It's unbelievable...we made it and we have landed ourselves in an absolutely beautiful place. We have been here for 4 nights already, but it feels like it's been weeks or months...I guess we have led a pretty frenetic pace since arriving, soaking in the milieu of the place and trying to sort out some opportunities.
Ok, let me take a deep breath as I gaze out of the window of the library and look over the mountains that ring Kyoto - the base of which couldn't be more than a few kilometres away...We touched down early on Friday morning, pretty groggy and dazed. The bus from Kansai to Kyoto led us along the waterfront, which was just a mass of crazy factories, smoke stacks and cranes. The only thing that seperated it from any other industrial wasteland was passing the Asahi factory!
We spent the first night in a chi-chi Ryokan, or traditional Japanese Inn - hell we had earned it. They don't let you check in until the afternoon, so we dumped our bags and went for a bit of a wander. There was a lot of bowing going on when we arrived, so we just followed suit. Bowing is sort of a multi-purpose gesture here, whenever you want to be polite or you don't understand something or you get in someone's way or you want to be cute, then you just bow and ride the wave.
The first day...clean streets and bicylces everywhere. The mountains ringing the city all around...a pachinko parlour, which is like a poker machine crossed with a pin-ball machine, but there are dozens of machines, all identical and the noise is a caccophony of plastic sounds...a food market where everything was displayed with fine eye for symmetry...whole shops selling seaweed, tiny desserts, fish...that's a crazy thing, the cuts of fish and meat here, even in the supermarket are so...perfect! Symmetrical, delicate and bloody expensive! Each piece of fruit is unblemished, carefully washed and arranged and priced accordingly. Meat is priced by the 100gm and fruit by the piece. Somehow it makes sense. You buy a little each day and then consume it, so it's always fresh and you are never taking up too much space.
One of the first things that struck us was the difference between the middle aged salaryman type figure that people often associate with Japan and the reality of a much younger population, who stream along the streets looking impossibly cool, groomed, unique and gorgeous. I am not sure if its just Kyoto, but there seems to be dirth of hot young things, none wearing suits. My guess is they are the student population, stretching their creative legs before leaping into corporation land.
Row upon row of photo booths, schoolgirl's bowed legs peeping out the bottom and the air rife with giggles...it's unusual this as we have founbd Kyoto to be very quiet. People eating quietly, focused on the food, the streets hum only with sounds of vehicles and the odd child's shriek...I guess we need to go and find the beer hall!
In the afternoon, we checked in to our beautiful, spare room, with its tatami mats and low table and went off to find the sento, or bath house. ahhhhhhhh the bath house, one of my enduring passions, one that i will be indulging daily while I am here. I am going to write a whole article about public bathing, which i will post on here later, but just to give you a taste.
Undressing and leaving my things in an old wicker basket by an ancient hairdryer, the kind where you sit in a lounge chair and it goes right over your head! Old ladies stare at me, flesh hanging off tiny frames - they must be astounded by my sturdy european frame...inside they crouch on the floor, scrubbing, sopaing foaming. Each woman has a unique ritual, a complex set of actions that they have created over decades. Some scrub their face in a repetitive pattern for long minutes, others move from one bath to the next throwing cold water on their breasts, hot water on their back. I realise that we really don't see bathing as a ritual in the west, it's a neccessity, a chance to refresh with a soak or a shower. Here the ladies chatter as they recline in the baths or move from tap to tap.
There are 5 baths. One long, extremely hot one. A smaller, hotter bubbling bath. A green spa that smells herbal. A small tub with cool water. An electric bath! Yes, i kid you not, these guys have elextric baths. Climbing into the herbal spa I accidentally slipped my hand into the adajcent tub and felt a weird current. Pulling my hand back, I was worried there was some weird circuit malfunction. I dipped a finger in again and felt a tingle all the way to my funnybone. WHAT THE? Then I remembered reading somewhere about these electric baths they have in Japan. I was way too freaked out by this toactually climb in and test it out.
Our meal that night was served in our room. It was divine. A myriad of tiny dishes, all holding some delicate vegetable or fish dish, presented with flair, but never arrogance and tasting uniquely wonderful. Though it looked like a light meal, when it was over we were perfectly full. We had a maid in a gorgeous Kimono who served our meal, pulling out a crumpled piece of paper to deliver some english phrases - 'i return at once when you finish.' 'Please, you will enjoy this meal I hope.' Ryan's japanese was already flowing again and i was struggling to remember the basics.
After dinner our wonderful maid returned to prepare out futons for the night. everything in the room was stored behind sliding door and she whipped open a cupboard we thought had been a wall and had our futons prepared in no time at all. She left two tiny paper cranes on our pillows and slipped out the door.
The next day we were greeted with a traditional Japanese breakfast, again in our room. It was another incredible meal, simple but filling and beautifully served. Some morning maids helped us cart our many bags downstairs, groanbing under the weight. While waiting for the cab to take us to our new, modest home we were presented with some small gifts at reception. We reciprocated and gave them a tiny jar of vegemite. (Pity their tastebuds as we didn't know the word for butter, which as we all know is a pre-requisite when eating vegemite!) They then gave us more gifts, really it was a gift giving frenzy!
OUR NEW HOME
Yamamoto san is having a mid life crisis. We can tell; it's like an aura that seaps off him along with the sweat that pours off us all at this time of year in Kyoto. He wears a towel across his forehead and sports an incredibly sparse mo that resembles the look of the Okinawan islands from an airplane window. Yamamoto is the land-lord of a run down but smashingly cheap guesthouse for the gaijin (foreigner) and shorttime Japanese budget traveller. Yurakuso - I think it means 'large box with smaller boxes inside'. Maybe. Anyway, that's the general vibe. But inside our little box it's actually pretty cosy. It's an 8 mat room which is a bit bigger that your standard five mat-er which is about 2 x 2. It's got a ye olde Japo feel to it with BIR, OSP, Rev A/C and a grimy kitchen to boot. yeah yeah. It is a concept space. Ko-n-se-po-to su-pa-i-su. It all reveloves around the idea of multi-purpose space and efficient storage. When you sleep you don't eat and when you finish sleeping you roll up the futons, stack 'em in the wall and set up the table. You know it's a lot like sleeping on a friend's floor every night of the week.
The first night Kimba was jolly as a bonsai on blood and bone. She was setting up our new home, with the Md plugged into her mimis (mimi is ear in Jap) singing her arpeggios and lovin' it. I was in the kitchen churning up our first home cooked meal in Nippon. You know she really wasn't that loud and besides, it's music. How can anyone dislike music? Well Yamamoto san gave me a few reasons that's for sure. First he berated me for leaving the bin a few cm off his ideal bin axis then he said that we musn't make loud as he has terrible heamarroids that flair up when he starts tapping his toes then he told me that if we don't like his rules then we must gooooo awaaaayy! ouch! Well I thought we were up shit creek so I just bowed like crazy and said sumimasen about a million times. Then I gave him the G-Grin (you know the one). And then it happened. It began like a slight tremor in the far reaches of the archipellago of his mo and then it spread like a tsunami across his dial. He was smiling. Yamamoto san was smiling. So the battle was won but the war...later that night.... whilst consumating our new found futons I'm sure I heard what I thought were the sound of toes tapping and then a quickening step and the slamming of the toliet door. Poor old Yamamoto.
Thanks Ry - what a funny chap he is!
So we have paid for a month there and are making ourselves at home. Cooking a lot of meals, playing guitar and singing (down at the river, certainly not in our room, lest we feel the wrath of 'moto) and riding our bicycles, which we have hired for the month. We rode all the way into town via the river path - it only took 20 mins - we rode all the way back via the road(s) and it took 40 - but riding bikes is the best way to get around. That's another thing, there is hardly any beeping here from cars. People drive in a cruisey fashion (other than the yakuza boys on their chopper harleys) and are very happy to wait for a slower driver or mob of cyclists passing through..
We have a job interview today for the American Club English School, which is directly on our subway line, only 5 stops away. Hopefully we can both get jobs there for the minute - Ryan has a job interview in a couple of weeks for a music school position in Osaka. Commuting should be easy as it's only 29 mins by rapid train. We also have another interview tomorrow in Osaka, for business english..good pay...wish us well.
Finally, I am sure you are all sick of this long blog, but we have our first gig on the 18th! Yep, it's only a door deal at a little jazz bar called Le Depart. We went in to drop off a demo ( We have dropped off about 5 so far) and they got us up to have a play, then booked us in. We will be doing a set, it's kind of an open mic, but hopefully a real gig will come from it..
Stay tuned in the next few days for more tales of Kyoto, including our sightings of maiko (apprentice geisha), drinking beer from vending machines and the bit where Ryan wears down Yamamoto with a couple of well picked jazz CD's from our vast collection!
Love Kimba and Ryan
Meet your hosts: Kimba and Ryryry
