Saturday, June 23, 2012

too many mediocre pictures


Left the guest house in Osaka a couple of days ago and spent about a day and a half with friends who live in Nishinomiya.  We visited a friend of theirs who lives further west, and whose husband has a second, very rural rental house used as a studio for making pottery.  Really, really nice pottery.  He wasn't there when we went, but we had an amazing lunch



(the other half didn't fit on the table - there was much more), and somewhere in there is fresh, real wasabi that Masa-san grated on-site (you Never see real wasabi in the US - it's always horseradish), the best homemade inarizushi ever, and lots of other good, fresh food that for whatever reason is difficult to replicate at home.  The mountains in the area are very close, and the view from the house was amazing.   It was very quiet - a car would occasionally go by behind us on the road, but I remember hearing mostly trees in the wind and an uguisu showing off. I tried to take photos of the scenery from inside the house, but they didn't really come out.




 then we took a short walk a little further uphill to the shrine/temple which has a creepy story attached - I'm not sure I understood it exactly, but for some reason this shrine is well known, or popular, or good for....somehow tied to a particular kind of 'request' - women whose husbands had taken up mistresses would sneak out at two AM (much worse than midnight here, I hear) in white kimono (probably wearing candles on their heads before street lights existed), making sure no one saw them, and at the shrine, would drive a nail through a straw doll representing the mistress into the wood, wishing death upon them.  Pretty specific, huh?  I can't imagine being female and living in a time where they were so powerless and desperate when things went wrong that resorting to this kind of tactic really seemed reasonable.  Lucky me.







 .
We got back kind of late, so I spent that night in Nishinomiya as well, and late morning when I finally woke up, took a walk up a nearby river.  Not too far in, I found a bush full of these butterflies.







I also heard and saw frogs for the first time this trip.  Speaking of, saw two snakes as well - one black one at the shrine, and another brown one on the path next to the river here.
Then this afternoon I lugged my stupid heavy bag back down to Osaka and up to Kyoto.  I had reserved a room in a guest house here for just a few days, because Kyoto is really amazing and I haven't given myself enough time to walk around and see things here.  The guest house has a main building with a cafe on the first floor, and an annex not too far away, where I'm staying.  It was a little difficult to find, even with a map (mostly because some streets here are so small or narrow that they don't bother putting them on a lot of maps) but I found it (my shoulders are still a little traumatized from the long walk with all that weight) and it's really, really awesome.
When I finally turned down the right side street, I thought it was another wrong turn, because I saw this, and I was sure it was supposed to be on the right side



turns out the sign I was looking for was just small. And the building is nicer than I was expecting.




It's on the right, there. Gojo guest house.

It's an old building that fortunately hasn't been "updated' much - the hallways are solid wood floors, not quite level, smooth and waxy, the walls are all fresh plaster, and the fusuma are all papered, just like they should be.  






































That's the corner of my 3-tatami room.  It's pretty small, but it's private, lockable, and less than 40 dollars a night.  Not bad for a short stay.





































genkan



So after finally dumping my stuff in my room and taking a shower, I took a walk up the hill, eastward - the sun was just setting and the view was amazing. It was steep - Kiyomizudera, that temple above the trees from the other photos, is not too far behind me where I stood taking this picture.  I'm right down the street, near Gojo station- you can look it up on Google maps if you want -
Kyōto-fu, Kyōto-shi, Higashiyama-ku, Komatsuchō, 11−26






  I have more photos, but I am exhausted.  There are plenty more coming - I have a lot to see in the next few days!

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