Japan trip report 25 Sep

[jinian]

Wim's luggage was being sent to the hotel. We could have checked out and asked them to keep it anyway, but it seemed more intuitive for everyone if we were still staying there when it arrived. Since our next goal was Kyoto, which is very quick to get to by shinkansen, we stayed in Nagoya another night and took a day trip to Saga-Arashiyama, near Kyoto, to ride the Romantic Train and boat down the river.

Both of those were actually really fun. We were late getting to the station...



A stage and arena area in the middle of the station!



Kyoto Tower reflected in the windows thereof. Notable chiefly for monocoque construction. We failed entirely to go up any tower in Japan.

We woke up a bit late and had to hunt down lunch in Kyoto Station: pickle restaurant! delicious! That beige splotch in the soup is wasabi, though -- quite a surprise amid the soy-milk flavor and exquisitely soft mochi. The eggplant pickle and whatever the magenta stuff is were especially great.







... but we caught the last train from which one could get the boat trip back. The train was a cute little red-and-yellow painted job with the engine in back, and we only got standing-up tickets.



Being in the first car was great, though, because when the guy in the oni mask got on (!) he talked to us first and in English. (One of several times people talked to us in English spontaneously. Wim says, "it's only slightly insulting.")



The train went through a really lovely river gorge, pretty far up on the side, and with a few tunnels. Despite being neither sakura nor momiji season, it was very pretty. We looked with some trepidation upon the river, our future, which was swift and pretty rocky in places.



We got to the station and managed to catch the last bus of the day to the boat stop, then got on the last boat of the day. Go well-planned and prompt travelers! (The cashier did a great job helping us spend our money on the whole package, so she deserves the credit really.) The boat was rowed by two people, pole-piloted by one, and steered by one. Everyone but the rudder guy traded off during the trip, which was supposed to be two hours but didn't seem like it at all. There was copious clever commentary in Japanese, which we caught very little of, and dramatic slips through the rapids, and the other side of the lovely scenery as we watched the trains go by above. Actually the one piece of cleverness I understood was the guide telling everyone in the boat to cry out "tasukete" to the train, which means "save me!"





The train we rode up on!



Not a train despite the color, this was one of the more formal shrines on the gorge. There seemed also to be rock kami in the river, though I never did follow what was going on quickly enough to see one from the angle at which it resembled a lion or whatever.

Really interesting shore and hillside retention engineering.





The most amazing part of the boat ride was very near the end, when a boat that was a food cart pulled up beside us. WHAT.



We couldn't quite figure out how to buy anything, but the girl in the seat in front of us turned around and shared her dango with us. So nice! (She made me go "ah" to eat it like we were in a manga or something.) It was only kind of good -- very glutinous, not much flavor except for the vaguely teriyaki-sauce-like dip -- but I agreed it was oishii anyway. When she turned around to collect the sticks I gave her one of my few remaining Theo chocolates. I hope she liked it.

Then we walked around scenic Arashiyama for a bit at dusk, trying but failing to find a bamboo forest that was on the very schematic map from the rail company.



I really think the street map we had did not match reality. We did find some temple grounds with a pretty little bridge among lotuses, though. And we got back to the rail station without too much trouble thanks to the continuing good signage.



After a quick shinkansen ride back to Nagoya, I took Wim to eat udon in the station at the same place Yoko had taken me. I was much more able to eat this time, and the curry udon was delicious.

And back at the hotel, Wim's luggage had arrived. Hurrah!