just an old piece of writing dug up from the travel files of roseo
japan 5-12 feb 05
entrances and exits8 days of travelling in japan was an extraordinary experience. long enough for a peek behind the veneer of civility and orderliness that japan is well known for.
the trip didn’t start very well. once again, due to a sporadic scatterbrain condition, left my digital camera in the taxi on the way to the airport. after a few frantic calls to the cab company to broadcast my carelessness to the world and waiting in vain for the miraculous return call, i walked through the immigration counter with a heavy heart and a heavy bag filled with many spare batteries for the camera. family was kind enough not to mention anything about the incident but i was still shooting myself in the foot with my imaginary gun.
putting that behind, we arrived in osaka to glorious sunshine. in other circumstances, would normally be jumping for joy but this time, we had come to japan during this period in the hope of experiencing some snowfall.
oh well, no snowfall, so be it. arrived kyoto in the evening, settled in nicely at the Tour Club budget ryokan, a 10 minutes walk from the kyoto station or 20 minutes if you get lost in the underground mall.
kyoto is famous for their cultural heritage sites. first impression of kyoto was not too good - the stark contrast of a mish-mash of old shops facing obsolescence against a backdrop of modern hotels and shopping malls, the messy and complicated bus network, polluted air and an odd-looking kyoto telecommunications tower sticking out like a sore thumb.
but the charm of kyoto was subtle and would grow on you. on the first day, we visited a Buddhist temple, kiyomizudera in the higashiyama-ku area. an interesting feature was the dancing stage perched high on a 10m stacked wooden structure built without nails. the sprawling temple grounds covered 130,000 sq metres and looked even bigger with clever landscaping that borrowed views from the surrounding hills. coming out of the temple grounds, we realised that the exit was not gated and we could have entered without paying the entrance fee! this set the modus operandi for all subsequent temples that we visited. we would check out the entrances and exits and looked in as far as we could to what laid beyond the gates. as my travelling partners were not too interested in temples, most of the time, we did not enter.
we had a chance to see the world-famous garden masterpiece of katsura imperial villa though. it was managed by the Imperial Household Agency and advance permission had to be sought to visit it. we arrived in the light rain that created mesmerizing ripples in the pond. it was an intimate garden that presented a picture of perfection. the myriad of stone walkways overtax the senses. a pity that the guided tour was conducted in japanese.
another pity was missing the guided tour of the kyoto imperial palace. also managed by the Imperial Household Agency, we had applied for permission to join the 10am tour but arrived an hour late. my heartrending pleas to be allowed to enter fell on deaf ears of the unrelenting bureaucratic government officer who only had one answer for me, "dekimasen, NO!", complete with the hand gesture of a huge X.
with some disappointment of not visiting this and other sites such as the arashiyama-sagano area with the bamboo forests and the famous Zen garden of Ryoan-ji, because the sites were too far apart and impossible to cover within such a short timeframe, we left for kanazawa, along the northwest coast of japan. the bus journey took 4 hours and we passed through higher grounds with fields and village houses covered in pristine white snow. kanazawa snowed a few days before we arrived (and also after we left) so there were some leftover melted snow along the streets. we visited the kenrokuen, one of the top-three gardens of japan. the elegant bamboo structures used for holding up the old pine trees to prevent the branches from breaking under the heavy snowfall made the garden look otherworldly. it had become a trademark of kanazawa.
the next day was spent in another town, nara, known for its deer park. it was a charming small town with one main street of restaurants and shops. there were more than a thousand deers roaming freely in the vast parkland, well-fed by the deer biscuits dished out by tourists.
our last stop was osaka. checked into hoteru kinki in the entertainment district of minami area. of course we had no idea it was really a kinky hotel when we booked it through the tourist information centre from a list of recommended hotels. every time we walked from the spanking new and modern shopping centres back to our hotel across the street, our eyes were assaulted by a wall of kinky pictures. when we got lost and asked for directions from the friendly shopowner of an innocent-looking shop decorated with balloon penguins, he enthusiastically whipped out a magazine with a map on its back-page and drew the directions. i later found out that behind the deceptively ordinary cover was pornographic comics.
we moved to the namba area, dobutsuen district, the following day. had a funny feeling the moment we got off the train. many odd characters in the area. homeless, unkempt old men wandering around, peeing on the streets. was this the clean japan we know? well, every city had its dark side. the hotel we stayed in was like an old folks' home with old men wandering around in underwear. mind you, the hotel's name was an international-sounding one: escargot hotel, in case you wanted to take note.
despite the scary hotels, i liked osaka actually. one of the biggest reasons must be the sighting of a whale shark, manta ray, giant barracuda, leopard shark, giant grouper, jacks, tuna and other miscellaneous fish all at one go. they were living harmoniously as one big family in a huge tank in the osaka aquarium. and yes, i also saw the mola mola without freezing my butt out and fighting currents in bali.
so well, i saw what i wanted to see and also what i didnt plan to see and it was good.
exit...
postscript. The kind cab driver called and returned the digital camera when I came back to singapore.
