet in a nearby onsen, reputed to be the best in Kyoto. In addition to the usual array of baths, there is a herbal bath and a "Takaon" bath, Japanese for "hotter than the sun". I spent a good amount of time in both, and my cares of the day are forgotten.

Budget is looking much better now - despite the $20 temple tour, I have kept my budget to $45 a day (much less than $75 a day). I came down hard on food, and now spend only $10 a day - $3 on a big delicious breakfast of miso soup, grilled salmon, rice and orange juice, $4 on various snacks which now constitute lunch (mainly onigiri, rice balls with various fillings), and $3 on dinner, beef curry (the cheapest dinner meal in Japan that I can find). The only thing I am waiting to see is how my nutrition ends up - I spent a while trying to figure out whether I was getting enough Vitamin A, B, C, D, E, K, R, and Q, but then I looked at my water and noticed that it advertised its high "Vanadium" content. WHAT THE HELL IS VANADIUM?! Giving up on balancing all these complex micro-nutrients, I took a multi-vitamin instead. I'll give my new diet a week or so - if I develop scurvy, I'll come up with a new idea

Tis a day of reflection, a day of lying around not doing particularly much at all.
I begun this day at 12pm...that's right, I slept for 13 hours straight, a record even for me. I was very exhausted last night! It's cloudly outside, and already mid-afternoon, so I figure I'd be better just to hang around here. However, staying still for more than an hour allows that spectre of thought to catch up with me...where is all my money going?

Losing my wallet meant I had to go to an ATM, which marks my first $1000 spent in Japan. $1000? That's right. How could you possibly spend that much, you say? Well, Here's my current list of excuses

- Some was spent on one off things, which I needed to buy at the start of my trip. $100 went on the first day, on items like iPod cases, headphones, battery chargers and so forth.

- Some was spent on the hectic period of travel, where I traversed between the airport, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, and everywhere inbetween. Even trying to use the cheapest, most time consuming forms of transport, this still totalled about $100.

- Accomodation is predictably expensive. I have kept to the cheapest forms of accomodation, dormitory rooms that seem a lot like living in a college, except very very compressed. It very much shatters the whole notion of early to bed, early to rise, as the lights stay on until at least 11pm, and people come and go at all hours of the night and day. Still, it ends up at about $30 a night, and the only way I can go cheaper is to spend a 7 hour night (e.g. midnight to 7am) at the internet cafe, sleeping in a recliner chair. I pre-booked my accomodation for the next three nights, which is roughly another $100 accounted for.

- Food is sneaky. An area of particular weakness for me, since I love Japanese food and want to eat all the delicious sushi, tempura and miso soup I can get my hands on. Having spent at least $7 per meal (I usually skip one meal a day though), and a lot on snacks and so forth, I am putting my foot down on my hobby of eating, and went to the supermarket instead today. I followed the boarders' advice of buying whatever is on special, and I have enough Japanese curry and rice to last me for days. Hopefully I'll be spending a lot more time in the common room with my miso soup and grilled salmon, and less time in those damn sneakily expensive restaurants.

- Water costs money here. As someone who drinks several small lakes worth of water per day, this is very annoying. In Japan, tap water is not something that most people drink. Therefore, there are very few water coolers, fountains and so forth where one could get a drink of fill up a water bottle. I have been filling up my drink bottle with terrible tasting water from hotels, but I drew the line at the last guesthouse when it came out brown. Actually, come to think of it, I did end up drinking it after it went clean...In the summer, when its humid and sweaty and your walking around 15km a day (I did the maths for how much walking I do on a typical day of touring), you end up buying a lot of drinks at the very conveniently located, very enticing vending machines. Luckily, the hotel I'm at now has reasonable tasting water, so I think I'll stick to that. Otherwise, I can always buy one the 2L bottles I found in the supermarket, and just fill up my bottle with that.

- $100 vanished along with my wallet

- Going to internet cafes does cost money. But you don't want me to stop that, now do you?

- Being a tourist costs money. Buses are $2.20 one way, and temples charge about $5 each for entry. Having skipped only one temple due to the expense, I already regret not doing it. You just can't say no to temples!

I have therefore spent about $600 on living costs (food, drinks, accomodation, entry fees, transport around the city) over 8 days in Japan, working out at roughly $75 a day. However, I believe this figure most likely reflects the cost of inexperience. It takes time to adjust to things, to figure out what's cheap and what's not. Hopefully I'll be able to manage my cash better as my trip goes on. Luckily, my trip is very very flexible, and I can always change my plans to suit my budget.

I have seen shrines and temples here in Kyoto built to appease gods of fire, water and lightning. Yet I have seen none trying to appease the gods of irony. I think I may well build the first one...

I had a lovely day hiking, I really did. I began at Nanzen-ji temple, which was yet another slightly too expensive for a rather touristy sight type thing. Despite being known as one of the top 5 zen temples, it felt distinctively un-zenny. However, lonely planet recommended a sub-temple higher in the mountains, which barely anyone visits, so I went to check it out. I figured that being published in lonely planet would mean its secludedness would have all but vanished, but I was shocked to find a completely abandoned shrine complex. Every romantic image of trekking around suddenly came true...I was praying at a shrine in a moss covered forest, I was inside a dark cave cut into the side of a mountain, I was napping on the top of a cliff with the warm sun on my face.

I then walked through the mountains, past yet more graveyards (photos of all this will come soon), eventualyl finding my one on the other side. Monks popped out just in time for me to listen to their chanting while I walked around what really was a lovely, secluded zen temple, and the sound of the bell rang throughout the entire garden. I took a walk to the bus-stop via the "Philosophy Road", a quite path made famous as the walking route of a well-known philosopher. And philosophical it is indeed.

But, the ironic part of the night lurks in the distance, the reason I can only use this computer for a very limited amount of time. You see, after dinner (some strange chicken, rice, raw egg combination), I pay and walk toward the McDonalds. Not very cultural I know, but I'm trying to live on a budget, and a $1 snack (cheeseburgers and McChicken burgers, as well as fries and stuff, are $1 here) to make up for a rather small dinner seemed like the smart thing to do. When I reached the McDonalds 10 minutes later however, I couldnt find my wallet to pay for my delicious snack. I started looking in my bag for it, and thought to myself:

"Its alright, I can't have lost it...I never lose anything important".

As soon as I thought it, I realized with horror what I had done. The gods of irony descended on me quick as a flash, destroying whatever chance I had of not having lost my wallet. It wouldnt matter now if my wallet was in my back pocket, irony alone would now ensure it was forever lost. I retrace my steps twice, but cannot find it anywhere. Oh, ye mighty gods of irony!

A little annoying, but not a disaster. I had $70 cash in my wallet, and my drivers licence. But my ATM cards, my passport and so forth, were all in my money belt thing, which I still have. I put them there because I always knew I would lose my wallet at some stage, and now that preparation has paid off. Still, losing $70 is annoying, especially when I just spent $20 on a bus ticket for the rest of the week. I'll check the police tommorow, but until then I have 0 yen, just a smile and a pocketful of dreams. Therefore I had to borrow 100 yen to use the computer, in order to tell you that I don't have 100 yen. Ah, the joys of travel!

Evil roads
The roads here are evil, especially in the district I was staying at last night. Built in the days before cars and fat people, they are very historic, or very frustrating, depending on whether you actually want to get to a specific place or not.
Let me illustrate: yesterday I wanted to get to the main office of the guesthouse to extend my stay by one night.
It is about 300m away. On the way there, I get lost. Then, having forgot my wallet, I go back to get it. On the way back, I get lost. Once I am reunited with my wallet, I just have to go back to the office again and pay the bill. I get lost.
Finally, exhausted from all this getting lost in streets I now wanted to demolish with a bulldozer, I attempt to make my way back to the hotel to get some sleep. I get lost. This time, I just give up and go down the street, and do not return for another 12 hours, hoping that by then the streets will magicalyl become easier to navigate. They do not.

Pain
By the time I return you will notice two different things about me. Firstly, I will have legs the size of tree trunks. Secondly, the skin on my feet will be thicker than leather, and twice as tough. I spend at least 3 hours a day walking, and the kilometres certainly do add up. Sometimes by plan, other times by spontaneity, I end up walking large distances to get somewhere, occasionally carrying my gigantic pack up and down temple staircases because I walked past the entrance and just HAD to check it out. My feet are still blistered from walking in the rain, but I think I heard somewhere that walking excessive distances cures blisters.

Freedom
Having finally become truly independent, truly free to do whatever I want, I became rather depressed last night on a train leading out of the city. It is about 9 30pm, and having had a very long day, I am seeking a hot spring to soak myself in. Unfortunately, the directions I am given lead to a highly authentic, mountain onsen a million miles away. As I watch Kyoto Tower fade into the distance, and the dark mountains loom aheadm I am suddenly gripped with something between fear and sadness. I don`t want to leave, I can`t leave, I want to be in my hotel, I want to be at the pub with my new friends...I want to be home again. After soaking my feet in what turns out to be a warm puddle (producing much frustration toward the directions-giver), I go back towards the city, and instantly feel relieved.

I realize that my freedom has finally caught up with me. For the last week I have moved to a different location just about every night, zooming away from any friends I make, and any familiar places. I have no attachments whatsoever, nothing to hold onto at all. I have never had a situation like this before, I have always stayed at least in the same place, or with the same people. I feel lonely.

I know it is all part of the experience however. As the moon is replaced by the sun in the morning, so too is the loneliness is replaced by the familiar thrill of adventure.

On the road again...

I ended up staying in a youth hostel type place on the east side of town, near the mountains. Looking on a map I couldn't help but notice that it was close to the main clubbing area of the city, and since I now had a private room (It's sad that I get excited about that), I figured I would give it a try just to see what happens. By the end of the first hour, the flaws in this plan started to reveal themselves. Here's just a few of my big mistakes:

Assuming rain will only add to the ambience
Rain is wet! WET WET WET! And when you walk in the rain, YOU GET WET. What seems close on a map turns out to be a 30 minute walk. The walk was not scenic, but it was wet. My feet are wet, my pants are wet, my hair is wet, and the novelty of rain begins to wear off along with the skin on my feet as I grow blisters. The rain didnt do much for the hundreds of year old streets by the river, as it was now packed with little plastic umbrellas

Judging something by its face
By now very, very wet, I went looking for a place to eat. I found a place called "Ganko", with about 1000 students milling out the front. I figured they were all waiting to get in, so it must be either very cheap or very good. Furthermore, Ganko's logo was a man wearing a bandana pulling an angry face, so I figured it would be the usual bargain basement chain store. Going inside, Ganko is a very classy restaurant far removed from its logo, with kimono-clad waitresses pointing me to the umbrella storage room, the shoe storage room, and finally seating me at a bar with a much better ambience than the plastic street. The meal is lovely, the bill is far less lovely.

"Oh, why not"This is the stupidest question in the world. Is something worth doing simply because there is no good reason NOT to do it? Why not touch your foot right now? There's no good reason not to. If everyone thought "why not?", we'd have people spending their whole time touching lampposts and making bird noises.

I deserve it!
No you don't. No you don't. No you don't.

After this mistakey part of the night, my luck got better. I saw a group of people hanging out like trolls under a bridge, listening to free live music, which seemed quite cool. I met some American college students from New Jersey (I've now met people from Carolina, New Jersey and Pensylvania...why is no one from the states that I know something about?!), and we spent the next 45 minutes vainly attempting to gain entry into incredibly small bars. One of the guys swears we're being discriminated against, and calls the door guards Jews for some reason. So we give the tiny bars a miss, and I am introduced to the pleasures of a $3 bottle of whisky instead (there are very few pleasures, trust me). We then go down to a massive club at about 10pm, and we have the whole dance floor to ourselves...fantastic...

Eventually people do come, thankfully. Lots of them.
Soon the drunkest of the American guys jumps out and starts dancing energetically in a way that can only make me laugh. I shake my head. The next song is one I know, however...I end up giving the other guy a run for his money both in energy and unco-ordination. The DJ is GREAT (I end up jumping onto the stage to tell him this, just so he knows for future reference). I've never heard a really good DJ, it really did make all the difference.

Generally, it takes a while for people to realize just how cool I really am, but here, they recognize it instantly. Guys shake your hand, hit you on the back and all those other Macho things. Girls giggle when you look at them. But the best part of it all is...THEY ASSUME I CAN DANCE! HAHAHAHAHAHA. Back home, when I start doing some strange 360 degree robotic pimp dancing, people assumed I had a motor neuron disorder. In Japan, they assume its some exotic dance style they haven't got over here yet. I even try to turn slipping over on the wet floor into a breakdancing move, but I don't think that fooled anyone. Even more hilarious though, was when people started doing the same moves, and you got a glimpse of how you looked. I succesfully introduced them to the Dance Clock, Emma Kerr's Hand Dance and many, many others. They loved it, I loved it, everyone had a good night.

And then it was time to go home...

Unfortunately, we had walked further AWAY from my place as we wandered the streets, so a 30 minute walk was now a 45 minute walk. It was still raining, and still wet. As I got closer and closer, an unexpected guest arrived. It was daylight. It was only 4am, and dawn was very much unexpected at this hour, so I spent a long time in denial. But the sun had the final say in this matter, and it was certainly rising. I make my way home in almost full cloudy daylight, then crash on the bed.

I wake up 4 hours later (9am), and go to extend my stay at the hotel (with every intention of coming back immediately to sleep). Then I decide I might as well get a drink of something from a vending machine. Then I decide I want breakfast. Then I see a samurai exhibit at a museum. Then I end up in a ridiculously over-priced internet cafe.
So its finally come down to this... I am favouring my blog over sleep. Are you happy now?