Hi again!
We have been in Kyoto for the last 3 nights. We love it here. The people are much more friendly and relaxed, there are less buildings covered in lights and flashing things, and the place just has just a really authentic Japanese feel to it. Oh and there is a Pig and Whistle which makes us feel right at home. It takes us about half an hour to walk there, so its not really close, but when its the only place that speaks english its worth it!
The first day here we visited Nijo Castle...which..oh, it's so exciting to say....had....a huge Nightingale Floor that we walked around on for ages!!!!! For those poor souls who do not know what a Nightingale Floor is...read the Tales of the Otori trilogy. For the rest of you...how cool is that!!?? We were very excited..every few steps we would stop and bounce up and down for a bit. We learnt that the floor sings because its built with a layer of nails sticking out from the bottom of the floor boards which are sitting in metal clamps. So as you walk, the nail is pushed in and out of the clamp. You would think it would sound like rusty metal...and it does a little...but it is actually quite musical as you step from one board to another, creating a pleasant 'chirping' sound. These floors were put in several major Castles to counter assasins trying to sneak in at night to 'off' the Shogun or Daimyo (lord). Needless to say, we have decided it is imperative that we install one in our house, when we get one, to ward off those pesky Ninja's (or door to door salesmen).
The next day we spend trawling the many many many...many many many cool shops here. Then we went to the pub to rest our aching feet for the rest of the night.
Today we jumped on a train and headed across to Himeji to see a castle of grand proportions. This one was more grand than the Nijo Castle...but it lacked a Nightingale Floor..which well...made it a lot less cool. But this one was massive. We were able to walk around the surrounding gardens (which were amazing..we have also decided we are employing a Mr Miyagi to tend our gardens in our future house), and we also explored all the rooms of the castle and climbed to the top tower, giving a great 360degree view of the town. We also walked around the insides of the outer walls (used for guard towers and quarters for servants), and got an icecream from a vending machine.
We are back in our hostel in Kyoto now, and we have just been treated to dinner by the nice lady who owns our hostel, Yumiko! A big suprise for us. Last night she was talking to us, and not really understanding what she said apart from 'Sushi', round and round arm motions, and then 'take you'...we agreed on 7pm the next day. So tonight we are ushered out the door at 7pm on the dot, and driven to the BIGGEST and BEST sushi train we have ever seen! It was massive! Picture a room about 10x12m with a train that ziz zags (double sided) up and down three times within the room...like the way a piece of rope would do if you snaked it up and down a room. Not only was there a huge variety of fish, beef, vegies, large cake selection... but...get this...each plate was only 105 yen!! Which is about $1. All the sushi trains here tend to just have one price for all plates, not the stupid system we have in Oz with different prices. And of course all the seafood is so fresh, coming straight from the morning fish markets they hold daily. Yumiko would not budge an inch when it came to paying the bill for us, making us feel terrible. She is such a nice lady, if anyone comes to Kyoto, stay at the Chita Inn. Its great! Sugoy!
We also met a really nice Japanese guy, called Tomo, who came to dinner with us. The poor guy was struggling to be our translator the whole night, but the basic messages usually got across! It was quite amusing. We think the owner lady told us we were a beautiful couple and she wanted to take our picture. She also said that she loves Australians, and after we said we love it here, we think she said we should come back and have some babies...hmm. Our new friend Tomo is from Fukuoka (we are visiting there in 2 days..he told us to try the noodles!), he is 22 turning 23 this year, he is studing agriculture at uni, and is here in Kyoto for 2 weeks working for uni. Its amazing what you can get across with hand gestures! We swapped emails with Tomo and hopefully we will keep in touch and be able to have a smoother conversation in year or so when our Japanese is better and also his English is better.
Both Tomo and Yumiko are terrific people and have made our stay here so enjoyable. We just wanted to mention them both here and to thank them on the internet! Thank you so much Yumiko for dinner!
Tomorrow we are jumping on a train to Nara. We will fill you in on that story later :)
We have been in Kyoto for the last 3 nights. We love it here. The people are much more friendly and relaxed, there are less buildings covered in lights and flashing things, and the place just has just a really authentic Japanese feel to it. Oh and there is a Pig and Whistle which makes us feel right at home. It takes us about half an hour to walk there, so its not really close, but when its the only place that speaks english its worth it!
The first day here we visited Nijo Castle...which..oh, it's so exciting to say....had....a huge Nightingale Floor that we walked around on for ages!!!!! For those poor souls who do not know what a Nightingale Floor is...read the Tales of the Otori trilogy. For the rest of you...how cool is that!!?? We were very excited..every few steps we would stop and bounce up and down for a bit. We learnt that the floor sings because its built with a layer of nails sticking out from the bottom of the floor boards which are sitting in metal clamps. So as you walk, the nail is pushed in and out of the clamp. You would think it would sound like rusty metal...and it does a little...but it is actually quite musical as you step from one board to another, creating a pleasant 'chirping' sound. These floors were put in several major Castles to counter assasins trying to sneak in at night to 'off' the Shogun or Daimyo (lord). Needless to say, we have decided it is imperative that we install one in our house, when we get one, to ward off those pesky Ninja's (or door to door salesmen).
The next day we spend trawling the many many many...many many many cool shops here. Then we went to the pub to rest our aching feet for the rest of the night.
Today we jumped on a train and headed across to Himeji to see a castle of grand proportions. This one was more grand than the Nijo Castle...but it lacked a Nightingale Floor..which well...made it a lot less cool. But this one was massive. We were able to walk around the surrounding gardens (which were amazing..we have also decided we are employing a Mr Miyagi to tend our gardens in our future house), and we also explored all the rooms of the castle and climbed to the top tower, giving a great 360degree view of the town. We also walked around the insides of the outer walls (used for guard towers and quarters for servants), and got an icecream from a vending machine.
We are back in our hostel in Kyoto now, and we have just been treated to dinner by the nice lady who owns our hostel, Yumiko! A big suprise for us. Last night she was talking to us, and not really understanding what she said apart from 'Sushi', round and round arm motions, and then 'take you'...we agreed on 7pm the next day. So tonight we are ushered out the door at 7pm on the dot, and driven to the BIGGEST and BEST sushi train we have ever seen! It was massive! Picture a room about 10x12m with a train that ziz zags (double sided) up and down three times within the room...like the way a piece of rope would do if you snaked it up and down a room. Not only was there a huge variety of fish, beef, vegies, large cake selection... but...get this...each plate was only 105 yen!! Which is about $1. All the sushi trains here tend to just have one price for all plates, not the stupid system we have in Oz with different prices. And of course all the seafood is so fresh, coming straight from the morning fish markets they hold daily. Yumiko would not budge an inch when it came to paying the bill for us, making us feel terrible. She is such a nice lady, if anyone comes to Kyoto, stay at the Chita Inn. Its great! Sugoy!
We also met a really nice Japanese guy, called Tomo, who came to dinner with us. The poor guy was struggling to be our translator the whole night, but the basic messages usually got across! It was quite amusing. We think the owner lady told us we were a beautiful couple and she wanted to take our picture. She also said that she loves Australians, and after we said we love it here, we think she said we should come back and have some babies...hmm. Our new friend Tomo is from Fukuoka (we are visiting there in 2 days..he told us to try the noodles!), he is 22 turning 23 this year, he is studing agriculture at uni, and is here in Kyoto for 2 weeks working for uni. Its amazing what you can get across with hand gestures! We swapped emails with Tomo and hopefully we will keep in touch and be able to have a smoother conversation in year or so when our Japanese is better and also his English is better.
Both Tomo and Yumiko are terrific people and have made our stay here so enjoyable. We just wanted to mention them both here and to thank them on the internet! Thank you so much Yumiko for dinner!
Tomorrow we are jumping on a train to Nara. We will fill you in on that story later :)
Here are some pics -
1. Nijo Castle, the Nightingale floor is right in there!
2. Us in the garden around the castle.
3. More of the beautiful garden
4. Those things bobbing out of the water...turtles! Kez can command turtles...look out world.
