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STAYING WITH NORIKO:
Shimogamo, Kyoto, Japan.
October 19th, 2013, 11:43pm.
Well, we finally made it to Kyoto! It didn't seem like a very long trip, since the train was going about 300 mph and I was typing my blog the whole way. We got of the train at around 5pm, and walked a while with the Australian couple. We took a bus to Noriko's house. Noriko is Saburo's sister. And if you don't remember who Saburo is, he is my grandma's cousin. He is married to Michiko, the woman who showed usaround first in Tokyo. Noriko is married to a man named Juunitchi. I hope I'm spelling their names right... I'm probably not though. She walked down to the bus stop to greet her. By this time, it was already dark outside, so I couldn't really see her face. I could tell she was older, though. She was short, and had grey hair. She wore mismatched, dated clothes, and walked with a limp. It looked like her hip was sore or something, because she was holding her side as if it was in pain. Her home was not very far from the bus stop. She asked us about our trip so far and told us a little about herself. She spoke quite good English!
Noriko is a very sweet lady, once we got to her house, she welcomed us into her home and told us to make ourselves comfortable. She gave us slippers and showed us to our rooms. For the first time this trip, I was going to have my own room! I chose to sleep on the tatami mat, while Real got to sleep in the room with a bed. Her house if very Japanese-themed. I didn't expect anything less of course, I mean, she does live in Japan! Her house is very cozy. The staircase is very narrow, and she has a bathing room. It sort of looks like the part of a hot spring where you're supposed to clean yourself before you enter the pool. I sort of like it! Noriko let us settle into our rooms, (I took a nap) and then called us down for supper.
To be honest, this supper was the best meal I've had in Japan so far! It even beat the American-style breakfast we had at the Chinzan-so hotel in Tokyo!! We sat down and were introduced to Junnitchi. He doesn't speak any English at all, so anything we said had to be translated. He didn't speak much anyways, (I think he's older than Noriko) so it was alright.
Noriko presented us with this beautiful Japanese meal sitting on the table. There was crab- my favourite, and spinach and sesame salad. However, there was no butter to dip the crab in! Instead, in Japan, you're supposed to dip it in vinegar! Strange, huh? As reluctant as I was, I tried it anyways. It actually turned out to be okay! It wasn't as good as butter, but it was the experience that mattered. I also tried a little bit of sesame seed spinach. It was okay! A little hard to chew with my braces, but it was edible... Just as I was finishing up, Noriko pulled out even more food. She had been cooking tempura right there on the counter! She had lotus roots, egg plant, pumpkin, shrimp, fish, mushrooms, you name it! And guess what? I tried ALL of it! I discovered that I like the fish tempura better than I like the shrimp tempura! Amazing! We ate and ate until our tummies were so full we couldn't handle one more bite! But Noriko and Juunitchi weren't done... They were far from being done, actually. She got up again, and continued piling more pieces into the pot to make more tempura. I felt bad, as she had barely gotten any of it herself. I went over and told her that I could take over if she taught me how to cook it properly! It's very simple and easy! Maybe I could make it at home one day for my parents! And make THEM try lotus root. Mwuahaha!
Real snapped some pictures of us, and started cleaning up. Noriko quickly stopped us and said, "No, no! Not done yet!" She pulled out a medium sized bowl of rice and told us to eat it. Then she pulled our Japanese pears and another fruit I've never heard of for dessert. She also poured us some tea .(Which I drank!) Stuffed to the brim, and exhausted from our journey, Real and I went to bed and passed our nearly immediately. It was a great end to the day. I really like Noriko and her husband, and I looked forward to our stay with her here at her home.
The next day, we had the luxury of sleeping in a bit. For breakfast, Real had cereal and I had toast and tea. We left by noon to visit a couple shrines, and to maybe visit a Geisha-filled area. The first shrine was the same as all the rest. We saw another wedding, some children in kimonos, and many people praying. The second shrine, however, was absolutely amazing. The Fushimi Inari Shrine! Remember in Akasaka-Mitsuke, Tokyo, the Inari Shrine across the street from our first hotel? It was surrounded with foxes! That's because the Inari's companions are foxes, and they drove away evil! You can re-visit my blog from Akasaka-Mitsuke if you want to read more about that! But this Shrine that we saw today was infested with foxes! We waked up, and were greeted by sky-high Torii's. (Those are the gate-like structures in and around shrines and temples. You can search "torii" on goodle and you will see what I mean!) They were all bright orange. Some were stone. Without realizing it, this was the famous Shrine where there are thousands of orange Torii's placed all the way up Mt. Inari. The path runs underneath them, so essentially, you are walking through a tunnel of orange. It was an incredible sight! There were tons of people at first, so It was difficult to get good pictures with just us two. We eventually got some though! These Torii's were set up like dominos all the way to the top of the mountain. We climbed up the entire way! Half way up, we stopped for a satisfying vanilla ice cream. While we were enjoying out tasty treat, we noticed on one of the maps, that there was a place called, "Miyuki's Worship Place." Intrigued by this, we vowed to go visit the area on our way back down. (If you don't remember from my previous blogs, "Miyuki" is Real's first name, and my grandma's name.)
We walked for what felt like hours. All uphill, too. It was just a never-ending staircase of orange and green. Along the way, we saw many shrines and foxes, and even gravestones. Everything was perfect. It felt like we were right where we were supposed to be! Real suddenly asked me how I felt, walking through this maze of orange. "I feel safe." I replied. He looked at me and told me that it was very interesting that I said that. But I mean, how could you not feel safe? We were trapped in this tunnel by huge stone pillars! They were placed so close together that nothing could even get through them! It was like a cage! He told me that "that is what religion is all about. It's supposed to make people feel safe." I thought about it for a while. Probably for the rest of the walk. I had never really thought of it that way!
Finally, the steps came to an end. We came to a platform with yet another shrine. We took some pictures, and continued along the path. Sooner than later, we found ourselves right back at the place where we had had our ice cream. Had we missed a path way to the top of the mountain? Apparently not. It's just one big loop, without any warning that you've reached the top. I was disappointed! I our goal was to make it to the top! Real blurted out, "Wow! That as a perfect example that the joy is in the journey, not in the destination! What a great lesson!" We continued down down the mountain and visited the Miyuki's Worship Place. We said a little prayer for grandma up in heaven, and we on our way. It was so late by now that we actually got to experience the torii path at night time, too. There were scattered lanterns hanging on the outside of the tunnel. So there was only light in certain places. We were never walking down blind, but it was a completely different feel from when we walked up in the day time. It was symbolic, almost. We walked up in the light, and walked down in the dark. When we got out of there, it was too late to visit the Geisha area. Oh well, another day! We will be spending a lot of next week here in Kyoto. But tomorrow, we're thinking of heading off to Hiroshima! We're planning carefully, though, because another Typhoon is expected. Best stay of the coast line! Yikes!
Well, I'm off to bed. I will post more about our journey tomorrow!
Love always,
Lindsay Lehr
- comments
shirley I'm glad you're able to keep up the pace, it's really good to be able to cover so much territory. Hopefully, your feet and Reals are doing ok. I'm glad you had such a good visit, and meal, with Myuki, that would be very special xo