Travel Musings — Understated Ideas

Kyoto was my favourite city we visited in Japan.

At first glance, Kyoto seemed much more relaxed than Osaka. Seeing people cycling slowly along pavements was part and parcel of our stay. We passed numerous mothers on bicycles ferrying their children to daycare, at times with one child in front and another in the backseat, always securely buckled in. Office workers and school children pedaled about as well in the early mornings and evenings.

The city felt like the right mix of bustling modern metropolis and old world charm. We learnt soon enough that Kyoto could be just as busy and hurried as Osaka at times. It thankfully still wasn’t as much of a madhouse as Tokyo during peak hour.

Our first day here was an exhausting one, having arrived from Hiroshima after multiple transfers and lugging heavy bags between trains and long passageways in the subways. Because of this, we took it slow and decided to stroll about and explore the neighbourhood. Our ambling led us to Kyoto Tower- this was an interesting experience at night.

The view finders were free to use, to our surprise. They offered a spectacular close range view of things like the teppanyaki restaurant 5 blocks away on the 5th floor of a hotel, or the gas prices at the petrol station 100 metres below us at ground level. The only slight downside was that the window panels and view finders blocked an otherwise uninterrupted panoramic nighttime view of the city.

Teppanyaki restaurant, through the viewfinder

After the extensive bird’s eye view fun, we walked around the different shops on the lower floors of the building and came across a stall on the ground floor selling matcha baumkuchen. I love matcha and Christine enjoys baumkuchen, and so we got a half portion to go. The staff packaged the small portion diligently, but we didn’t realise just how well they had done so until we opened the cake bag up back in the hotel. The semi-circle cake slice was laid on top of a matching cake board cut out, which had been slotted into a light foam material pouch. This pouch was taped and placed into the paper bag.

When we opened up the assorted layers of packaging, we saw that the cake board had portion measurements printed on them for sharing. I was thoroughly impressed with the thoughtfulness and planning that went into something as simple as a cake sale. We saw this superior quality of service and care again and again throughout our trip.

Speaking of an impressive level of service, I enjoyed the amenities at the hotels we stayed at, and not just in Kyoto. Bathrooms consistently had huge bottles of the same exact brand of shampoo, body soap, and conditioner. Every bathroom was in the traditional Japanese style which meant the combination of a steep sided bathtub (ofuro), and an adjacent shower area with accompanying short stool and wash bucket. Hairdryers in every single hotel we stayed in were, without fail, Panasonic. Free amenities always included tea, bedroom slippers, combs, shavers, toothbrush sets, and shower caps. Depending on the hotel, they also offered daily complimentary water bottles after cleaning the rooms. The hotel in Kyoto also gave us a coupon for free drinks in the hotel lounge which was a nice touch.

The next day started early with Fushimi Inari Taisha. The Shinto shrine was a fascinating place to visit. I had read up on the least crowded times to visit and so we found ourselves a bit bleary eyed on the train there around 7:45 AM. It was peaceful when we arrived despite the assorted groups of tourists milling about. We didn’t walk the entire route, only up to the first point then headed back down.

It was such a pleasant walk. I could hear birds chirping as the morning sun cast gentle branch shaped shadows on the wooden shrines. The smell of the woody earthiness of a lush forest focused my attention to where I was in the moment. It was a calming experience to be there with nature and the torii gates existing harmoniously. I was dismayed however by a few people disrespecting the torii gates by jumping to touch the tops for photos, or ringing prayer bells noisily for fun in an otherwise tranquil environment.

By the time we ventured back to the main temple area, it was packed with people jostling for space to take their best shot of the grounds. A food area had been set up with an entire pathway filled with vendors selling street food. After a quick bite and exploring some hidden nooks with thousands of hanging prayer cranes, we left the now overcrowded temple.

The next stop that day was Uji. We stopped by Nakamura Tokichi first to leave our names for seats. It took us 15 minutes from Nakamura Tokichi to walk on towards Itoh Kyuemon Honten, a company that collaborates with Kit Kat for their line of matcha flavoured chocolates. It was a scenic windy walk on a warm day.

On our stroll to Itoh Kyuemon Honten from Nakamura Tokichi, Uji

I got an array of koicha matcha tins and matcha espresso packets.

I did not end up getting this matcha white wine but it was tempting

Nakamura Tokichi has been a well known matcha purveyor in Uji since 1854. Their fame is such that the wait for a table for 2 was 75 minutes long when we arrived at 11:45 AM. When we were done eating around 2:15 PM, the wait time was 45 minutes. It’s clearly a tremendously popular spot for locals and tourists alike.

We tried the kitsune buckwheat soba which was delicate in taste and texture. For desserts, we had the matcha ice-cream and cake sampler, matcha jelly dessert (this came with mochi, red bean paste, matcha jelly, and matcha ice-cream), and I had a matcha cappuccino.

Of the dishes and drinks we had, I liked the matcha jelly and matcha cappuccino best. The balance of flavours and matcha taste came across most strongly and fragrantly. And of course, I couldn’t leave without buying more matcha. I got the Sho No Mukashi matcha tins as gifts for my siblings.

Matcha from both Itoh Kyuemon Honten and Nakamura Tokichi

The final stop we made for the day was Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. The famous bamboo forest was much shorter in length than I expected and was extremely packed even at dusk with the light fading. Someone was actually using a drone that buzzed loudly and ruined the serene atmosphere the forest provided, not to mention the danger to the bamboo itself. Other tourists were shouting loudly for pictures and selfies. The cacophony made for a chaotic atmosphere and it was hard to enjoy the scenery which was beautiful and calming otherwise.

Kyoto still had a laid back feel despite our experience at the tourist attractions- shops in the downtown area were closed promptly at 9 PM on a Tuesday night.

The next morning we headed out to Nara. It was packed to the brim with school groups and tourists. The deer look adorable from afar, but get too close and you realise quickly how aggressive greedy deer can be. They were constantly approaching people for food and even head butting those who refused to feed them, biting sleeves and jeans pockets to boot. Feeding them with the park approved biscuits was an experience but getting nibbled on my bum and headbutted wasn’t a particularly fond memory.

Another curiosity for me was boarding the bus through what I'm used to regarding as the exit/rear door in Singapore and North America. For buses in Kyoto and the streetcars in Hiroshima, this was common practice. At Nara, I also noticed bus conductors switching the magnetic rear door exit sign to an entrance sign seemingly arbitrarily.

One thing I quite liked about transit in Japan was the arrival music for trains approaching at subway stations. They were always a calming pleasant jingle. There’s actually a video online of the composer of a great many of these jingles in Tokyo and the factors that went into his composition for each station. He took into account things like the feel of the neighbourhood a station was in, as well as the traditions associated with it.

By the end of our exploring in Nara, we were famished and chanced upon Kamameshi Shizuka. There was a long line up but we decided to wait it out and I’m glad we did. The food was delicious. I got a unagi rice bowl set and enjoyed crunching on the crisp burnt bits of rice scrapped off the sides of the hot stone bowl as recommended. The unagi was sliced thinly and brushed with just the right amount of sauce.

The assorted tempura was perfection. They had a crisp and light panko coating, and a well cooked sliced vegetable within. It was also the first time I had tried fish tempura which was tender and paired perfectly with the panko coating. I usually dislike tempura because the batter coating tends to be soaking in oil and dense but the tempura here was excellent.

An unexpected highlight of Kyoto on our last evening was Starbucks Coffee Kyoto Ninenzaka Yasaka Chaya. Let me preface this by stating that visiting a Starbucks in Japan was not on our to do list, but we had some spare time. I had heard about a townhouse that was over 100 years old and refurbished into a Starbucks outlet while retaining the traditional Japanese feel of the location.

Exterior: the exit is on the left, the entry is on the right

The building far exceeded my expectations.

We visited an hour before closing on a Wednesday and it was fairly quiet except in the largest tatami room. I was relieved we visited so late because it wasn't packed with tourists as I was dreading. The entire store that evening had an unruffled air to it. We sat on cushions placed on the tatami mats around low tables in a dimly lit room- just being able to sip our drinks slowly and take in our long day was calming and meditative.

We took off our shoes and sat on the cushions on tatami mats

The direction of human flows in and out the store was well thought through. You order near the front of the building at a small counter area and the staff gives you an order ticket, directing you to the back room through a narrow gently lit hallway where the drinks are made and handed to you. Entry into the building is controlled; you walk in through one sliding doorway only and exit through another.

Staircases were also one directional.

No detail was overlooked- the tatami mat trimmings matched the Starbucks brand colour exactly.

The designers did an outstanding job of ensuring the 100+ year old townhouse retained its traditional characteristics and remained architecturally aligned with the other buildings in the historic neighbourhood. I very much appreciated the wooden panelling, calming brush stroke paintings, and the excellent use of lighting. The unplanned visit was a fitting end to our time in the city.

The next time I’m back in Kyoto, I’d like to spend a full week or two here and walk around more of the historic neighbourhoods in the city, drinking all the matcha my heart desires.

Hiroshima was a big contrast to Osaka. While Osaka was busy and vibrant, Hiroshima was serene. The clearest indication of modernity was actually the station the train pulled into when we arrived. Hiroshima Station had plenty of glass windows, high ceilings, and wide space.

One of the first things I noticed was the multiple groups of school children. The most noticeable one had a mix of boys and girls- each gender was clearly differentiated by their headgear. The girls donned yellow sun hats while the boys were wearing matching yellow caps.

Another thing that really stood out to me was the quaintness of the initial streetcars we saw. A couple of hours later we saw and rode a number of new sleek streetcars, but the older ones had significantly more character.

Every train conductor I observed took their job seriously, following a process unique to each one that never failed to complete their routine hand signals and announcements. A younger conductor on one ride had a small open notebook in front of him which he traced with a finger to follow a list of procedures and train stations at every single stop. Once his announcements were done he always placed his white gloved hands in front of him on the tiny counter.

Train conductor in a streetcar, Hiroshima

While walking to Nagata-ya, an okonomiyaki restaurant, for a late lunch before mass, we passed numerous atomic bomb memorials in remembrance of those who died. Many memorials and statues dedicated to peace were located around the blast hypocentre surrounding the Peace Memorial Park, waterway, and connecting bridges.

When we arrived at Nagata-ya, it had a line up of mostly locals and tourists from other provinces waiting to order. Traditional Hiroshima okonomiyaki comes filled with noodles and often with seafood as well. With this in mind, we ended up ordering the oyster okonomiyaki with soba.

The oysters in the dish were plump, fresh, and delicious. Because of the noodles, the okonomiyaki was significantly more filling than the ones we tried in Osaka. We finished our meal in markedly less time than it took to line up and wait for our food to arrive.

After mass we headed to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Much of the museum was undergoing renovations so we were only able to visit one wing. The exhibits started on the upper floor and the first thing you see after walking past a floor to ceiling panel of the devastation wrecked on that day was a video simulation of the impact of the bombing. After that, you walk into a large room filled with scientific facts and political correspondence regarding the building of atomic bomb matter.

One of the displays, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

When you head down to the ground floor, there are displays showcasing the personal belongings of those who died, accompanied by their life stories. These were tremendously difficult to read and witness. Some exhibits were of entire families and school children who perished, and the items that were discovered on their remains. For others, the only traces of them found were items they owned or would have been wearing at the time. The stories behind each exhibit were heartrendingly tragic.

Glass bottles fused together by the heat of the bomb

The museum prompted a mix of emotions, particularly given our prior visit to Seodaemun Prison History Museum in Seoul. Because of that, I was able to understand the harrowing displays in the complex context of Japan's war crimes during World War II but this didn’t make it any easier to stomach the horror those in Hiroshima experienced. Most of the visitors we saw were Japanese and many of them were schoolchildren. Quite a number of people were emotional walking through the exhibits on the lower floor.

Hiroshima Peace Flame in front of the museum

It was difficult to leave the museum without a heavy sense of melancholy. We both felt the need to decompress after the museum and stroll by the waterway.

We got up early the next morning to head to Miyajima Island. On the stroll to the pier, we saw plenty of people biking to work or with their children sitting behind them on the way to school. At a particularly busy junction by a bridge, we saw dozens of sharply dressed businessmen and women on bicycles waiting for the light to change before whizzing by.

One of many office workers we saw on bicycles

We were lucky enough to get tickets for the 9 AM ferry to Miyajima Island. If you plan on visiting, I recommend arriving at least 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time to buy a ticket or buy them the previous day. We arrived at 8:40 AM and tickets for the 9 AM ride were nearly sold out.

When you’re buying the ticket to the island, purchase a return ticket as well. It’s cheaper to buy a round trip than two one way tickets. Upon docking at Miyajima, we obtained a reservation card for the return ferry from a small counter on the pier.

The entire ferry was about 45 minutes long and quite scenic! When we departed in the morning it was low tide and the ferry passed under the bridges with ease. On our return trip it was high tide and the captain directed the boat very carefully and slowly as we neared each bridge given how precariously close to the underside of the bridges we passed.

We saw a few couples taking wedding pictures on Miyajima Island

Miyajima had an even more relaxed atmosphere about it than Hiroshima. There were lots of wild deer lazing around or wandering between tourists. It’s a relatively short walk to Itsukushima Shrine where the Great Torii can be found. We stopped briefly by a viewing area overlooking the vast Great Torii for pictures before heading on to the temple.

A staff member at the Itsukushima Shrine’s ticket office showed me the traditional way to cleanse myself before entering the shrine. She demonstrated the process with a wooden scoop. The steps went something like this: pour some water from the wooden scoop into your left hand, then your right hand; pour some water into your left palm, rinse your mouth and spit it out; rinse your left and right hand again; tilt the wooden ladle with whatever remaining water it has facing you upwards till remaining water emptied.

Inside the sprawling shrine complex, we chanced upon a couple in the middle of a traditional Japanese Shinto wedding ceremony. It involved prayers and sake drinking from what we observed. After the ceremony was over, the wedding party took to the outdoor area overlooking the water to take their wedding photographs. All their outfits were immaculate. I later looked up the meaning and symbolism of various aspects of the bride and groom’s clothing and was fascinated.

High tide at noon meant that as we were leaving, tourists were flooding into the shrine and forming a massive line to take pictures of the Great Torii that now appeared as if it were floating on water. There were multiple large groups of school children crowding the gift shops on the walk back to the ferry.

My overall impression of Hiroshima during our brief trip was that it’s a slow paced and scenic city forever associated with August 6 1945. The bombing and its devastation was always on the back of my mind while we were there. I wondered at how many residents who live in the city today had loved ones who perished or survived with mental and physical scars. I’m not sure if anyone can confidently say that they’d like to return to a city with a longstanding reputation for having been all but annihilated. It was an important visit to understand the impact of war and the healing provided by the passage of time. I’m glad we went.

Kyoto, Uji, Nara

Hiroshima and Miyajima Island