Published: 2025-05-14
So depending on which side of the International Date Line you’re subscribed to, we’ve now been in Japan for a full week. The fog of the plague has started to lift and the last 36 hours have seen both Heather and I get to be a bit more active in our new Kyoto-based surroundings. I admit I felt a little like a vampire when I went outside today for the first time in two days, but it was sunny and warm and lovely outside.
Yesterday, I was down and out badly but thankfully everyone else could go and take a scheduled tour of some of the more “traditional” areas of Kyoto. There were some shrines visited, and a magical train ride along a gorge that, despite being only a few minutes outside the edge of the city, was like traveling to a different time and place altogether. They visited the famous Bamboo Forest, and they made a stop at a garden that a man had been building for 30 years and took in the incredible sights. Steve and Michelle continued on up the mountainside a few hundred metres to visit monkeys, which sounded really cool. I’ve included a few photos from Heather’s journey.
Today was a scheduled “down day” insofar as we didn’t have anything concrete on the books, so we trouped down to the Pokémon Centre a quick 2 km hike up the road from Kyoto Station. It’s pretty crazy how quickly the “westernized” part of Kyoto just fades into the more traditional Japanese style and scale of architecture and infrastructure over the course of a few dozen metres.
We had delicious ramen for lunch again today, and despite the essentially complete lack of Japanese speaking on my part (I can say “sorry” [sumimasen gozaimas] and “thank you” [arigato] and point at things I want to order [kore-o kudasai]) I seem to getting by ok when out and about.
At the Pokémon Centre, I spent a good time gawking at all of the cool plushies and knickknacks they have, and I had a cool exchange with the cashier about what the different names for the characters are in English vs Japanese are (I bought a Zapdos, its name is Sandaa, literally “Thunder”). Everyone has been so friendly and accommodating so far, especially when I keep forgetting that most doors here are sliders and not push/pulls 😅
On the way back from the Pokémon Centre, Michelle and I stopped for an isu coffee at Starbucks and I managed to fumble my way through my order after she threw me under the bus and rejected an English menu for me. I’ll get you back for that somehow 😋
After coffees acquired, we climbed up to the top of Kyoto station… it’s something like 7 or 8 stories tall? There is a terrace on the top referred to as the Sky Garden, with a central green terrace called “Happy Terrace”. Happy Terrace was also presented with warnings of birds that will steal your food and “bees” aka murder hornets… but the view was excellent! The stairs that lead up to the Sky Garden from the 3rd floor also light up at night with various displays throughout the year, so we’ll be checking that out tomorrow evening.
Dinner was conveyor belt sushi and boy howdy was that amazingly delicious… I may have definitely ruined sashimi back in Canada; there’s no way I can top the melt-in-your-mouth experience I had tonight.
I’m feeling much better today and I hope it’s just an upward trend out of the misery that is/was this plague on both Heather and I. So far, we have not spread it to anyone else in our group… 🤞 Tomorrow is hop-on/hop-off bus tour and trying a Matcha place recommended to me by my friend Dan. I’ll report back with my findings 🫡
