Japan: A Walk in Kyoto

Saturday, June 9, 2018 -

Yea, I know... I kind of left this blog on the back burner that last few days.  But I'm back.

Today, per Ben's tour guiding expertise, we are going to take the train to Kyoto to look around.  Kyoto is roughly north-northeast of Kobe.  It is a very old town, to the tune of thousands of years old.  It used to be the capital of Japan and the Emperor's palace is located there.  

Sam, Jack and I about to head up the so-called mountain.

At the train station, we are greeted with more confusion.  Apparently we were to meet one of Ben's co-workers in Japan and her daughters.  I did not know this until we were just standing around for what seemed to me, no reason at all.  Ben's co-worker is Magoomie (believe me, I'm trying my best to remember the names, let alone trying to spell them correctly) and her daughters Hanna and (I think I heard right) Mommi or Mummi.  They were extremely nice and they could speak English a lot better then most of the population I came into contact.

After taking a couple different trains to Kyoto, we make the walk through town.  It is a narrow street filled with people all heading to what will look to me to be some tourist trap.  There are a number of stores with souvenirs and even kimono rentals.  The destination we are headed is a long climb up the mountain (remember, what they call mountain and what I call mountain are two different things).  There's some sort of religious significance on top of this mountain.  Many people will wear their kimono and other gear to pay their respects.  I can't believe people wear these hot looking clothing all the way up in the sun and humidity to do this. 

"Comrade" Dennis with his hat from the
 Imperial Japanese Army.

Of course, we stop for ice cream first before making this hike.  Dennis realized that he did not bring a hat and didn't want to sunburn his head.  He managed to find a vendor selling hats.  The hat he purchased said 'Japan' on it in big letters and was of a style of what a soldier would wear in the Imperial Japanese Army.  Dennis' name became "Comrade" for that afternoon.

We all walked with the other masses of people through these red wooden posts in a large forest.  I commented we are being herded in for slaughter.  By the looks of these wooden posts, this is a tourist trap; I don't see any long lasting historic structures other than some rocks.

We keep heading up.  Along the way were some vending machines and cafes where you could get a bite to eat or drink.  Jack commented that there had better be something spectacular at the top otherwise he wasn't going to leave his room for the rest of the trip.  Jack is not too big on physical exertion... kind of like his Grandpa Dick.  So at one particular stop, Jack decided not to go up any further.  I forgot to look up what the elevation of the top of the mountain was, but I'm going to guess it was about 1,200 ft.


We finally get up there.  Not much to look at.  There was a small line for people to look at what I considered a mound of rocks.  According to Ben, there was some sort of religious significance to them.  There was a makeshift table in front of it where items could be placed.  I bought a water, we took a few pictures and then made the trek downhill.

The hardest thing for me going up was the humidity; temperature was not bad if you were in the shade.  And again, I'm surprised there are no bugs.  To me, it seemed others were breathing hard trying to manage the uphill climb.  Being from Colorado, I didn't seem to have as hard a time.  Even walking down which should be much easier, I heard someone behind me having issues.  He was breathing real hard, counting, "1, 2, 1, 2... ok now... 1, 2, 1, 2," and so on.  I thought, "if this guy is having this hard of time walking down, how the hell did he get up here?"

Being herded in.

We met up with Jack.  I said that he really missed out by not going to the top.  I also told him that at the top, they were giving away FREE, UNLIMITED data for his phone and computers.  Earlier, he bought a sim card to get data in Japan, which he used up with his game playing.  He didn't exactly buy my story.

Once down the mountain, we stopped in a convenience store to get a snack and/or drink.  I made some comment to Jack which I don't remember what it was.  Jack's response: "My life is slowly being drained every day I stay here."

The final tally.

We've done a lot of walking at this point.  According to my exercise app, we had climbed 62 flights of stairs.  But we weren't done yet.  Now we headed to the Emperor's Palace.  This entitled another lengthy walk.  We get to the Palace and I make the comment that it looks like a fairgrounds.  We also noticed the groundskeepers, raking the rocks to make them look nice.  They probably didn't even consider using modern motorized equipment to do this.

We had to run to the entrance as they were about to close for the day.  We were the last group to go in.  I wasn't real impressed with the palace.  It was interesting to see how they made the roofs (looked like some kind of thatch) and the Emperor's garden was beautiful.  But other than that...

It was now a long walk back to the train station and to head back to the Crowne Plaza.  At least we stopped at a Tony Roma's for an American dinner before heading back.