Days 8 & 9: Reflections

So my energy has considerably slowed over the last few days. My enthusiasm has not; however, and really it is a very satisfying feeling to be ready to move on to Okinawa and be with my family and rest and explore there. It feels like I have been here quite some time, especially since I am a creature of many habits. I have my preferred foods and snacks. I go to the little convience stores and buy my breakfasts and have them in the fridge whereever I am for the next morning. I even seem to wake up at the same time every morning: 8:08am...strange. And it is no surprise to my friends that save two mornings I have been the last person to wake up in my room.

But still I feel like everyday I am taking in new things and understanding other things more For example, I finally learned what all the buttons on the automated western toilets mean, thanks to little notes on the toilet here at my guesthouse in Osaka-- i had wondering why there were two different buttons that looked like they would spray your butt--I learned one is a `mild cleaning` and the other a `real cleaning` thanks! I also finally came to comprehend the bus time table that is found at every bus stop in Kyoto. For this whole trip I looked at it not knowing what it was and just saw endless numbers, then i figured it out!!! wow--this must be what it is like to not know how to read. i stare at many japanese signs and maps, willing comphrehension, maybe some will actually come!

There is a particular little snack/meal item i like but it comes with a million different things inside. somehow by accident the first two times i got the same one that i really liked. since then, it has not gone well. the one i had this morning had little bits of what i could only imagine were dried fish. yuck! i kept the wrapper from the kind i like and i have been trying to learn the script so i can recongnize it. its really probably funny to see me so often just staring at something so hard. last night i was trying desperately to comprehend the map of the train & subway system in Osaka so i could figure out my fare. this truly is the benefit of having a prepaid pass, because on my travels to nara and back i used a pass and never had to think about it. once i am down on the platform i generally have no problem figuring out which way to go and where to transfer...but its just amazing to be presented with so many things so foreign and incomprehinsible and to need so much help. it is so entirely opposite from my experience in argentina, which was so defined by my ability to communicate. last night i just couldn`t figure out my fare or how to get my ticket from the machine and really wanted to ask someone for help, but there were no attendants at this station and people always seem in such a hurry in the subway station. and then a really sweet young woman finally saved me at the ticket machine and got me my ticket and walked me down. i was so grateful!

I spent the last two days just strolling the city. Yesterday, while still in Kyoto I walked lazily through Gion finding secret little galleries and shrines. Not entirely by accident I walked by my other guesthouse there, the one i really loved. I peared down the walkway a bit longingly. I really had been sad to leave. The man who worked there who spoke Australian english has walked me out and i truly wanted to hug him because i felt such affection for him and the comfort of the place...but that surely would have been quite unneccesarry....since he has lots of guests... i walked really far yesterday, all the way north to the philosophers path, when i arrived there i popped into a shop and the woman spoke some english (she has lived in north caroline 4 years!) she was really surprised i had walked so far. i had taken it very very slowly. i visited as many free places as possible, including a museum of traditional crafts, which was very cool and helped explain alot of things i had seen and bought. i visited one last Shinto shrine and one more Buddhist temple, but did not pay for any parts with exclusive entrances. i passed up a garden that was known for its maples, it was overly crowded and i had been lucky enough to have seen equisite maples on my trip down to nara where the leaves were a few weeks ahead of Kyoto.

the day passed uneventfully but i was really quite happy to walk slowly toward the western mountains, even in the rain and watch the fog roll in at dusk. i feel i have really been quite lucky with weather. i realized it must rain a lot with how green and mossy it is in Kyoto. there are areas that look almost tropical even mixed with the pines and maples.

two days in a row i had gotten stuck in terrible traffic on the bus on my way back to my guesthouse on Gojo-dori. being more tired now, this had put an unneccesarily bleak cast on the day up until that point. the first night when i finally got off the bus i started out towards my guesthouse in a rush, then laughed at myself for feeling so rushed and  grumpy--i was in japan! geez! and i slowed down and walked a little softer and consequently my feet hurt considerablly less and my mood instantly lighted. i have certainly realized that while i whole-heartedly recommend the public transit (it is impeccable except on busy tourist days, i found out i experienced the busiest weekend of the year), i have on more than one occassion found myself the only tourist on a train and felt quite happy about that. but in the end, i am happiest walking even if it has brough the end to my feet. i can walk and walk all day and never get mad at traffic or an extra toll or an unexpected change in bus route.

yesterday i was not happy about the traffic on the way back yet again but when i did get back I felt a surge of excitement about moving to a new place. i was ready for a change of scenary! when i arrived at my guesthouse there was a live band playing. the woman who checked me in apologized (maybe because i had to sneak through the small crows) but i was thrilled! i changed and brought down my dinner of dumplings and salad and listened enthusiastically. i seriously wish they had been selling their album or something. i should at least find out their name. i loved it! just a singer and his guitar accompanied by an upright bass player. he sang with the passion of a singer-songwriter and the bass was excellent! it filled me with energy after such a long long day! i closed my eyes, smiled, and tapped to the music.

i had pretty grand plans for the day but at the same time felt no pressure to accomplish them. i set out for one of the most notable shopping districts for a little taste of the city, which also happened to be conviently located near Amerika-Muri, a place I believe i have seen featured before (although maybe there is a similar district in tokyo that i am thinking about) that is a great place to catch teens dressed in incredible ridiculous fashions that are somehow thought to be `american`. these of course include blue or pink bobbed haircuts or pig tails sticking straigh out from the sides of the head, tied with furry hair ties that may even match thr even furrier boots she is wearing. these girls have incredible make up, complete with the perfect circles of blush. i honestly did see too much i hadnt seen mixed in with the crowd before. but i still enjoyed the scene. it was definitely a change from kyoto, which now seemed so traditional. but oh man did i love Kyoto, with its temples and shrines hidden in every neighborhood and the mountains just about the rooftops, everywhere you looked. i thought i was tiring of kyoto but i am not sure i could.

maybe i need to learn Japanese....this thought has truly crossed my mind a few times in the last few days. i have never ever considered learning a new language, especially feeling i am still mastering spanish. but really i can communicate if needed in spanish... maybe its worth a try...

but anyway back to fashion. i honestly like the fashion in japan. it is very ecclectic, to say the least. but some of it is rather frumpy and i cant wuite think of the word but stereotyped.... let me explain. winter fashion for example seem to be all about flannel, puffy vests, and that winter sweater pattern seen on everything in like ll bean....aspen print or something? sorry we southerners arent too versed on winter clothing. they are also serisouly into moccasins right now. i have seen some really interesting shoes and would really like to buy some shoes here. however i am in the land of tiny feet and when i asked for a size large in a shoe i kind of liked it was still too small... oh well! heres a funny thing i noticed a few days ago. i noticed a girl wearing flats had little socklets on that looked like a pair of underwear i had, they had the little lace border on the edges. i thought this was super funny but also fun, it made feet seem a little more, you know exciting. then i noticed these little feet underwear on many women! so i purused the shops quite a bit today until i was overwhelmed by it. i did visit an H&M just to see if it H&M Japan was at all unique. Same deafening N. American music BUT also the loud & constant screams of Isshaimasse (sp?...meaning: Welcome!), from each and every attendant in the store. this made me smile quite a bit. i ended up buying a shirt i really like but just had to hope it fit alright because the line for the fitting room was COMPLETELY out of control, i mean i bet people were waiting two hours, no joke! to leave i just had to allow myself to get swept up in the swirling crowd until i reached the exit. it was seriously worse than Toji Market, which seemed quite calm in comparison.

the shouts of Isshaimasse remind me that one things really lovely in Japan is that you are always recongnized when you enter and exit a store, even a convience store. and honestly it is incredibly comforting to never go unnoticed even when i leave quite discretly. it is breaking my habit of sneaking out of places and i seriously always glance back to give an expectant nod in return for my farewell. oh japan!

hmmm i think that is about it. i really left a whole day out of my blog. it had been a very uneventful day so i wrote about my feet instead. i think that day i have my only regret of the trip, which is that i chicked out of being adveturous and did not try the fried squid balls that were being sold as a specialty at the Toji Market and again where i spent my late afternoon. EVERYONE was eating them and when i passed them the first time i knew immediately i had missed my opportunity for a great story. but i dont trust the crowds here...especially when they seem to so love balls of dough filled with red bean paste... gag.

dough balls filled with red bean paste have been the one thing i have just really truly disliked...okay well that and fermented soy beans. but really? fermented soy beans...why???? they had been featured at my traditional japanese breakfast that first morning.... i wondered why they were so sickeningly sticky....yuck. i knew better at least with the bean paste. i had been warned before i had gotten here. but that day i was desperately hungry and i forced about 2/3 down before i thought i would gag. it at least served to stave off my hunger until i reached a 7Eleven.

okay well this overwhelmingly long posts will be my last for this little solo trip, you are quite the dedicated reader if you have not only gotten to this last post but also to the bottom of it. so i hope youve enjoyed it. i plan to keep having advetures so ill keep posting.

m