Kyoto, Japan

Kyoto was a city I was very much looking forward to living in this year. Friends who had been there before raved about it as a very special place filled with historical temples and cherry blossoms. After living there for 5 weeks, I was smitten with Kyoto!

Honestly, it was hard to leave Chiang Mai’s lovely heat and wonderful things to do and buy. Kyoto was cool, rainy and very similar to Seattle in the early spring. I lived in a studio apt the size of a large bedroom in America—and actually got very used to such limited space. As you can imagine the decor was “minimalist.” My walk or bike ride to the office was about 20 minutes and through some interesting small streets and alleyways. I truly felt like part of the local culture. Our workspace was right down town, on the 8th floor of a traveller’s hotel where people slept in cubes, It was nice that it was super central to the river, restaurants, bars and buses.

I must admit that I started my stay with a bit of an attitude about all the rules about how we lived in our apt and behaved. Hanoi and Chiang Mai had the feeling of anything goes and rules - well, they were just guidelines if you felt like it. Kyoto was vastly different—super clean, structure everywhere, defined processes, expected behaviours (shoes off inside) etc. After experiencing life there I now understand how important the rules are when you have so many people living very condensed in the land mass of California.

When I wasn’t working, I took advantage of getting to know the place. Here’s a snapshot of some experiences:

Sake tasting-18 in one sitting so just one sip per shot glass as needed to walk home.

Ramen, ramen and more ramen—also Udon and Soba noodles. Always different, always good.

Temples—was a bit “templed out” after Hanoi, Chiang Mai and Cambodia but there are 1000 temples in Kyoto so hard not to indulge here and there. My fav times were at night touring temples when they had a special light show, climbing to the top of a mountain where Reiki started and then touring the Fugishimi Inari temple with a guide and getting the backstory (more on this).

In almost every city I try to take a cooking class and here I enjoyed learning how to make sushi and several other classic Japanese dishes. Three of us had a huge feast after and we were pretty impressed with ourselves.

A group of us went to an official tea ceremony and learned the proper way to make matcha green tea. Everything is symbolic in the preparation —and if you screw up that means something too. The one thing that was a surprise is that when you are finished drinking your team in the bowl—you make a quick, loud slurp sound to tell the host you are done and it was good.

One evening I enjoyed an amazing Maeko dinner show. The young woman was only 20 so not quite a Geisha but lovey, talented and willing to entertain us by answering our questions and then playing games with us. She loved my question about where she buys here lipstick which stayed on way better than mine does—-well that was after a couple of cups of sake.

A group of us went to a workshop where we learned how to carve our personal stamp (everyone has one in Japan!). It’s big there. Mine represents harmony. The master who taught us how to carve was in his 70’s and I think is a dying breed.

Three onsens (Japanese baths)—one after that killer hike up to the top of the mountain to see the Reiki Temple and two at the hotel in Tokyo —I had one at night and on the morning and it was completely heavenly.

I also took advantage of a train pass I bought so took a couple of side trips —one to Tokyo and then the other to Osaka (to see the Osaka castle) and then on to a little island called Naoshima. In Tokyo, I joined my Accenture Tokyo office colleagues to host a group of Japanese orphans in a park with a BBQ, games and to help them with English. The experience filled my soul—the kids were a blast to play with and my colleagues were really sweet and interesting. I will keep in touch with them. They gave me some great feedback on the global awards program I market each year. While in Tokyo I also visited the Skytree —a very cool tower—toured an upscale grocery store with an Accenture guide and ate the best tempura ever!

My trip to Naoshima was a compromise because I really did not have the time to go all the way to Hiroshima so this was halfway by train. The island is very well known for several architecture/art museums (Chichu Museum and Benesse House), the Art House Project and art installations all over the town (which, by the way, rolls its sidewalks up at night!). On my first night there I found myself a the 7-11 with every other tourist in town that had found out there were no restaurants open that night. After snacking on rice balls,I did actually manage to find one open and had a joyous time eating at a counter with two med students from the UK.

What I have shared so far was super fun and opened my eyes to Kyoto and the Japanese culture. But there is a back story to my time there that I will never forget.…

My iPhone 6 had been on the fritz for months…it typed Pooooooo whenever it felt like it ignoring my commands…and I had some issues getting data to cover my adventures away from wifi (and many many Japanese people stepped up and showed kindness and compassion…and good directions the old fashioned way). Well after 6 weeks my new iPhone 10 was delivered and set up and then I lost it in a cab in my flurry to get out after the embarassment of almost not having enough money to cover the ride. Picture me searching pockets for change to make it. Anyway our phones are our life lines as you can imagine—its how we connect with each other in Remote Year, find our way, translate, repay people, covert money—I could go on and on here—so needless to say it was bad news to realize that the phone was gone. I went to the local 7-11 thinking that I may have put it down when visiting the ATM but not luck. I was walking home in tears not caring who saw me cry. A woman who had helped me earlier at a cafe, by giving me directions to get home, (you see I was lost without my phone—good news is this woman taught English for a living—how lucky)…bumped into me on the street again and asked what’s wrong, I told her and she said “you need a hug!” - from that point on we became fast friends :) She took me to the police station and filed the report (with an officer who knew no English). Long story short, the phone was returned the next day (people expect this of the Japanese) —with a few dog bites to my new case - but hey, I am soooo grateful.

The second experience that I wanted to share is about the day I took a walk and chose a new direction in my neighborhood. As I walked by a little old shop it called to me—-well, actually, the blue kimono with butterflies did. Anyway, in I went to hang out with two older ladies (one 91) and walk away with 3 silk haolis—for $5 each. Big grin on a deal scored. The ladies take donated silk to third world countries and help ladies there learn to sew and sell their wares. So the shop had lovely homemade silk clothes and used kimonos and haolis. I made several trips there and worked to bring others there too. In the short time I had with them and the president of their organization - Reborn Kyoto - I had so much fun trying to communicate, getting put into a kimono for fun and hearing their stories of 20 years of good works.

Japan was an amazing experience and I look forward to returning some day. Already I miss the high tech toilets with heated seats and lots of other features that I admit I did not dare try. The impression of the wonderful Japanese people with their kindness, willingness to help me and their desire for order and balance will stay with me forever.