Kyoto

Wells boys and girls, its time for a little culture. After saying our good buys to Joey and Ton, we all hopped on then first Bullet train bound for Kyoto. Four hours later, *POW* there we were, smack in the middle of one of the only cities that the USA did not bomb into the ground during WWII, leaving Kyoto one of the last places in Japan where you could see temples and castles that actually housed Emperors, Shoguns and Samurai. Departing the train station, we went in search of the hostel that we would be staying in for our two day blitz of Kyoto.
The tomato house: a little, cramped, back alley shit hole of a prison that gave us a small room we could all stay in. Who ever the architect was who managed to fit two bunk beds in that windowless, box should be given a medal, and the person who decided not to put at least one small hole-in-the-wall to let the smell of man stank and socks out... that dumb-ass should be shot. Oh well, this was home for the next two days, and we would just to live with it...that was out attitude until one of went to the bathroom and was graced with the unpleasant discovery that, despite being clean as a whistle and having a window to ventilate, the smell of sour piss and vomit had soaked into every wall, crack, every surface smelled a special breed of nasty....lovely.
Anywho, we all managed to survive the night, no one choked to death on man-nasty, and we awoke to a very excited Ian who informed us that he had found a route that would take us straight to several large temples and ended in a massive castle complex. Well, that was what we were in Kyoto for, so we set off in search of ancient culture and profound experiences.
Interesting fact: I cannot stay in temples in Kyoto for more then five or ten minutes. I am still unsure as to why, but I can look around, see the lovely architecture, the paintings and shrines and then my body up's and walks out the doors " that was nice, all for now folks, we are out of here." And my poor mind is there wanting to stay "but, but, but we want to explore, to take in the sights, smells the culture the...of fine" This ended up being true for every temple we went to in Kyoto. It really felt like you would imagine it feeling if someone danced on your grave, a full body fuck-that-shit.
What can you do? We continued on, and after much questioning of Ian's directional abilities
(which are about on par with a drunken snails....or at least that's what he said) we arrived at Kyoto castle. Or rather, we had found the outer defences of Kyoto castle: A 30ft wide mote followed by a 10 meter wall sloping up to a heavily wooded forest on the fringe of the castle grounds...impressive I believe was the word we were all looking for at the time...and then we got inside the main gate. Fighting our way through throngs of school children and tourists, we took a brief, rather disappointing, tour of the main castle. The two high points were that we got to see some original paintings of the castle, very cool, and the nightingale floor. Wooden floors built to squeak so that no one could sneak up on you in the castle, very Japanese. Apart from those, the gardens were very beautiful, the grounds very pleasing, and the buildings stimulating....but everything was so dead it almost brought tears to my eyes. Here I was in a country I have always felt an affinity with, experiencing some of the last reminisces of a way of life I have always loved and respected only to find its spirit prostituted to the point that I could not even feel a glimmer of its former magic.
At least I will always have my Japan
The next day Ian and Dane jumped on a train to Nara, another one of the previous capitals of Japan. Disappointed by the previous day's exploits, Shan and I felt a bit cultured out and decided to have a quiet day. After checking out of the Tomato house (YAY!! good bye room-o-man stank) Shan and I decided to explore Kyoto and see what adventures this city had to offer.
All I have to say is that I hope Nara was hell-a-fun because...well, you will see :)
After treking around little back allies for about fifteen minuets, Shan and I experienced an overpowering wave of curiosity as to where the massive stair case in front of us led. Giving in to temptation we started climbing and finally got to a long corridor full of high school band members, lounging around, playing, chatting in close kit groups, all in all an intriguing sight. Continuing on, we heard the distant excited cries of many voices, determined to find the source of the commotion, we rounded a corner and...what do you know, out of anywhere we could have gone in the entire city, we end up in Mecca : the middle of a multi high school cheer leading competition...go team. After giving each other very satisfied and approving nods we found ourselves seats on a colossal stair case. After a few moments, we looked up and noticed where we were : A building the exact proportion of large, there were gardens, a hotel, theatre playing Beauty and the Beast, shopping mall and many food courts and a train station, I shit you not. And then we looked up...a web of metal piping and glass wove itself above us covering everything except for the far ends of this complex which were open air. The next three and a half hours were occupied with us watching several hundred flexible, smiling beautiful women fly through the air and dance while accompanied by bands that were tremendously talented, in one off the most amazing buildings either one of us had ever been in.
Time went by, and all too soon we needed to meet Ian and Dane, but not before we ate a delicious lunch of noodles in miso. We all met up in time for our train and enjoyed a very peaceful journey home.
That's all for now folks, thanks for tuning in
Nate out