Second breakfast

 

December 1st 2024

Kyoto

Woke at my now usual 5am and just made a Sunday morning of it. Wish I had a newspaper and the Sunday funny pages. Yesterday really soured me on my fellow tourists. The actual pushing and shoving and then the bodies pressing on bodies with no thought to anyone else made me want to go home on the next Shinkansen to Seattle.

I hope today s different.

Morning things and then down to see what they have for breakfast. the room didn’t come with breakfast included and I Feel I may be the first person to ever pay for it. The clerk had a difficult time understanding that I was willing to pay for it.

In Japanese money value it was outrageous, when I balance it against what I pay at home it was a total steal. Big buffet, salads, eggs, meats, pastries and much more. Of course coffee. I was sad to see that they didn’t have pancakes or waffles, if they had it would have been a perfect Sunday breakfast.

Heidi, my hairstylist said she liked the Philosophers Path when she was in Kyoto. I could use some philosophical thought as long as it doesn’t include pushing.

In my room I plugged Philosophers Path in to Maps and it said to get on the subway right outside the hotel’s door and then get off and get on a bus.

I erased that in error and when I stepped outside, next to the subway entrance Apple Maps now told me to bus it, and then do another bus. What happened to the subway A Maps?

The bus came in a while, enough to philosophize on things. Maps did get me to the location of the first bus change as it counted down the stops. Get off the bus, walk a block and cross the street and wait for the bus. And wait. And wait. I kind of wished I had a cigarette to smoke, knowing that as soon as you light a cigarette, and especially if it is your last one, the bus will arrive before you can get a second puff in. Unfortunately I didn’t have one, so I waited. I could have walked to the location in the time I waited, but as things are with cigarettes so they are as soon as you walk away, the bus also comes. The bus did come, or else I’d probably still be there waiting.

The Philosophers Path is much like it sounds a serene walk along a quiet quiet tree lined canal. It is perhaps a mile long, and just what I needed. It was barely 1030 and the path was still quiet. No crowds and I only heard the clatter of suitcase wheels once. The rest of the time it was the crunch of gravel under my shoes and the rustling of leaves. Murmuring of quiet voices when there were voices and no pushing or crowding. I really was glad Heidi thought to mention it, because it was the exact thing I and my soul needed.

Then a small cafe that a sign out front , Pancakes and Coffee set. Pancakes?!? One day recently my diet for the day, consisted of two cookies, an ice cream cone and a salmon rice ball. I figured in the caloric count for the week I was in enough of a deficit to be able to have a Second Breakfast.

Quite a cute cafe. Had the feel of someone’s den or library. Matchbox cars, cameras on a shelf. An old sewing machine resting on dark wood. Not the sort of place you want to talk at anything louder that a whisper. The pancakes came with coffee and maple syrup. I know the Japanese can do tall soufflé’ type pancakes, there were not those. More a very light sweet butter milk.

Back on the path, there is a sign for a temple off to the side. Might as well go take a look. Okay did that. Next down the path is a shrine; This is an interesting shrine, I think dedicated to three or four of the “Year of the …”. One of them was the Rat, which is my year sign. I snapped a picture of the rat shrine. The rats were stone, and not live like that temple in India.

As I was leaving, I noticed there was a woman doing Goshoins (those temple autographs). I typed RAT into Google translate and held it up to her and she beamed and pointed to one Goshoin that had rats on it. She was pleased as punch do to an actual request that might mean something to someone. She did a great job.

Back to the path and another temple, that was kind of high priced and then an additional price to see the exhibit. Pass.

Now the path was beginning to get more tourist faces than local faces, a great time to call it quits.

I had seen the next stop on the bus as we passed and it wasn’t too far away, and it was generally down hill. I was on the wrong side of the street and the path on the roadside, vanished at a metal guardrail, A couple was trying to decide if it was worth the risk to walk into oncoming traffic. I looked at her, shrugged and said ‘I guess we press on’, which was mostly UFO language to her. I stepped into the roadway, the traffic was at a crawl so it seemed relatively safe. The couple followed me.

Across a bridge and then sidewalk again. The rest of the walk was a mere stroll, past the baseball game and then the open area where the classic car show was going on. I took a picture and sent it to a car friends and she said it looked just like any Sunday car show in the states. The cars were all parked side by side according to make, US cars were a make of their own, MG, Lotus, Porsche, all the big names I was used to. What I expected more of were Japanese classics. There were several one, but only about 50% of the cars ware Japanese.

Next stop Kyoto Castle. The surprise of all surprises is that this one was free entry. We do have to go through a security check and had a number hung around our necks. The castle was presented wonderfully. A nice 10 minute slide show with English sub titles really explained what we were going to see, and why it is special. I tried to keep my iPhone in my pocket and not miss the sights looking for that perfect photo.

Next another castle. As I am walking to it, I start to recognize that I had already walked o this street, and that one, and that one. That is the nice thing about walking a city, is you get to know it where you might not if viewing it from a car or a bus window,

This castle was a $$ castle. Frankly, they should have charged for the previous one and let this one be free. Lots of rules. No shoes. No photos. No nuffin’! The high light to me was the squeaking floor boards, that they called the Singing Sparrows. It really gave a nice background to your steps. Why there was no photography is past me. The art was all reproduction, with the originals held in the museum. Just big empty rooms where one looked like the next and new paint on the walls. I tried to keep the historical significance in mind and totally failed.

Back to the bus. My feet are killing me, 8.3 miles, but my challenge is to not use a taxi, only public transport. This bus came pretty quickly and dropped us off the main train station. My mouth wants a burger, and McDonald’s seems a cop out. One floor down is a street of restaurants. There must be a burger joint down there. I couldn’t find one. I did notice one place that had a wooden crate sectioned into 12 squares, each with a different something in it. A bowl of rice and Miso soup.

I walk up to the cashier’s station and stand there waiting to be seated. A couple comes behind me and writes something on a sheet by the door. Ahh.. instant reservations. I would have been second in line if they hadn’t stepped in before me. Now I was 3rd. As we waited the list got longer and longer, at least ten at my last informal count.

The wait was tolerable, but would have been quicker at Denny’s. The hostess seated me at the bar. The man sitting next to me had the same Zen dish I wanted. The hostess tried to get me to use the QR code to order, but my phone and the Japanese cell providers, have never really meshed well. She got the idea, took my order and ran it through her phone using the QR code.

I wish I had brought a book or iPad, so instead watched the Sous Chef prepare some sort of long vegetable stalk. The the meal came, it looked ravishing. I had no idea what 8 of the twelve items were, and still don’t what I will say is that there wasn’t a looser in the lot. Some were better than others but none I’d kick off of the plate.

Then back to the hotel for a drink and this. Tomorrow Tokyo.