London to Kyoto
Started the holiday in style getting club seats on the upper deck and having breakfast in the airport lounge before take off. Just what we needed for our mammoth journey – an 11½ hour flight, followed by an hour’s train ride from Narita airport to Tokyo, to pick up the 3 hour bullet train that would take us to Kyoto.
Stood on the platform waiting to board the train to Tokyo we couldn’t quite believe our eyes when the train pulled in and the seats turned around inside the carriages to face the opposite direction! The journey to Kyoto was a good introduction to the country: bamboo groves, washing hanging out like advertising hoardings from every apartment as far as the eye could see, futons hung over the balconies with giant plastic clothes pegs, rows of carefully manicured tea on the hillsides, small well kept allotments, paddy fields, our first pagoda and Mount Fuji shrouded in cloud – all seen through clear blue skies.
Our hotel in Kyoto couldn’t have been better placed, above the main station in the centre of the city, so high up that you could see the mountains on the horizon.
Once free from our luggage we took, what we thought would be, a gentle stroll to Gion – the old quarter of the city – but that actually ended up as a 3 mile round trip. It was nice to feel the streets under our feet and to get an impression of the locals with their calls of “masei masei” and “arigato gozaimas” – all accompanied by the ubiquitous bowing. By the end of the walk we’d got used to the surgical face masks that the locals traditionally wear to prevent passing on germs when they have a cold (although it must be said, not a pretty picture when they sneeze inside them!).
Spent a lovely couple of hours exploring Gion, seeing the traditional wooden houses and walking along the canal. We also got caught up in the excitement of glimpsing our first geisha with the famous tripping step and intricate appearance before being in the right place at the right time to see a young geisha emerge from a wooden house being bundled up the street by her mistress constantly fussing around her. The frenzied photographers didn’t seem to faze her as she calmly went on her way through the crowd.
Had dinner in a small restaurant opposite the geisha house. Served by a charming hostess with an embarrassingly good grasp of English, who introduced each of the dishes and how they should be eaten as she served them – but leaving us to eat in peace. We opted for a traditional tempura meal, served with rice, miso soup, and pickles, followed by kumquat ice cream and boiling hot green tea.
Wandered back to the hotel through the bustling shopping streets of Shijo-dori that only seemed to wake up at night, and happened upon Sanjo covered shopping centre with its alleys of shops, interspersed with traditional shrines that were surprisingly serene given the hustle and bustle of their setting.
Stood on the platform waiting to board the train to Tokyo we couldn’t quite believe our eyes when the train pulled in and the seats turned around inside the carriages to face the opposite direction! The journey to Kyoto was a good introduction to the country: bamboo groves, washing hanging out like advertising hoardings from every apartment as far as the eye could see, futons hung over the balconies with giant plastic clothes pegs, rows of carefully manicured tea on the hillsides, small well kept allotments, paddy fields, our first pagoda and Mount Fuji shrouded in cloud – all seen through clear blue skies.
Our hotel in Kyoto couldn’t have been better placed, above the main station in the centre of the city, so high up that you could see the mountains on the horizon.
Once free from our luggage we took, what we thought would be, a gentle stroll to Gion – the old quarter of the city – but that actually ended up as a 3 mile round trip. It was nice to feel the streets under our feet and to get an impression of the locals with their calls of “masei masei” and “arigato gozaimas” – all accompanied by the ubiquitous bowing. By the end of the walk we’d got used to the surgical face masks that the locals traditionally wear to prevent passing on germs when they have a cold (although it must be said, not a pretty picture when they sneeze inside them!).
Wandered back to the hotel through the bustling shopping streets of Shijo-dori that only seemed to wake up at night, and happened upon Sanjo covered shopping centre with its alleys of shops, interspersed with traditional shrines that were surprisingly serene given the hustle and bustle of their setting.
posted by Paul Marden at
1:29 PM
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