December 9th, 2023

Day 6

Today is my day to get photographed! I am never the one to be photographed before; I wasn’t shy or anything, it just wasn’t my thing. However, when I tried the free one offered at my hotel at Yangshuo, China, it changed me. Might as well take a couple of commemorative photos to remember my stay in Kyoto, right?

After I got up and took a shower, I went and got breakfast. I’ve got to say, the quality of the breakfast at this hotel is very impressive. There are many different food options, ranging from Japanese, Western, and Chinese. I couldn’t possibly eat that much in the morning, so I just took one piece of everything that looked good. It was pretty good, though.

Breakfast Verdict: ★★★★☆

As soon as I finished breakfast, I headed upstairs to grab my stuff, and was on my way.

My original plan was to first make a stop at the hotel that I booked for the night, and then head to the “photography studio” (you’ll know why it’s in quotation marks soon). Time wasn’t plenty, and I wasted much eating breakfast, so I decided to skip the hotel and head straight to the “photography studio”.

Got my suitcase, got to the bus stop. Got onto a bus, although it was 100% full. It was 100% full. I have never seen something so outrageously full. I mean, I got on, by being dedicated enough to try to squeeze myself and my suitcase on there, but there was a guy who was constantly pushing me even though I didn’t touch him or anything. He only stopped pushing me after I told him in Japanese to stop pushing.

It was time for school, so the bus was filled with students and people trying to get to work, which was to be expected, still, it was kinda scary. When someone tries to get off the bus, they have to push through hoards of people, and it did not look like fun.

When it was one stop before my stop, and loads of people were getting off, I decided to screw it and just walk to my destination, or I might get stuck on the bus forever. I got off, and saw this poster. Political ad, for the current prime minister’s party. It rhymed in Japanese. Funny. I’ve seen political ads around town every so often, but only this one was interesting enough because it actually featured someone I know.

After a while of walking with a suitcase, I got to the “photography studio”. Turns out, it wasn’t a photography studio at all, it was just a Kimono rental place. I was supposed to meet an independent photographer at the rental place. The enthusiastic employee welcomed me in English, and I answered everything in Japanese. Do I really look that foreigner? Probably yeah. Anyways, she took me to the corner for guys. The entire rental place is filled with clothes for women, and only one corner was dedicated to guys. Poor guys.

She told me that for the money I paid, I can only get a pure color kimono for my entire body, which means that both upper and lower torso will be the same. To get a different color lower torso, I’ve got to pay a little. Didn’t want to leave any regrets behind, might as well spring for the price, right? So I did. The employee asked me what color I wanted to wear, and I asked her to pick for me. She recommended a couple of white ones, but in the end, I, someone who is sooo extra, told her that I wanted to wear something gold.

She showed me the gold lower torso dress, and picked a black Kimono (upper torso) and a yellow belt. She then told me to go upstairs where someone will dress me up. I took my shoes off, and was greeted by a kind old lady who didn’t speak English, which was no problem. She ushered me into a room that is decorated with traditional Japanese sliding doors on all four sides, and gave me a “underwear” type thing that was supposed to be on the inside and not visible to outsiders after she took a quick look at my size.

After I left only a t-shirt, my underwear, and the provided socks on with my fanny pack inside, she came in after I put on the provided “underwear”, and started to put clothes on me. She was strong, and with Japanese kimono requiring extremely tight fit, she used all her strength to strap in the belt, which just so happens to be where my fanny pack is. I thought about taking off my fanny pack; but it contained large amounts of cash, and most importantly, my passport; so might as well be safe than sorry. With every inch that she strapped me on with the belt, I feel I’ve lost a couple of pounds.

This is what the final product looked like. The old lady picked the grey jacket for me, complete with the dark beads that connects the jacket. Although I might be happier with a white jacket, she is the professional here. She also complemented by Japanese, and I like anyone that likes my Japanese. I am that shallow.

Dressing for guys is significantly faster than dressing for girls, which required make up, hair dressings and etc. etc. So in the end, I had to sit on a stool for an hour to wait for my photographer to show up at our agreed upon time. It was hard to sit in Kimono, let me just get that out of the way.

Then we started to take pictures! My photographer is called Cecile. She is Chinese, and she has been in Japan for 6 years. She was very friendly, and she told me that not a lot of guys take photos by themselves, it’s usually with a girlfriend or a family. I said she can supply a girlfriend so I won’t look take it by myself, she said she doesn’t yet have that service department developed. So yeah, not a lot of guys take pictures like this by themselves, but I am extra, sooooo.

Here are all the pictures that she took.

Here are all the pictures that were photoshopped. I disliked them so much that I decided to just use the ones that were taken by Cecile, not photoshopped, not filtered. It looked so much better being natural than looking like a freakin alien by the standards of Chinese photoshop rules.

When we were close to finish taking pictures, there was a wedding ceremony that was just happening. I snapped a couple of pictures.

After that, it was free time for me. I thanked Cecile, and went to other attractions while wearing Kimono. Let me get this out of the way first. Yes, people stare at you. Yes, people stare at you more than they stare at girls in Kimono. No, I don’t think the gold lower dress was the reason. And yes, it has everything to do with the fact that no man, I mean not a single guy I’ve seen throughout the day, wears a Kimono, let alone walking alone by himself. The look from people passing by was not very fun.

Here are a couple of pictures that I took while walking around in Kimono. People really do stare at you.

Since I don’t specifically care for all the glares, and walking in the traditional Japanese footwear was extra brutal, so I walked back to the Kimono rental place and undressed. Took one more picture before taking it off.

After asking them to keep my suitcase a little longer, I went off to see other attractions. I don’t feel like writing about each individual place that I’ve visited; the theme was basically the same. It’s all either a temple or a shrine, with shrines being the majority.

Here are some pictures I took around Eastern Kyoto. One interesting thing about the giant Kuan-yin Bodhisattva statue is that you can enter the statute. There are separate praying table for individual buddhas inside the statue that you can pray to.

Another thing that made me remember the statue is that while asking for directions, I didn’t know how to say “Kuan-yin” in Japanese. The Japanese name for Kuan-yin has the same Chinese characters as China, still, didn’t want to mess that up. So when I asked for directions, I asked for the big statue. The guy didn’t know which big statue I was talking about. Then, I tried to combine my limited Japanese knowledge and my limited Chinese knowledge together, I know that the “Kuan” part is usually translated as “Kan” in Japanese, and “yin” is the Kanji for sound or music, so corresponds to Japanese “on”. When I made it up completely in my mind, it was the correct name, “Kan-on”, and I was very glad that the guy immediately understood me and pointed me to the direction of the statue. I am so proud of myself.

After going through the bamboo forest, I was both hungry and tired. I walked too many steps today while wearing the painful Japanese footwear, and walking in my normal shoes didn’t help with the pain from that either. So once I found a restaurant, didn’t care for what it serves, I just got in.

I ordered a set of rice and noodles. Carb explosion, I know. It was Unagi (eel) rice and Soba. I would normally order Udon, but I had udon this morning at the hotel, so I figured that I should try something different.

The soba was bland, didn’t taste like anything.

Dish Verdict: ★★☆☆☆

The eel, though, was plenty flavorful. But it made me feel a little bit sick, for some unknown reason. I have an aversion to deep fried fish, makes me want to puke. This feels the same, just less extreme.

Dish Verdict: ★★★☆☆

Restaurant Verdict:

★★★☆☆

After lunch, which was had in the afternoon, I had to rest at the restaurant for a while, before pushing myself to stand up and go to the next attraction.

The last attraction that I went to was the Kiyomizu-dera, or “clear water temple”. It was a majestic man-made structure made completely out of wood and human engineering. It was also incredibly crowded. It was up a hill of a very tiny valley, and there were at least millions of people trying to go through the valley up and down. There were shops and restaurants on each side of the narrow street that people constantly stop to take a look. It was very annoying. Either way, climbed all the way to the temple itself, and here are some of the pictures I took.

By then, I realized that Japan’s national color is orange. Most temples that I’ve seen are painted in bright orange, which is a rather interesting color choice. With the three countries of Eastern Asia, China has red, Korea has green, and Japan has orange, with orange being the brightest color there is. Since orange is the brightest color, it is also the color that fades and gets dirty the easiest. This is how you know that there are people constantly brushing up the buildings with bright orange.

I also lined up at a line that was marked “Line for Daikokuten”. I didn’t know what that was, and some people were lining up in front of it, so I did too. Turns out, it was the line that gives you access to pray to the Daikokuten, a Japanese god of good fortune. While waiting, there is a weight-lifting game that people play with. There are three objects, one dumb-bell looking thing, and two sticks looking things, which each being heavier than the previous one. There was a Korean guy and a Japanese girl couple in front of me who couldn’t lift the heaviest one. When it was my turn, I lifted the dumbbell and one of the sticks with my hand, easily; but when I tried to lift the last stick, it wouldn’t budge at all. It was that heavy. It doesn’t look that heavy, though, so I think it might be either chained on the bottom, or if it was attached to something heavier.

Anyways, after giving the Kiyomizu-dera a full tour, I was going to head to one last attraction before I need to head back to the kimono rental place to retrieve my bag because they close at 6 PM. I was both tired and miserable from all the walking, but still, I might as well see everything before going back to my hotel.

I started to leave, and the only exit to the outside world was through the narrow valley that I climbed up from earlier. As I started to descend, it became clear that it was not going to be a fast-in fast-out kinda situation. There were still hoards of people trying to move up, and a lot of people who stand in the way by shopping at the stores. Took about 10 minutes to really get down from a hill that normally only requires 3.

I’m not normally this grumpy, I was just super tired and super worn out from all the walking I’ve done today.

Kiyomizudera Verdict: ★★★☆☆

After I finally got down hill, I pressed forward and went onto a bus that brings me to my next destination. I really don’t remember where I planned on going, but that’s only because I didn’t actually get there. The bus that I was supposed to get on was numbered 68-B. In a hurry, not knowing any better, I got onto a bus numbered 68-A. I thought they were the same. It did go smoothly at the beginning, but then the bus took a left turn. Now I know it’s not going to bring me to my destination, and since I was super tired, I decided to just screw it. Got off at the next stop and walked all the way to the kimono rental place. Even though the bus only took 5 minutes to get to the wrong stop, it took me 20 minutes to walk back to the kimono rental place. Lol.

I got into the rental place, got my luggage, thanked the employee, and was going to take another bus to the hotel I booked for the night. Turns out, there was no bus that heads to my hotel’s direction anywhere near the rental place. On Google Maps, it told me that I need to walk 20 minutes to get to the next bus stop, or I can just walk 30 minutes without taking the bus. Even though I was tired AF, I still made the horrible decision of trying to walk 30 minutes. I thought, it’s only 10 minutes longer, why not!

So I started to walk. After walking for 15 minutes, my legs finally gave out, and I started to look on Google Maps for a close-by bus stop. The next one would be a 10 minute walk away. Lol. So I did, and when I finally got to the bus stop, I could no longer feel my legs. The bus took a while to arrive, and once I did, I dragged my body and my suitcase onto the bus and sat.

Hotel name: Watermark Hotel Kyoto (HIS Hotel Group)

Address: Shimogyo-ku Daikokucho 195

Price: 539.48 RMB (76 USD)

Verdict: ★★★☆☆

Got to my hotel, checked-in, and was not really surprised by how small the room was. After all, it’s Japan, can’t expect something big for the price of something small. It’s still Saturday pricing, so the hotel fee was probably double compared to normal weekdays. The hotel room was tatami style, and the front desk staff asked me to take my shoes off whenever I got into the room.

After I got in and left my stuff, I went downstairs to a Lawson to buy some food for dinner. That’s when I learned a new word!

When the convenience store clerk asked me if I wanted a plastic bag, I didn’t know what it was, and she showed me what it was. I asked her again how to pronounce it, and she was nice enough to pronounce it for me. She must think that I am a terrible foreign exchange student lol.

Anyways, got my food, got my drinks, went upstairs, devoured the food since I needed the energy for tomorrow, and started to look for hotels again.

When I checked on Ctrip, where I’ve booked all my hotels, the price for the hotel that I was at right now, got to around 300 RMB. That’s right, Saturdays, the room was 500+, but for Sundays, it was only 300 RMB. Wow. For 300 RMB, I’m getting a not very shabby hotel room that’s both clean and not too small, so why not. The price also has breakfast included, not too shabby. Rebooked at the same hotel, the first time I’ve done that in Japan, and slept like a freakin’ baby.

Kyoto Verdict: ★★★★☆

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