Buses, Trains, & Subways

I left you last, dear reader[s] at Kinkakuji in Kyoto. Wait, there is more. And this is only the 3rd day I've been in country!

Kinkakuji

Pavillion

*sales

Kawara-machi

*Imperial Palace

Ponto Cho (again)

Osaka Castle

Trains

subways,

buses

& boats

Buck & Red

March 25, 2008

We had to bid sayonara to Kyoto Century Hotel which was rather nice, and left Buck and Red at the concierge while we finished our sightseeing in Kyoto. After Kinkakuji, we took the bus to the Old Imperial Palace. What a compound. Most of it is in ruins, but there are beautiful areas of gardens, and the ume (plum), momo (I think-peach) and even the sakura were blooming. We took some purty pitchers.

When we got to the entrance of the Imperial Palace itself, we discovered that they do not allow walk-ins! We needed to go to the Kyoto City Hall and get a permit to enter. Needless to say, we didn't go inside. It was cool from the outside, though.

Then to the bus again.

We trekked back to Ponto Cho to eat lunch. Went to a soba restaurant. Ruthie had traditional soba (I guess) layed out cold on a wooden tray, served with rice and meat of choice. Which in this case was tuna sashimi. Served with okra and some slimy egg-whitish stuff that wasn't real appealing. But good for you! I had the udon hot. This is served with broth, soup style. It's served with a bowl of rice on the side with meat and cabbage. It was good. The fried pork gave me heartburn.

Back on the bus to Kyoto Station to pick up Buck and Red from the hotel. I got a seat, Ruthie didn't. At one stop, a woman about my age, maybe a little older, got on. Using the universal non-verbal cues, I offered my seat to her because she had packages in her arms, but she declined. Then she asked if we were tourists. (!) Well, she could have assumed we were tourists. And been half right. We started talking, and I told her how much I loved Kyoto. She told us about her son - a pharmacist close to Inari.

When we prepared to "de-bus" she gave us each 3 pair of tabi! We tried to tell her no, but she insisted. Probably from the 100 yen store. She said she wanted to give something to the nice American ladies. I think she also felt bad because she pegged Ruthie as a student, not a teacher. She phantom tabi gifter disappeared into the crowd at the station.

After we got Buck and Red out of hock, and regaled our very pleasant and well-english-spoken concierge with our exploits, including the tabi ("Why? Why would she give you tabi?"), we toted the big guys away with us for Osaka Castle.

We (make that I) must have looked nuts! Even in America, we would have looked nuts! I froze trying to get Buck onto the escalator, and had to carry him all the way down the steps to the train platform. We took

The Local Express to Osaka Station

Elevators

Escalators

Steps

to transfer to

The Loop Train

from which we transferred to

the Subway.

We found out that Buck doesn't fit well through the turnstyles. He doesn't really fit well anywhere. Especially Japanese luggage lockers at subway stations. We ended up toting Buck through the Osaka Castle park.This is Ruthie, taking a break on Buck at the park. He was such a baby.

Osaka Castle. It really is quite imposing, while managing to be quite tasteful. But, the picture is REALLY of the street lamp, lurking at the left of the picture.

Osaka Castle, up close and personal. It would have been quite the deal to get up there in a palanquin.

I really liked taking pictures that juxtaposed the old and the new. Like the ancient castle fortification, the moat in front, and a present day "castle" in the skyscraper downtown.

We just don't have any idea unless we've been somewhere that is very old, what it's like. Old in Iowa is 1840's. Old in the Northeast is 1690's. Old in Japan in 1500's and before. Osaka Castle was first destroyed in the very early 1600's. The Imperial Palace was moved to Edo (Tokyo) at that time. That moat and fortification were there before anyone from Europe settled on the new continent.

Stick that in your tabi and walk on it awhile.